On the Road to Graduation [Closed]

Aimee leaned against the metal bars that protected her from falling off the edge of the ferry, content in letting the crisp ocean breezes blow through her short, ginger hair. Feeling the salty spray of the sea on her face, Aimee's eyes were closed in the blissful moment, enjoying the warm sunshine and calm seas whilst she could. They'd be landing in Vermilion City soon enough, at least if the word being passed around the ferry were to be believed. Once they arrived Aimee figured it would be busy from then on until they'd finished their final graduate exam and dissertation, which could take more than a year if they weren't proactive with their time. With a small sigh, Aimee's green eyes opened again and she glanced up at the sky. Sometimes she swore her tutors hated her, after all the other three groups had gotten one region each to tour. The group she was in however had to journey around both Kanto and Johto purely because they were conjoined regions. At least they'd learn a lot though, and it would definitely be fun to see all those new places...
Aimee's green gaze turned to the cloudless sky with a smile. It wasn't really all that bad after all. She had three friends in the other members of the group she'd been put into, that had to be a plus side as well.

Her thoughts were disrupted by a Fletchling perching neatly on her head. With a chuckle, Aimee reached up as if to make sure the Tiny Robin Pokemon was balanced correctly on her head, "You enjoy your flight?" she asked the Fletchling with a smile. Arietta chirruped cheerfully in response before hopping off of her human friend's head and landing on the metal fencing that prevented people from falling into the water.

Pic of Aimee for any snoopers and my future self |D:

Current Team(Will be Updated!):

The door to the inner portion of the ferry opened up as Justin stepped outside, squinting his eyes and moving his arm over them to block the sunlight. He smiled somewhat, hearing the Mienfoo standing on his shoulder let out a cheerful cry at the sunny deck. Feeling the spray of ocean water hit him, the boy walked over to a railing, leaning against it and looking out at the land to see how close they were. He was pretty excited, being able to travel around another region. It was something he had always been looking to do. The only problem was that it just so happened to be for a school assignment, and was basically their final exam. Not only that, but they were stuck with two regions instead of one. Sometimes he just had all the luck...
A tugging on his hair got his attention as he looked up at Audrey, watching as the Mienfoo stopped doing so once she got his attention. She pointed a paw across the deck, gesturing to Aimee, who was also standing by the metal railings on the other side. Justin nodded his head to Audrey, watching her light up with pride and satisfaction at pointing out a friend. Turning, he walked across the deck, stepping next to Aimee and looking out at the water.
"Are we almost there yet?" He asked, half jokingly as he grinned a bit, continuing to look out off the boat.

My character's appearance:

On the other side of the ferry, Damiean could be seen lying in the middle of a white pool chair with his arms crossed behind his head and his legs crossed in front of him. In another pool chair beside him, a Treecko could be seen lying in the same position as Damiean. While most of the other students were thinking about what their journey was gonna be like or how big of a drag it was going to be, Damiean say no need to think of such things. All he cared about was enjoying his moment of relaxation, taking in the bright blue sky and the slow moving clouds, loving the feeling of the spray of ocean water that came up near him every now and again.

"Ah, this is the life. Wouldn't you agree Kimori?" Damiean asked his pokemon companion, and getting a yawn from the Treecko in response. He smiled at the response and gave a yawn of his own, continuing to enjoy his relaxation.

Damiean's appearance:

Daniel was simply sitting around on board, fiddling around with a deck of playing cards.
He couldn't believe it. As if all that studying and the tuition hadn't been enough.
No, they just had to run around the world and find tons of different Pokémon before they would finally be able to graduate.
But they might as well make the best out of the time.
Remembering, that he hadn't even introduced himself to the other poor victims, who would have to carry out the same, mindnumbingly useless task, the teenager got up, picking up his lifelong companion.
The Vanillite chirped as he was lifted up and placed on Daniel's shoulder.
The sudden sunlight blinded the young man, who had been sitting in the shade before and now was stumbling across the deck, trying to find his comrades.
Finally he met two other individuals leaning against the metal bars.
Walking up to them Daniel tried to initiate a conversation.
"Uh...hi, I guess. So, any plans on how exactly we should progress on our journey already?"

