The problem with deserts, Skyler quickly decided, was that they had an insulting amount of sand. More so when said sand stuck to one's skin and made its way to places where sand had never meant to be. It itched and made Skyler grit her teeth, and then grit them some more at the granules of sand that invaded her mouth.

And there was nearly no water in the desert. Which might've sounded like an obvious step of logic, except that it didn't help any with the sailor's budding grumpiness. So when Skyler caught sight of water, instinct spoke louder than any sort of logic. 

Patting the side of her Flygon's neck, she led the beast down to the, admittedly, sad excuse of an oasis. She saw the other person in there a little too late to change her course, and landed on the other side of the marshy water, removing her goggles to peer at the man. A lopsided smile curled her lips, though she kept her distance.

"Nice day for a walk, huh?" 

Chu-e Choi

Oh, another person?

Chu-e squinted at skyler dross as she made her descent; not on purpose, mind you, but to keep the up flaring of dust and sand out of his eyes. He didn't know this woman which was just as well. He still put on his best stepford smile and gave her a friendly wave.

His Trapinch was much more interested in the woman and her pokemon than he was. Chomps stopped her vicious teasing of the Gabite and marched over to the Flygon, looking up at the bigger pokemon with her mouth hanging open and stars in her eyes. She was still just a baby and acted like it sometimes, which was endlessly amusing to Chu-e.

"Only if you like sand in your shoes!" He did call back. Slowly, he stood up, putting his phone away as he did so; he had been checking for information on the pokemon in question he was looking for. Which... "Say, do you know much about hunting pokemon? I'm looking for a Tyranitar!"

Chu-e was about to take a step forward when his balance was knocked out from under him by the ground shifting, moving up. The lumbering shape of a Lairon pushed herself out of the dirt right in front of him. Apparently this is where she had been taking a nap. She gave the two humans a look before shaking herself off, letting out a loud roar in threat.

It was more out of habit than anything that Chu-e tossed the ball out. After he had almost been taken down by that damned Tauros, it was better to act fast. Much like the Tauros, he was more surprised than anything when what he expected to just be a delay worked for him, the ball making a secure 'click'.

".... well." Looking suspiciously at the ground now, he took just a step or two towards Skyler. "That was... something."

Catching lairon!

Sand crunched under her boots as she slid off of the Flygon, grimacing slightly at the sore muscles of her legs. Sadly, the proximity to the water didn't help with the scorching hot winds that made an even bigger mess of her chaotic mane of blond curls. The only good news was that the stranger sharing this meager excuse of an oasis with her seemed - somewhat pleasant.

Flygon crooned softly at an approaching Trapinch, goggled eyes blinking in interest as the small pokemon looked up at him. Pulling his tail above the Trapinch, Flygon waved it tauntingly, a clear challenge for the Trapinch to try and reach it - if she could. 

A small shape caught Skyler's attention, her booted foot poking at it and revealing a - skull? She crouched down and put her fingers to the pokemon's chest, feeling a faint heartbeat. Huh. It didn't look alive, but...

With a casual flick of her wrist, the Cubone had disappeared into a pokeball.

"No clue! Sorry. Unless you're looking for pokemon that live underwater, I'm not of much help." Skyler gestured to the dry landscape around them, as if to highlight the difference. 

What happened next had the sea captain blinking in a strange mixture of alarm and disbelief. She'd taken a couple of steps towards the man, lips parted and halfway through a command when the stranger managed to take the matters into his own hands and control the situation.

"Does that... happen often?" An eyebrow quirked up, amusement trickling into her voice as she approached. Her hand stretched out for a handshake once she got close enough, words automatically tumbling from her lips. "Skyler Dross, ship captain and treasure hunter." 

CATCHING CUBONE
Chu-e Choi

"It's happened more times than I'm comfortable with, recently." He grimaced but took the woman's hand when offered, giving it a firm and sure shake. "Ji-Hoon Ki. Retired ranger." While he looked kind of young to be retired from anything, there was a lilt of illness that clung to him.

