It wasn't in Yvaine's usual interest to appear publically like this, especially not without having covered up the scars that marred her face, just in case "old workfriends" recognized her and decided to have a chat about the good old days. Yet with recent events, and the continued silence of her current employer, she's found herself thinking about what exactly she wishes to do going forward. Quite a few mindsets and ideologies she's had have started shifting, changing into something she had once thought of as a weakness.

Now however, she wasn't so certain of that anymore.

Maybe, just maybe, it was time that 'Monarch' stepped into the light, rather than the shadows it had been threading all this time. And to start this change, rather than trying to tie up all loose ends and start 'fresh', Yvaine had decided to start with something easier. Babysteps, if you may. Which was why she was now walking on school grounds. And had she not been taught to keep a pokerface, she too would've been caught gawking at the school's infrastructure the way some of these kids were gawking at her. Having been homeschooled, or whichever equivalent counted for her upbringing, she'd never once gone close to a school. Not even after she started taking contracts. Although it had taken her a while to convince the school's staff that she was here for the job they'd posted, and not anything nefarious, they'd finally pointed her towards the fields outside where she was supposed to show her skills off.

She noticed a redhaired young man waiting up ahead and picked up her pace, giving him a small nod the moment she came within view. "Sorry for being late, I had a bit of a run-in with a disbelieving teacher. Hope I didn't make you wait too long." She shrugged a little when mentioning the teacher, as if it was but a regrettable misunderstanding, and then extended her hand in greeting, a playful grin plastered across her face as she introduced herself. "Yvaine Varron, your willing victim for the day."


Oliver Shrakes

His partner for this came by. And boy, he certainly could believe a teacher was having a hard time believing her. She just gave off that vibe that she would be harming the school instead of showing off. Yvaine Varron. His willing victim for the day? What did that mean? "I'm Ranger Cadet Oliver Shrakes. What do you mean by willing victim of the day? You do know we're supposed to be educating kids and describing how our Pokemon assist us with our jobs, right?" He couldn't help but to wonder why would she be here otherwise. And what did she do for a living? "I mean, I brought my Weepinbell, Sharpedo, Braviary, and Dragonite here to show and tell and describe how they help me with my Ranger work. What do you do for a living?" Thankfully they still had a little time left, but not a lot. He couldn't tell if she had a legit job or just took this without so much as looking at the details of it. Well, hopefully it wouldn't be too awful. "So, do you want me to go first or do you want to go?"

Yvaine Varron

"Ah, nevermind me, I'd imagined there'd be a pokémon battle involved as well. Some pokémon show their talents more easily when pitched against another, after all." she gave him a friendly shrug, as if whatever she’d said before wasn’t a misunderstanding on her part. ”I’ll admit I didn’t quite capture the describing part, but that’s an error on my part. Apologies.”

Ah yes, what did she do for a living. The question that never bode well, but had to be answered regardless, unless she wanted to come across as even more suspicious. Seeing she couldn’t quite lie to the young ranger before her, she figured a half-truth would be best, going forward. Not like she could just blatantly tell Oliver she was a mercenary with a morally questionable code of conduct. ”I’m a… freelancer, of sorts. I don’t work for an overarching organization, but instead can be hired by private instances to put my expertise to good use. I have a decent amount of knowledge pertaining to a variety of pokémon across various regions, and their subsequent behavior. Not quite like you rangers, but also not unlike them. Except I have my shortcomings.” Yvaine casually pointed at her bad eye, which had lost its color completely from the damage it had attained. Hoping it was enough to nip any more questions in the bud. Yet when he asked who’d go first, she pondered, only to pass the honor to the youth himself. ”I’ll let you go first, see how you present, and try to keep a similar streak going with my Zoroark, Gliscor, Kommo’o and Shinx once it’s our turn.”

"That's fair, but that's up to the teacher on that one." He wasn't afraid of a fight, his Dragonite was very powerful, and his Bravary could hold his own extremely well. Weepinbell was the only outlier with who he had. While his Sharpedo was untested in a fight, he'd worked hard with them. Yvaine evidently didn't read the commission closely enough, but also took responsibility for that. She then described what she did. A freelancer of sorts. Just enough vagueness to worry about the legitimacy of her occupation. Either way, she agreed to let him go first, mentioning who she all brought. Zoroark, Gliscor, Kommo'o and Shinx. Three Pokemon that he wasn't terribly familiar with, two of them even being quite rare. Gliscor he knew of, even dealt with. Gliger living in the mountains around Blackthorne City, his hometown.

