Cyg hops to it, falling into step next to Mars. Her flashlight is off, and she’s swinging it by the wrist-tie looped around her carpals. With Mars’ Minior shading everything pale violet, the fanal is little more than a bludgeoning weapon. She is looking around at the darkness with bright, blue eyes, catching little motions in the distance that are, most likely, just her imagination-- a warpage of the space between them and distant mausoleums or large Gardevoir statues marking gravesites of note.

“Nope,” she says, childlike and blase, “I caught one of my Runerigus’ here. I was nervous that time but once you’ve dealt with weird, haunted stone… ghost… things, you’ve seen it all, really.” Popped her Mt. Pyre cherry, if you would.

The Minior’s orchid light suddenly flashed off of something shiny and almost neon, and Cyg froze, clicking her flashlight beam on-- it had a further reach than the Minior, even if the array was narrower-- and the streak of light gleamed off the large, blue dome of a Jellicent. The Floating Pokemon froze, hovering eerily above a headstone bedecked in white, granite lilies.

“Weird,” Cyg said, fishing Atticus’ Pokeball out of her pack and releasing her Zoroark, “don’t these things usually stay out to sea?”

Atticus took a look around at their surroundings and sighed heavily, as though disappointed in Cyg’s choice of hobbies.

“Don’t you huff at me, mister,” Cyg scolded, pointing towards the Jellicent, which seemed to be frozen like a Deerling in headlights. “Deal with that.”

Deal with it, he did. A well-aimed night slash sent the Jellicent spinning around like a balloon pricked by a needle, and only when it fell to the ground, paler and slightly flattened, could Cyg beam a Pokeball off its inflatable noggin.

---

notes catch attempt jellicent. ghost/psychic babie <3

Martín del Mar

☉

“Yeah, they’re pretty fucking weird,” Cyg agreed. She reached out a hand and Atticus dropped the newly-caught Jellicent into her palm. She decided she liked this-- this-- knowing. She had, like, twelve Ghost-types, and, in gaining that mastery, had pretty much stopped being afraid of the supernatural. “I have two. I kinda like ‘em. But then again maybe that’s why I have shit luck.”

Most of it. Gengar still freaked her out-- she had flashbacks to that basement in the woods, with Cillian Quinn-- and it was a big reason behind why she hadn’t let Elisabet evolve yet. That, and the Haunter seemed quite unwilling to get rid of her hands.

“Atticus likes to think he’s everyone’s dad,” Cyg explained-- the Zoroark in question crossed his arms and glared in a very good disappointed-father impression. “See?” she said, jerking her thumb in his direction.

The Gengar that pops out behind Mars does make her jump-- for a split second, she’s back in that basement, with a stitch of blood bisecting her face. She freezes, her heartbeat the thunking echo of a distant grandfather clock.

---

notes skip ghost/psychic babie <3

Martín del Mar

☉

The Minior’s Power Gem was a shockingly bright light cutting across the black night. The illumination made Cygne wince, squeezing her eyes tight shut against it. This shocked her out of her stupor, and she shook her head, rubbing her eye sockets.

“Yeah, ‘m good,” she said, taking a deep inhale of the smell of Mt. Pyre: the earth, the air, the stone. Once Mars had the Gengar safely encapsulated in a Pokeball, she was able to return to her normal self.

“They’re just… smart,” Cyg said, agreeing with Mars’ statement. “My Runerigus are weird and unnecessarily creepy, but they’re not, like, malicious. I’ve never met a Gengar who didn’t like to scare people for the fun of it. Except Lisbet, but she’s not a Gengar… yet.”

She thought of how bad her little Haunter felt when they first met and she’d loomed out of the darkness, scaring the frick out of Cyg. That was way back when-- before she’d accumulated all her ghosts.

She wasn’t afraid of ghosts anymore. Really. Honest.

A flock of Woobat zoomed overhead, bumping gently into each other in their nightly pursuit for grub. Of course, one flew right into Cygne's face. It was just her trademark at this point-- though, to her credit, this time she did not scream. She merely bopped it to the side like a balloon, where Atticus caught it.

"God damn it," she muttered, fingering the slightly sore heart-shape mark hickey'd into her cheek as she held out a Pokeball to snag the bat.

---

notes catch attempt woobat ghost/psychic babie <3

Martín del Mar

☉

“Um, well,” Cyg starts, threading a piece of hair behind her ear. “Maybe someday. But she… really likes her hands. Is that weird? That’s probably weird.”

She doesn’t get much deeper into it as Mars switches his Pokemon and out comes… a weird, glowing Dragpult. Cyg can’t help but smile with affection as Mars scratches the critter underneath the chin. “Aw. How cu--,”

Zshwoop. The dart skims by her face, close enough for her to feel the breeze.

“Shit.”

The poor Frillish didn’t even stand a chance.

“N-nice shot,” Cyg says, only sweating a little bit.

They’re forced to pause as something jumps into their path-- but it’s only a Girafarig, probably looking for gravestone flowers to nibble on.

Still, after seeing the Gengar get too close for comfort, Atticus isn’t taking any chances. He deftly downs the beast with a well placed NIGHT SLASH, like the world's most practiced deer hunter. Cyg encapsulates the ungulate in a Pokeball so they can continue on.

“Why’s Xanthos glow like that?” Cyg asked, hoping idle conversation would make the fact that they hadn’t found a single Unown sting less.

---

notes catch attempt girafarig ghost/psychic babie <3

Martín del Mar

☉