"Underwater.... is Elektrovoss an underwater one? I'm helping someone look for one of those, too, and he said it was an eel." Other than a very select few pokemon that Chu-e was really into, he tended not to know very much about outside pokemon. Some of them he might know if he saw them but he wouldn't know them by name. Some were opposite, that he knew by looks but not what they were called. The Unovan pokemon was not one that was in his wheelhouse of knowledge.

Chomps did try to get the tail, bouncing on her little legs while opening and closing her jaws in quick 'snaps'. It would remain out of reach since she was just one little ant lion against the world and had not yet mastered the art of jumping. She did, still, seem fond of the Flygon for paying attention and playing with her.

Meanwhile, the surly Gabite had wandered off from his trainer's watchful gaze. Hiding in a clump of grass he found a pokemon to bully, and was currently chasing around a poor Fomantis, trying to Bite it when it got too close.

Finally noticing this, Chu-e turned and frowned at his pokemon. "Oi! Be nice!" The Gabite did not listen, only seeming to double down in his attempts out of spite. Sighing, Chu-e rolled his eyes and tossed a pokeball at the poor Fomantis. He could find something to do with it later.

Catching Fomantis

The man looked strangely young to be retired, although the sickly pallor of his skin probably had something to do with it. His handshake was, the sea captain couldn't help but notice, strong and sure despite that. An eyebrow quirked up as Skyler let go of the man's hand. "Strange place to be spending yout retirement." Playfulness weaved itself into her words, her manner casual and bold. "Especially without a cocktail in hand."

At the name that spilled from his lips, Skyler grimaced slightly. "Eelektross, huh? Almost got myself zapped to death by that one a few months back. Nasty little buggers." It'd been somewhere on a deserted jungle island, while in the belly of ancient ruins. Memories of charged water, crackling with deadly electricity, filled her mind, bringing about a glimmer to her eyes. It hadn't occurred to her then to fear for her life, and not much had changed since then.

While her Flygon busied himself playing with the cute Trapinch that had suddenly stuck to his side, Skyler turned her head to peer at the nearby rocks. A sudden chill had crept up her spine, and narrowed eyes traveled the length of craggy outcroppings in search of... something. A hand drifted to the necklace at her throat almost of its own volition, grasping onto the colorful beads there when a shadow materialized nearby. 

Chu-e's words bled into nothingness, unheard by Skyler as the woman scrambled a few steps back, the previous cold shiver having turned into a rising dread at the sight of the ghost. A colorful string of curses left her mouth when the spectre didn't disappear, instead floating closer - curious.

It was instinct more than anything else that made the captain hold onto Chu-e's arms and put him between herself and the Yamask. "Honestly," Skyler spat out, the sudden shot of adrenaline making her voice coarse, "fuck ghosts."

If that thing approached, the sea captain thought, she would punch it.

PASS
Chu-e Choi

If skyler dross was looking for some protection from Chu-e, she had the wrong idea. He, too, really hated ghost types. He snarled at it a bit, stepping back, which the ghost type seemed to find amusing. It hovered closer... until a Palpitoad from the water nearby shot a glob of mud at it. The ghost pokemon cried out but retreated, fading from view. For now.

Sighing, Chu-e took a moment to gain his bearings again before he gave a weak smile to the other.

"A cocktail would be good about now, honestly...." Stepping away a bit, he waved to the pokemon in thanks, who huffed but simply ignored the duo. It would be there is Skyler decided she wanted to interact with it.

"See, the thing about retirement, is you get really bored after a while. Like, if you can believe it. So..." He motioned around himself, at the piles of sand. "Here I am."

Groaning lightly, he kicked at a rock. "This sucks, though. I just wanted to help out a bro and I have no idea where to start. Big metal things come out of the ground. Ghosts are here. I should have just sent him a cheque in the mail."

PASSING

Skyler felt somewhat justified in her reaction when the man - Ji-Hoon Ki - seemed to react as badly as she did to the presence of the ghost type. Thankfully, a nearby Palpitoad seemed annoyed by the whole situation and took it upon itself to send the Yamask skittering - at least for the time being.

