The clean whoosh of the opening Pokémon Center doors greeted Eugene as he stepped inside with Irusan weaving around his legs. As Eugene had imagined, the inside of the Pokémon Center was empty save for a young couple sitting in the back near the map of Sinnoh. They didn't seem to be consulting it, just sitting idly and talking, waiting for something with coffee in hand.

Their presence seemed to contrast with the rest of the Pokémon Center, or at least with what Eugene associated with Pokémon Centers. They were clean and immaculately dressed, as if they had not been traveling today, and in that sense they fit in with the Pokémon Center's atmosphere very well. But it would be odd for a vacationing couple or locals to come to the Pokémon Center to just chat. Whenever Eugene went to the Pokémon Center in Jubilife for interviews he noticed that nearly every single person looked like they had been traveling or training, a sterile abode for the glamorous grime of Pokémon training. But these two people were just very well kept.

Eugene muttered an "Excuse me" as he squeezed past the couple to reach the map on the wall behind them. He needed to figure out where he would be going from here so he could put today and everything associated with it behind him. It was a cramped, hopelessly uneventful town with stuck up girls who weren't up to par.

He pressed his face against the map and placed his finger on Jubilife. He traced the path he had walked today, through Route 204 leading to Floaroma. It looked like there was only one road out of town, Route 205 leading North-East towards Eterna City. And no caves for him to conquest either, just grass and trees the entire way.

Eugene felt a tap on his shoulder.

"Can I get a look at your eyes?" asked the male-half of the couple, who was now standing uncomfortably close to Eugene.

"What?" Eugene said, turning around to see the male-half standing up, staring at Eugene. The female-half sat in the chair with Irusan in her lap, playing idly, as if she wasn't associated with this business at all.

The male-half's head whipped around to the female-half and squealed, "I was right! They do match!"

"What are you talking about?" Eugene asked, trying to back up against the wall.

"We're from a Pokémon Contest agency in Hearthome City. We were stopping by to see some friends and look into any upcoming talent, but the flower shop said no new coordinators had stopped by, just the regulars," the male-half said.

"A contest agency?"

"We sign Pokémon Coordinators. We pay for costumes, handle all of the dirty work, so our Coordinators can focus on putting on their shows." the female-half explained with words flowing like a gentle stream.

"And I think you've got, potential!" the male-half said, throwing his palms in an arc above his head and wiggling his fingers.

"I'm not interested," Eugene said, pushing past them and walking towards the exit.

"But you match your Shinx!" the male-half said.

Eugene paused and looked at Irusan. "I don't see any resemblance."

"Okay, okay, almost matching. We'd have to do something about your hair but it is your demeanor, your eyes, you are amazing together, naturally meant for each other! You can't buy that kind of zazzle!" the male-half said.

"Whats wrong with my hair?" Eugene asked.

"Nothings wrong with your hair, it just doesn't match your Shinx the way your eyes do. Such vivid blues, you go together perfectly! You could go far with synergy like that!" the male-half said.

"For the record, I like your curls, but they don't work with the Shinx," the female-half said.

"We need to channel the tough and cool vibe, curls are too frilly. You're gonna need to dye your hair and straighten it, or at least wear a hat. Maybe we could style it and go for a punk-rock theme," the male-half said, reaching out to touch Eugene's hair.

"I'm not interested in Pokémon contests," Eugene said, swatting the male-half's hand away.

The female-half sat silently, gently setting Irusan down on the floor, where he walked over to Eugene. The male-half stifled a laugh, and pulled a thin metal case out of his back pocket. He flipped it open and took a small card out, holding it out to Eugene.

"Just take our card and call us if you ever find yourself in need of some assistance, wherever you are. We'd be glad to help with anything," the male-half said with a smile that shouldn't be trusted.

Eugene gave the male half a shrewd stare, snapped up the card, shoved it into his pocket and said, "Fine. Now leave me alone."

The male-half threw his hands up in the air and turned around on his heels, and sat back down with his female-half.

Eugene turned around and walked outside, brushing past the doors as they slid open. Once they had shut, he looked around at Floaroma once again. He needed a place to stay, and while the town was small enough to enter every single shop until he found an inn, the prospect was not exactly comforting.

