How Romantic (Fish)

[SongofWindchimes]

Trish Maddie Gabriel Eight Styx Raven Cerberus

To Trish, there was no sight quite so enthralling as a haunted forest at night. She knew that wasn't a belief many people shared, but she'd never fully understood why. The twisted, leafless branches of the trees, admittedly, wasn't a sign of the place being full of life, but a lack of life could have a beauty all its own, and that beauty drew in Trish like a moth to a flame, even as it repelled others.

Not all others, though, as the fact that she was having her first date with a man here was evidence of. And not just any man, but her best friend's brother, whom, due to various circumstances, she had not met in person before today, and whom said best friend kept assuring her was a perfect match for her. The fact that he had actually agreed to this location was certainly a good sign, but Trish's stomach was still tying itself into elaborate knots despite the usual calming effect this kind of atmosphere had on her.

There had been no toning down of her usual style for the night; if anything, she'd turned it up. Her pink hair was pulled into a ponytail with a jet-black ribbon, and she had on black tanktop with shape like the upper set of a vampire's fangs in bright red on its front, the dark grey-black shirt underneath covering her shoulders and arms. Her black denim shorts were complimented with a chain belt, from which smaller chains with little metal skulls dangled, and a set of black-and-red striped stockings that both covered, and hugged the shape of, her long legs. Black gloves with white knuckles and fingers, meant to imitate Sneasel claws, and black high-heeled boots finished off the ensemble.

Trish sighed a little, tearing her eyes away from the path to look at Holly. She knew this really wasn't nearly as inviting or calming a place to her best friend as it was to her, which made Trish appreciate her waiting with her that much more. "I still can't believe he actually went for this." She smiled at Holly, lightly putting a gloved hand on her shoulder. "Thanks again for coming with me."

[KARP KARP!]

Holly didn't like it here in the least, but she was there for her best friend, as promised. Though she did have to question Trish and Mason's tastes in date spots. But hey, she should have known this place had Mason's name all over it.

"Anytime," she replied, looking around nervously, as if expecting some random ghost to pop out and scare the crap out of her.

Then, a figure started closing in from the distance. Tall, and fairly-well built, there was no mistaking Mason Marxx, even from that distance. Finally meeting the girls, he and Holly exchanged a hug.

"Mace! Good to see you again!"
"You too. And this has got to be Trish," he said with a smirk. "Mason Marxx."

"Well, I'll let you two have fun," Holly practically sang as she skipped off happily.

Mason smirked a little, wearing his dark shades, a black tee shirt under an open leather jacket with the sleeves torn off. A pair of black jeans, complete with a chain belt of his own, and a pair of black cowboy boots finished off his outfit.

"So, I hear you're into ghosts and such. Not many women jump at this kind of a date," he said.

[SongofWindchimes]

Holly's looking around was fairly amusing to Trish. She knew that there weren't really any ghosts here on the outskirts of the forest, but Holly didn't. Then again, they could be more active at night, but she still wasn't overly worried about one popping up. She gave her best friend's shoulder a small squeeze.

Then her eyes flicked back to the path and...oh my. Trish appeared outwardly calm, as always, but on the inside her jaw had just dropped. That old photograph Holly had given her had not done Mason justice, and the closer he got, the more impressed she was. Trish found her hand moving away from her friend's shoulder and to her own hair nervously, gloved fingers running over it and idly tightening the black bow. She had the rather un-Trish-like urge to ask Holly if she looked okay, but she seemed to have temporarily lost the ability to speak.

Luckily, the brief sibling reunion gave her an opportunity to calm her nerves, and she gave a small nod at Mason, black-painted lips quirking into a smirk of her own when he said she 'had' to be Trish. When Holly took off, Trish didn't know if she was eager to leave them alone, or just eager to get away from the forest. The skipping pointed to either the first one or a combination of both.

Mason's comment to her just reinforced the smirk, though her ice blue eyes, standing out particularly vividly with the heavy black makeup around them, weren't showing much in the way of emotion. Which, given that Mason was wearing shades, meant that they were on something of an even playing field. "Not many men jump at it either," she commented, idly tugging at her gloves to be sure they covered her wrists completely. "I've never understood why, really."

