[attr="class","spiral"]There's a familiar sickly groan from deeper into the forest that pulls Evangeline's attention. Her head pops up from its place hovering over the tall grass to gaze over a small rise in the ground. She's caught between excitement and frustration at the sight of a Weezing. It's so odd to see one in a forest, and the Weezing line was her first interaction with a poison type, but she's not interested in another. At least not right now. She's looking for a new experience.

"Stunky, keep an eye on it, make sure it steers clear. I don't want it scaring anything away," she settles on frustration by the time she speaks up. Stunky blinks at her a few times before cautiously creeping up on the Weezing. It's probably tougher than the Skunk Pokemon, but it's not like Weezing are a battle hungry bunch. Hopefully just the presence of a Pokemon unhappy to see it will keep it at bay.

With that sorted she decides to search more persistently through the grass. She lowers herself into it rather than scanning above it. Her knees and hands find the damp, fertile dirt and she ducks her head under the green waves. Instantly she sees a few little bugs scatter and curses her impatience before beginning to crawl forward slowly -- parting grass with her hands as she moves.


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[attr="class","spiral"]It's possible that lowering herself into the grass and rustling through it is a less than effective way to get skittish bug types to show themselves, but as her frustration mounts Evangeline struggles to restrain herself. Over the next few minutes she crawls through the grass; at first slowly and carefully, then at a more moderate pace, and finally insistently. Her already unpleasant mood begins to sour as she works harder for fewer results.

Then there's a rustle in the grass to her left.

Her left hand shoots out and the moment she feels something solid she grabs it and holds on tight. She stands and pulls the object to her in one motion. The dirt from right hand is rubbed off on her swimsuit bottoms, leaving a dark stain across their fine blue fabric, and she can feel the dirt on her knees crumble and fall onto the tops of her feet. But it's fine, she's got a Pokemon! A. . .n Applin. It squirms in a panic in her grasp. Without thinking she tightens her grip and feels the apple shell its hiding inside of crack.

A frustrated scream precedes her throwing it in the direction of her Stunky. Its already compromised, fruit home outright breaks in several places as it meets the ground. Emoting is tiring most of the time, but that's only because most of the time she has to wear faces that aren't hers. It isn't tiring at all to scowl in this moment. The anger displayed is as true as the pain she feels when she bites down on her thumb to avoid another outburst. It won't do to have anyone come looking for her.

"Stunky, Night Slash," she releases her thumb, leaving deep angry grooves where her teeth sat, to practically whisper the command. Stunky's ears swivel for a moment, making sure she's heard her master right, before jumping into action. As the Applin struggles to get upright it's caught from the side by Stunky's claws and crashes to the dirt again.

It retreats before Stunky can be given another order, desperate enough to leave its apple behind and burrow into the ground alone.


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[attr="class","spiral"]Evangeline is . . . angry. After throwing the Applin and watching it scurry away after just a scratch she's angry. She doesn't always know how she feels or why she feels it but this feeling is familiar. The tension in her neck and face, the heat in her chest, the twist in her stomach. She doesn't know how much more time she has in this forest and she's filthy with dirt and her hand is sticky with juice and there isn't a single damn bug to be found.

As quickly as she recognizes this building feeling she starts trying to pull it back in. It won't do to freak out here, she's already screamed once and if no one's responding to it already they're sure to respond to another. There's no more Applin to harass either. So she balls her hands into fists and starts running through mental exercises. Breath, slowly, in, out. Two more times. One more time. Good. Now count backwards from ten . . . pretty quickly she manages to calm down. Sure, her palms are cut and bleeding when she relaxes her fists but that's easy to explain.

"Stunky, come one, we don't have --" she means to finish the sentence with "much time" but loses the words to the sight behind her. Where she expects to only see one Pokemon she finds two, and the second sets her heart to beating painfully hard and fast. She expected to only find bug types here, expected the most exciting thing to be a Spinarak bite; but in front of her defensive, snarling Stunky is a work of art. A Toxicroak. Her eyes naturally trail down its arms, to its hands, to the bright red stingers jutting beyond its fingers.

"Change of plan, Stunky, Night Slash," she once again finds herself whispering orders, but this time not out of repressed rage. Again Stunky's ears wiggle before she leaps into action. This match isn't even but that's okay. She's not hoping to beat the thing unconscious, she has a plan.

As Stunky rushes in the Toxicroak responds as expected, hopping back to try and avoid the little Pokemon's onslaught. It almost works, the Toxicroak is only scratched by the first slash, but the second comes after a quick leap and leaves a red gash across its chest. Retaliation is quick and unforgiving. Now well within the Toxicroak's range, Stunky can do nothing but accept the Revenge that finds her. This is the moment Evangeline was waiting for. Stunky pops into the air, and as she begins to come back down Evangeline shouts --

"Explosion!"

Without hesitation Stunky obeys. Its whole body glows, first faintly and then blindingly, before BOOM! All of its stored energy is released at once, shaking the trees and knocking the Toxicroak flat to the ground. Stunky falls limp off to its side, the Toxicroak struggles in an attempt to get at least onto its hands and knees.

While it struggles Evangeline approaches with barely contained glee. Practically skips to her fainted Stunky, returning her like the formality it is. She saves her real attention for the prize before her. It regards her with all the hostility expected, and more importantly all the hostility desired. It's tired now, much less dangerous in terms of strength, but it can still do the one thing she's been looking for.

"Hey, you, sting me," she commands as she draws closer than any reasonable person would, "Just a quick jab." She lowers herself to her knees beside it, only a foot or so away as it finally manages to get onto all fours. It croaks angrily. She didn't need to command it, it responds as soon as she's in range. It moves faster than she expected. Before she quite realizes it she's got a stinger in her side. The pain is instant.

It's like boiling water under her skin, in an instant her whole side ignites and she's floored. Fuck! That hurts! She feels tears begin to drip silently down her cheeks as she carefully feels around the wound with quivering fingers. She can still move fine so it's not paralytic. The wound isn't deep, to be expected from the exhausted Pokemon. But god it hurts! She can't hold back this scream when it hits.

"D-damn, that's r-r-really something," she grits out as she reaches to her other side for the pouch of her shoulder bag. There's only two things in it. Evangeline knew going into this she might not have the clarity of mind to search and sort through things. She takes one item with her right hand, a small bag, and rips the bottom of it with her teeth. The herbs hit her mouth and she instantly begins chewing. She swallows mouthful after mouthful of saliva as she takes the other object with her left hand and chucks it. A Pokeball. It connects with the Toxicroak and it vanishes in a flash of red light.

Then she just lays there. The medicinal herbs should ensure the poisoning isn't fatal, and she's already screamed several times since being stung so the nearby staff must be running to find her. All she has to do now is bask in this pain and wait. She wonders what a longer sting might have been like . . .


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