Clay - Solo RP & Special Missions

Tiki stays outside of the Mayor's place to also give Clay a chance to fix the situation.

Well. That's obviously what Clay heard moving around, and wow that's a lot of teeth. It's hard to blame Clay if that distracts him for a moment... but on the other hand it's kind of a relief that it isn't some rogue Pokémon breaking in and endangering her.

"Um, hi. Sorry, I didn't realize someone besides, uh, Mayor Kalani lived here?" Clay's not actually sure who to think this is - the Mayor's mom, maybe? Why would the Mayor live with her mom, unless she's younger than she looks? "I heard your friend there moving around and I was a little worried, hadn't seen him before. Hi there! No hard feelings, just a misunderstanding." He switches to a burbling water-type dialect for a moment to greet the large, toothy thing. Water-type is as good a guess as any - it's blue, after all.

"Anyway, um. I was talking with Mayor Kalani at the festival and I, uh... what's the expression?" He turns around and looks at Tiki behind him. "What is it you say when you said something really stupid? Something about feet? Oh, whatever." He turns back to the woman, shaking his head. "Anyway, I said something dumb 'cause I'm not good with words and she came back here and I wanted to apologize and see if she was okay."

Clearly Clay needs to stop assuming reptiles are male. But Gertrude isn't really important right now, at least not unless she takes a notion to use those teeth. Which he supposes is possible if she's attached to Kalani, but it doesn't seem like she's going to do so right at the moment.

He shifts his weight uncomfortably. "Yeah, I just... I don't exactly wanna get in the habit of making people cry. I was hoping I could apologize. She opened up to me and I got overwhelmed and said something dumb."

Clay rubs the back of his neck and sighs. "Well, okay. Could you tell her something for me in the morning then? Tell her Clay says he's sorry, and if she still wants to see him more often he'll try to come and visit soon."

It'd be nice to be able to tell her himself, but after all, they have to get back to the Guild tonight if he wants to be there for the inspection tomorrow.

Clay gives her a confident smile. "Thanks, but I'll be fine. I've got Fan here -" He gestures down to where she's sitting by his side. Sadly, ever since she evolved she's too big to ride on Clay's shoulder - she's nearly up to his waist. "And I have three friends I'm traveling with. I wish I could stay, but I gotta be back in Saffron in the morning."

He doesn't actually know when in the day the inspection's going to be, but judging from experience, first thing in the morning is probably a safe bet.

"You too, Miss." He sighs quietly when the door closes. So much for patching things up tonight, but it's not like he was gonna barge past Kalani's mom to try and find her, even if she didn't have a giant alligator backing her up.

"Gaaah, okay, I'm up, I'm up!" Clay growls. Around the time Red Child starts dragging him out of bed, he gives up and struggles into at least a sitting position, rubbing his eyes. Memo to him, no more late parties on days he needs to get up early.

"Thanks... I guess." Clay does his best to get himself cleaned up in the time he thinks he has, judging by the other trainers in the room, before sticking his head out into the main hall to see if things are starting.

Well, that would explain why he could never find Ashley, if she seriously spent two weeks on the other side of that giant ocean. But now it's his turn, and he takes a deep breath. At least Fan's by his side, evolved now and obvious evidence of his own hard work.

So, time to explain what he's been up to. He talks about going up to Cerulean and the deal with the Guardian of Mt. Moon, and the fierce battle against the cunning Pokémon thief. He leaves out the stuff about the poachers for now - he's not sure whether Lady Ashandra would react as badly as Miss G to getting involved with the mess in the first place, but he's sure she'd be less than impressed with it not being finished off yet.

So instead he moves on to talking about exploring the southern plains in search of the giant Pokémon Tiki saw, fighting off a den full of Raticate, facing down a herd of Ponyta, and battling and capturing Tavi. And then, of course, there's the part where they explored pretty much every inch of Lavender Swamp, though once again he's got to avoid stuff there - Holly and her sister don't need the whole Guild to know about them, after all - but at least he can be proud of capturing a powerful Croagunk and negotiating a rare Farfetch'd to join his team. He focuses particularly on Flower and how well she bore up through the expedition; he remembers how skeptical Lady Ashandra had been about her. And of course there's a bit about the growth of his power to speak to Pokémon into strengthening them, which is probably one of the big things that kept his team going through the swamp. Finally he goes through the Pokémon he's captured, and while he has to admit his team's not as focused on Fire-types as much of the branch, they're pretty powerful and he'd be willing to test them against anything that came their way.

As Clay's last, desperate attack misses, Ashley smirks at him. The entire room seems to have been watching this fight. Some may even have been silently cheering for Clay, but none seemed to have the will to do so (or they were too entranced by the fight).

"Should have quit while you were behind, Monkey Boy. I might have let you walk away with some small shred of dignity left. Instead, I'm going to end this; and everybody will see just how weak you are."

She then throws a regular punch and lays him out flat. Smoke the Quilava prances around in victory.