All is Found

ft. Yuina Higashi

Tapu Lele simply blinked at Yuina.

Then, she picked the carica-Doug, holding it over Yuina.

Then, dropped him on top of the girl again.

As ever, the deity had no words for Yuina— she had no words for her own avatar, why would that change for her?

The carica-Doug merely snored, booger-bubble inflating and deflating with each breath.

Suddenly, the sounds of movement from nearby were heard. They stood in Petalburg— still an active warzone, even if the league had retreated.

Tapu Lele hummed, before suddenly lunging towards Yuina—

Grabbing her long hair before pulling her down towards her own shadow, phasing her them both through it.

---

A jolt, and a moment of dark— and then the movement of stomach contents as gravity suddenly took over, and they dropped—

Landing on a soft, plush flower bed.

The smell of plant life permeated the chamber they found themselves in. A vaguely familiar smell, to be sure.

Not too far away from them, at the center of the chamber, a large cauldron was to be found.

This was the temple of life's innermost chamber— Tapu Lele's lair, so to speak.

CaricaDoug continued to sleep, now more comfortable than ever in the bed of flowers.

---

TL;DR:

BLITN

ft. Yuina Higashi

"Oof." He releases a wheeze as she barrels into his chest, knocking whatever coughing was left right out of him with a vice-like squeeze.

"Oh..." He utters as she hugs him suddenly, his arms reflexively winding around her back in turn, squeezing her. "Okay."

He set his chin atop her head, breathing in her scent with a deep whiff as his eyes fluttered shut.

It was overwhelming— the sudden onrush of sensory data. It felt like his sense of smell, of touch, of hearing, of sight— everything felt sharper. Or... different?

Something was... off. Yuina had always been easily depressed, but now, she truly felt both... miserable, yet not? There was a strong contrast that he could feel from her...

"I promise. Where did I go?" He wondered airily.

---

TL;DR:

BULU

Tapu Island, ft. Genevieve Cromwell

He raises his arm and rotates his palm with a shrug of the shoulders, giving her his most lukewarm 'eeeh'.

"Maybe! We found this one at the bottom of the ocean floor." He said wryly. "Getting it above sea-level was a pretty big task."

It had taken a pinch of stubbornness, a touch of ingenuity, and big ol' heapin' pile of time travel.

Still, he nodded at her words, turning his gaze over the horizon as he gripped the railing.

"I'm hopin' so. I dunno how chatty Bulu or Koko are, but Lele didn't say much of anythin' for over 20 years 'till she suddenly made me look for this." He said.

Maybe Bulu would follow his sister's lead and make his new avatar search for his temple next?

---

TL;DR:

What ails you

ft. Yuina Higashi

"Hey, I was chosen alright." He said wryly, before snorting. "Though perhaps not for the reasons I thought."

'The Jinxed', huh?

It left a bad taste in his mouth, but he couldn't argue with its accuracy.

Perhaps winning the tournament had nothing to do with Tapu Lele's choice— made sense, she didn't seem like the kind to keep track of such things.

So what did that mean...?

He shrugged to himself after a moment, dismissing the thought as he reached into a cabinet, opened it, and fetched out a sphygmomanometer.

"No." He said simply, as he opened the cuff and began fitting it to her arm.

"It was a dumb, reckless, and selfish choice." He said bluntly as he began to squeeze the bulb.

It did not sound like he considered his actions 'selfless'— nor for anyone else other than himself..

---

TL;DR:

For Once

ft. Eris Halla

He sighs, rubbing his temples as he purses his lips at the Luxray. Reiner was just as much of a handful as Eris— that one, very powerful braincell they shared really was doing a lot of heavy lifting.

"It sounds a very severe injury." He says simply, patting Eris' head as he turned to her. "So I'd like to get a good look at it before I start treatment, just in case."

There was no reason to get complacent with medical treatment, specially for close friends.

"Help me out, Eris— maybe he'll calm down if you do this step instead o'me." He said. "We gotta get the bandages off him first."

Then, after treatment, depending on how it went, they may or may not reapply new ones.

---

TL;DR:

What ails you

ft. Yuina Higashi

He didn't show much of a reaction, but the silence alone should've said plenty about what was going through his head.

His eyes shut for a moment.

"No. I didn't know anything." He said simply, his eyes finally sliding open as he threw the depressor into a trash bin, moving on to the next step by putting on his stethoscope. "Hell. Mr. Silph specifically told me to stay away from her when I asked him about it."

Just another notch on the endless list of things FERNANDO SILPH had been right about.

"Anyway. If I were to be charitable... I guess I'd say I was being young and a dumb, really." He said as he brought it against her chest to hear for a heart beat.

"There was this girl I really liked." He said. "She was like my very own a manic pixie dream girl. Everything was fun when she was around— and she didn't seem to mind me sticking to her like vermin, even poor, lanky and cringey as I was."

He hummed.

"And she was going to die."

---

TL;DR:

Recommission

ft. Lydia Magnusson

"I know a handful with a good reputation; any preferences for character?" The implication being that they were all highly qualified as far as practical experience and education was concerned.

The conversation moved on to The Incident. A somewhat common, if no less tragic tale of wartime misfortune, lost life and crippled veterans.