Daniel's appearance:

Another chirrup from Arietta brought her trainer's attention to the approaching form of Justin, Aimee glancing at him as he and his Mienfoo reached the deck and took up a position next to her. With a small chuckle, she tore her gaze from the gentle ocean waves to answer his joking question, "Nah I think we've still got a little way to go."
Just as she said this, she spotted what appeared to be the vast region of Kanto in the distance. They really were drawing close now. As she realised this, Aimee began to feel almost nervous, the complete opposite to how she had been feeling before. She was actually going to be journeying two whole regions with these three classmates. They were all going to learn and experience so much that could not be simulated or explained properly within a classroom. All her previous annoyances seemed to drain away at the sheer reality of the incredible gift they had been given in the guise of a graduation exam.

Once again woken from her thoughts, Aimee turned as she heard another voice. This time it belonged to the person in the group that she was least familiar with.
"Hey Daniel," she smiled, trying to be friendly. She knew his name, but in school he had always really kept to himself. Perhaps that would change over the course of their journey?
"Oh, uhm. Well since we're supposed to land in Vermilion City I guess we should just start by exploring the city itself. Though if we're going to discuss this I think we should find Damiean first," she replied with another small smile, not wanting to leave the fourth member of their group out of the discussion.

Nodding in response to Aimee, Justin stayed quiet, watching Kanto appear to get larger as the ferry drew near. Once they got off, there would be all sorts of new experiences and adventures waiting for them. All they had to see was if they would be good or bad experiences, only time would tell.
"Huh?" As he heard another voice the teen turned around, noticing Daniel walk up. He had seen Daniel around the academy, but never really talked to him much.
"Yeah, that might be a good idea. If we're all going together, we should all be in on what we're doing." Justin agreed, nodding his head with a smile. Hearing the conversation, the Mienfoo on Justin's shoulders gazed around the area, searching for Damieaen.

Unlike all of the other students, Damiean continued staring at the beautiful sky instead of staring at Kanto from the side of the ferry. He figured that since he was going to be at Kanto soon anyway, looking at it from a distance would be wasting time he could use staring at the beautiful sky above him. As he kept relaxing in his pool chair along with his treecko, Damiean heard the voices of the other members of his group, apparently searching for him. He then raised his left hand and called out to the other students.

"Ahoy Matey's. Over here." Damiean said, waving his raised hand, hoping to attract their attention. He could have gotten out of the chair to make things easier, but that would mean canceling his relaxation, something Damiean didn't plan to do at the moment.

"Hm, did that guy actually board the ship? I don't think I have seen him at all since the day we've boarded this thing. But you're right, maybe it would be best to look fo-"
A moderately familiar voice interrupted Daniel's train of thought.
"...ooor we could just walk over there I guess. Hopefully the rest of this trip will be better organized than its beginning has been."
A quick glance behind him revealed another face. Not really having interacted with is classmates before, Daniel wasn't really familiar with this personj either, but from the commentary he had come to hear, he assumed, that this man had to be Damiean.
Hopefully he wasn't as lazy as his introduction made it appear to be. If he was, then that would add far more time than neccessary to their schedule.
And finsihing their journey later would mean getting a worse grade.
The young man sighed.
This was why he despised teamwork.

Aimee chuckled good-naturedly as Damiean waved them over. Though he did appear to have called out to them out of laziness rather than come and find them, at least he seemed to be enjoying himself on this ferry ride. After all everything wasn't going to be as smooth sailing once they landed.
Walking over to him, Arietta spread her wings and took off from the metal bars, fluttering over to Aimee with another lighthearted chirrup and landing on her shoulder. Aimee didn't quite understand Daniel's point about the trip not being very organised. All they had done so far was pack some essentials, say goodbye to their parents, friends and other classmates, go to a briefing on the tasks of the journey and get on a ferry. There wasn't all that much to be organised at all, though from what little had happened so far it seemed perfectly fine. Nevertheless she kept her thoughts to herself and went to lean on the bars of the ship nearer to where Damiean was seated.

"Hey," she smiled cheerfully, "We figured we shouldn't keep you out of any discussion about what we're doing when we land in Vermilion City, since we are all teammates now."