"Well, Irusan, I guess we're going to have to ask those Contest people if they know anything," Eugene said, looking down at the ground. But Irusan was not there. Eugene checked the ground on his other side, but Irusan was not there either. And he was not between his legs. Eugene turned all the way around and saw Irusan pawing at the glass door of the Pokémon Center, seemingly trying to open them with all the power of his large yellow eyes.

Eugene quickly stepped closer to the door, and it opened with a whooshing sound. Irusan ran out to join him, but Eugene walked back into the Pokémon Center, forcing Irusan to turn right around again in order to keep up.

The young couple stopped their conversation and stared at Eugene for a moment from across the room. Eugene took one look at them and realized that there was no way he could ask them for help, let alone ask the nurse in front of them, or even stand to be in the same room as them, so he kept walking over to the escalator that went upstairs. Irusan hesitated to get on the grated stairs, but after pawing at it to test its stability a few times, climbed on to follow Eugene upstairs.

The upstairs had the same color scheme as downstairs, but instead of being designed as an open meeting place for trainers, was clearly designed with efficiency in mind. A long counter with three brown-haired attendants, two doors, and a computer identical to the downstairs computer tucked in the corner. A few cushions and plants seemed to be there to simply occupy space.

"Do you know where I can find a place to stay for the night?" Eugene asked.

Two of the attendants simply looked blankly at the wall, but the one nearest Eugene smiled and said, "Jubilife City is not very far away and there is a wide range of options for all price ranges."

"I meant in town," Eugene said. He wasn't walking back to Jubilife just to come back to Floaroma the next day.

"Of course, in town. Right across the street there is an inn," she said, pointing the direction.

"Thank you," Eugene said while turning around to take the escalator downstairs. Irusan followed onto the escalator without hesitation this time.

As he descended into the lobby again, he tried his hardest not to look at the young couple while walk purposefully and keeping his eyes firmly set on the doors. He made sure Irusan made it through the doors and walked straight on over to the inn.

That night in the inn, Eugene sat on one end of his bed with Cúchulainn right beside him, and Irusan curled up on the other end of the bed. Cúchulainn's mouth was wide open, tongue flopping around everywhere as his head followed even Eugene's slightest movements. Eugene had the contents of his bag scattered on nearly every surface of the room for him to examine and evaluate.

Normally Eugene didn't organize his things, since it took too much time, but this room was off-putting. The inn wasn't much of an inn, and more of a guest bedroom in the family's house. His bathroom was also their daughters bathroom and was appropriately filled with Cherrim shower curtains and Ponyta towels, the closet was used to store suitcases and blankets and other things that the family clearly had no proper place for, and the room was full of pictures with large groups of people standing in front of strange vacation landmarks that Eugene didn't recognize and lace doilies that were probably heirlooms, a compromise between honoring whoever they were inherited from and hiding such un-stylish décor.

So when he had tried to go to sleep a few hours earlier, it didn't work. He couldn't shake the feeling that he was sleeping in someone else's house, mostly because he was. It was a very different feeling than sleeping in a hotel room manufactured to instill a sense of home-away-from-home comforts. It was someone else's space, a distinctly foreign room.

After what must have been hours of trying to fall asleep, he had decided that if he couldn't fall asleep, the best thing to do was prepare for the next day's journey to Eterna City. With everything he had brought, along with the food he had bought earlier and the extra groceries he bought for tomorrow's trip and his new flashlight, there wasn't enough room in his bag anymore. He'd have to live with just the essentials.

