“Alright, yall,” Cyg said, punching her fist into the palm of her other hand, “we’re really getting into it today. We’re going to start preparing for our first gym challenge--” if she could ever find one with an open spot in the queue, of course-- “so you gotta go hard, or you can go home.” ‘Home’, currently, was a lovely little rented flat in Petalburg, about a fifteen minute walk away from Elisabeth Fiorelli ’s flower shop (and apothecary… poisonry? Cyg didn’t really know) and above a sub shop. It was surrounded by trees, near a park, and every day smelled like fresh bread.

Life was pretty good, and so her brain, momentarily freed from the grueling day-to-day survival, had turned to other things: like gaining strength to win Gym challenges and become more famous and powerful. Well, the fame was secondary-- the power was the real goal.

Her gathering of Pokemon-- Lucario, Mienshao, Murkrow, and Medicham-- each gave their own response. Fischl rolled her eyes and looked away, Oz nodded solemnly, and Twilight and Jaden high fived like the best frat bros they were.

Moments later and they were heading off down the Fiery Path, with everyone except Twilight the Lucario safely ensconced in a Pokeball.

Cyg didn’t see Tianyu until she almost crashed into him, having been walking around a corner in the opposite direction of the raven-haired man.

"Jiminy christmas!" she gasped, jumping away from the man and clutching a hand to her heavily beating heart. "Oh, holy shit. You scared the daylights out of me. No, Twi-- you can't fight him, he's a human," she said, waving away her Lucario who had started gathering aura in the palm of his hand. The Lucario made a face and grunted. "Yes, I know he's dressed weird. You still cannot attack him." She flushed. "Sorry, I don't think you're-- it's just different. Fuck."

Húxiān Tianyu

☉

“God. No, that was really insensitive of me,” Cyg felt bad. “He’s just a jerk. Yes, you.” She hissed when Twilight made a wounded noise and pressed a paw to his chest. While she was busy scolding her Lucario, the stranger-- Tianyu-- went about deconstructing a Pansear with brutal precision.

Cyg bit back a laugh. What was it with people and their crazy ability to just demolish wild Pokemon in the blink of an eye? She had to be doing something wrong.

“You’re fine,” Cyg says, voice strained and slightly weak. She takes his hand and prays her palms are not sweaty. There’s a blip of purple in her peripherals as a Swalot slumps into view. “Twi, go deal with that. Oh, um. Cygne. You can call me Cyg.”

Twilight, dealing with it, is there and gone in a blink of extreme speed; still, taking down the Swalot is a challenge, as it’s jelly-like body just seems to absorb the blows. After a few well-placed strikes, he leaps up above the Poison Bag Pokemon, and slams it into the ground with a dragon pulse. Bits of ceiling and cavern wall crumble to the ground, but the Swalot seems dazed. Cyg tags it with a Pokeball.

“Fennekin Pharmaceuticals?” she parrots back at Tianyu, head tilted. “Like, drugs? I mean, medicine?”

God, she’s dumb.

---

catch attempt swalot !

Húxiān Tianyu

☉

Cyg’s not the sharpest tool in the shed but she can definitely tell when she’s made a lackluster first impression on someone-- which is often, because what she lacks in charm she makes up for in sheer, bumbling anxiety. And she pretty much has negative charm.

Don’t be threatened by the big words, Cyg, you graduated from trade school, she thought, mind whirling. What she came up was with: “Neat!” And just barely resisted the urge to smack herself in the face. What was it about a nice head of hair and a clearly demeaning opinion of her that made her knees go weak?

She thought of Felix Gallagher. She very quickly pushed that thought out of her head, and off a cliff, lemming-style.

“Chairman, though?” she continued, determined to not revisit that mirror of reflection. “That’s like-- the big kahuna. Head honcho. HBIC.” She’s rattling off facts that he very clearly is already aware of while his Pokemon work by themselves to take down a Koffing. It’s very endearing to see the Ninetails assisting the Larvesta, especially after being so sharp with it at first.

“It’s fine, it’s fine~,” Cyg hurriedly said, waving a hand in a wax-on, wax-off gesture. “I don’t own the whole fiery path, you know. We’re out for some training, too, anyhow.