Nodding, he simply waited. Soon enough, the Teacher with about a dozen and a half children walking towards them, all of them wearing a swimsuit, light jacket, and footwear. The teacher simply introduced them and then let them go from there. "As Mrs. Heckliable said, I'm Oliver Shrakes, I'm a Pokemon Ranger. As a ranger, we're more concerned about nature, Pokemon impact on it, and conservation. We do also play supporting roles against Team Rocket and other more combat oriented threats. We're also often called on for search and rescue. So if you get lost in a forest, we're the ones in charge of finding you. Our Pokemon helps is find missing people, calm wild Pokemon down, and more. Without further adieu, let me show off four of my team." Taking out four pokeballs, he tossed them and released his four buddies. The first being a Sharpedo, hanging out in the water, surprising the children. The second was close to the water's edge, but was a Weepinbell. Bravary was next, flying briefly before landing on the ground. But the one that illicited the most reactions was his Dragonite. Wide eyes, ooos and awes, and so cools filled the air. About what he expected. The Bagon line was more native to Hoenn, where the Dratini line was more in line with Johto and Kanto. "We use a variety of Pokemon, usually flying and grass types. I'm originally from Johto's Blackthorne City. So Dragonite are not unheard of. He's my oldest friend, having helped up him when he was a Dratini. He's my main battling Pokemon when needed, as well as my transport. He's strong and fast, he's been able to find people and Pokemon and defend them, as well as deal with natural disasters better than teams of other Pokemon. He's the star of my team, but he's not my be all or end all. Everyone has their faults. Bravary here I'ved the second longest. Far rarer in Johto, I lucked out on finding a Rufflet. Since then, he's been able to counter Dragonite's speed with being much more thorough, often finding people and Pokemon before Dragonite does or had missed. He can certainly hold his own, but crowd control had been his own niche for a while now.

That has since been passed down to Weepinbell here. Crowd control and calming Pokemon is part of their job. As well as helping people and Pokemon out of trees. Weepinbell has been an instrumental part of my strategies in dealing with situations here in Hoenn. Sharpedo was the first Pokemon I caught here in Hoenn when I realized just how underequipped I was for the area. So much water. *children chuckle* Yeah, I know. Anyways, he's been instrumental in finding those stranded at sea. Dragonite may be a strong swimmer, but obviously Sharpedo is faster, and can actually dive much farther down. He's been a good rescue shark. Can someone volunteer to touch him?" There were a lot of nervous glances, but one little boy eventually volunteered. His Sharpedo leaned back a little to better show his snout. The boy tentatively touched the Pokemon's snout, and after a small bit of surprise, started to pet him faster. "Most Sharpedo's ability is rough skin, making them extremely hazardous to touch. This one's is Speed Boost. He gets faster and faster. While his skin is still rough, it's at least safe to touch. That has helped immensly with those that get in trouble with sea faring Pokemon. Any questions?"

After several questions from the curious kids, he let his aquantance take the floor.

Yvaine Varron

She'd been listening intently to the young ranger as he spoke passionately about his job and his pokémon, gaining the awe of all children present; and dare she say even the teachers, who were eyeing the man a lot more favorably than they had her. Which Yvaine couldn't quite blame them for. But it also presented her with a little dilemma. How was she to present her current job? A mercenary wasn't exactly child-friendly conversation material, and about 60% of her work was, if to give it a name, better kept unspoken. She could however give it a little twist, and make this far mmore exciting--- for the children, at least.

Her father would've proclaimed her mad had he known she was going through such lengths for a bunch of children, of all things. When Oliver finished his pokémon presentation, Yvaine too gave him a courteous applause, nodding as she took his place. As expected, quite a few of the children seemed to awkwardly shuffle away from her, which only made the mercenary's smile grow. "Well, I'll be honest, I don't think I can beat a ranger showcase, but I do think you'll like these--" Four pokéballs were strained between her fingers as she rose her hand, tossing them up into the sky; from it appeared her Kommo'o, who stared at the crowd and loudly clanged her scales in an attempt to boast. Another was her Gliscor, who soared over the group present, while a small Shinx pranced about below; it's goofiness actually made a handful of them giggle as it nearly tripped. Zoroark had taken its place beside her, and illicited a few audible gasps as it rose to its full size, easily towering above Yvaine. A shrill whistle followed, and all four pokémon immediately stopped what they were doing, gathering in front of her instead.

"Pretty neat, huh? It took a while to teach them, but with enough trust and effort, anything's possible. As your teacher said earlier, my name's Yvaine Varron, and I'm an explorer from the faraway Almia region! That means that I travel the world, just like pokémon trainers; except, my goal isn't to catch every pokémon, or to beat every gym, but to find secrets that nobody else can find. Like this!" From her pocket Yvaine pulled a beautiful, sparkling gem, almost see-through, and handed it over to pass around. As expected, the moment she pulled out the gem, selling her story as a treasure-hunting Undella Stones became that much easier. Now she had their attention, it was time to steal the show. "And of course, every explorer needs their friends to help them on their journey. Our man in the sky here is Gliscor; who I actually caught not too long ago at Mt. Pyre! He hasn't been in the team for long, but is extremely good at spotting things before I can see them from above. In some cases Gliscor can even help out by carrying me around for short distances, like this;" she made a small gesture, and the Gliscor settled behind her, making the mercenary levitate a few feet above the ground for a brief few moments. Somewhere among the children a very excited boy exclaimed something about Golbatman, which quickly caused a ruckus that Miss Heckliable tried to shush. "Not all Gliscors are fit to do this however, but my buddy here has an ability called Hyper Cutter, which makes sure Gliscor never loses his power. With some dedicated training to strengthen his wings, he's become quite the macho, and likes to show off whenever he can." she smiled, allowing the Gliscor to move about and float above the class as she continued.

