Elaina had stopped as soon as the Houndoom growled; not because she was scared, but rather because it was the smart thing to do. Houdooms were territorial and didn't much like seeing new faces. Most people that its fire typing was the cause of such behavior, but Elaina believed it was its Dark typing that made them that way. Dark types don't really care for social interactions with anyone except their own trainers, granted they had a trainer. If the houndoom were wild, then it would have already attacked her by now. Instead, she stayed her ground, wanting the Houndoom owned by the male trainer that she wasn't a threat by any means. She smiled as soon as the male trainer spoke up. He also apologized for Komainu's behavior. "That's alright! I actually deal with that myself from time to time," she nervously chuckled, remembering the instances she had dealing with Greta, her Hisuian Zoroark. "I ended up catching her a few days ago. It was my first assignment as a Ranger. She was stealing food from stores while disguised as other pokemon," She stated, going into detail about her first day on the job. She admitted though that Greta has behaved a little bit better since she caught her, which was nice. She still had a lot of work to do in regard to making Greta more friendly, but she was determined that she could make things work. What's good about it was that she had experience with Ghost types, although she still wondered about Greta's appearance. She had never seen a Zoroark like that before. Since she was native to Unova, she was used to how it normally looked.

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He also greeted himself, saying his name was Josh, as well as being a Gym Leader. He had started to then ask her a question but was interrupted by his Houndoom, who had kicked him. The interaction greatly reminded her of how she and Greta were most of the time, which made her chuckle softly. When regained himself and asked her the question in full this time, she quickly replied, saying "I finished my one-year of training and have been hopping around the region doing assignments until I'm properly placed. I told them that I live here in Mauville, so chances are they might have me stationed here. Well, one would hope anyway." She said, bending down to start petting Josh's Mightyena who came over to greet her, but as she started to bend down, a sandygast rose up from the pile of sand. It made the Mightyena back away, however, Elaina stayed in the same position. "It's alright! The little guy just wanted to say hello, didn't you?" She said immediately to Josh's Mightyena, while also cooing at the ghostly pile of sand which had a cute little shovel in its head. She gently touched the Sandyghast, almost as if she were petting it, which seemed to make it very happy. Elaina had then proceeded to grab a pokeball from her belt, pressing it gently against the sandygast, capturing it. The Pokeball rolled in her hand, waiting for the click to then get back up on her own two feet. How about you? Has the holiday season been slow for you, or do you still get gym challenges frequently?" She asked politely while holding her soft smile.

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+ catching Sandygast!
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+ Josh Devlin

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

"That's right!" she said, answering his question about being local. That was when he stated that he was also second in command at the ranger station. Elaina whistled and said, "Wow, talk about being busy, huh?" She said. She also got the Head Ranger's name as well. She would have to stop by there when the time arose. Chances are she would more than likely have to check in there for her positioning status anyway, so she kept in mind to pay a visit to the station when she could. Hopefully, once she was stationed, she would be able to do assignments locally rather than spread around the region, however, she doubted that would be the case, as all Rangers would be called to take on jobs where they are needed most. One could dream of such a thing though like she was.

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Josh then proceeded to talk about the Paldean Cyclizar Racing League and how they wanted to challenge him to a race. "Racing, huh?" she thought to herself. It was apparent that Josh seemed like the guy to like racing, given that he was riding on his houndoom. Not only that, but she somewhat liked his outfit she secretly admitted. Sure, it wasn't necessarily her taste in fashion, but she did like a lot of things that had a gothic touch to them. Before she got the chance to ask him about racing, a Banette swiftly appeared, rising out of the ground using shadow sneak. It danced around them in the air, having a mischievous look on its face. It was obviously seeking attention and not in a good kind of way. Elaina had then called forth Ansel, her spiritomb. "I wanted to ask you about racing, however, it seems that will be put on hold until I'm done with the Banette," she replied nonchalantly. The banette then once again used shadow sneak once more, hoping to catch Ansel off guard. "Ansel, counter," Elaina said calmly, and with that, the spiritomb began to use the same attack as the Banette had used, however, it decided to lay in wait, and once the wild banette reappeared, Ansel rose up from shadows behind it. "Now, shadow ball." She said, once again giving the same calm tone to Ansel. The Spiritomb swirled its head, gathering energy in the shape of a ball, black as a night sky, releasing it at point-blank range in front of the wild banette. Ansel had made sure not to exert too much power into its attack, however, it was enough to greatly weaken it. Elaina wasted no time throwing a pokeball at the weakened banette, and after a few nudges, the ball clicked. Ansel had hopped back over to Elaina, bringing her the captured banette, which proceeded to place in her bag. She then turned back over to Josh and started to speak to him once more. "Apologies about that. Anyway, you mentioned the Paldean Cyclizar league wanting to challenge you to a race. You must like racing. Are you eager for the challenge?" She asked him, having the same calmness as before - as if the battle she had with the wild banette never even happened.

