Quill's curiosity would lead him by a mildly unpleasant odor. It was far from suffocating, instead more akin to the intensity of cigarette smoke. If the Smeargle were to look up, he would see its source: a Skuntank wearing riding gear, an on-duty, green-haired Ranger in a yellow uniform sitting in the poison-type's saddle. It was certainly an unusual way to travel, but it worked! Traveling alongside her was a Persian about the same size, wearing similar gear, though the seat on her back was empty.

Seeing the commotion, Shalin reined her unusual mount toward the normal-type and what she could only presume to be its trainer. She waved toward the female to try to get her attention. "You and your Smeargle okay? I hope they didn't get a whiff of Kiku's musk."

Quill can't help but look up at the Skuntank, curious about it and the Ranger atop it. Though, he does pinch his snout with a paw at the scent, even when he's held by his trainer. Meanwhile Kaló, the trainer's Abra, kept herself a more comfortable distance away from the musk, but still looked- primarily purring in curiosity to the saddled Persian.

Similarly, Sio does a brief double take- they've seen rider pokemon before, but never ones like a Skuntank or a...Persian? Certainly..exotic choices, to say the least. They perk up as they're properly spoken to, however, nodding to the Ranger with the faintest hint of a smile.

"Yes, yes, Quill here is doing just fine and so am I. Though, I must ask; if Kiku's musk is of such great concern, why use them as a steed in the first place?"

Shalin Nariya

Come to think of it, the scent was getting a bit more intense than she liked. She grabbed the Skuntank's purple tail as though she were going to help the poison-type aim a shot of his musk. "Wow, has it accumulated that much? I'm so sorry - give Kiku a bit to discharge it." With that, the purple-furred Pokémon bounded toward the lake and away from Sio. After Shalin pointed the tail skyward, a red-hot FLAMETHROWER flew outward from it, the girl sweating from being in close proximity to the cone. Once the musk was almost all burned up, she and her unusual mount would return to Sio's side. The scent would be almost completely gone, though still barely noticeable.

"It's... part of who I am. Captain Shalin Nariya of Rustboro," she introduced herself, "the wildest Pokémon rider in Hoenn!" It had been a hot minute since she had said that tagline. She could back it up, too, Sygna Suit or no. With that suit, it took her concept of wild from what Sio was seeing to physics-breaking. She didn't want to completely break Sio's mind, after all! "What brings you out here? On the way to Pyre?"

Sio's about to respond- to reassure Shalin that it was all fine, and not to worry too much when neither had really expected to run into the other. Of course, this all falls flat as her Skuntank bolts away and the flamethrower bursts out. Jeez...never had they been so glad to have this much personal space. That, and the musk is almost entirely gone now, which has its own little perks to it- like Quill finally letting go of his snout.

"Wildest pokemon rider in Hoenn..." Sio muses in an echo, giving a slight smirk as a hand raises to rest under their chin. Such a...curious figure this woman was, truly. "Sio Sotí, detective and journalist extraordinaire; a pleasure to meet you," they chime. "Actually, I was only out here for a little stroll before this one over here decided to veer off the path," they chuckle, rustling Quill's fur as the Smeargle in question scrunches his face up.

But...the appearance of a couple wild pokemon catches Sio's eye even quicker, as well as Kaló's. The Abra quickly follows her trainer's command and launches herself into a Zen Headbutt at the Wobbuffet, followed immediately by Sio throwing a pokeball at it. There's almost this sort of...competitive gleam in the detective's eye during this catch attempt.

A detective? Shalin's interest was piqued. "You could call me a detective of nature and history," she related her own career path. "I'm responsible for a division of Hoenn's Rangers that explore the region's unknown. Ice caves, volcanoes, rainforests, badlands. You name it, I've probably done charting there."

While Sio was busy with the Wobbuffet, another psychic-type caught Shalin's eyes: a Girafarig. It was a Pokémon she had wanted since her days in Johto; at the time it was the only psychic-type ride Pokémon known prior to Distortions making finding unusually large Pokémon easier. With her target having a second set of eyes coming from its tail, sneaking up on it like she would other Pokémon would prove to be impossible. Luckily for her, there was a higher ledge near the Girafarig she could use for a more direct approach. She had Kiku go around it the long way, peering down once she was there so she could line up her slide and land on the wild's back.

