Remiel Calcifet had been tracking a bear who had made the nasty habit of ransacking lonely wooden cabins for food. In one instance, a lovely couple on their honeymoon had been sent running half-naked for their lives in the blistering cold. Though no doubt a busy man, the royal's new purpose here in Hoenn meant that taking every chance to get on the LEAGUE's good side would be in his best interests.

So, dressed in a black winter jacket with faux Beartic fur lining, he sets out alongside his CERULEDGE, CATALINA. They find the latest ransacked cabin before too long. Following the trail from there proves quite easy. Though this is particularly true thanks to ana fell 's exclaimed expletives.


The distance she'd needed to cross to make it in time had been just a touch too great. With a psychically-powered slash, however, the Ceruledge sends her attack traveling so quickly that it manages to strike the large URSARING sideways and off-course. It groans angrily as it staggers into some snow-capped bushes, then turns around with a fierce roar before beginning to THRASH at her newest opponent.

As the bladed Pokémon phases in and out of its Ghost-typing to avoid those paws, Remiel draws closer to address the blonde that the bear had chosen to lunge for so aggressively.


It's only after a gloop of honey falls from the sky to splat on his shoulder that he notices the TEDDIURSA cub in the branches above. He spares a moment to lament the dirtying of his jacket— Teddiursa honey was notoriously difficult to wash off; Hildebert was going to have his hands full. Afterward, he takes notice of the half-cut tree and softly sighs.

BUILD A BEAR
MISSION: COUNTRY BEAR JAMBOREE
ana fell

[attr="class","thadmain"]Excalibur’s arms go up to block the angry bear’s slash, blades grinding against each other with a sound Cyg thought would go great as a special effect in a movie. Repelled only briefly, the bear prepares another strike-- just in time for something big and weird and purple to crash against it and send it slamming sideways.

Cyg backs up a little as the bear begins to thrash, something the newly arrived Pokemon seems to have no problem with, dissipating in and out of existence in a very classic Ghost-type way that would fit perfectly in an anime. Someone-- Cyg assumes this weird thing’s trainer-- arrives.

“Yeah, never better.”

She follows his line of sight up to wear the baby bear was growing more and more distressed.

“I stopped when I realized there was a baby in the tree, officer, I swear.” It’s half the truth and half a joke because she doesn’t know who the fuck this guy is but she’s not about to be arrested for… animal endangerment, or what the fuck ever else the League might pull out of their asses.

Excalibur, freed from his responsibility of saving Cyg’s life for the moment, begins to scale the tree, ideally to retrieve the cub and move it out of harm's way. Once he reaches the thing, though, it begins to scream like none other-- making momma bear even more pissed. She blows through the Ghost-type with a roar, sending wisps of purple smoke cascading through the air, and launches herself at the two humans with a bloodcurdling snarl.

[attr="class","thadpoke"]

Remiel politely laughs. "I'm not an officer, nor a ranger. But you might as well take this tree now that it's half-cut, I'd say. We've just got to reunite this little one with its mother..." The Teddiursa, however, begins to climb even farther upward. Its effort shakes a few leaves from said tree free before they glide downward. Enough to craft a WREATH perhaps, Remiel thinks.

Meanwhile, his Ceruledge finally finds the opportunity to counter her opponent with a fiery BITTER BLADE. It roars with pain at the strike, though doesn't back down quite as easily as they might have hoped. Instead, the mother bear comes back with a vicious PAYBACK, sweeping Catalina off her feet and sending her tumbling with a swipe of its claws.

The prince instinctively begins to back away afterward, and with good reason. The mother bear comes charging at them after the Gallade's attempt to reach the Teddiursa. Just as a SLASH comes down, however, and Remiel appears fated to die, his Ceruledge performs an ALLY SWITCH. The strike phases harmlessly through her body, while her master appears in her previous place: behind the towering Ursaring.

Spawning a LIGHTNING BOLT in his hand, he casts it forward to distract the Ursaring before sharply turning to the Gallade and its trainer. "Deliver the baby; fast."

BUILD A BEAR
MISSION: COUNTRY BEAR JAMBOREE
ana fell

[attr="class","thadmain"]“Oh, goody,” Cyg said, backing away, movements made jerky by the depth of the snow, “now all I gotta worry about is disembowelment instead of arrest.”

Excalibur made it to the cub, who was shrieking its head off, flailing its own stubby arms at him in a replication of its mother that would’ve been funny if not for the fact that they were actually in danger. The tall, dark stranger’s weird suit of armor lands a blow but takes one in turn that has it flying like a snowball.

“Shit, shit--,” Cyg makes to lunge forward and grab the guy and drag him out of the way but then in a blink, it's his Pokemon, and the mother bear’s blow slides harmlessly through a ghostly cloud of smoke, though the ground shakes with the force of impact. Losing her balance, Cyg pitches forward, on all fours in the snow, dangerously close to the rampaging bear. She tries to backpedal and succeeds only in crushing a metric fuckton of cold, white stuff down her gloves, coming up on her knees--

--to see the stranger do the weirdest ass Percy Jackson type shit she’d ever fucking seen, and the fact she was staring at him and not the angry murder bear inches away from her face was a testament to that.

Excalibur chose then to snatch the baby and jump down from the tree, mostly unharmed save for a scattering of dull scratches in his armor. He lifted the still-screaming cub over his head like Rafiki in the Lion King, wiggling it to attract mama bear’s attention. Thankfully, instead of leveling a swipe that would’ve knocked Cyg’s head off like a garden gnome at a bocci ball party, the Ursaring turned, huffed, and charged at Excalibur, who tucked the cub like a football and booked it into the woods.

