Aquatic was not her thing. But who needed that, when you had a good flier? At least that was always her thought process. Unless she needed to actually dive, her Hydreigon was the right answer in just about any case that came up. That was just how things were. Though she probably should go look for a new water type sometime, given that she had sold all the ones she’d poached in the past.

Until then though, three headed dragon of darkness it was. And no, she was not compensating for her small statute with that. Not at all. “Well, it is all the same to Hydreigon and I. As long as we properly distribute the deliveries, anything is fine by us,” she replied to that always energetic woman. It was admittedly always a bit difficult to keep up with that one – not just regarding her speed. But at least this lady was reliable, so Lash did not mind working with her at all. “Though, of course, ‘Lash’ always sounds like a winner, doesn’t it?”

Shalin Nariya

Hydreigon were strong flying Pokémon, and difficult to raise at that. The time she went to Josh's Gym to fly on Kokusho, the three-headed monster had overcome her strength easily, hurling her to the ground. If they were all like that, she would need to build up some serious muscle before trying that again. She was built to conquer nimble Pokémon, not oppressively strong ones!

The Captain laughed at the woman's stinger. "...In more ways than one!" she replied with a grin, no doubt being the only one of the two understanding why the wordplay was so funny. Casting off from the dock once her partner was good to go, the Sharpedo's pace was swift but steady, putting more effort into keeping her cargo steady than getting the job done quickly.

One of Ever Grande's outlying islands was not far; it was almost like a gated community for some of the city's elderly. Most of their aquatic deliveries were there; there would be two that lived in large cabins not far from the sea. They almost looked like getaway homes similar to a typical lakefront resort. She hopped off and moored the Sharpedo, retrieving the eggs to be delivered to the pair of residences. She had caught so many of her Pokémon wild that she couldn't identify what was inside them; she was no breeder, after all!

---

Lasciel Elis

{PC: 2}

NAME          SPECIES        STATUS
Shabraz       Sharpedo       Good
Lathliss      Salamence      Good
Lathiel       Type: Null     Good

Fortunately, she had already given up on actually understanding this woman properly. That made everything a lot easier, really. Lash could just shrug and take it at face value. It was one of those things she considered a benefit of age, even though she did not look it. Well, maybe because she did not. Lasciel did not make any effort to actually act her apparent age, after all. Heck, coming in with an Hydreigon of all things was probably giving the game away if nothing else. Yet, a lot of people still did not get it. Or did not want to get it.

And she took pleasure of hitting them with the creepy child vibes she was giving out there. For now though, she took off on that Hydreigon, following the other for the most part while taking in the area. She was not a local, and honestly, this was a part of Hoenn that she hardly ever visited. Partially because it was an old people place.

While she was older than she looked, she certainly wasn’t that old. For the time being, she checked whether or not any of her eggs were to be delivered at this address, but hers were seemingly focused more inroads. Almost like someone had put actual thought into this. Well, maybe. “Are most of your deliveries seaside ones? Not sure if we should split up or just do it at our pace here.”


Shalin Nariya

The woman's Hydreigon was certainly unsettling; if Shalin's instincts were correct, she didn't expect it to be as well-behaved as the Mauville Leader's. Even so, if it was well-behaved enough to ferry its trainer in flight, it couldn't be that belligerent, could it?

Shalin buzzed at the gate of their first destination. Not only was the community more elderly, they seemed like they had a lot of money. The security guard would let them in after Captain Nariya identified herself. "Have a good one!" she called out to the young man. "Such a nice guy," she mused as she made her way to the first of the two addresses they were to deliver to. With a ring of the doorbell, a retired couple answered the door, happy to see the Timburr egg they had requested. "Regards from Verdanturf Rookery," she read the note aloud while verifying they had the correct address one more time. "Just a signature here."

After the couple confirmed the receipt, they thanked the kind ladies. Were Lasciel Elis to check her eggs, one of them was indeed to be delivered to a nearby house. "I've got one more here myself," she answered the female's question. "Then other than yours, I think most of the rest of them are on the mainland. It's been fun taking Shabraz for a spin out here - she's my Sharpedo!"