A Duskull faded into existence silently next to shoulder. Noticing this out of the corner of her eye, Trish turned her head to look at the skull-ghost, whose single glowing eye was slowly shifting from one socket to the other in curiosity as she stared at Mason. "Hey, girl," she said calmly, before looking back at her date. "Mason, meet Raven." The spectre drifted forward, still completely quiet, and waved the tip of one of her arm-like tendrils slightly, though her face lacked any real expression.

[KARP KARP!]

Mason, though his eyes were covered by shades, locked them on Trish's ice blue ones. In Mason's book, Trish was a very beautiful woman. When the Duskull appeared, Mason didn't even flinch.

"Well hello, Raven." Mason wasn't afraid of ghosts, not in the least. In fact, he loved them. Suddenly, a growl seemed to come from everywhere. Suddenly, a Shiny Umbreon stepped out from behind Mason, showing her distaste for Trish.

Mason was HERS, damn it.

"Trish, meet Eclipse. E, Down." The Shiny Umbreon gave one more growl, then reluctantly sat down, slipped off to watch them from the bushes.

[SongofWindchimes]

Raven looked happy at the greeting...sort of. She had a better poker face than even the two humans present, but the Duskull seemed to perk up. Or maybe that was just the natural rippling of her spectral body in the breeze. Whatever.

Trish blinked once at the Umbreon, her smirk vanishing, but a slight admiring light in her eyes. On one hand, that dark type clearly didn't like her and looked like it may bite her. One the other hand, it was absolutely gorgeous. Raven tilted her body to one side for a moment at Eclipse before settling back into her usual position again. When the growling stopped, a bit of a smirk returned to Trish's face. "She's cute." Well, her definition of 'cute,' anyway, which hopefully overlapped with Mason's, so she didn't seem crazy. "She reminds me of my Sneasel."

A hiss broke out, right before a shadow near one of the trees seemed to rise up and solidify. Styx appeared, and he immediately glared at Mason, short fur on end and claws and teeth bared. A pair of dark shades, eerily similar to those of the man he was trying to intimidate, obscured his eyes.

"Speak of the devil. Styx, calm down. He's cool." The dark type relaxed a little out of his hostile stance, but he quickly scurried to stand in front of Trish, his posture a mixture of heavy suspicion and mine, making an attempt to stare down the other sunglasses-wearer and ignoring when Trish nudged him with the tip of her boot. "Hey, I said calm down."

Trish looked at Mason again. "He's a bit protective." As if it really needed saying.

[KARP KARP!]

"That she is; raised her from an Eevee. You know--" His sentence was cut short by the Sneasel. When the Pokemon glared at him, the result was a stare-down between human and Pokemon, both wearing similar shades.

However, when Styx got a little too close, the Umbreon was back in front of Mason in a flash, protecting her trainer. Her teeth were bared as she growled, staring at the Sneasel with an intense glare.

"That I can understand," Mason said simply. "His trainer's worth protecting."

[SongofWindchimes]

Styx hissed at the Umbreon suddenly in front of him, abandoning his stare-down with Mason to glare at her instead. He hooked his claws over one arm of his shades and pulled them down slightly, staring at the other dark type with his blood red eyes over the lenses, the irises seeming to glow a little in the gloom.

Trish blinked at the compliment, and her lips quirked into a smirk again as she glanced between Styx and Eclipse, then back at Mason. "So's hers," she replied just as simply, even as a hint of a blush started to form on her cheeks. She looked back down at Styx and gave him another nudge with her boot. "Okay, tough guy, time to cool it. That's an order."

Those last three words had the strongest effect on Styx than anything else Trish had said. He pushed his shades back up and forced himself into a less aggressive posture, but it was clear he wasn't happy about it, nor did he seem particularly inclined to go anywhere, at least as long as Eclipse was anywhere near his trainer.