"Next up is Kommo'o! She's from the Alola region, and I came across her when I was exploring one of the Alolan ruins scattered across the islands; Kommo'o was one of the guardians protecting the pokémon living in the ruins, but she agreed to travel with me if I could pass her trial. As you heard earlier, her scales are really loud, and if she really wants to, she can throw everyone here -even miss Heckliable- off their feet, isn't that right Kommo-o?" Yvaine asked the dragon type, who clanged her scales and nodded in agreement. She noticed the sparkle in the children's eyes, waiting for her to demonstrate this as well, but the surprised look on miss Heckliable's face, who seemed unsure how to react, made her shake her head. "Alas, I don't think miss Heckliable would like that, so you'll just have to believe me for this one, kiddos." The combined "awww" made her chuckle as she moved on to the next pokémon on her list. "Then there's my little buddy, Shinx. Although he's still young, Shinx helps out by crawling into small spaces that are hard to reach for me, and keeps small critters away by zapping them! Shinx likes zapping things though, and sometimes he ends up making other pokémon angry because of it; whenever that happens, his fur starts to glow!" Yvaine explains as she holds the Shinx up, pointing at the patterns that light up whenever this occurs. "This is a very handy defense mechanism for Shinx whenever they are in trouble, both in the wild and during explorations, as the sudden light can attract their friends or other Shinx, who can then help them out of their iffy situation. For me it just helps keep Shinx out of trouble, isn't that right?" she grins, and as if on cue, its fur starts glowing ever so softly. She looks at the small tyke, who tries its best to look away, feeling guilty even though it hadn't done anything, and starts glowing even harder when Yvaine asks what it has done. Before she can find out however, the Shinx escapes her graps and spurts into the crowd, hiding among the children, much to their joy.

She knows he hasn't done anything, but playing it out like he has and feigning her "i'll get you for this" attitude has considerably lessened the tension present at the start of her presentation. Anything that can divert their attention from her scars. And it seems to work.

Zoroark nudges her softly, and Yvaine nudges him back just as playfully. "I know buddy, no worries. It's your time to shine now." The illusion fox stretches and regards the children curiously as Yvaine introduces him next. "But of course we can't forget my trusted partner and long-time friend, Zoroark! Zoroark's been with me for a long long time, I was even younger than you kids are right now, even Zoroark was still a little baby back then, believe it or not. He was only this big," she gestures at the size of a small poochyena. "About the size of a Poochyena! We trained together to become the best explorers out there, and because of that our bond's become so strong that I don't even have to tell him what to do, he just knows it from looking at me. I'm pretty sure our ranger friend has the same bond with his Dragonite, too! And if you can, you can create such a bond with your pokémon as well."

One of the children raises their hand, and asks what they have to do to create such a bond.

The redhead chuckles in response. "Well, that depends. It's different for each trainer and pokémon, but doing lots of things together is the best way to find out; it's when you travel together and become great friends with your pokémon that you can create a bond with them, and in time, you too will become strong together." There's a resolute nod from the child, and from the corner of her eye she sees that even the teachers nod in acknowlegdement, as if her words just now were something they weren't expecting. As she pets her partner's nose, Yvaine then grins as the sparkle in Zoroark's eye is reflected in hers.

"Oh, how could I forget? Zoroark has something to show you all, as a little thank you for listening to our stories today! Tell him which pokémon you'd like to see, and he can show you." The boy from earlier shouts Zubatman, and within moments Zoroark has vanished, and in its place stands Zubatman in his full glory. The children go wild, and another pokémon is called, into which the illusion fox promptly changes. Before them now stands a giant Shiftry, waving its leafy fans kids in the front row. "Thanks to his unique ability, Illusion, Zoroark can take the form of anything he's seen before, and pretend to be it!" In the end, she ends up explaining more about the Illusion ability, and showcases a few more transformations before ending her session as well, allowing for a few more questions before she too takes a few steps back so miss Heckliable can take the stage and start to round up today's class, asking what they've all learnt today. In that time it gives her a moment to quietly speak with Oliver.

"All in all, that went far better than I'd expected. I'm not quite used to speaking in front of groups, let alone groups this young."



Oliver Shrakes