---

Lasciel Elis

{PC: 3}

NAME          SPECIES        STATUS
Shabraz       Sharpedo       Good
Lathliss      Salamence      Good
Lathiel       Type: Null     Good

Fortunately, the other did not know how Lash had gotten the worst out of her Hydreigon. A poacher had her ways, after all. It certainly had not been the kind of training one would have expected from someone looking like a kid. But that was not exactly new. People would not take her adult form for that kind of person, after all. She was very used to being underestimated in that regard – and to capitalize on it.

Not that she needed to much here. Instead, she took her time for a bit, sorting through the eggs until she found one for this place. It was only when she actually approached that house that she put on her ‘professional’ face – i.e. a bright smile and way too sunny attitude. “Hello there! Egg-cellent delivery here just for you. Don’t break it though,” she offered with a cheery attitude towards the old lady opening. There was some additional candy exchanged too, so she waved momentarily as she walked off back towards the dragon guarding the eggs.

It was only there that she dropped the act again, quickly. “That should take care of mine. Customer service is always a bit of a hassle, but what can you do.” She tossed one of the pokeball-shaped candies towards the others. Not for a particular reason.
Lash just was less of a sweet tooth than people took her for, was all.


Shalin Nariya

Shalin nodded at Lash's remarks about customer service. "I genuinely try to be nice, but you can only try to please most people most of the time. Having done this before, most of the people you run into are happy because they're just excited to bring a new Pokémon into the world." Her penchant for ride Pokémon had made her attractive to couriers in both Rustboro and Petalburg. There was just something charming about seeing a normally fierce, dangerous predator that was as sweet as a house Skitty. She loved getting reactions to her Shiny Beedrill ferrying her through the rural parts of town, the bug-type spreading her stings to hug, not to attack.

After one or two more deliveries on the islands, they were ready to finish their route on the Ever Grande mainland. Withdrawing Lathiel for Shabraz, Shalin hopped back onto the shark and sped toward the south coast's main docks. With her now-lighter cargo, Shalin could go a little faster, but still had to be cautious. Too much speed or a sudden shift of wind could damage their deliveries, which would be unacceptable -- and possibly endanger the life of the Pokémon being born within!

---

Lasciel Elis

{PC: 4}

NAME          SPECIES        STATUS
Shabraz       Sharpedo       Good
Lathliss      Salamence      Good
Lathiel       Type: Null     Good

“I guess so. Guess at least we are not sticking around long enough for any of them to get buyer’s remorse while we are there.” Not exactly something that some random kid would say. But she wasn’t that. She had dealt with too many rich people that wanted some kind of ‘wild, alpha male’ member of a species that would complain afterwards that they could not handle them. Or parents that never bothered to at least read the Pokedex entry before ordering a poison type for their child.

She sighed. Guess that was one upside to her current predicament. She did not have to bother with all of that. Then again, she could have just done some kind of career change and gotten the same result. Without all that existential crisis stuff and such.
That being said though, she returned to her Hydreigon and followed suit. Her own riding was almost as professional as Shalin’s in that regard. The girl would not be able to keep up with the hotshot pilot in a race or so, but she could at least keep her cargo secure in a situation like this.


Shalin Nariya

"Exactly!" Shalin replied with a smile once they were on their way across the strait, Shabraz bouncing across the waves. "If they have a problem with the Pokémon, they have to get ahold of the breeder they bought it from. Not us!" She weaved around some smaller Pokémon, whooping after mist flew into her face from a particularly rough turn.

Reaching the main island of Ever Grande, Shalin moored and withdrew Shabraz, this time taking a seat on her Salamence, Lathliss. She was the queen of Shalin's storm of dragons, and had the most pure muscle out of all her dragon-types. "Think we've just got one more stop left, but it's pretty far inland."

---

Lasciel Elis

{PC: 5}

NAME          SPECIES        STATUS
Shabraz       Sharpedo       Good
Lathliss      Salamence      Good
Lathiel       Type: Null     Good

Shalin Nariya
Ah, yes. That was the right attitude. NEshoot the messenger or courier. Good ones are hard to come by. Though, admittedly, she had been on all sides of that particular interaction. Having someone else to actually handle the hand-off to a problem customer was always useful, she found. Hypocrisy was not a concern in that regard, as far as she was concerned.

