[Rory Leonhardt]

Well here they were, at Gray Haven Academy for another year of poke-tastic fun. They were so gonna use that word a lot. This had to be one of the most fanciest schools Rory had ever been to especially for something like Pokemon. Well Pokemon and their habitat was very important to the people of the Island and Rory respected that. It kind of reminded them about their old home in Laverre city. It was surprising they still missed it and it had been all but five years. 

Five years and Rory was still in the boys dorm! When were they gonna have their own dorm area they don't even identify as male anymore, they haven't since they were twelve. But the school was so adamant in keeping it two genders, there wasn't much to discuss on the matter. Rory could scream at them till they were blue in the face but it would never come to pass.

Rory sighed and dropped their bags to the bed closest to the window, they liked the window and liked seeing out of it from their bed. Ivory certain liked being where the sun was. Her and Azura already got up on the bed and sleeping in the sun spot for warmth. Rory snickered they were so cute sometimes.

Whelp it was time to unpack and claim spots before their roomie arrived, yeah as if it wasn't bad they had no choice but to stay in the boys dorm, they also had a room mate. Rory had no clue who the dude was but if he said something ignorant fists were gonna fly. Not even a pokebattle just....straight up punch this dude in the buns. Rory took the rubber band from their wrist and began to tie up their really long blonde hair. When that was done they began to unpack their things. This was gonna be quite the year, or so they hoped.

[Gene Marshfield]

Gene made his way down the hall with his backpack slung over his shoulder, suitcase rolling along behind him. He looked back and forth, checking the rooms numbers. Looking back down at the paper in his hand, he mumbled to his Fletchling, who was on top of his head, as was to be expected.

"Now where the heck is Room #1? You'd think it'd be the first room but nooo, it had to be complicated. Hold up..." Gene finally found the room at the end of the hallway, and realized he had entered from a back door. "I am gonna have some serious problems with directions here..."

He reached for the doorknob, but paused for a second as he heard noise from inside. "Looks like my roommate got here before me." Throwing up a smile, he entered the room. He saw that his roommate had two Pokemon, an Azurill and another Pokemon he didn't know the name of. He also saw that his bed had already been decided. "First come, first serve, I guess."

Now onto the roommate. Gene saw that his new roommate looked almost mysterious. They were in the boys' dorm, but their build was much more slender than most boys their age, and they had extremely long, blond hair. Gene's thought process stumbled for a moment before he regained his bearings. "Could they be non-binary?" Gene thought. This wouldn't be the first non-binary person he had met in his life. Many different trainers passed through Santalune City to fight the gym leader there, and also to visit the trainers school. He loved meeting the trainers back when he was younger and hearing their life stories. It just wasn't something he kept at the forefront of his mind when meeting new people. "I suppose if they are, they'll let me know..."

Tossing his bag down on the bed closer to the door, Gene went to shake hands with his new roomie. "Hey there, I'm Gene! This here's Fletchling," he said, pointing up at the Tiny Robin Pokemon, who chirped happily at being acknowledged. "Nice to meet you!"

[Rory Leonhardt]

It was a good thing this wasn't like a ninja school or something because then whoever was behind him would've flunked out. They weren't very good at subtly, not in the slightest. Rory supposed this was their fabled roommate, they half expected them to be late, well come in later. At least give Rory some time to themselves to settle in. It didn't matter they unpacked a large portion of their things and more importantly claimed their bed. Rory was actually just putting the bed sheets on their bed when the guy came in. 

Rory found it odd that they were quiet for a minute, maybe in deep thought? Maybe they thought they were in the wrong room? They could've assumed wrong and this wasn't Gene? 

As soon as they finished their bed the trainer dropped his stuff at his bed and then walked over, introducing himself as Gene Marshfield. Oh so this was the guy. He then pointed out his Fletchling which was super cute. It chirped happily as it was introduced and it took all of Rory's strength not to gush at it. They simply extended a hand and shook Gene's firmly.

"Hey, I'm Rory. Nice to meet you too."

Then they turned to their pokemon to introduce them as well.

"This is Ivory my Mawile and Azura my Azurill."

Both looked up to Gene, Ivory yawned and turned back to sleep but Azura was more curious and got up to get a good look at Gene and his pokemon. Small beady black eyes looking at them with much interest.