Trish moved a gloved hand to pat the top part of Raven's skull plate as the silent ghost drifted a little closer to her, then glanced from Mason to the twisted trees in a silent question of whether he wanted to start walking. From what she could hear, and from the fact that her two pokemon hadn't come back looking like they'd encountered anything, it should be a quiet walk to the graveyard. Assuming their respective protectors didn't maul eachother, of course.

[KARP KARP!]

Mason gave a very small grin, so small it would be very difficult to even notice. The man looked at the Sneasel, lowering his shades just a bit, barely uncovering those pale-green eyes that were hidden underneath. "I gotta say, I love the glasses."

Eclipse watched the Sneasel carefully, calming as he did. Finally, the Shiny Umbreon backed up, standing by Mason's side.

Mason took a few steps towards Trish, holding out his hand. "As amusing as it would be to sit out here all night, what do ya say we go in?" He half-smiled as his other hand adjusted his shades.

[SongofWindchimes]

Styx's feather-ear stood up at the compliment, and he blinked, though noone would see it behind the Black Glasses. Trish glanced at him; it was only now that it really dawned on her how similar their shades were. It only seemed to be dawning on Styx now as well, and though he still didn't look terribly happy, he seemed to genuinely relax just a tiny bit.

That went away pretty quickly when Mason stepped toward Trish, however; Styx tensed again, pulling his lip back to bare a fang but remaining silent. Trish, intent on ignoring him, sidestepped around her protective pokemon casually and reached out to take Mason's hand. The Sneasel-claw colour scheme of her gloves almost seemed ironic now.

"Sounds good. The best part of this place is the graveyard, really," she said with a half-smile of her own, her free hand reaching to the bit of black chain just barely peeking out from the neckline of her shirt and pulling her keystone necklace into view. She let the miniature Spritomb keystone dangle outside of her clothes without really thinking about it.

The allure of the graveyard or not, however, Trish wasn't about to rush their walk, especially if Mason planned to hold her hand the whole time. The nervousness that she'd had twisting in her stomach before he showed up was quickly being replaced with a sort of giddiness. Not that she showed it beyond the little half-smile on her face.

[KARP KARP!]

Even Eclipse had to smile a little at Mason's comment about the Sneasel's shades. However, this didn't stop her from tensing again when Mason took Trish's hand. It was so confusing; Mason never acted this way over a girl. EVER. A slight hiss escaped her, but Mason merely looked back.

"E, it's fine. Cool it."
"Bre..." <Okay...>

Sighing, the Shiny Umbreon calmed considerably, walking right beside her trainer. Looking at them, she did have to chuckle and shake her head. Those two looked so similar...And she did seem okay...wait...No. Mason was her trainer, and she didn't want anyone coming between them, stealing her affection. Because if Mason was spending time with a girl, who was petting her?

Eclipse's yellow eyes looked over at the Sneasel as Trish and Mason walked, hand in hand. <Tell your trainer to back off, Mason is mine...>

Mason stroked the back of Trish's hand with his thumb, just looking around. "I love the gloves," he commented.

[SongofWindchimes]

Styx did not like this. Not for a moment. He didn't trust Mason, though he'd resigned himself to silent glares and being ready just in case he did something threatening. Trish would not be hurt, in any way, as long as Styx was in any shape to fight for her. When Eclipse spoke, his gaze snapped to her, and he pulled down his shades again. "Your trainer is making the moves," he responded, his voice strong and deep, though not growling. His gaze was steady, but he was no longer glaring at her.

A blush started to form on Trish's cheeks at the compliment. "Thanks." She wasn't sure a man had ever said something good about her gloves. "I have a few different pairs." She heard an eerie hoot as a nearby owl took off from a branch and flew further into the forest, and Trish couldn't help but smile at it. "Love your jacket," she commented, glancing back at Mason. Trish would never tear the sleeves off her own leather jackets, but it looked good on him.

Raven was drifting around, not seeming to really be affected by either the pair of humans or the pair of dark types. Trish half-considered letting out some of her other pokemon for the Duskull to play with but, well, Styx was enough protectiveness to deal with right now and Maddie...was Maddie. Maybe once they actually reached the graveyard later.

[KARP KARP!]

Eclipse blinked, sighing. <Oh, well...Mason never acts like this. Your trainer must be doing something...Make her stop?> she murmured; not really being rude, she was just stating her theory.

"Thanks. I wanted some leather vests, but...well honestly I had a ton of leather jackets already, and it was cheaper to tear the sleeves off of my older jackets, heh. I mean, I'm a bouncer and bounty hunter, but that doesn't mean I like to waste money."

Mason also considered letting out some of his Pokemon besides Eclipse but...Black Tyranitar, headstrong Dieno, lovesick Crobat, Feraligatr, and a Rhyperior that thought he was a wrestler....uhm...no.

[SongofWindchimes]

Styx stared at Eclipse. Just...stared. Trish putting a spell on Mason? He probably didn't want to admit how plausible that actually seemed for a small moment of time (given that the woman did know an inordinate amount of Latin), before a bit more of his common sense kicked in. He shook his head. "She's not doing anything," he said simply, "I'm worried that he's done something to her."

True, he and Trish had not known eachother long enough for him to know her every habit inside and out, but what he did know did not make this seem normal. Besides, she'd clearly had a lot of anxiety before Mason showed up, even if Holly's presence had been helping. To be so nervous about this guy and then be holding his hand when he actually appeared was sending up a red flag to the protective Sneasel.

Mason's explanation made a certain amount of sense; Trish was lucky enough to have a comfortable amount of money, especially by the standards in this region, and so did have extensive wardrobe but...Wait, what? Trish blinked once, and one of her eyebrows quirked. "Bounty hunter?" she repeated, then smirked. "Holly didn't mention that." Her curiosity was piqued; the old-fashioned bounty hunting that went on in Era fascinated her on the same level the archaic government system did, but she had never really talked to an actual bounty hunter.

However, in the spirit of not completely geeking out in front of her date, she went on with a faint hint of amusement in her voice, "Then again, once Holly got the idea in her head to set this up, all I really got out of her was 'trust me.'" Or, rather, she gotten 'he's a great, you'll love him,' 'you'd be perfect for each other,' 'I'm sure you two will hit it off,' and 'I know he'll like you.' In that order.

[KARP KARP!]

<What could he have done? I've known him all my life; haven't seen him do anything. He's never even shown feelings for a female! Now he's just holding her hand?> E's ears twitched with irritation.

"Yeah, I bounty hunt on the side, and bounce at some clubs when I can. I only hurt when I have to. I normally don't; I'm told I have an...intimidating presence." He came even closer to a smile at this.

Mason gave an honest-to-Arceus chuckle at this. "That's Holly for ya. Little Miss Matchmaker." Though really, I'll have to thank her for this...she did one hell of a job.

[SongofWindchimes]

Styx's feather-ear twitched a little. "And the only time I see Trish go out of her way to make physical contact is with a single female friend. I have a right to be worried." Sure, she was receptive from contact from the rest of the band, whom Styx accepted as not being dangerous, but she only intentionally reached out toward Holly. And beyond that? She was friendly enough in her own way, but generally at arm's length.

Trish smiled. Intimidating presence? Well, he certainly looked like he could do some damage in a fist fight, but she found him on the whole to be quite pleasant to be around so far, and she didn't just mean him being nice to look at. Then again, Trish regularly seemed to intimidate people, herself, without really trying to (and boy did she when she tried to), and places like the forest they were walking hand-in-hand through scared normal people silly. It was probably just one of those things that didn't quite affect her the same way.

The subject of Holly, however, earned a chuckle of Trish's own. "That's her. I swear she broke some kind of record running over to tell me you'd said yes." She shook her head a little. "Then she started talking about 'getting me ready' and I had to distract her before she could try to convince me to go shopping with her." Okay, so maybe that wasn't exactly how the conversation had gone, but hey. "Probably would have succeeded, too," she admitted. Holly was nothing if not persuasive, and just because Trish knew all her tricks didn't mean they didn't still work.

[KARP KARP!]