By the time the psychic-type saw Shalin falling toward it, it was too late for it to run out of the way. The Captain landed on the Girafarig's back and grabbed onto its skin tightly with all four limbs. With a screech, the wild began to buck, kick, and STOMP in an effort to unseat her. While the Pokémon wasn't nearly as strong as Grimmie was, the spines on its back made every desperate heaving motion more painful to absorb.

After one last high rear, the heavily-breathing Pokémon gave up trying to toss her unwanted rider off. She wouldn't respond to any of her commands that a Pokémon trained for riding would; it seemed she would have to spend some time with the girl before she had another psychic-type that could ferry her about. Clicking the switch of an empty Poké Ball she had palmed, she touched it to the wild, landing squarely on her feet as the device drew the Girafarig in.

[attr="class","wildtemp"]

[attr="class","wildbgsaf"]

[attr="class","wildtitle"]A WILD GOLURK APPEARED!

[attr="class","wildshiny"]

[attr="class","wildpkmnbox"]

[attr="class","wildpkmn"]

[attr="class","wildtab"]

[attr="class","wildtabox"] GENDERLESS	[attr="class","wildtabox2"] NO GUARD
[attr="class","wildtabox"]MUD SLAP	[attr="class","wildtabox2"]ROLLOUT
[attr="class","wildtabox"]DEFENSE CURL	[attr="class","wildtabox2"]CURSE
[attr="class","wildtabox"] ---	[attr="class","wildtabox2"] ---

[attr="class","wildtag"]Shalin Nariya SIO SOTÍ

[attr="class","wildnote"] WHAT WILL YOU DO?

[attr="class","wildtemp"]

[attr="class","wildbgsaf"]

[attr="class","wildtitle"]A WILD BRONZOR APPEARED!

[attr="class","wildshiny"]

[attr="class","wildpkmnbox"]

[attr="class","wildpkmn"]

[attr="class","wildtab"]

[attr="class","wildtabox"] GENDERLESS	[attr="class","wildtabox2"] LEVITATE
[attr="class","wildtabox"]FUTURE SIGHT	[attr="class","wildtabox2"]SAFEGUARD
[attr="class","wildtabox"]TACKLE	[attr="class","wildtabox2"]METAL SOUND
[attr="class","wildtabox"] ---	[attr="class","wildtabox2"] ---

[attr="class","wildtag"]Shalin Nariya SIO SOTÍ

[attr="class","wildnote"] WHAT WILL YOU DO?

BOTH OF YOUR CAPTURE ATTEMPTS ARE SUCCESSFUL!

A...detective of nature and history. Right. Sure. Perhaps scientist would be a better term to describe Shalin, if it involved charting and the like. But, Sio's not about to get into a debate about the technicality of terms right now.

As the Wobbuffet settles down in her ball, Sio takes to carefully watching Shalin handle the Girafarig- albeit in a more roundabout way. However, they can't help but admit it's rather impressive, seeing the Captain land square on the wild's spiky back and hold on until she eventually tires herself out. The detective can't help but clap, eyes lit up with a sort of intrigued pride towards the woman. "Impressive! You're not hurt too badly, are you?" they check in with her.

Though, in the meantime, Quill seems a bit...distracted. He doesn't quite know how to handle the massive Golurk in front of him, and simply takes to barking at it before Kaló teleports behind it. Effectively enough, this distracts and then startles the automaton pokemon, leaving an opening for Sio to toss another ball.

Shalin Nariya

Shalin didn't consider herself a scientist either. She was an explorer. She served many of Hoenn's top scientists. She just felt explorer would come up even more awkwardly than what she described herself as, given how well-charted Hoenn was. Whether it was Hoenn's subterranean landscape, the depths of her seas, or even offworld lands such as the Ultra Wilds, she was there to make new discoveries for real scientists to study.