Justin blinked, looking around the area for where the source of the noise came from, not picking Damieaen out yet despite his waving. Audrey picked the boy out first and hopped down from Justin's shoulder, running over. Hearing Daniel's sigh, Justin gave him a light pat on the shoulder, beginning to walk over to catch up wit the Mienfoo.
"Loosen up a bit, I'm sure this is going to be great." He said, smirking before continuing to head over to Aimee and Damieaen. Audrey had been stood by the pool chairs, looking at them with curiosity, interest and a glint in her eye that Justin had come to realize meant she wanted to try them herself, whether the ones using the seats were still in them or not. He picked her up as he stepped over, hearing the other two talk and simply listening, waiting to see if they had any suggestions while he held the pouting Mienfoo in his arms.

Damiean looked up at Aimee with a smile on his face. He heard Daniel say something about the trip not being organized or something along those line, not having paid complete attention. He could tell that Daniel probably thought he was lazy but Damiean didn't care. Several people had called him lazy in the past and it never phased him. While he didn't consider himself lazy personally, he could see why others would see him as such. To Damiean however, he was just living life the best way he could. He was always seen as lazy for not doing much other than lie down and rest all day, but to Damiean that was the best way to live. What others saw as constant napping, Damiean saw as a way to connect with nature and feel truely alive. Besides, if he was able to get this far in the academy, then Damiean couldn't be that lazy.

"Thanks for the thoughtful thoughts, but you don't need to worry need to worry about me. I'm fine with wherever we go as long as my Kimori is with me and he feels the same way. Right Kimori?" Damiean said, getting another yawn as a response, causing him to chuckle a little at his partner.

Daniel was already beginning to get annoyed by the lack of planning the other three members of his team seemed to have invested into this journey.
Shaking his head, he realized the futility of trying to get them to act more organized, so instead he silently accepted the responsibility of preventing this trip from turning into a chaotic mess.
Pulling a map out of his backpack, he started to explain, which route he had planned for them to take.
The map itself was nothing extraordinary, just a regular map of the Kanto region, but it was absolutely covered with markings of various colours, small pins holding strings of coloured yarn in place and everything else was covered in a mass of post-it notes.
The student then produced another folder from his backpack, opening it to reveal various pages serving as a legend to the map.
"So...I suggest beginning our travels in these areas, as Pokémon there have been shown to..."

"Just don't forget you'll have to make sure you remember everything so you can put it in your report once we finish our journey," replied Aimee with a chuckle, trying to gently prod the other student to make sure he was proactive with the school side of the trip they were soon to embark on. She and Arietta were soon distracted by Daniel's maps and legends and legends however as they were revealed to them.
Glancing to Justin before looking back at the map and it's numerous pins, strings and post-its, Aimee chuckled hesitantly, "I hear there's a such thing as too much planning," she commented, "Though some sort of a route idea might be a good idea, I don't think there's a way we'll be able to go everywhere without doubling back a few times."
She paused, her Fletchling nuzzling her head against Aimee's shoulder for a moment, the trainer reaching up to scratch under Arie's chin.
"I guess we do need a basic plan, but if we plan everything down to the last minute we won't be able to have fun with this amazing opportunity that's been given to us. Deadlines weren't always my strong suit anyway," she laughed.

Justin raised a brow, looking down at the multiple sets of maps that Daniel had taken out, making note of the various threads and map legends that he had taken out. Oh, great. Do we really have to plan all of this stuff out? As Dan began to speak about the map, he placed Audrey on his shoulder, letting the Mienfoo lean against his head and look down at the map with curiosity.
"I have to say, you've got a lot of stuff ready to plan with, but do we really need everything figured out? I'm sure we can play some of this by ear." He asked, fishing an older looking MP3 player out of his pocket and putting one ear bud in his left ear, letting the other drop down so he could still listen. The dull sound of music could be heard coming from the buds.

"Hehe, I don't see a need to get so worried about having a plan when we already have one. We came here to study all of the different pokemon so that's what we should do. No need to detail every aspect of our trip, just let things happen and I'm sure we'll be alright. It's worked out for me an Kimori so far, so it should work here." Damiean said, still lying down in his pool chair. He was never one for complex planning or things like that. Damiean was the kind of guy who just went with the flow of things and trusted his instincts more than any maps or papers. He felt that if his instincts got him to a ferry to Kanto, they'll be able to get him through Kanto itself.