mar nearly jumped out of her skin at the sudden presence of another woman. thankfully, it was clear the other woman had good intentions, so it wasn't like mar needed to rough her up or anything. "ah, i'm just takin' a gander." she grinned, then turned to the wild pokemon.

the orthworm was tempting as she desired hard, metal pokemon to serve her, but he didn't quite suit her tastes. but he was a little cute.

"aren't ye a cutie?" she bent down, hands on her knees, and wiggled a finger at the little guy as he continued on his path. the hippopotas was less to her tastes for their proclivity to mud, but she did also know their mothers were deeply fierce and protective. "these ones don't seem too violent," she assessed aloud, "but i did hear there was some aggressive metal-on-metal noise reported in these tunnels early today." she didn't name her source, but she always had her ear to the pavement for these things.

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Mika Nakayama

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mar smiled at the other woman, something not quite genuine but certainly kind. she understood the desire for stronger pokemon, though mar left her strongest, dhelmise, to keep her ship grounded at the coast. "i wouldn't mind a strong pokemon, but i'm out here fer some steel types with interesting moves. it helps that i don't own any, but ye could never have too many durable teammates. steels are good fer that, though i never intend to simply outlast my opponent in battle."

the tanking strategy didn't work for her as she preferred something far more aggressive and cutthroat. still, she intended to try to challenge the gyms in hoenn in case that demonstration of strength would help her when face to face with a mythical, or were she so lucky, a legendary pokemon. she couldn't afford to burn bridges in her search for secret treasures within hoenn.

"mika. i'm marguerite." she considered offering her hand, but an excadrill came to the surface between them, and mar stood transfixed as she watched it sniff the air between them and burrow back under. "it'd be nice to have a buddy in the tunnels. clobbopus likes the feeling of dirt, but he's not the best-equipped for this kind of expedition." she laughed a little, despite herself. feeling macabre, she added: "and getting trapped in here would be a terrible way to go, hm?"

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Mika Nakayama

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mar liked mika. the woman had a good head on her shoulders. this would normally be something to despise in anyone outside of rocket, but mar always had a soft-spot for powerful women, and she felt like this trainer right here was one to watch. it was just intuition, but that'd never led her wrong before. she was unsurprised to hear mika wanted to be prepared for any situation; it was the kind of forethought mar saw often in trinity but didn't frequently have herself.

"ye have a toxel? baby pokemon can be so difficult to wrangle. ye have a lot of patience. i heard toxtricity is worth it, but i'm not sure i'm cut out for the raising part of it." she liked her aggressive pokemon. they complemented her approaches as a criminal. mar walked alongside mika as she considered what the other trainer's team said about her. "a claydol down here? this tunnel is full of surprises."

it was an interesting pokemon and offered good coverage that mar lacked, but she wasn't inspired by it. it's strange appearance kept her attention all the same. actually, on the subject... "yer lycanroc doesn't look like one i've ever seen before. where'd you find him?"

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Mika Nakayama

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mar nodded her agreement. "better to catch a toxtricity in the wild if ye can fight it." she didn't have the patience for babies. capsakid was a force of nature and quite vicious, so she wasn't some little defenseless baby. she listened to mika's story with a warm, almost nostalgic look on her face. she had met dhelmise the same way, and it was her core pokemon, though it rarely stayed with her as it needed to protect her ship.

"that's sweet. the fur color is gorgeous. but i think i'd be nervous. special pokemon like that, they get targeted for the black market." she shouldn't have mentioned it, as a literal trafficker for the market, but she couldn't help but feel concern for mika's pokemon. there was clearly a bond there, and lycanroc weren't the easiest to get along with.

she turned to her clobbopus at mika's comment. "aye, he loves a fight. i've been very fortunate to find such motivated, aggressive pokemon. i don't do a lot of battles. no interest in those, ye know? but my pokemon are so motivated to get stronger, they train themselves. i get to watch and celebrate their wins." clobbopus would fight anything that moved. she loved the little guy. his feisty behavior inspired her to be unafraid of picking a fight.

"personality is more important to me than the type of pokemon. i need teammates who work well with who i have already. i don't have the patience for anything else. think i'm not so cut out for this trainer thing..." she wasn't very traditional in that sense. she ambushed instead of fighting normally. she acted from the shadows. but she needed more strength to appeal to the legendaries in the region, to search hoenn's depths for treasure.

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Mika Nakayama

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