"I'm... terribly sorry to hear of what happened to ya and yer team." He said softly, giving it a moment before saying anything else.

Still, he couldn't help but notice that... she did not seem terribly affected by this— at least, not in a way that showed strongly, and not like most other veterans would've been.

Few people were ever so eager to get back on a battlefield after experience such pain, tragedy and crippling. This woman was either made of truly adamantium stuff— or had some other issues.

He'd probably find out which as he continued to treat her.

---

TL;DR:

What ails you

ft. Yuina Higashi

"Uh-uh-uh. Nothing wrong by not telling me." He continued, more direct than usual. "Though, even if ya did do somethin'— I'm sure you had a reason."

He scrunched his nose, tongue sticking out in distaste as he pulled out the now full syringe, separating the vial full of blood and storing it with the appropriate name and data before unceremoniously shoving the now used syringe into a tip-burner, then disposing of the rest.

"Yeah, well, his job is being a cop, so." He said, rolling his eyes. "Only so much good one can do there, whatever their intentions are."

There was a reason he had jumped to the Medic corps. If he was to be a dog of the state, he could at least try to minimize the damage he'd inevitably have to cause; since the league was averse to plans that didn't involve double-edged swords.

Inevitably though, the topic of that woman came up, and with it, the reminder of everything she had said. His lip curled, a hum leaving his mouth as he pulled out a tongue depressor and unceremoniously pressed it to her lips.

"If she was honest, and I hope she wasn't, she doesn't 'want' anything." He said, before narrowing his eyes. "But that'd be a buncha bollocks even if she did believe it herself."

She was clearly wanting something, even if it was mere spectacle. The woman appeared to him to have some sort of obsession or morbid curiosity about Yuina, for better or worse.

"You'll be meetin' Professor illeana reyes after these exams." He said. "The triad woman seems able of going anywhere, anytime, so we definitely should ask Dr. Reyes for her thoughts."

---

TL;DR:

For Once

ft. Eris Halla

He grabbed at Eris' hat, casually pushing it down over her eyes.

"Behave, ya two." He said with an eye roll and a grin, rolling back his sleeves as he approached the bed Reiner had chosen.

"Awright, let's see the damage in full, Reiner." He said. "Come on now, no hiding. Just roll over and show me yer belly— I don't bite. Not harder than you and Eris, anyway."

---

TL;DR:

TAPU ISLAND: KOKO

ft. Thomas Benoit

"Awright, headin' out then!" He said as the anchor finished raising, the engine of the boat blubbing to life quietly as he pulled on a lever and gently guided the ship out of the cape.

"Just us and our pokemon out'ere; we'll have to handle all the sailin' ourselves." He informed his mentor. "And, uh... It'll be a bit of a long ride."

The island was far from the mainland.

As the settled into a comfortable rhythm, Doug handling the helm for the moment, the young man raised his gaze towards the other.

"Heard ya were gettin' back into the gym circuit?"

---

TL;DR:

BULU

Tapu Island, ft. Genevieve Cromwell

Her non-reaction made him feel older for even trying that joke. Truly relic from a bygone age.

"Sleepin's a favorite pastime o'theirs." He said while leaning his chin atop his palm, smile crooked. "First time I met it, t'was nappin' in the middle of a festival."

It had gotten pretty pissed when the fireworks woke it up, though. A cranky rampage made for a hell of a first impression.

As she peers over the ship's prow, he looks around. An Accelgor pokes its head over the hull, meeting his gaze and nodding before seemingly melting unto the shadowed side of the ship.

"We're goin' to Tapu Lele's Temple of Life." He said, facing towards her and away from land. Careful. "The only Tapu Temple remaining... that we know."

---

TL;DR:

TAPU ISLAND: KOKO

ft. Thomas Benoit

"Sorry for all the cloak n'dagger." He said as his mentor arrived, tipping his hat at the man with a smile whilst leaning against the boat's railings. "You know how it is."

He hadn't even shared where they were going yet. Or why they needed to go there in the middle of the night. Nor why they were sailing out from a cape beneath a sea-side cliff in Dewford, rather than the port.

But they were past worrying for such things.

He grinned as the the anchor began to lift.

"Ready to sail?"

---

TL;DR:

What ails you

ft. Yuina Higashi

He usually treated her gently whenever she began to get depressed, but he couldn't well hug her right now— a little too dangerous , what with the syringe and all.

And, unfortunately for Yuina— not even she was immune to Doug's famously 'terrible' (according to Isaac Merlo) bedside manners.

"What are you getting all Yuina for?" He asked casually as he pressed the syringe against her, unwrapping the elastic band around her bicep to allow the blood to flow. "Ya didn't do anything wrong, nerd. I wouldn't have understood even if you had told me at the time, anyway"

He was barely really 'there' at the time, still halfway caught between dream and reality, his head foggy and his mind slow— not that it was all that fast to begin with.

"So don't feel guilty. I'm mad at him anyway." He said, clicking his tongue as he glared at the ceiling, clearly imagining a very punchable face. "Bringing ya up on the terms he did was dumb as hell."

But then, he wasn't exactly an unbiased actor here; bringing her up at AQUA at all was 'stupid' as far as he was concerned.

---

TL;DR: