OOC: Due to the potential length of the following post, some of the content has been move to a Google Docs file. Please excuse the wordiness of the following interaction.

Teri Romer and Ruqayyah Abdur-Rahman (Joint Post)
Shady House, Po Town
ARPers: @Winter @Death's Spook

(OOC: For the sake of not overloading the page again, this entire conversation can be found right here, may be edited in later.)

Teri Romer
Natural Order Rally, Hau’oli City
ARPers: None

Thanks to his late night visitor, the morning dawned far too bright and way too early for Teri’s liking, though Morrigan had managed to sleep through the night without any more bad dreams, and Beetle and Lucina calmed down as soon as their little master was back in bed. Though he was displeased about not being allowed to go as well, Alan (with the help of his Bewear) all but shoved Teri out of the house after he’d dressed and had breakfast, telling his older brother not to worry about chores today and suggesting he page for a Charizard early--the sky’d be full of riders soon enough.

He had been right--for a bunch of liars, the Natural Order certainly knew how to draw a crowd. The streets were filling already, though not with the usual easygoing locals and excitable young trainers. Instead, these people were tense and quiet, talking among themselves in hushed tones that contrasted with the city’s usual loudness. Occasionally they glanced over to the simple wooden platform that had been set up with a pair of microphones and speakers, as though impatient to see the head himself up there, though thing weren’t scheduled to start for another half hour or so.

He still wore his hourglass pin snapped into his beanie, and that alone had gotten him several nasty looks from the quiet people, as though they couldn’t believe he had the nerve to show up at all, let alone wearing it. It had been happening more and more lately, but Teri had learned that it was just better to smile and wave--to present himself as friendly and peaceful would only help further prove that not all pro-Pokemon supporters were bad...at least, that was what he hoped. Of course, it helped when people laughed, too, as a few locals who knew him tended to do when they witnessed these encounters, to which he smiled and waved to them as well. Eyes scanning the crowd that had amassed so far, Teri kept his eye out for more people wearing hourglasses--there should have been at least a few here, if anyone had followed his and Alan’s trail of breadcrumbs. He really did hope to get some people together today, maybe then they’d be taken seriously, maybe then Natural Order would slip up.

After all, every time they gained a follower, the Pokemon of the region lost just a little more time.

Natural Order Upper Admistration
Admin Quarters, Aether Paradise->Natural Order Rally, Hau’oli City
ARPers: None

Corinne had only gotten worse, and that worried both Hershel and Jonah more than the men would admit. While Beatrice had avoided the worst of it, having poked in that night only long enough to speak with Jonah and collect a few things before popping out again with the help of her Alakazam, both the head of Natural Order and his second in command had had to deal with her.

She’d quickly gone from restless and staring out the window to getting antsy and screaming. Thankfully, they kept the area where administration was holed up quite far away from the rest of the full time volunteers and workers. Both of them had known that as soon as either one suggested that the girl place Kiri back in his Pokeball for the rally, things were going to go horribly south.

It had been worse than they expected. There had been an onslaught of screaming and throwing things on Corinne’s end--a coffee cup had been smashed beyond recognition, a small table overturned, paperwork scattered everywhere. The problem was that if she didn’t go, they knew there’d be no stopping the next fit, and both had lacked the foresight to ensure that it would be possible to lock the girl in her room during her fits to limit the area of damage...not that that was safe to do, either.

It had taken a full hour to calm her down, which had eaten into their departure time not only because it had taken that long to calm Corinne down, but because she then needed to be made presentable...again. At this point, however, she’d gone quiet and agreeable. She tolerated the Espurr being returned to his Pokeball, and sat still and silent long enough to let Hershel run a brush through her hair.

“...You’re humming, Hearse,” she’d pointed out as he finished, and the man paused for a moment before shaking his head. “You do it every time Jonah makes you brush my hair. Why is that?” The gaunt man was silent for a moment before standing and setting the brush aside. He plucked the black bow she’d snatched out of her hair in her earlier fit off of the table he’d set the brush on, and moved to tie it in her hair.

“Nunya,” he replied quietly, his voice impassive, even as he delivered softspoken revenge for the girl’s words to him the night before. Straightening the bow out and then dropping his hands to his side, he nodded to the door. “You’ve made us late. We should get going.” She didn’t try to talk to him again after that.

By the time they made it into Hau’oli’s port, they were ten minutes late, and it took them another five to get to the rally setup, made even slower by the packed streets. Once, Hershel had thought he’d seen Beatrice’s signature platinum blonde bob fighting the crowd to get down the street rather than up it, but the woman had her orders, and the rest of admin had theirs. In fact, he and Jonah now had more work to do, as they’d both agreed it was a poor idea to let Corinne anywhere near a microphone until they were certain her foul mood had passed.