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"on the other side of town." derek remarks as he reaches the scene, looking to be in a hurry as he unzippers his jacket and gestures her to follow inside. "was starting to wonder if you bailed on me." fortunately he was wrong, and he just forgot to mention which bar.
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"also, i haven't been a gym leader for some time." the petalburg gym was still standing, but it did not wave any banners. no signs of life, save for the seldom signs of a battle between amateurs. not that they could ever topple the foundations. derek had it built to withstand much worse than the fireworks of a charmander.
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derek sits at the far side of the bar, staring adamantly at his options. though he isn't exactly sure what they all mean...
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a drawn out sigh escapes him. "...gimme the usual." he looks over to yujin, who should be seated by now. "and what about you?" he asks, promptly taking a long sip from the gin gimlet provided by the bartender.
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jonesy makes his way inside a moment later, finished greeting the people of petalburg outside. he joins them atop the bar, where the sobble is given a class of sparkling water.
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She followed him back inside the establishment, waving away the few samaritans that had tried to assist. Soon they would disperse like the liquid in her cup.[break][break]

As she slid into the seat next to Derek, she purred with the satisfaction of a night that was finally starting to go right. “I would never.”[break][break]

Yujin shook her head at the barkeep, who grinned back before bringing the glass for Jonesy. They’d already spent some twenty minutes chatting earlier, so he had plenty to think about as he went back to polishing glasses.[break][break]

“Did you like being a gym leader?”[break][break]

She thought of Michael Navidson then, and how he stood on that theatrically smoky pitch, hyping people up—and trying not to let them fall.

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"Well, I wouldn't have been too upset." But it was nice to enjoy something for free, speaking for her company as well.
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"Did I like it? Eh, it was pretty good at the beginning." Both him and Jonesy near the end of their respective glasses, warranting a quick refill from the barkeep before he was shooed away once more. "But eventually I grew tired of it." The battles began to feel monotonous. Rudimentary, even. He wasn't getting anywhere that way.
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"Ranger work suits me better." Though it would be nice to still have that comfy league salary. But Derek managed to find other ways of procuring a little more wealth to his name. "And it's not like the league has shunned me for it."
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Perhaps he wasn't apart of certain meetings going on, but Derek didn't need to participate in those things to be able to tell what was going on in the region. "All in all, it's a good gig if you can keep up with it." But Derek didn't want to anymore.
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"Why? Are you considering it or something?"
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"Well, I wouldn't have been too upset."[break][break]
Her grin was amused. There was no offense to be taken, though she did wonder at the disparity between his offering for drinks and his flat affect after. Perhaps it was a strategy of its own?[break][break]
“As fun as it would be to think of how I’d structure my gym, it isn’t in the cards. My job keeps me busy enough, and I don’t enjoy routine.” There was no feasible future in which she would ever be a gym leader. She was under the thumb of Interpol, she had the Black Workshop to contend with, and most of all, she was not destined for a quiet, fulfilling life.[break][break]
Yujin took another sip of her drink.[break][break]
“Being a ranger here sounds difficult. I haven’t been in Hoenn long, but there’s always something going wrong somewhere.”

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"It's probably for the best." While unaware of her potential as a trainer, the negligent handling of her porygon suggested she wouldn't be open to the idea of training a whole horde to facilitate a proper gym challenge.
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"Though I wouldn't say that about the rangers." Considering everything across the board, she was right. "While we answer some dangerous calls, that's more a risk of ignorance than part of the job title." None of them except the Head Rangers were expected to deal with the likes of legendary pokemon. Others could, but that's when things started to get a little dicey...
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"When I encountered Registeel for the second time, it wasn't like I knew what we were after." It was actually the late champion Bailey Cooper's pokemon they were chasing after.
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"Hell, I didn't really know it would be there the first time." Reports of some kind of monster in the depths, that was it. "So I guess you're right more than you are wrong. But not all of us respond to those situations." Like weekend warriors, there were those among their roster that simply tended to the wildlife in their respective area.
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"Personally? I hope we do get another run-in with the damn thing." A large swig from his drink might help to allude his beef with the legendary. "Been looking forward to settling the score for Apollo for what feels like forever."
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“Fair enough. Surely not all is catastrophic; sometimes you must rescue the meowth from the tree.”[break][break]

That being said, almost a week into her visit to Hoenn and she had already been tasked with investigating a rip in space-time a la the ultra deep sea. [break][break]

Speaking of which, there was a thread in the wind that yearned to be pulled.[break][break]

“So you’ve met a legendary beast, at least the one.” Were they just that common, or did she meet all the right people? “Was it not awe-inspiring? Is that why you like steel types?”[break][break]

Despite saying so, her voice was flat. Such a creature had already tempered her childhood in a most extraordinary, unfortunate way.[break][break]

And in an unwise decision for a light-weight, the beer was finished in record time. Yujin signaled over the bartender for another, ignoring Derek’s casual mention of yet another name she did not know. She grew tired of not knowing.[break][break]

“By the way, do you know a man by the name of Callan Young ?”

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"Exactly." Derek concurs with her notion concerning meowth's in a tree. Not every ranger responded to these dire calls. And some were mostly preoccupied for the stacks of paperwork mounding on their desks in their office.
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"But as for Registeel...no." He nips the logic that he admires Registeel in the bud. For all it's power, he was of the mind it might just be better to remove it from the picture alltogether. As opposed to the risk of it's allegiance being bent towards minds like those amongst the ranks of team rocket. "I like Steel types because I grew up next to the largest den of dragons in the Johto-Kanto area." Their resilience against said creatures was the only thing that made him feel safe as a draconophobic child.
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Thankfully he doesn't have to go much further with mentions of home. Things he would much rather overlook in favor of the life he lead here in Hoenn.
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"Callan? Yeah, he's a friend." A finger playfully swirls in his drink. "Why do you ask?"
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