Joe can put obvious clues together, wow!  "Considering the usual lifestyle of most young trainers, it's not very surprising nobody has noticed yet."   Hello, Ash?  It's your Mother. I haven't seen you in over 14 years.  "This might be a stupid question, but, did you want a family?"  Well, of the fellow human variety anyways.  Maverick's already got a travel sized one.

Maverick is quiet for a moment. Then gives the persian a "wha?" look. "You just met me..." well at least he isn't weirded out by a Pokémon adopting him. Or doesn't voice it anyway.

He glances at Joe. "...good question. I suppose I do. But it's not something you just decide to have one day."

Rune says, <Raikoo has a point... and if HE's young, are *you* old enough to be taking care of a human kid?>

Lucky moves to rub against Maverick and look up at him.

"I have personal experience in being adopted.  My dad didn't know me well when he took me in.  I'll treat you the same way my dad treated me - with love."

Hopefully that answers everyone well enough.

Raikoo grins at Lucky.  It's nice to see such positive outlooks.  "Yeah, and if things get rough you'll always have friends to help out, right?"  He grins and drinks some soda as a couple vulpixes try to claim space on Mav's lap, if at all possible.

  Joe would figure that at the very least, a talking cat with a pocket change income is still more financial stability than most wandering trainers.  "So, if I look after Lucky, and Lucky looked after Maverick, would this make me Maverick's uncle on a technicality?  Cause I'd be fine with that I think."

Maverick asks, "....so Lucky is your pokémon?"

Rune says, <I'm pretty sure if Lucky is Joe's pokémon and Lucky winds up adopting Maverick, that technically means Maverick defaults to being Joe's property unless he feels like giving Maverick up for some other trainer to take him in. Ironic.>

(( After much research to make sure the player's memory isn't failing...))

Lucky shakes his head.

"I agreed to travel with him for a while to give the appearance I belong to him," he explains, "This was so I could avoid the hassles of people throwing their gladiator pokemon at me in an attempt to make me their slave.  When I first met Joe I joked about making him my human by capturing him with a humeball, and he was a good sport about it.

"But I'm a legal citizen with full rights.  If someone were to try and capture me, it would be a crime known as assault and kidnapping.  If I were to adopt a kid it would be a good thing known as family.  So sure.  Uncle Joe works."

Raikoo hmms, "Such is the way of a trainer.  When eyes meet battle must be fought now, but only by using pokemon that're supposed to be your friends."  He pffs and shakes his head, "Whole lot of sense that makes.  Send your friends out to get hurt just so you can get some bragging rights and a little pocket change."

  "The pretense situation is one I've got some practice with at least."  This said as he looks over to Superbird finishing off their pretzel.   <subtitles>"Hassles are a hassle. Less hassles are good."</subtitles> And Superbird sagenods at his own amazing wisdom.

  "Though I did say 'look after' for a reason, technically valid statement, whoo technicality."

Maverick glances from Lucky to Koo. "Careful. You are speaking to a trainer. I do not question your friendships, so do not question mine." He finishes his pizza slice. "Not saying I'm unwilling to learn, though. The language barrier can be a pain when my pokémon seem to insist with their actions that they want to fight for me."

"I'd fight to protect you, Maverick," Lucky says with a smile, "And other friends present as well, of course.  Don't think that Raikoo's lament was aimed at you.  Speaking of technicality, I'm a pokemon trainer as well, and I'm sure he didn't mean to suggest I'd send my friends to be hurt for shallow reasons.  But there are folks who do, and many without even realizing what they're putting their friends through.  Which is why the translation bit.  If someone's going to ask a friend fight for them, there shouldn't be any misunderstandings about the reasons behind it."

He looks at Maverick's pokemon and tilts his head.

"Are you eager to fight?  And for what reasons?"

Raikoo looks to Mav and hmms?  "Well given we're all trainers here, and we haven't erupted into instant battle, I'm pretty sure we don't have to question anyone's freindships here.  Unlike some trainers out there atleast."

  "Many trainers do not expect a brick thrown by another trainer.  If it's a jerk trainer then the pokemon wont stop it.  Use this information as you see fit.  I admit nothing."  Short post is short.

Joe makes Maverick chuckle. Maverick then looks at Raikoo. "Right. Sorry I misunderstood."