She let go of Chue-e almost sheepishly, breathing out a shaky puff of air and burying her fingers into golden curls exasperately - stopping with an annoyed frown when the fingers snagged on knots. Probably from all the flying.

"Can't say I disagree, honestly." The weak smile was met with one of her own, just slightly lopsided. A hand reached for a flask at her belt, the silver container glinting under the scorching hot sunlight. "Want some? Not quite a cocktail, but it does have some bite." Whiskey wasn't her drink of choice, and it wasn't the smartest thing to bring to ward off dehydration - but it worked. Mostly.

The thought of retirement was strange to the blonde; it was something she had never considered. A part of her didn't expect to live past thirty anyway. "You were bored, so you... decided to take a little walk in the middle of the desert." Her words were deliberately drawled out, amused. "Sounds about right." But hey, at least she could share her misery with someone else...

"I'd go crazy if I ever retired. I'd miss my job too much." Even now her leg was bouncing unconsciously, restlessness like a live current under her skin. "I can offer you some help if you'd like. Not like there's a lot of entertainment around here," she said, gesturing at the desert with a playful wave of her hand. "Ghosts notwithstanding."

PASS
Chu-e Choi

"Eeeeeeh...." Chu-e verbalized as he thought over the choice. In the end, he took the offered flask and started to uncap it. "Fuck it. Bottom's up." He knocked back a shot, whistling lightly when he handed it back to skyler dross. "If I'm going to be messing around out here, may as well have a little fun."

But, he did grin and shrug off her next statement. "Better than whatever else I could be getting into. I'm young, dumb, and full of bad choices. Too bad my body is a crumbling temple that can't support them anymore." He rolled his eyes and frowned, more at himself and his own limitations than anything the blond woman had said to him. "Yeah, I get that. I really miss my job." At least Ji-Hoon Ki, retired Interpol agent did. Chu-e Choi, ex-beast of Rocket and current Underboss was just fine where he was at. But, appearances.

"Sure! I'm kind of just looking around for some pokemon. Better to be in numbers out here, anyway. Didn't HNN mention some of those alien guys an issue or two ago? I don't really want to be eaten."

PASS

For a random stranger that Skyler met in the middle of the desert, this man was proving to be strangely... well, nice. He didn't have the look of a treasure hunter, thankfully. Skyler would avoid those types of encounters if possible, far too fond of her throat to risk it being cut open. In true Skyler fashion, she'd instead stumbled upon someone much more dangerous than the regular treasure hunter. Not that she would know, of course.

"A guy after my own heart." Grinning widely, the captain accepted the flask back, taking a gulp herself before setting it back on her belt. The burn left in the aftertaste brought a reckless smile to her mouth. "What's life without a bad decision or two?" It felt even better when she had company to make bad decisions with. Or hapless victims to drag around behind her. Whichever she happened to find first.

"Pretty special friend, to bring you all the way to the middle of a cannibal-infested desert to search for a Tyranitar. Wouldn't recommend." Her finger fell to a circle of teeth indentations on her arm, a wry grin pulling at her lips as she spoke. "Turns out, being chomped on kind of hurts. Who'd've thought?" She hadn't actually seen anyone else save this guy, so she was feeling fairly confident they wouldn't be disturbed. 

Boy, was she wrong.

The first thing to hit her was the scent, strong and cloying and uncharacteristic for the dry environment. The second thing was the sensation of something sticky running down her arm which turned out to be... a web?

What made it pretty obvious that she was being attacked was the hilariously slow shuffle of a Shuckle, mouth open in something resembling a threatening snarl. Honestly, it just made the pokemon seem kind of constipated. It wheezed out something that might've been an attempt at a war cry. 

It didn't even have an evolution, but the sheer spunk tempted Skyler to capture it.

"D'you think it's this dirty water making the pokemon around here a bit... weird in the head?" A BULLDOZE from Flygon was enough to nearly bury the Shuckle under nearby debris. A small flick of Skyler's hands made sure to capture it. 

"You didn't drink it, did you? Might get rabies or something."

CATCHING SHUCKLE
Chu-e Choi