"Ah, I hope you don't mind if I picked out my side already. And hopefully we can get along pretty well."

[Gene Marshfield]

The adorable little Azurill hopped up and moved over to Gene after Rory introduced themself. Gene crouched down, reaching out to pet the Fairy-type. His new roommate seemed kind of indifferent to his presence, at least more indifferent than Gene was used to people being. They said that they hoped the two of them would get along, and at that Gene smiled again. "Yeah, I hope so, too! It's weird being so far away from home." 

He studied his new bunkmate a little as he interacted with the Polka Dot Pokemon. They were clearly very fashionable, which was apparent when contrasted with Gene's pretty basic wardrobe. And they were just a little bit taller than him, he noticed with a bit of aggravation. Finally, their hair was really noticeable, being extremely long, especially for the boy's side of the dorm. "If I'm actually right about Rory being non-binary, then they probably aren't that thrilled about being stuck in either side of the dorm... I should probably take care and be extra welcoming."

"So... have you been at the Academy long?  I'm new this year so I'm still getting turned around really easily," Gene started to say, trying to drum up a conversation while he began to unpack his stuff.

[Rory Leonhardt]

It seemed that Gene was taking a moment to study Rory a bit, Rory sort of expected this. They were used to getting looks like that all their life, especially once they realized that they were non-binary. It didn't seem that Gene was disgusted, confused, or holding ill-will towards the whole thing. Well that was a slight relief. Rory wasn't afraid of fighting anyone to protect themselves. The fact that they didn't have to this time around made them feel a lot better now.

Gene suddenly posed a question to them, it appeared that they were new to the school. Rory nodded right away.

"This is my fifth year here, but this is my first time getting a room mate, seems like there has been an influx of new students this year."

That probably was the reason why they got a roomie anyways.

"Oh well if it's your first year then welcome to the academy. I hope you're ready for a poke-tastic year of fun."

Yeah this was gonna be the new fetch. 

[Gene Marshfield]

"Poke... tastic...?" Gene couldn't stop himself from snorting out a small laugh at the silliness of Rory's catchphrase(?) God, he hoped it wasn't their catchphrase, for everyone's sake.



"Hah, I'm sorry, just didn't expect that," Gene said, still smiling from his laughter. Trying to recover, Gene put on his best straight face. "So you've been here a while, then? That's pretty sweet! What do you like to do around here? Besides going to class I suppose."

[Rory Leonhardt]

Well at least that broke the ice for them, Rory was pretty bad with jokes and figured that this would make it easier to talk to Gene. If Gene was new he must've been pretty young. Yeah they could see that, he was awfully shorter then themself.

They thought about the question the other posed.

"Hmm well aside from class I go out on a walk, catch some pokemon. Maybe sit in the lounge and watch some battles and other tv shows. I haven't had much time in the past to do much of anything but hopefully this year will be different."

Rory probably sounded boring to the other which was fine, as long as they weren't dragged around EVERYWHERE that's okay. Rory like to try things on their own time when they want to.

[Gene Marshfield]

"Oh, you like to catch Pokemon?" Gene asked. "Do you have many more? I would love to meet them, especially if they're all this cute!" He smiled, shooting a quick look over at Ivory and Azura. Gene hoped he would get the chance to meet tons of new Pokemon at the Academy. It was nearly half the reason he had been convinced to enroll in the first place, and while he had definitely met many already, you can't meet too many amazing Pokemon.

As he waited for his roommate's answer, Gene's hands moved around anxiously a little bit. He slipped them into his pockets casually and glanced around the room, envisioning how he might decorate it in the near future. It looked like Rory had probably showed up pretty recently as well, seeing as their side wasn't really set up either.

((I'm so sorry. I feel really awful about this delay, but hopefully it doesn't happen this badly again.))

[Rory Leonhardt]

"Oh um just a few... don't wanna take up too much space here. But I have just a two more I caught recently."

Rory debated about taking out Prince and Igneous but Azura would probs pick a fight with Prince. Igneous could probably set something on fire.

"It's for the best right now if I don't show you the others, probably next time."

At some point Rory finished putting their stuff away and looked to Gene.

"What about you Gene? I know you're new and all but do you have any hobbies and stuff?"

It seemed to going well as Rory didn't want to punch this kid in the face. That was good, that meant things were going to go smoothly this year.