first dance [gala/open]

[king]

"my, that name's quite a mouthful." he chooses a bordeaux glass filled halfway with red wine, as well as fetching a platter of cheese blocks to offer the females. "my name is lucas hope. please, call me luke."

again with the charming smiles. he pops a piece of gouda cheese into his mouth, enjoying the smokey taste. "cheese?"

nette

[nette]

"likewise." masami takes the hand, shaking it with amusement. so she's not the only breeder in their company tonight, is she? at least that is comforting to know. she agrees with luke as she picks up a glass of sparkling apple cider. it's too early into the night for alcohol for her, yet, and she finds herself liking milly for the apparent decision to abstain as well. she ignores the attempts at buttering up - it's not something she hasn't seen before, though she appreciates the attempts at playing nice.

"thank you." she takes a cube, chewing on it thoughtfully. the chhurpi cheese is soft and the flavor is simply savory; nothing less than the best for this gala, of course. she swallows to find herself facing milly again, this time thoughtfully at her. "so you're also a breeder? what egg groups do you specialize in?"

toska

[toska]

"you wouldn't be the first to say that." she accepts his offer of cheese. "family isn't something to be chosen, though you may call me milly." shortening her first name ought to be enough.

considering that the gala was hosted by lady mercedes, a breeder would probably be slighting her in the worst way possible if they didn't show up to the eos gala. milly wonders if any breeder was confident enough to test their luck. she certainly didn't.

"mineral and field, mostly." she finds herself leaning field these days, considering the difficulty of breeding genderless pokemon. "i am thinking of branching out to humanlike." a side-effect of having field pokemon that cross into two breeding groups. "and you?"

king

[king]

king wished grayson was sociable so he could get in on the breeder talk

luke sat aside, sipping at his wine and popping a few blocks of cheese. he had nothing particular to add to the conversation, and sat back quietly while the two breeders discussed... whatever it is they did. oh! conversation.

"what is it that breeders do, exactly? i understand what the name entails but i'd like to know the specifics." because king does not know what breeders do. please, tell me.

nette

[nette]

"flying and human-like, but i'm thinking of having secondaries in water and dragon." mineral is a hard egg group to breed in, and masami feels sympathy for her fellow breeder. "most of my starting pokemon are in the flying egg group, though." she does not care for slighting mercedes, although having the head of the union's support behind her own breeding is something she does not want to lose.

she glances at luke when he speaks, giving a slight smile in his direction. "we are the main source of pokemon for eos, both vaccinated and regular. pokemon are very often more easier to get with us. we help researchers in their work as well, sometimes." she turns to milly. "did i miss anything?"

toska
seriously did i miss anything o.o

[toska]

the irony of this conversation is killing toska.

"i see. that's a lot of groups to maintain, but dragon crosses over with monster at a doable frequency, i think." it is nice to talk to someone who understands their challenges.

she smiles amicably at luke. here is her expertise. here is where she can be less of a nervous wreck. "quite. as masami says, we do not spend all our time sipping lemonade and memorizing waltzes." more power to those who do have the means, but milly is not at that level of success. even if she were...well. she thinks that she would rather support the cause of not having the scourge overrun the entire region. "pokemon bond more easily to us, and we are even able to prevent scourgification from taking root in some cases. i expect that i should be close to that point." she says it rather matter-of-factly.

"if i am ever in the area, i would be glad to assist you." truly, she does not wish to see pokemon scourgifying if she could do anything about it.

king

[king]

king tsked. you forgot that advanced breeders also function as move tutors. silly n00bs

well, that was interesting. much more involved and... effortful than being a trainer, in luke's eyes. "fascinating. i've imagined breeders as a bit more high class than all the other classes, simply because i haven't seen any on the field. is there a need for them to be out on the field, at all?" it wasn't entirely necessary, but then again, strong pokemon to breed were always good.

he popped another cube of cheese into his mouth, sipping at his wine to enjoy the combination. red wine was a good choice for the cheese on the platter, white wouldn't have complimented them quite as well.

king lols at how masami and milly seem so proper while grayson is this half assed slob.

nette

[nette]

nette frowns. you main a breeder king, of course you'd be better than us at this.

"and i as well, although i have to admit that milly may be of better use to you. i have only just started myself; there's a long way for me to go before i reach the point that she is at." the point is stated matter-of-factly; that milly has been breeding for that long of a time comes as a surprise to masami, although she conceals it.

masami refrains from the cheese, instead taking another sip of her cider. it soothes her parched throat, and serves as a convenient excuse to think for a moment before responding. "not necessarily, but some of us like to fight the scourge ourselves instead of staying back and staying as support." she plans to stay out in the field, herself, when her pokemon grow strong enough - there is no reason for her not to, and it is not like anyone would stop her, anyway. she turns to milly. "are you in the field, or do you intend to go out any time soon?"

toska

[toska]

yeah well milly is hardly at the advanced level yet, silly elitist. also it's okay if grayson is a half assed slob - have you seen how badly his bagon egg wrecked scourge shit in iker's hands?

