"There is… there's something I could try" said Cassius, hesitating. "Actually, Pandora might be able to do it, but it would take a fair bit of preparation. If I can find the right supplies in Fortree, I might be able to calm him down."

"A crazed dark-type monster, Cass?" hissed Pandora, overhearing the conversation. "Are you crazy? I can't possess something like that!"

((*offers an umbrella*))

((-takes- Gracias. -gets struck by lightning-))

"You really think you could?" She looked positively ecstatic. "I hope so!"

"Possession?" Ginger butted in. "Isn't that, I don't know, kinda...wrong? I mean, affecting free will doesn't sound so pleasant. But I forgot you didn't care about that. That body of yours is stolen too, isn't it?"

"In this case, it's more like a reverse exorcism" said Maiden before any of the others could start to object to her comment about Cassius. "If someone can't, or won't talk about a problem that's causing them pain, a ghost possession can figure it out, and then help them fix it. Most of the time, a possessing ghost can't even affect the physical movements of the host, that takes an exceptionally strong pokemon, and believe me when I say the world is much, much better off without the human Cassius is displacing."

"I can't make any guarantees" said Cassius, trying to stay out of the argument between Ginger and the ghosts, "but I've done that sort of thing before on occasion, so if it's possible to locate the problem you might be able to solve it."

"Then once we're in Fortree I'll let you do your stuff," she said, beaming at him. "It wouldn't hurt to try, right?"

"Oh." Ginger nodded.

Lulu, who was listening too, made a face. Why wasn't Ginger talking back to the Misdreavus? And how did Maiden manage to cheer her up faster than she did? Lulu was her friend and Maiden was a ghost, a creature that Ginger loathed.

Cassius nodded, but looked a little worried. If Pandora couldn't manage the possession, he'd have to try it himself, which would mean leaving the host while he searched. He'd have to discuss the matter with his team first- after all, he had made them a promise.

Pandora wrinkled his eyebrows, mentally echoing Lulu's thoughts. He stared at Ginger, suspicious of the absol and what she might have planned for Maiden.

"What are you lookin' at, ghost?" she jeered, paws crossed in front of her.

"In that case, we need to be leaving soon. You won't have enough time for the tournament and other events in Fortree if you're concentrating on my Pokemon."

"Yaaay! We'releavingleavingleaving! Let'sgogogo!" But before Gonzo could fly off he was sucked back into his Pokeball.

"If you have time, see if maybe you can make him less annoying." She smiled to show she was only messing around.

"Now that I don't think I can help you with" said Cassius good-naturedly, getting up and motioning to one of the waiters for the bill. "How far is it to Fortree from here, anyways?"

Godfather, Sneak, Rook and Marionette were all pulled back into their pokeballs, but Cassius left his other two pokemon out. The trainer looked pointedly at Pandora, who nodded and reached into Cassius' bag, pulling out a squishy looking gastly plushie they'd bought earlier and handing it to Maiden. "For me?" she asked, blushing a little. The Haunter nodded, mirroring her blush as she concentrated on the plushie, floating it through the air and onto her head, where she could carry it.

((I made my own trainer card thing for Sidney, but I don't know how to put it on my signiture. What was the code you used for yours?))

((Edit: Whoa! When'd it pop up like that?! x_X;; ))

((If the code right now looks like this:


Try changing it to this:


That usually works better on psypoke.))

((But how do I center it?))

((Edit: By the way, she doesn't have a Sableye yet. >>; ))

(())

((Gracias. You really are the queen of internet languages. -bows to the queen- XP))

"Not far. If we leave now we might get there by tomorrow morning." She followed suit, recalling back all of her Pokemon, save Ginger. "Or do you like this place too much? When's the latest you want to get there?"

Ginger approached the two, behaving normally again. The Absol was really spontaneous, it seemed. "Absol absol sol. (I got your doll)." The Gengar was riding her back again.

"I think we'd better get going- the festival starts the day after tomorrow, and I can always come back here afterwards" he said. The three ghosts all looked rather surprised to see the absol cooperating with her trainer- Maiden smiled, while the two haunters just wondered what she could be planning.

((No problem *spends way too much time on forums learning these things*))

Ginger stared back at the Haunters, smiling...and then she feinted a pounce. "ABSOL! (BOO!)" She went into a giggle fit, walking out of the restaurant laughing at the top of her voice.