"Thanks! I've caught a lot of Pokémon this way, and I'm used to it," she answered as she at first stumbled when retrieving her catch. "Welcome to the team, Blank!" While she had an account for the Pokémon Storage System for transportation purposes, the Romping Grounds in Petalburg were not set up with a receiver. For now, she would stow Blank's Poké Ball with her empty ones and sort it out when she got home.

Even the frightening-looking Lathiel expressed curiosity in Sio, slowly approaching the brown-haired gumshoe. "These three are Lathiel, Serena, and Kiku," the Captain introduced her team of Pokémon. "Lathiel looks scary, but she's well-behaved, I promise." While that wasn't quite true, she was getting close to truly understanding her trainer. One day, when that bond was perfected, she would be able to remove her retainer and show her true colors...

[attr="class","wildtemp"]

[attr="class","wildbgsaf"]

[attr="class","wildtitle"]A WILD METANG APPEARED!

[attr="class","wildshiny"]

[attr="class","wildpkmnbox"]

[attr="class","wildpkmn"]

[attr="class","wildtab"]

[attr="class","wildtabox"] GENDERLESS	[attr="class","wildtabox2"] CLEAR BODY
[attr="class","wildtabox"]METEOR MASH	[attr="class","wildtabox2"]TAKE DOWN
[attr="class","wildtabox"]AGILITY	[attr="class","wildtabox2"]CONFUSION
[attr="class","wildtabox"] ---	[attr="class","wildtabox2"] ---

[attr="class","wildtag"]Shalin Nariya SIO SOTÍ

[attr="class","wildnote"] WHAT WILL YOU DO?

[attr="class","wildtemp"]

[attr="class","wildbgsaf"]

[attr="class","wildtitle"]A WILD FRILLISH APPEARED!

[attr="class","wildshiny"]

[attr="class","wildpkmnbox"]

[attr="class","wildpkmn"]

[attr="class","wildtab"]

[attr="class","wildtabox"] FEMALE	[attr="class","wildtabox2"] WATER ABSORB
[attr="class","wildtabox"]OMINOUS WIND	[attr="class","wildtabox2"]RECOVER
[attr="class","wildtabox"]POISON STING	[attr="class","wildtabox2"]WATER PULSE
[attr="class","wildtabox"] ---	[attr="class","wildtabox2"] ---

[attr="class","wildtag"]Shalin Nariya SIO SOTÍ

[attr="class","wildnote"] WHAT WILL YOU DO?

SIO SOTÍ CAUGHT THE GOLURK!

An explorer definitely made more sense, at least to the detective. Besides, even if a place such as Hoenn was well charted, that didn't mean there weren't still things to explore and discoveries to make!

"Really? Is that so? My, I just might have to question you further on how that works some other time, then!" Sio remarked, giving an amused hum at the end. Sure, they knew the base concept of riding pokemon, but seeing it firsthand like now? Witnessing it all unfold up until the final catch? It was more mesmerizing than even the new wild pokemon that had shown up!

The Type: Null that approached Sio seemed to pique their curiosity at first; and clearly not fazed or frightened, they'd slowly reach a hand out. Should she accept, they'd be more than happy to provide her with some pets. "I see, how wonderful. You already met Quill, but this is Kaló, and--" They pause, giving an amused chuckle as a curious Sinistea peaked out from behind them at Shalin- wait, had it been here this whole time? "...And this is Chamomile," they finish, with the aforementined Chamomile giving a cheery gurgle and wave in turn.

Skipping as well!


Shalin Nariya

"Of course!" Shalin chirped back, sitting on the poison-type's back once again. If she had an Orre-style hat on, she would have looked like a cowgirl. "I actually live off-grid, south of Rustboro. Near Petalburg Plateau. That would be the best place to show you if you're in the area."

Perhaps to Sio's dismay, Lathiel flinched when the other traveler extended a hand to pet her. She looked like she could snap her jaw at any moment. "Lathiel is curious but really wary around people. Be careful around her," Shalin warned as she waved to the girl's charming Pokémon team.