mar's expression brightened as the woman switched to kalosian, and mar matched her. "aye, i'm a little green to hoenn, but i'm not quite new to the, eh, life." she tucked a loose hair behind her ear as the woman talked swords, demonstrating an ease of expertise that mar was thrilled by.

"aye, less a traditional cutlass and more a wider blade, something fit fer a pirate." mar's eyes glittered with mischief. "yer right on the money. ye can call me marguerite -- nay, jus' mar. i suspect we'll cross paths a few times in the near future." mar reached into her coat pocket slowly as a show of good faith (even rockets could be cutthroat to each other, despite the cost of such a betrayal). then, she pulled out a folded piece of paper. a map.

"i came to hoenn for the treasure and secrets that fill the region to the brim. there's allegedly some treasure not far from here despite all the modern developments. something long-forgotten." she tapped the paper, right where x marked the spot. "if ye could make me a cutlass, i would feel much better making the trip. i lent my scyther out, and my current team ain't huge on navigating this sort of terrain. more of a seabody, i am."

Aurelie Lefevre

☉

aurelie's passion was contagious. mar hung onto her every word as the woman described the sword and sketched it out. it sounded incredible, and she loved the sound of the serrated portion. honestly, she might have been drooling as the woman showed her the image. the price point, though.

it was obviously worth the craft. but mar didn't have a lot of liquid to spend since she was still setting up her portion of the rocket empire. she had her fingers in too many pies worth of expeditions to just cough up this much dough. "it sounds perfect," she said, "but what if ye came with me on this li'l excursion instead. we'll find enough to compensate ye and then some." she grinned. she didn't have a strong reputation as hoenn as a newcomer, so there wasn't much to swear on. she didn't have a name to upkeep. but they were both kalosian, and mar had shown her the treasure map simply because she was a rocket ally.

"the artifacts at this location can allegedly commune with the dead and bring ghost pokemon, even the mythical and elusive marshadow. but, that kind of lore isn't everyone's cup of tea." she shrugged. "regardless of the story behind it, the artifacts are made of gold. they'll turn a pretty penny whether or not there's power embedded in them." she did value the opportunity to be audience to a mythical or legendary pokemon higher than the gold, but money would get her closer to discovering hoenn's secrets.

Aurelie Lefevre

☉

information always came at a cost, but aurelie gave it only in return for an expedition, which could not guarantee success but certainly had good chances. she liked a woman that loved adventure and a little risk. "ye sound like a mighty fine explorer," mar said, more eager than ever. "i got navigation down, and i got this map memorized. i'm not the strongest trainer either, but me pokemon are mighty fierce. they take care o' problems for me."

she was thrilled that the woman before her was so experienced with weapons. that learned skill would complement mar's natural affinity for combat, which lacked finesse but leaned on instinct for survival. "i heard there's a lot of haunted pokemon there, honedge and its line. golettes and golurks. it used to be a military outpost that many died fighting for, so it draws a lot of ghosts, even without the ghost-communin' artifact."

she could feel the satisfaction that rested on her face. "i'm in if ye are. and if ye are, we can meet at this location when the cutlass is complete. we'll be ready for the trials of the treasure, then." on the back of the map, she wrote down the address to a cabana in the jungle. she drew a picture and added the coordinates, but it was one of the only buildings in the area, so it would ideally be easy to find even if aurelie had directional challenges.

Aurelie Lefevre

☉

mar opened the door with a wide grin. "aye, yer right on time." she stepped out, dressed in a similar outfit from before but her bodysuit was green, blending in better with the jungle around them. her braided hair was put up so she could wear a bucket hat. a smidge of sunscreen was present on her nose, not rubbed in all the way.

"we are in it now," she announced. "let's get into the treasure, yea? we gotta go down the path down here," she explained as she walked to the back of the cabana, gesturing to the descending and winding path that went to the base of the pyramid-adjacent rock formation below. heavy grass obscured the path, but the duo would make it to the base before long. it was warding off the pokemon and travelling underground beneath the structure that would consume most of their time.

"d'ye wanna take the lead, or shall i test out that mighty cutlass?" she said almost as an afterthought, clearly more enthused at treasure hunting than claiming the goods of her cutlass. it wasn't a testament to aurelie's skill, which was obviously top-shelf, but to her desire to explore and her willingness to earn the goods before wielding them. for all mar's self-serving qualities, she loved a skillful woman and hated burning bridges with talent.

Aurelie Lefevre

☉

mar grinned at aurelie's question.

"this artifact allegedly lets ye summon the dead. there's a lot of superstition around ghosts, and a lot of folklore, too. but in this case, things are quite easy fer us." she walked right up and knocked on the door three times. the door didn't move, but loud footstep-cadence sounds could be heard coming closer, and the earth shook a little with each impact.

the door was pulled apart by the golurk on the other side, leaning in to inspect both of them. it said something incomprehensible. mar turned to aurelie and shrugged. "this is the part where i'm supposed to be introduced by a ghost; this is a multigenerational family heirloom, older than any of the cities in hoenn, so yer blood relative is supposed to be related to the original family that secured this artifact. 'course, my family has no ties to hoenn, so." she laughed. "we gotta run!"

she ducked underneath the bent-and-inspecting golurk, slipping between its legs to get into the ruins. the artifact was hanging from the ceiling, surrounded by a series of duskull. the inside was dark besides the variety of litwick and its evolutions that wandered about, so mar couldn't quite see the rope that held the artifact.

a lampent curled an arm around her leg before she could decide her next action, so mar kicked her and sicced skrelp on her. the sea dragon used hydro pump while mar repositioned herself away from the entrance because the golurk was angry and turning around at its intruders. "let's make this fast!" she urged aurelie, but she spoke with glee. she loved the action. aurelie could hold off the pokemon while mar found a way to get up high to the artifact, or aurelie could get up there while mar did it, but they needed to move fast before hundreds of ghosts entered the ruin to stop them.

Aurelie Lefevre

☉

aurelie kept the hoards of pokemon back with a strange pokemon she hadn't seen before, but she wasn't a dex completionist, so that wasn't so unusual.

mar released klefki, the fairy floating above to the item instead of forcing mar to climb up and secure it herself. mar instead sicced all of her pokemon on the golurk which had caught up to her and aurelie. the robot moved down to grab her, but clobbopus clocked it with superpower, but it did nothing to the ghost. capsakid chomped down on its leg with crunch, hurting the golurk greatly. it leaned away and tried to shake it off to no avail. while it was consumed with removing capsakid, klefki used fairy wind to knock the artifact down.

mar ran underneath to catch it, though the heavy artifact hit the ground. she picked it right back up, but had no time to inspect it for damage. "we're running, baby!" mar laughed hysterically as she ducked under the distracted golurk's legs again, heading back the way they came. klefki flew after her, while clobbopus and skrelp retrieved capsakid from the golurk's leg and ran along. "c'mon, let's not be characters in this ghost story!" despite her words, she wasn't worried at all; ghosts couldn't handle two kalosians!

Aurelie Lefevre

☉