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A blanket of volcanic ash sits heavy in the atmosphere, casting a speckled grey hue across the rocky landscape. Despite the uncomfortable sting in her eyes and lungs, Alina absorbs the murky world in with wonder. Every new location she’s traveled to so far in Hoenn had not ceased to amaze her, with every town being vastly different from the next, but this one felt particularly intriguing. Hailing from Olivine City, where the ocean was the star of the show; it was rare for the ranger to have the opportunity to immerse herself in the serene beauty of the mountains, let alone than a volcano. It’s moments like these where Alina is grateful that she made the unexpected leap to uproot her life to move across the globe - some spontaneity can bring good, after all.[break][break]

The hazy beauty distracts her briefly from the mission on hand, but Alina is not one to live with her head in the clouds - she lives resolutely, with two feet planted on the ground. She knows she has an important mission ahead of her: resolving the increasingly violent conflict between the Primapes and Passimons. She discreetly twiddles her fingers as she marches ahead with her Dragonair and fellow ranger, hoping he didn’t catch her anxious tick.[break][break]

Rangers, she knows, needed to be able to have complete faith that their partner would have their back. Although it was no secret that she was the newbie out of the two, there was still a burning desire to appear capable, despite her crippling fear that the mission ahead could explode beyond her current capabilities. She had never confronted violence of this sort head-to-head, and so far, she sees more ways of this mission going wrong than of it going well.[break][break]

Alina didn’t know much - or anything at all, really, - about her partner, Silverio. She’s seen him in passing as she hops from station to station, but she was never the type to casually chat up her coworkers for the sake of it. This restraint has kept her safe in her cocoon, but perhaps the cocoon was starting to suffocate her. She hopes that no one finds her rude. She also hopes that this wouldn’t be her last day on the field.[break][break]

“Have you dealt with a similar issue like this before?” The woman asks at last, head swiveling to glance at the male ranger. “I’ve heard other rangers mention that this was a semi-common problem around these parts.” [break]

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