New Mauville carries with it the same sort of discretionary heaviness that the sub does— he hates it. But. It’s worth checking back every now and then. Treasure hunters occasionally disturb old, settled junk, and very rarely ever knew what they were looking at.

At least he doesn’t even have to walk. He sits on one of Acrius’ middle segments, the Centiskorch’s multitudinous legs clicking and clacking as he pattered through the steel halls.

“Hold up,” Kepler called, pausing to examine a long-dead control panel and see if anything within was worth salvaging. Acrius’ front half curved around a corner and almost ran right into lam logan , smacking his mandibles together irritatedly.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming— oh, my god, a human being.” A very sweaty, mildly attractive human being.

“You’re not the police, are you?”

lam logan - elec/steel

☉

It’s kind of funny, a very memeable moment as the guy turns back around to see Kepler, reacting like he’s some sort of tiny demon that just appeared.

Kepler grins at him, turning to examine a spot in the wall where the panel’s been ripped off, see if there’s anything within worth taking.

“You never know these days. Cops could be anywhere.” He squints into the dark, reaches for something.

“We both are!” he says, cheerily grinning up at the guy as he snaps something off in a spray of sparks. “So that’s nice.”

Acrius startles a Raichu out of its nest in the wall and subdues it with a sickening crunch. Kepler throws a Pokeball before it can recover and flee.

“Looking for anything?”

lam logan - elec/steel
catch attempt raichu

☉

He shoves the component he’s yoinked out of the wall into one of his pockets and peers back into the hole in the wall, tongue peeking through his lips in his focus. “We sure are.”

Nothing else of value is in that particularly spot, though, so he moves on. “So you chose here?” he sweeps a hand around them, voice incredulous. “Wow. You really must’ve run out of options.”

Acrius clambers up on the wall to go around the guy and Kepler walks right past him, small enough that there’s enough room.

“I’m not sure you’d know what I’m looking for,” he says, nudging through a pile of metallic trash with one toe. “But sure, if you want. I’m not looking for anything in particular. Just stuff that can be repurposed. Converters, fuses, wiring that’s not too frayed… computer chips, fiberoptics. That sort of thing.”

Acrius startles a Varoom out of an air duct and blasts it with inferno, sending its smoking body skittering across the floor. Kepler throws a Pokeball.

lam logan - elec/steel
catch attempt varoom

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Kepler hums a note of acknowledgement, half a laugh. “Sort of an all drains lead to the ocean, kid thing, huh?” he asks, fingertips brushing over plates of stainless still as shiny as the day they were installed.

Its then he notices the guy’s weird double-headed pepper monster, which earns him a confused grin. “A man after my own heart,” he says, on the topic of being prone to wandering, “what the fuck is this thing?” He down at Habanero, hands hovering, as though he wants to touch.

Lam has moved on to help Kepler look for scraps and things and Kep is impressed by the way he just dropped whatever pretenses that brought him and threw his lot in with the Rocket scientist. The guy goes on to rescue a puppy and if that just ain’t icing on the cake.

“Nice. Poor thing probably’s lonely down here--,”

THONK!

Kepler turns at the noise in time to see Acrius flying towards him, and he shrieks a curse and skitters away, the Centiskorch landing flat on his back and recoiling-- re-curling-- into a ball. The small, pink think that had thwomped him upside the jaw draws back for another swing.

Kepler has run over to hide behind Lam and his new Bolthund.

Acrius strikes out at the Tinkatuff with fire lash, managing to drag the weapon out of its hands. Kepler winds up and hurls a Pokeball-- from a safe distance.

lam logan - elec/steel
catch attempt tinkatuff

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“Yeah… what the heck.” He steps out and around Lam without a second thought for his temporary meatshield-- doesn’t even acknowledge or have the grace to show that he’d been scared-- as he walked down the hall to pick up the Tinkatuff’s Pokeball.

“Are they, uh, Paldean ‘mons?” he asked, stuffing the Pokeball in his pack and turning back to Lam. “The ones that are appearing because of the rifts?” He makes a face and looks off to the side. “Though I suppose it’s been long enough now, they’re probably reproducing… Hoenn’s probably supporting a semi-natural population of ‘em by now...”

Acrius notes a Magneton floating closer and knocks it down with Fire Lash so Kepler can chuck a Pokeball at it.

“...which is actually kind of terrifying if you think about it. I’m not sure how well our ecosystem’s recovered from Kyurem’s little shitfit. Hopefully we’re not all speeding towards a global environmental collapse, though knowing Hoenn, it wouldn’t surprise me none.”

lam logan - elec/steel
catch attempt magneton

☉