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+ catching Banette!
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+ Josh Devlin

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

Elaina listened to Josh's words carefully, about how he quit racing to become a ranger, and how he got promoted from being a minor league gym leader to one of the major league gym leaders. Elaina couldn't even imagine how long and grueling that kind of change must have been for him. Well, not grueling in the sense that it was bad, but rather all the jumping back and forth. If she going through something like that, it would have more than likely worn her out mentally. Sure, she liked battling and did think about becoming a gym leader at one point in her life, however, the moment she turned eighteen, that all changed for her. Realistically, she knew that she wouldn't be able to handle being a Gym Leader, so she settled for becoming a ranger, which lead her here to Hoenn. "You're from the Johto region?" She asked him, never having thought about it. Admittedly, she thought that he was native to Hoenn, which was a mistake on her part. "I've never been to Johto. The only other region I've been to aside from Hoenn was the Alola Region. My father and I would go there every summer. Honestly, it was much more relaxing than being stuck in the Unova Region," She admitted. Unova was where she was born, and sure, it wasn't the worst part of the world to live in, but it definitely had its downs for the most part.

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I'm not all that much into racing, but I know that a lot of people in Castelia like it. I'm more into classical things, like paintings, Poetry and all that. I also know my way around a piano," She said, remembering the lessons that she would have when she was a little girl. That was when her mother was still alive ... She instantly shoved the thought of her passing mother to the side. Instead, she decided to talk about something pertaining to his Gym. "I also heard that you occasionally Livestream your gym challenges. Is that true?" She asked, just after feeling a gentle tug on her trench coat. She looked down to see a little Dreepy, attempting to get her attention. She picked it up, gently petting it, which made it trill. "If I remember correctly, this little guy is native to the Galar region," she thought to herself. The only reason why she knew that was because her father had an oil painting of one in the foyer of their mansion back home. She pulled another empty Pokeball, pressing the button gently against its head deciding to add yet another ghost-type pokemon to her collection. It was also a dragon type as well, which made it rather powerful.

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+ catching Dreepy!
[break][break]
+ Josh Devlin

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

"Yes! As a matter of fact, my father and I were there in the stands watching. He bought the tickets for us to go watch," She said with a smile. Although, one important detail that she left out was that she had only gone to watch the overtime performance. It was her father that was more interested in the actual sport. However, she still had fun, despite the football game not being her thing. When Josh answered her question about live-streaming his gym battles, she thought to herself, "I wonder if it ever intimidates the gym challengers?" she thought to herself. She never really looked like the type, but she did live stream her playing piano a few times while living in the Unova region. It was a 'once-in-a-blue-moon' situation. As She and Josh continued talking, she failed to take note of the Alcremie that passed the two rangers. "Do you buy tickets to go watch sporting events, or do you just watch them on TV? She decided to ask him. Surely, Josh more than likely participated in racing events a lot, but she wondered if wasn't participating if ever fluently went to go see them himself. If he ever met her father, the chances of them two talking non-stop about anything sports-related were more than likely. Despite not liking sports all too much, it was clear that physically being in the stands was a hell of a lot different than simply watching it from a TV.

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+ skipping
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+ Josh Devlin

[attr="class","pokeclass"]