The thunder of the bear’s charging footsteps coupled with the cub's screaming got quieter and quieter as they got further away.

Cyg exhaled a breath she didn’t realize she was holding. “Holy fucking shit.”

She should probably get off her knees and out of the snow but honestly, she was content to just sit here for a minute.

“Thanks for the save.” A beat. “Where’d the lightning come from?”

[attr="class","thadpoke"]

Remiel's hand had crackled with electricity in preparation for a swift teleport. But, thankfully, the need for that never came. The woman's rather agile Gallade managed to finally seize the baby bear and lead the angry Ursaring deep into the woods where she and her cub belonged.

Relaxing in posture, the electricity fades away from his hand rather quickly before he turns to regard the blonde. "It's no problem," The royal assures her. "And, well... it came from me," He admits with a chuckle. "But that's a long story," The Galarian adds, reaching out to her with his hand and offering to pull her back up onto both feet.

"My name is Remiel Calcifet by the way. Need some help with this tree?" Aware of the request, his Ceruledge crosses her blades in front of her and waits for the word.

BUILD A BEAR
MISSION: COUNTRY BEAR JAMBOREE
ana fell

[attr="class","thadmain"]She gaped at him for a bit before realizing it; she sat up, wincing at the heavy wetness of her gloves.

“No shit,” she said, sounding politely awestruck instead of completely dumbfounded, pulling the now-useless articles off her hands and shaking her reddening fingers. It’s a long story.

“Sure.” She took his proffered hand and stood. “Seeing as how my expert tree-cutter has been redeployed. Hopefully, he’s not getting mauled right now. I'm Cygne. Thanks for the save, again."

[attr="class","thadtag"]Remiel Calcifet
mission: country bear jamboree

[attr="class","thadpoke"]

Understanding the confirmation, Catalina proceeds to chop the tree down with one single stroke. When it threatens to fall upon the trainers there, however, she casts a swift kick and sends it leaning in the other direction. It crashes down into the snow shortly thereafter, sending a soft and ephemeral plume of white into the sky above them.

"Don't mention it, Cygne," Remiel smiles, dusting some pine needles off his shoulder. "Hoenn can be a pretty dangerous place — especially in the wintertime." Regarding her Gallade, however, the Galarian turns over his shoulder to look down the path it had gone. "Shall we go look for him, then? That was a fairly large bear."

He rubs at his neck as he imagines what sort of mauling it might be enduring right now, then turns back to Cygne for her response. The tree could wait for them if need be.

BUILD A BEAR
MISSION: COUNTRY BEAR JAMBOREE
ana fell

[attr="class","thadmain"]Remiel’s weird smokey purple haunted suit of armor cleaves the tree, trunk from stump, in one fell swoop. With ponderous creaking and the threatening smell of pine matched only by a Unova Candle holiday sale, the conifer begins to sway in their direction, until the grape-colored knight Sparta-kicks it in the opposite one.

“Beautiful. Thank you.” She steps over the stump and walks along the length of the tree-- her tree-- remembering what she was doing out here in the first place. Her face lights up like a kid at Arceusmas. “We had a fake one growing up and it just… wasn’t the same.” She remembered every year dragging that massive pre-light monstrosity out of the basement until her dad’s knees got so bad that it just lived down there, collecting dust. They couldn’t afford another.

Hoenn can be dangerous, especially in the wintertime.

“It’s so weird. Hoenn having a winter.” She’d lived here her entire life. It didn’t happen often-- usually when shit was just about to hit the fan, or shortly after, or on rare events when the-- the Weather Fucks let all the Castform out to do their Castformy bullshit.

“Oh, right. Yeah, I’ll go check on him,” she said, looking in the direction in which her Gallade had made a hasty retreat. The trees seemed to lean in, gathering darkness beneath their snow-covered boughs. Cyg shivered, and not from the cold. The woods always held a certain pull for her. These were no different.

“I don’t hear any screaming, so I wager he’s-- oh, hey. Perfect timing.”

Excalibur chose then to re-emerge from the forest. He was covered in faint, dull scratches, and had some pine branches lodged underneath the green swoop of his helmet, but otherwise was none the worse for wear.

He flashed Remiel’s Pokemon a crisp salute of thanks.

[attr="class","thadpoke"]

Sometimes Remiel hardly remembers the tropical Hoenn of years past. Things had certainly changed since then. Their horizons had expanded to include different universes, dimensions, and even timelines. Explaining it all to someone who had just arrived was a dizzying experience.

Nevertheless, it seemed Cygne had been here long enough to know that this kind of winter was a rare occurrence for the region. "It's KYUREM's doing, more than likely." The prince remarks, gazing at their snowy surroundings.

Suddenly, her Gallade reappears just before they're about to leave to look for him. He certainly looks a little scuffed, but there doesn't seem to be anything too alarming or in need of instant medical attention. "You must be relieved," Remiel smiles. "There's a Pokémon Center nearby. Perhaps we should go there together with your tree?"

Some first-aid and a nice cup of coffee would be nice, he thinks. That and he worried the bear might come back.

BUILD A BEAR
MISSION: COUNTRY BEAR JAMBOREE
ana fell

[attr="class","thadmain"]Oh, right, Pokemon centers. Centers for the Pokemon. Centers specifically to heal the Pokemon. Cyg was so used to patching her kids up at home that she frequently forgot about them.

“Sure,” she said, flashing him a thumbs up as she hefted the cut end of her tree up in the air. Excalibur grabbed a part of the trunk a little lower, to help offset the weight of it.

“Lead the way.”

Because, again. She’d forgotten about the Pokemon center. Oops.

[attr="class","thadpoke"]