"Where's my Absol?" Sidney asked no one. "That's not my Pokemon. My Pokemon must've been kidnapped by Clefairies and replaced with a moon monster." Her imagination was almost as wild as Ginger's.

Cassius wrinkled his eyebrows as the absol did her ghost impression. He almost tried to scare her back to return the ghostly greeting- a haunter considered a fright the equivalent of a handshake, after all- but that probably wasn't what she meant by it. Pandora just shook his head. "Maybe one of the trainers back there had a ditto, and it somehow switched with Ginger when we weren't looking" said the suspicious ghost, exchanging a glance with his trainer.

Ginger was waiting outside, taking one last look at the scenery she wouldn't be missing anytime soon. "How can anyone be attracted to a creepy place like this?" she said to herself, digging up a bit of grass.

"Are you ready, Ginger?" Sidney joined her Pokemon outside the building. The Absol nodded to her question. "I think you have something in your eye. Let me see." Not really thinking much of it, Ginger allowed her trainer to inspect her eyes. What she didn't know is that Sidney was checking for Ditto eyes, which were small and black...but it really was Ginger. "Nevermind. Must've been my imagination."

"/Some/ of us appreciate some atmnosphere" muttered Pandora, following his trainer as they headed for the main road again. "You're positive all the others are in their pokeballs, Cass? Maybe one of 'em's possessing Ginger."

"Don't be silly, Pan" replied Cassius, but he checked his pokeballs to make sure four of them were, indeed, occupied.

"I'm not possessed!" Ginger shouted, trailing behind Pandora. "I could never be possessed. I'm too...tough. Yeah, that's it. I'm too...smart. Much smarter than you ghost Pokemon."

Sidney followed Ginger, who was following the trainer and his Pokemon. She was just happy Ginger wasn't using attacks on either of them. But she had been secretly wishing the entire time that they might've crossed paths with another ghost Pokemon. That way Sidney could finally own one...and maybe, with time, Ginger would warm up to her otherworldly friends.

((Edit: Night. -wave-))

Pandora turned to Cassius "oh, could I please break our rule about not using possession for selfish purposes, just this once?" he begged, mostly in jest. "I could make her do something really funny, like beg that mightyena for a date." Cassius almost seemed to consider the option, but then he remembered he was supposed to be the responsible one and gave his companion a sharp glare.

((Time jump.))

Night decended quickly on the trainers and their Pokemon. They were still in ghost country, just near the outskirts of the haunted woods that surrounded Melville Town. "I'm s-s-sleepy," Sidney said, trying to stiffle a yawn.

"Absol abs absol absol sol absol? (How can you be getting tired now?) Abs absol sol absol absol abs. (We're almost out of this creepy place.)"

"Guess we'll have to make camp again," the trainer went on, ignoring her Pokemon. "Got anymore scary stories? Or how about stories about being a gym leader?"

"The two aren't mutually exclusive" said Cassius, half jokingly. "But I'm sure I can think of something, or Pandora could tell one of his and I could translate." Pandora grinned at this, then frowned as Cassius continued "If any of your pokemon have a good campfire story, I could translate for them as well."

((Presumably Sneak

((Ok..I'm completely lost here...could someone help?))

"Oh, we get to hear more confessions of the dead?" Ginger derided, faking an excited tone. "So what secrets are you going to divulge tonight? You were a huge, bloated Snorlax in your past life? Or that you're really a woman and crossdressing is your favorite passtime?" She started laughing uncontrollably again. Sidney didn't know why, but she told her to shush anyway.

"Eh, I don't have any stories," the Absol sighed. "Not unless you want to hear about the time I found a rock in the shape of a Pikachu head."

((The group finished lunch, and they've left for Fortree again. They just stopped for the night- we did a major time skip. You can just have your characters join in, I sorta assumed they were tagging along the whole time- 'tis pretty standard when someone's away from an RP.))

((Oh, alright...I'll just jump in then..))

"Sorry, I've been so quiet recently, I'm just thinking....about some things. If I had a decent campfire/ghost story, I'd tell it, but I highly doubt that mine would be even half as good as Cassius'.", Mike said, chuckling a bit at the end.