The essentials were as follows. Poffin. Peanut butter. Jelly. Cúchulainn's food. Irusan's food. Water bottle. Silverware. Pokéballs. Potions. Flashlight. Jacket. Scarf. Extra shirt. Extra pants. Extra underwear. Extra extra underwear. Extra socks. Hat. Sunglasses. Sunscreen. Swimsuit. Beach towel. Toothbrush. Toothpaste. Floss. Mouthwash. Retainer. Shaving razor. Shaving cream. Extra razors. Shampoo. Conditioner. Body wash. Hand sanitizer. Nail clippers. Condoms. Cologne. Deodorant. Shower towel. Bandages. College-Ruled notebook. An art pad notebook. A set of 3x5 cards. Pencil. Eraser. Pencil Sharpener. Extra pencil. Scissors. Colored pencils. Watercolors. Pens. Rubber bands. Paper clips. A folder with important papers. Scotch tape. Duct tape. Pokégear. Pokégear charger. Camera. Camera charger. DS. DS charger. DS games. GBA games. Headphones. Cúchulainn's favorite chew toy. Cúchulainn's second favorite chew toy. Peanut butter to put in Cúchulainn's second favorite chew toy. House keys. A few spare TMs. Spare batteries. Universal TV remote. A copy of Infinite Jest bookmarked on page 19. A coupon book for the Jubilife Department Store. An English to Czech Translation Pocket Book. Important Sticky Notes. Movie ticket stubs. Extension cords. Shopping bags. A Lucky Buneary's Foot. Dice. A wallet containing 23000 Pokédollars, a TV press pass, two Buy-10-Get-1-Free Jubilife Frogurt Stamp Cards with three stamps on each, and a bunch of receipts. And only about half of it could reasonably fit into his bag.

Unfortunately, as tiring as narrowing it down to the essentials was, not all of the essentials could fit in Eugene's bag, so he would have to reduce it even further to the extremely essential, and leave the rest behind in his PC.

Eugene had a hard time figuring out what he could part with and what was extremely essential. Obviously food and water were important, as were the Pokéballs, potions and flashlight. He needed his clothes, though he could store his jacket and scarf and maybe his extra extra underwear. He wouldn't need his beach stuff this far north because he'd be moving more inland. Hygienic products could not be left behind, but he didn't need all of the spare razors. After much deliberation it was concluded that he would not need three forms of paper to write on, so he chose to take the 3x5 cards and the art pad along with the pencils, eraser, pencil sharpener and pen, leaving behind the rubber bands and paper clips. The folder could not be left behind. Both kinds of tape were to be discarded. He definitely needed the Pokégear and Pokégear charger. And the camera was essential, so the charger would be taken as well. And you never know when you want your DS so he took that and its charger as well, but Eugene convinced himself to leave behind a few of his games that he hadn't played in years. The headphones weren't important but they weren't that big so he took them anyways. Cúchulainn's chew toys were brought on this journey for a reason, but the peanut butter just for them was left behind. Eugene could get by with just one jar of peanut butter. House keys were not to be parted with, but he knew he would never use "his" TMs because they were a bit pricey and using them felt a bit like cheating. Spare batteries were always useful, even though he didn't have anything that would use batteries except for the Universal TV remote, which just couldn't fit in anywhere. He was already on page 19 of Infinite Jest so he might as well finish it, so it would come with them. While the deals in the coupon book were fantastic it didn't have anything related to where he was going, so it would be left behind. The English to Czech translation pocket book was an unfortunate victim of this cleansing and would not be brought because Eugene couldn't think of the last time he had met someone who only spoke Czech. Most of the important sticky notes weren't that important in retrospect, as were the movie ticket stubs, so they were excised from the bag. Extension cords were the stuff of legends and could never be parted with. The shopping bags were from earlier that day and Eugene wasn't quite sure why he had laid them out with everything, and decided to leave them behind. It was firmly decided upon that luck was for the weak and both the Lucky Buneary's Foot and one of the two die were left behind. Eugene took the Frogurt card and receipts out of his wallet to reduce its bulk but kept everything else.

At this point, everything could just barely fit into his bag, but he had made it fit with a bit of clever packing and putting some of the smaller things in his pockets instead, which was admittedly a pretty shoddy compromise but one he was willing to make if it meant he was done organizing his things.

With nothing left to do until the morning when he planned on starting the long walk to Eterna City, Eugene started getting ready for bed again. As he crawled under the sheets he noticed Irusan at the foot of his bed, and couldn't help but think about what the male Contest representative had said earlier. He scooped Irusan up in his hand and walked out to the bathroom, where he lifted the Shinx up next to his head in the mirror.

It was true that Eugene's eyes were almost the exact same blue as Irusan's fur, but the only similarity in demeanor he could find was that they were both very weary and would rather be sleeping. And his hair was not frilly. All the same, Eugene couldn't help but think that if something like this could be abused to impress a judge in a contest, it might be able to impress other people.

Knowing that something was going his way, and that it might pay off if he played his cards right, Eugene crawled into the inn's bed with Irusan at his side, and Cúchulainn drooling all over the sheets, and fell asleep, content.