Still though, today they just made deliveries. Hydreigon and herself briefly stopped when the other switched rides. A dragon type was, naturally, a choice that Lash would whole-heartedly support. “It is a pretty sweet gig, all things considered. Just as long as we don’t break the eggs, it is really only time-consuming in the end.” Now, granted, there probably were other dimensions to it. They were kind of being paid for reliability as well. Running off with the eggs was a decently enticing proposal, too.

Though Lash had to sigh there. Really, she didn’t think she could get away with it like this. The identity she was using right then was fragile enough as was. She did not need the authorities to come snooping about. At best, they would make it harder for her to hunt. At worst…well, who knew?

She didn’t. And she did not want to find out, either. “I take it you want to race there, to the extent that the eggs allow for?”

Shalin was a practiced and talented rider. She loved being atop Pokémon of all kinds. While she was younger, she dreamed of just aimlessly flying across Johto. Joining the Rangers and becoming Rustboro's Captain gave her passion purpose. "And it's not even really a job if you're doing something you enjoy alongside it! There's nothing like soaring the skies! Or bouncing across the waves. Or a gallop across the land."

Though the sigh did not go unnoticed, she wrote it off when offered a race. "I'm not a racing fanatic like Josh Devlin is; extremely high speeds actually make me woozy and sick. Plus, the Pokémon inside the eggs probably wouldn't like it too much if we just... went all out. On the way back to the mainland, though? You're on!"

---

Lasciel Elis

{PC: 6}

NAME          SPECIES        STATUS
Shabraz       Sharpedo       Good
Lathliss      Salamence      Good
Lathiel       Type: Null     Good

“A job is a job. You have to keep your mind sharp because if you screw it up while having fun, it’s the client that suffers for it.” Well, ultimately it was them due to not getting paid. But she did not want to split hairs here at all. At the end of the day, she got what the other was saying. But she still had to advocate for some amount of restraint, regardless. They were not here to just have fun.

That did not mean they couldn’t have fun. Just that the mission came first. “But it seems you got that. I will probably pass on the race, after all, though. My body can take the high speeds even less than yours, after all. Not that Hydreigon here is built for speed anyway. It’s a flying tank, not a race car,” she ultimately replied, patting the dragon as they flew on. It was a shame though. In her real body, she wouldn’t have minded going really fast. Just not like this.


Shalin Nariya

All of what Lash said was true. Making sure the job was correctly done was the top priority, but there was nothing stopping them from having a little fun on the way! "There's room for both. Obviously we can't loop through the sky or anything wild, but weaving around a few trees won't break anything!"

Shalin smiled at Lash's lower speed tolerance. "Mine isn't that high either. I swear, sometimes I think Mauville's Gym Leader could ride at the speed of light and come out of it hooting and hollering instead of as a pancake in the saddle." She let Lash set the pace, Lathliss flying near the Hydreigon but not uncomfortably close. "Ever noticed the wild Pokémon have really been... on edge of late? Especially in the last month?"

---

Lasciel Elis

{PC: 7}

NAME          SPECIES        STATUS
Shabraz       Sharpedo       Good
Lathliss      Salamence      Good
Lathiel       Type: Null     Good

“If you say so,” she replied, lightly shrugging. At the end of the day, she could not force this woman to do anything the way she wanted to, anyway. However she did it would set the baseline for their success anyway. Lash would just follow suit as best as she could.

She was not exactly a daredevil rider, after all. Always having been alone with only herself to rely on, Lash had learned early on to not take needless risks. Sure, when she needed to go fast to survive or such, she would go as hard as possible. But never just for thrills alone. Though she might enjoy it anyway, of course.

Still though, she was picking up the pace for as much as she would be able to easily tolerate. “You sure don’t seem like a low tolerance kind of person though. You can hide that pretty well,” she replied, lightly smirking. “As for the Pokemon, I mean, they often get on edge one way or another. Stuff keeps happening that throws the natural state of things out of whack, after all.” Lash was probably not exactly sounding her age with that, but she was never truly pretending to begin with. Just because it caused others confusion did not mean it was her fault they did not get it, really.

Shalin Nariya