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“Hmm, I would not call it coddling, really. You are much more capable and stronger than I am. But that doesn’t mean that you should have to do everything,” she noted, nodding, before pointing to the West. Well, she pointed left and figured that it was west. Her sense of orientation was not exactly great, so she made up for that by just assuming she was right. There was another Frillish closing in, while apparently the Gyarados was needed on the other side. Piplup though followed her pointing and started to spew bubbles at the newcomer, hoping to weaken it.
That Frilish looked different from the one she owned. Hence, she wanted it. Therefore, she threw a ball at it with some gusto. However, her attention snapped back to her friend soon enough, when some more information was revealed.

The war. That was…a dodgy subject. Loads of people were carrying on as if nothing had happened – kind of herself, too – but she could tell that a lot of others had been more heavily impacted. Naturally, she had not known that her friend had been involved as well. So far, she’d simply assumed for that to not be the case. After all, Skyler all but lived on the ocean, far away from the fighting. Much like she, herself, had been. “Yeah….I am not sure if it is sadly or fortuitously, but when all of that happened, I was stuck on a small island, helping to locate lost fishermen. I only really heard about the war after it was already over. Guess I did get lucky.”
Finding the railing again, she leaned against it, sighing. “And I guess you are right. You wouldn’t let anyone come on board and I guess…trust? Though I really don’t think I deserve that much…” Another sigh. Yes, she had been relatively honest with this one, but that still meant quite a few lies anyway. “You just seemed more distant, yes? I mean, it can’t be helped given that we stopped, well, being that close. But it almost seemed pretty cold for a moment.”

She supposed Violet had only seen one part of her last summer. The part that had enjoyed falling into step with Vio's flirtations, willing to seduce and being seduced in kind. It'd been a flightly, if pleasant dalliance, one that Skyler couldn't bring herself to regret. There were few to no memories that could be put into that category anyway.

But it also meant that their encounters had been somewhat shallow. Skyler genuinely liked Violet and considered her a friend, but there were depths that the smaller woman hadn't been privy to. And with the war, some of Skyler's rougher edges were bound to resurface more easily. "No, it shouldn't. Plus I'm pretty sure you're capable and strong in ways I'm not." Eyebrows lifting teasingly, Skyler threw Vio a lopsided, mischievous grin over her shoulder. "Actually, I have a favor to ask: keep an eye out for threats that Gyarados might too busy to deal with. I've gotta go back to the engine, see if I can get this thing working."

The clinking of metal rose up from where Skyler leaned into the engine in an attempt to get the speedboat functioning - at the very least until she could get it back to a mechanic. "Good thing you weren't close to Lilycove. That's where I was stationed." Clink. Clink. Clink. "Lots of people died, either because of the tidal wave or due to the Ultra Beasts. It wasn't pretty." War wasn't pretty in general, but being on the frontlines... 

Captain Dross was quick to bury that thought back where it belonged: in the depths of her psyche. Instead, she opted to focus on Vio's words to center herself. "Well, you've got my trust one way or another. No choice there, it's yours to do whatever you wish with it." Her voice was casual, as if she hadn't given much thought to the gesture and its meaning. As natural to her as breathing. "And yeah, you hit a sore spot, so I didn't react very well."

There really wasn't more to it. At least not to her. It didn't occur to the sailor that Violet might be speaking of something else.

Violet Fairbanks
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Well, she was. It was hard to disagree with the other on this. In fact, that was pretty much what she had tried to convey to begin with. Still, she could not shake the nagging feeling that they did not truly understand one another here. Though maybe she just overthought things. After all, Skyler basically gave her the job she had already assumed for herself – closing the gaps in their defense. The Frillish had been stopped before it could truly test the captain’s resolve in dealing with ghosts. Violet did decide to check later if this was one of the so called shiny Pokemon she had heard of. It certainly looked somewhat different than the one she’d already had, the one that Skyler had almost attacked in the beginning.

