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The simple question brings a wistful look across the woman’s features. Once upon a time, she found great joy in losing herself at sea, its vastness nothing more but a gentle reminder of both the chapters that came before her and the ones that have yet to be written. It had gifted her with hope and wonder, but the thing about mother nature is that it takes just as often as it gives. Within a fortnight, her world crashed and burned and she was washed ashore, all flickers of hope lost at sea. She has yet to find them since. [break][break]

Not everything is lost for good, though. Sometimes, you discover them again in the form of treasure chests, and other times, they come back through message bottles. This time, she may just stumble upon it in a corsola colony.[break][break]

“Olivine’s a wonderful city,” Alina says, smiling softly as her mind stitched together images of the port town. Despite feeling trapped in her latter years, it was impossible to deny that her hometown brimmed with life, from the creaky sailboats slipping in and out of harbor to the bustling seafood markets at city center. “It’s smaller compared to some of the other cities in Johto, but there’s always something going on if you look for it. It never hurts to just kick back at the beach, either.” She ruminates in the vivid imagery for a few moments longer before letting them float back out into the horizon - although her memories won’t be fraying at the edges anytime soon, she knew that day was inevitable. [break][break]

“The food’s great as well, but you know that already.” Her smile slowly stretches into a grin, looking visibly more relaxed as her gaze rests on the squabbling pokemon. Nova, who had been watching quietly from the sidelines, was encouraged by a sudden burst of energy and scrambled over to join the wild goose chase. “And I only take the boat when my job requires me to these days. I sailed a lot when I was a kid, though.” [break][break]

She pauses, narrowing her eyes thoughtfully at Howard. He knew his way around a boat better than she had expected. “How’d you pick up sailing? For fun? For the job?” Her jaw twitches, a small smirk at the corner of her lips. “Or do you just save corsola colonies on the regular?” [break][break]

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