There’s a raggedy mewling noise and Cyg turns to find Twilight holding out a Litten. The Lucario waggles the tiger-striped kitten under its armpits, and the cat’s lower body flails around like a puppet with cut strings. Then Twilight brings the kitten back to his face and rubs his cheek on its head. The Litten mewls, sounding more like an alley cat with a smoking problem and an iron lung than a fresh-faced kitten.

Cyg’s cheeks are definitely turning red. Embarrassing! I want to die! “Yeah. W-we can keep it.”

---

catch attempt litten !

Húxiān Tianyu

☉

There’s a blink, a half-beat, when Tianyu doesn’t understand what she’s saying and Cyg feels like she gets a foothold in the interaction. A chink in the armor. Something she knows and he doesn’t. It makes him human, even in brief. For the tiniest, infinitesimal second, this strange, billowing creature, clad in silk and too severe for humor, is the same species as her fumbling, bumbling self.

It’s gone in a moment. A second later, the air heats up-- hotter, somehow, which is incredible because Cyg already feels like she’s trapped in the depths of hell-- as the Centiskorch clambers out from a crevasse in the wall. Cyg makes a face and steps back, finding the segmented creature repulsive, and Twilight tucks the Litten in the crook of his arm like a football he’s about to sprint to the endzone.

Their preparedness is unnecessary. Tianyu instructs his Pokemon to deal with the threat-- though, this time, the threat punches back. “Woah!” Cyg says waiting for Tianyu to intervene on his Larvesta’s behalf-- he doesn’t, though, and instead directs a question to her.

“Me?” she says before she can stop herself, followed by a visible wince. Why was she an idiot? “I’m an engineer. Electrical, mostly. I used to work in Mauville but now I work at a flower shop.” It sounded less than impressive when verbalized, and she waited, braced, for his scathing remark or incandescent glare. There was a shuffling nearby and Cyg turned to find Twilight again holding a creature underneath the armpits-- it was a Growlithe, this time, and the little beast rruffed happily and wagged its tail.

Twilight waggled it, his expression pleading.

“Oh my god.” Cyg pressed her eyes hard with the pads of her thumb and forefinger. “Stop. Stop doing this.”

---

catch attempt growlithe !

Húxiān Tianyu

☉

Cyg rubs absently at the side of her neck, face flushing, and not completely because of the temperature in the caverns. “I’m, uh, part-timer. I do a lot of deliveries, so Elisa doesn’t have to leave. Or I fill in for her when she does.” There was, of course, the whole illicit-poison-brewery-basement deal, but Cyg wasn’t sure Tianyu really needed to know that, yet.

But! She snaps her fingers as a thought pops into her head. “Have you met Elisabeth Fiorelli ? She’s my boss. She’s kinda into pharmaceuticals too.” She barely hides a wince, realizing she’s dug herself a little bit of a hole. I thought we weren’t mentioning the illegal stuff, genius. “Holistic stuff,” she adds. "Remedies from Pokemon and, you know, natural things.”

Twilight flashes her a thumbs up. Nailed it.

Speaking of, he has a cat under one arm and a puppy under the other. There’s no more room for-- for freeloaders, Cyg guesses, until she watches her Lucario pull a confused face; then, a little, black noggin appears above his own head. A Salandit, which has clambered up the back of her Aura Pokemon, and was now peeking down at him from on top of his head.

The two Pokemon shared a look. Then, the Salandit gripped tight to the fur between Twilight’s ears, essentially illustrating that they didn’t have a choice, they were stuck with him.

Cyg heaved a sigh, but her tired smile was full of affection. She thought over Tianyu’s words carefully.

“Yes,” she says, and there’s a sort of relief palpable in her voice. “Elisa pays me well. I’m not working 48 hour long weeks crawling through the walls of Mauville to make ends meet. I like not being in the city. I like being able to afford things.” She takes a second to examine the scarred, burnt, calloused palms of her hand, running her thumb over some of the newer, redder scratches and cuts from trimming pants, folding paper for bouquets, and even a nic on one finger where she caught herself running new piping for a sky mister at the shop.

Eventually, she says, “I do miss working with my hands, though,” in a wistful tone. “I love my job but there’s nothing like running a bunch of wires and installing components and having it all work perfectly when the power turns on.” It was like a puzzle, each time, that her brain ached to solve.

---

catch attempt salandit !

Húxiān Tianyu

☉