Violet decided to play lookout for a bit, while listening to the literal war stories being relayed here. A Totodile was surfacing from the water, all but immediately trying to take a bite out of the boat for whatever reason. Vio directed Piplup towards it, the little bugger raising his hands to create a small, miniature whirpool next to the boat that started to drag the Totodile back into the waters. “I can only imagine,” she noted. Even this small display, to her, was at least somewhat impressive. Violet lacked a frame of reference for the sheer scale of events that her friend was speaking of.
The Totodile was seemingly getting dizzy from being whirlpooled, leading to her throwing a ball at the Pokemon, in an attempt to catch it. Then, she sighed. Skyler seemed rather intent on trusting her. Which still felt like a terrible idea to her. “I still don’t think I deserve it,” she replied, sighing. Then again, she knew for all but a fact that she was not going to betray this trust offered to her here. Heck, she was trying to push it away, just so she couldn’t.

Did that, in a way, mean she was trustworthy after all? Hard to tell, really. “You think it will happen again? This whole thing about wars?”

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Attempts to capture Totodile

Captain Dross was no mechanic, but she knew boats. Her knowledge was less theoretical and more practical, having dealt with failing engines a number of times, especially back when she had her first boat: nothing but a humble fishing vessel. This speedboat was different, of course, but that did not mean that Skyler couldn't (and wouldn't) improvise. Unfortunately, a few of Violet's words became muffled when the sailor leaned into the engine proper, half of her body gone from sight and ass up in the air as she worked to fix something.

She did catch the last two questions. "Eh, hard to say." A thoughtful frown etched itself on her face, replacing one tool for another before diving into her work again. Her voice echoed slightly when she next spoke. "I certainly hope not. One war was enough for me. But this whole business with Rocket going public, announcing its presence in Hoenn... I think there's a shitshow about to happen." If or when that happened Skyler knew that the League would likely call on her as a reliable ship captain. One would think she'd enlisted in the army or something...

"Pass me the rag, will you?" The object in question was mostly clean; only a few streaks of oil were smeared on the fabric. "I think we might be able to get outta here soon." 

In the water, Gyarados was making herself useful by defending the boat against the might of a derpy looking Whiscash, sending it flying with a swing of its powerful serpentine tail. 

Violet Fairbanks
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Well, okay, maybe she was a bit distracted watching Skyler for a few moments. But that only meant that some of the other’s words got lost in return. Plus, it wasn’t exactly her fault. Sky was rearing like that. Plus, seeing it brought back memories that were entirely too annoying to ignore, so she didn’t even remotely try.



At least a Piplup was attentive. When a Sobble sprung forth from the waters and onto deck, the little one immediately went after it with a Drill Peck, which ended up in the kind of messy melee that in any low budget show would result in a rolling cloud of dust.

It would be nice to say that Vio trusted her Pokemon and just let it do what it deemed best, but that would have been more than a bit of a lie. Fact was, she didn’t know what better orders to give, so she let that happen, standing a few feet away and hoping that her Pokemon was better at this than she was.



Besides, she had to pick up a rag. Not a rack. Some people and the gutters, really. “Um, sure,” she announced, before bringing the cloth over personally. She didn’t trust her throwing arm while the boat was in the waters. If an unlucky wave made it waver, she might end up throwing it over board, after all. “Well, I hope there won’t be another one, either. Never really saw the point in it, anyway. It’s just something that gets a lot of people hurt for little gain.” Then again, she had no idea what either party had been fighting for, either. So maybe there was more to it. Ironically, she was not exactly eager to find out. “We’ll have to swing by that broken ship to the star….the right.” Better not to try and remember which was which. Instead, she flung a ball at the Sobble, momentarily dazed by Piplup. It was probably telling that she would be fine losing a pokeball to the waves, but not the rag.

Skyler's hand reached out for the rag, the captain still leaning over the engine, though not so much that it looked as if she might tumble at any given moment. Thoughts turned to the mechanical problem at hand, she almost missed the very slight hint of distaste in Violet's voice when she received the rag. A flash of amusement brightened her silver eyes then, immediately visible when she cast them Violet's way, a slight hint of mischief curling the edge of her lips in a lopsided smile. "So rags are your weakness, huh?"

And although the captain turned to work on the engine, her voice rang loud and clear. "Sometimes war doesn't follow logic. It's kinda like people." Skyler had, in fact, absolutely no idea what she was talking about. In her attempt to impart some wisdow she was probably just talking out of her ass. Her voice grew serious, however, when she next spoke - relaying her own experience. "Truthfully? War is war. Ugly and brutal and senseless. And there are always those who stand to gain from it."

Certainly not her - or those who lost their lives.