Sarah punches her fist into her hand. <I fight for Maverick because some people call him weak. And I can't stand by and listen to that.>

Rune says, <Reputation can be worth more than money. Even to humans. I fight for his reputation. To make him respected among his peers and then some.>

Nemo says, <I usually don't fight because I tend to scout for Maverick. But when I do fight, it's because Maverick asks me to and I trust his judgement.>

Po says, <He's my master. I am his pokémon. That should be enough.>

Orion doesn't speak, only floating there. Though he turns to face Lucky for a moment with a piercing gaze. Then turns to look forward blankly again.

Reverie says, <I love Maverick through and through. But how do you say "I love you"? For me, I say it with my actions; Fighting off my love's distractions. And Maverick is so very strong, so he fights WITH us all along. He'd do the same if he were us, and this we know because of trust.>
This message was last edited by the player at 05:15, Wed 22 June 2011.

Lucky nods in agreement to Koo.

"I'm still trying to make some sense of it.  Surprisingly, I've found that when I translate for trainers who then find that their pokemon would rather not get pummeled day in day out in senseless battles, the trainers apologize and stop sending the one's who'd rather not fight into fights.  But language or no, how could they not know?"

He snirks at Joe's suggestion.

"Interesting tactic.  I'll keep that in mind."

He then listens to Maverick's pokemon with a big smile and translates the best he can for Maverick.

"Sadly, I'm no good at properly interpreting Reverie's poetry into English.  All I can say is that it was very clever and very cute."

Raikoo grins and nods.  His vulpixes pipe up to add in to the conversation,

<I fight cause I can create art with my fire and that takes a lot of opponets by surprise.>

<I fight cause I wanna be strong for Waikooey!>

<I fight cause I can torch things without getting in trouble.  Heh.>

<I fight because I respect Raikoo for all he's done for us.>

<I.. don't fight.  I get all nervous and worried that Raikoo won't like me anymore cuase of that.. But every time he hugs me and smiles I know it's okay because he won't force me to do anyhting I don't want to.>

<I fight because it helps all of us become stronger.  We all do our part in the team, and it's because of that that we can hold our heads high regardless of the match's outcome.>

  "Because some Pokemon are less good at making sad eyed expressions than others?"  Hey now, this is an Anime.  even floating magnets can look sad with the right artwork.

  Superbird wingshrugs.  <subtitles>"I'm too lazy to fight unless I have to for some stupid reason.  And we don't exactly have the whole vicious gang beatdown gig going the rest of you have even if we were more inclined to that stuff."</subtitles>

Maverick scoops up Reverie to hold her. He idly pets the vulpixes that made it to his lap and says, "Reverie enjoys star gazing like I do..." he says in an endearing tone. "It is nice to hear she is poetic as well."

Lucky's player can't tell gender from commentary.  Lucky being a pokemon could tell guy from gal at a glance.  He awws at the cuteness surrounding him either way.

"So whaddya say, Maverick?  Take a chance and let an orphan adopt you?  Not like you don't have friends to support you if it doesn't work out the way you want."

Raikoo's team is evenly split gender-wise.  HUrrah!  Or something.  Koo finishes his soda and nods.  "Sounds like a win-win situation to me Maverick."

  Joe would use the age old method of 'cartoon girls get drawn with bigger eyelashes if a hair bow isn't their only differentiating feature' when possible to tell them apart.  "So, where would this place Maverick on the traditional 'My Dad could beat up your Dad' claims scale if he took Lucky up on it?"  It would also allow such wonderful opening lines such as 'My Dad is a kitty.'.

Maverick glances around. Then says, "...I don't feel right treating you like some kind of audition. How about you travel with me for a while and let me warm up to you?"

Lucky smiles and nods.  "Sounds like a good idea to me."  He moves again to rub against the boy.  May as well put to use the pointer Sarah mentioned earlier.

To Joe he answers, "Well I suppose I could survive an encounter with most daddies, but I've discovered I tend to not have to fight most times.  If I can't reason with a person, Murphey tends to get 'em for me."

Let's ambush that rare black pursian pokemon and get rich!  What?!  Where'd he get an army of pokemon and humans, one of whom is psychic, all willing to curb stomp attackers?!

Koo chuckles.  This'll work out.  Of all the crazy things that work in the world, why not a persian adopting a human?  "Well I'm sure you two'll be just fine.  Like Joe said, you've got friends to fall back on if need be."

  Joe looks over to Lucky's canine horde, and asks "So, which one of you is Murphy?  Or am I being too literal again."  Of course with wonders in renaming NPC technology, one of them could be a Murphy if they wanted to.  Robocop was a Murphy, you think Robocop is cool dontcha?