"Oh, uh..." Ana falters, the lasso drooping limply from her fingers as she takes in the newcomer—just as they hit the ground with an undignified thud. For a moment, her self-assured grin slips, replaced by an expression of pure deer-in-the-headlights panic.

Yeah, that's right. She has no idea what she's doing either.

She probably should have considered the fact that real life is a bit different from those old Western movies she grew up on. Or that swinging a lasso isn't nearly as easy as Clyde Eastwood makes it look.

Well, too late for regrets now. She's got a job to do, and a... fellow Pokémon wrangler(?) to impress. No time to worry about little things like 'experience' or 'common sense.'

"Hah, yeah, totally took the job!" she responds brightly, perhaps a little too brightly, shoving her hat back into place and wiping her sweaty palm on her jeans before extending a hand to Kasper. "I'm Ana, by the way. What's your name?"

Wait, are they supposed to shake hands when the other person is lying on the ground? Is that how normal people introduce themselves? Is she supposed to help them up instead? Uh oh.

Why didn't her mother ever teach her any social etiquette for situations like these? She's supposed to be a noble lady, for Arceus's sake, she should know this stuff!

"Um, d'you need a hand there, partner?" she offers lamely while stretching out her hand, inwardly cringing even as the words leave her mouth. Arceus, she sounds like such a dork. "I mean, uh, these rocks are really slippery, huh?"

Yeah. The rocks are slippery. That's totally it.

"I, uh, like your hair," she blurts out suddenly, as if incapable of keeping that bit inside of her.

kasper thaler

Ana's relief is palpable as Kasper manages to haul themselves upright with minimal assistance from her. She's not exactly the strongest person around, even with all of her exploration.

"Uh, thanks!" she chirps, grinning down at her outfit before mentally cursing herself. Way to go, Ana. You couldn't have picked something a little more practical for this kind of work? Something that doesn't scream 'cosplay'?

Yep. She can already imagine her mother's disappointed expression if she were to see her right now.

"The farmer mentioned something about the storm messing up the fields," she muses, peering up at the fluffy clouds overhead as if she might find some evidence of the previous night's chaos there. "Guess it must've knocked down a fence or something?"

Ana hopes she's not wrong. She doesn't have enough experience with this sort of thing to even hazard a guess, and she'd rather not look even more incompetent in front of Kasper than she already does. She'll just have to celebrate that, at the very least, Kasper doesn't think her outfit is too dorky.

"I, uh, have to admit—I'm not really sure what I'm doing," she admits sheepishly, scratching the back of her neck. "I thought that if I bought a lasso, it would just come to me! But throwing a big rope is a lot harder than I thought it would be..."

kasper thaler