"Starboard?" Captain Dross's eyes flickered up at the rusted behemoth jutting out of the water like some half-forgotten ruin. "If I get this fixed soon we might just be able to maneuver without having to get too close." Although in her humble opinion this was already too close. "Wait, I think I see- yeah!"

A steady clinking sound echoed from the engine as Skyler bent down to fix something or the other. A few seconds later, the captain emerged with the tip of her nose painted black with oil, though her expression brimmed with something akin to excitement. She wasted no time before stomping to the helm and trying to get the engine to finally work. 

The loud purr that met her ears brought a triumphant cast to her expression. It was immediately erased when something decided to collide with the underside of the boat, the sudden lurching forcing Skyler to hold onto the wheel. "Shit, what was that?" If it was a ghost...

Gyarados broke through the surface of the water close to the speedboat, wrapped around what appeared to be a very disorientated Wailmer. "Alright, Gyarados, disengage." A subtle flick of her wrist made sure the Wailmer was captured. It didn't look very healthy after all...

"Alright, Vio. Ready to set sail?" 

Violet Fairbanks
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“I wouldn’t say that rags are a weakness in particular,” she started to say, before drifting off, realizing that this was about something else entirely. Thus, she pouted, slightly, but that was something rather half-hearted, really. She wasn’t exactly mad or anything like that. But she wasn’t had like this a lot, which did speak to Skyler’s wit and was one of the reasons why she liked the girl beyond just her rugged looks. But still. Vio was someone very much used to winning, if that made more sense.

That did not last too long, however, for she was soon thrown to the side by a sudden impact. She could hold onto the railing in time, but Piplup almost fell over. She swiftly recalled it anyway, to make sure nothing happened. Though she did feel a bit naked without a Pokemon, especially given how their trips tended to find themselves under constant assault. So, Violet decided to replace it swiftly with a heavier Pokemon. Her first choice would have been Golett, but she could tell that, although Skyler might be able to deal somewhat better with ghosts now, she still did not want them brought onto the ship much.
One of the few things she disliked about the girl. Honestly, if Vio had her way, she’d put the other through one hell of a sensitivity training until she was no longer that impacted by the appearance of ghosts. But she hadn’t, so she didn’t.

Instead, she called for her Snubbull, right as the engine seemed to pick up. “I am ready when you are,” Vio called back – right the very moment when an angry Dewgong nearby broke the surface and forcefully flicked some jar across the ocean with its tail. A jar that landed on the boat. A jar the then sudden sprouted a positively massive, dark ghost!
Startled, Vio fell backwards for good now, onto her butt, but fortunately, onto deck, while her Snubbull made the better decision of putting itself between the danger and its boss. The ghost did something that forced the Fairy to a knee, briefly, putting some kind of curse on it – but it was a guard dog in many ways. It didn’t get knocked out that easily. Instead, the Snubbull surged forward and slapped the ghost hard, Playing very Rough. Vio, meanwhile, decided that flinging a ball at the end of the barrage of slaps was probably the most sensible course of action, to get the thing off the boat and out of Sky’s sight.

If nothing else, the sudden appearance of a ghost on her ship would be more than enough encouragement for Captain Dross to get the speedboat as far away from Sea Mauville as possible. Reacting to the sudden commotion, the looming shadow of a Gyarados engulfed the whole ship, fangs glistening sharply as it readied itself bear down on the spectre. The serpentine shape ceased its assault, however, at a small gesture from its trainer - ordering the Gyarados to stop.

The blonde watched as Violet took the situation into her own hands, releasing a Snubbull that quickly dealt enough damage to the ghost to capture it - which the smaller woman took the chance to do.

Ignoring the creeping chill that climbed up her spine due to the ghostly presence, Skyler crossed her arms her over chest and leaned languidly against the control pannel. A smirk pulled at her lips, equal parts appreciation and playfulness, as she set her gaze on the other woman aboard. "I see I'm not the only one who's managed to acquire new skills." Though Violet could still appear unsure when it came to battling, she'd handled the situation like a professional trainer... and despite only having known Vio for a small amount of time, the captain couldn't help but feel a small frisson of pride.

It was a matter of minutes before they finally left the shadow of Sea Mauville behind, cresting over the lazy waves at breakneck speed. Soon the silhouette of Slateport came into view...

Violet Fairbanks
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