Eclipse blinked, thinking this over again. <Wait...they keep saying the name Holly. Holly is Mason's sister. Holly was the only person Mason acted this way to.>

Mason gave a small laugh. "Yeah. That's Holly, all over. I've still got stuff from where she took me shopping one time. One section of my closet is brightly colored. Though closer to the stuff I wear are darker shades of purple, green, pink......" He gave a small shudder at the last one.

[SongofWindchimes]

Styx stared again. "Holly is Mason's sister?" he repeated. He spent a moment trying to figure out how that was possible. To be fair, with pokemon, members of completely different species could be littermates, but that wasn't how humans worked. "She's the friend I just mentioned. She's the only one Trish acts even close to this way around."

Trish laughed a little as well. "Hey, pink's not that bad," she said, toying with the tip of her bubblegum-coloured ponytail with her free hand for emphasis. Trish certainly didn't own any primarily pink clothing, though there were a handful of things in her wardrobe that had a bit of pink on them. "But I do have a grand total of one skirt in my wardrobe, and it's entirely Holly's fault I own it." The series of events that had led to her owning it had been a few years ago, but she hadn't put it on since, for many reasons.

[KARP KARP!]

The Shiny Umbreon thought for a moment, then it all seemed to click. She seemed to brighten a bit at this realization. <Oh! Holly is Trish's friend! It all makes sense now!> she exclaimed, as if it was the simplest thing on earth to understand.

"Well, pink looks good on you--you're hair, I mean," he replied, smiling a rare genuine smile as he lowered his shades slightly. "Only one? That's surprising, really. She used to take me shopping all the time. I've worn some of it, out of respect for Holly, but....well, I only really wear them around the house. Maybe if you're lucky I'll actually wear something for you. But only you. And I'm not leaving the house with it on."

He chuckled, sort of surprised at himself for opening up so quickly. But girls like Trish didn't come around every day. And he truly liked her.

[SongofWindchimes]

Styx blinked, then pushed up his shades a little. Well, at least she was happy. He still didn't like this. Relation to his trainer's best friend did not make Mason not a threat. Less of one, maybe, but Styx was still determined to keep an eye on things. "It does?" Styx's tone wasn't the slightest bit sarcastic, simply a bit confused and rather curious. He'd like it very much if Eclipse elaborated on her epiphany.

Trish's icy eyes visibly softened just a little as a hint of red crossed her ghost-pale cheeks. "Thanks. And I've got other things Holly's responsible for. Just only one skirt. She's realized that I don't like them." Trish smiled in an almost...playful manner as she added, "But maybe if you're lucky, you'll see me in that skirt someday. But God forbid I go outside in it." She chuckled. "It's purple...really purple."

Trish was nothing short of twitterpated, and she knew it. No man had gotten her to open up quite so much in such a short time. Not only that, he really seemed to understand her point of view. He was walking through a spooky forest with her and holding her hand, for God's sake. And he was probably the only person who knew Holly better than Trish did. Not to mention that the words 'only you' just plain made her giddy beneath her outward calm.

"Speaking of purple," Trish said with an amused smirk, trying to steer things away from the topic of shopping for the time being, "I've found the one pokemon her and I both find cute. Litwick. She actually wants to come with me when I explore a haunted building so she can catch one."

[KARP KARP!]

Men...Eclipse sighed to herself. <Okay, it's simple. Mason only ever opened up to Holly, likewise, Trish only opened up to Holly. Mason and Trish have common ground through Holly, plus they're so similar, so why wouldn't they hit it off so well?> Her tone wasn't rude; in face she was explaining it in a way she thought made perfect sense.

Mason laughed. "Purple? Yeah, that's got Holly's name written all over it. I have a shirt like that I've never worn except to bed. Deep purple, with a shiny Gengar on it."

At the Litwick comment, the man nodded. "I actually find those cute too. For Holly, I'd guarantee it's the purple. Or that they're a little candle, but I'm sure it's the purple. Me, I like the fact that they're supposedly little soul-suckers." For a moment, Mason forgot they were actually going somewhere; he was just enjoying the time with her. Lightly, Mason squeezed her hand, then pulled her closer, so they were walking shoulder to shoulder. Well, given Mason's height it was more like shoulder to arm, but still.