"in many ways, we are entrepreneurs. eggs are a desired good regardless of whether we consider them as such or not." it's a living of a kind. researchers received scholarly grants. trainers recieved prize winnings. rangers - well. rangers lived off the land. milly didn't see anything shameful about how breeders functioned in society. some may have objected because they lived...rather differently. 

"in truth, the adventure isn't compulsory. however, i have spent much of last year listening to the stories of eos breeders who have ventured past pax lake in order to find new breeding stock." her parents may not be eos breeders themselves, but they had plenty of ears within the societies. milly had always liked a good story. xelha and kalas stand in testament to that. "their clutches have been ... the most successful in terms of diversity." breeding has always rewarded the ambitious. all that's left is for milly to decide how much ambition she has in her gut.

she turns to masami. "i intend to join a nerio society as soon as possible, but i am in no rush. we have as much time as eos is able to buy us. right, luke?"
king

[king]

"indeed." he raised his glass in cheers. "we will give you as much time as you need. scourge doesn't stand a chance."

grayson stopped by to refill his scotch by the bartender, before hearing about the breeder talk. "avoid order of the beast. mercedes will just make you her little bitch."

he certainly knew from personal experience. the salamence fang hung from a cord around his neck, showing his membership to said order.

"the hespera societies are what are really helpful. that's what you want to aim for."

nette

[nette]

masami swirls her drink in silence, glancing curiously at the newcomer. the cursing, she ignores with a blink of an eye - despite her appearance, masami isn't a delicate flower. but the mention of societies, she does take interest in.

"the hespera? do you mean the freemen, giga, elemental, battle, and goodwill societies? why? how would they help?"

silly masami, you should have done your homework. : (
toska

[toska]

she thanks luke with a small nod and a brief smile.

milly recognizes the fang around his neck before she recognizes the breeder himself. she is no great fan of mercedes as a person after she had slighted milly during their first meeting, but she feels as if grayson had crossed over a line. this is mercedes' gala in her own guild building. more than that, she is the sponsor to the eos breeders. the reminder of why the region needs them still.

distasteful as he is, it doesn't take milly that long to attach a name to the reputation. she blinks. "you're mister lumina."

masami speaks, and her words snap milly back into the conversation. "they are special societies in hesperia that will grant special egg moves to single eggs." she takes a sip of lemonade. she's certainly talking more than she had planned to. "i have little interest in them, however. i find single eggs to be...inefficient. but perhaps your goals are different from mine." perhaps her goals would be different in peacetime, when wild pokemon weren't being gobbled up at alarming rates.
king

[king]

grayson shot milly a glare, pausing mid sip. "they all provide unique moves to single eggs. you could raise a thousand barboach with only their natural movesets, but every single one will be helpless against a lowly grass type. with a society, you have the ability to breed one with flamethrower." he turned to face, her a rare confrontation with grayson.

"you must be new to have such naive thoughts." reyja peeked around his head. "powerless pokemon are the ones that are consumed by scourge. you are no more useful than rabid buneary rutting in the forest if you do not raise worthwhile pokemon."

king believes this to be the most grayson has ever talked. then again, he's angry so it's not exactly conducive either.

nette

[nette]

milly seems to know the new man, and masami tucks away yet another name for later. she's meeting all sorts of people tonight, and that's just fine with the breeder. leaning back, she lets the two talk, finding nothing worthy to contribute.

the information on breeder societies, she takes with a sip of her drink, and only glances at the now-identified lumina when he brings his own opinions to the table. a flamethrower on a barboach is a curious thought, but the insult to milly is the reason she puts down her glass and turns to face the breeder fully. her voice is pleasant, polite, in contradiction to what she supposes others would say her next words in. "new we may be, yet each to her - or his - own. we have our different purposes in the world, mister lumina - yours may be breeding fighting pokemon, but ours may be different. please keep that in mind before you start to insult your company."

nette didn't actually think that masami would get mad, but hey, whaddayaknow?

toska

[toska]

milly looks at her drink dispassionately. "kohaku is not meant to surivive on the efforts of a single barboach with flamethrower. while that single stellar pokemon may be able to kill dozens at pax lake, we need another dozen lowly natural barboach to defend the children who sleep in their beds."

she didn't expect to be talking this much either. milly expected cheek from trainers, not breeders who knew what the job entailed.

her gaze is cold, like a true mephistopheles.

"if clutches are required for me to raise enough defenders, then so be it." her city had been ravaged by the scourge last summer, and what good did the famous trainers and rangers of eos legend do? they had played their part, but it was not nearly enough for the thousands of inhabitants of nerio. "what you do with your breeding passes is no concern of mine. each to his own." 

for such a mild-mannered girl, milly is 1000% done with grayson's shit. she does give masami an appreciative nod, however.

king