“Fuck, how many do I have left again?” After warning her apparent newfound accomplice in wild ‘Mon subduing and capture, she spoke to herself while checking her pockets. From the looks of it, she counted about four left. The Skarmory she caught earlier joined the ranks of her main party, but it was in poor shape and she doubted it would be wise to immediately send it off into battle against the potential belligerents around the area.

Turning her attention back to her fellow blonde, she watched on as the woman gave the order for her Lucario to use Close Combat; equitable to an emperor giving the thumbs down in a coliseum. Swangin’ and Bangin’, barrages of impacting strikes were disseminated unto the Empoleon until it slammed into a wall, where it subsequently was subjected to the vehement crash of a follow-up Aura Sphere. “Damn, girl…” Sofia muttered, scratching her cheek. The woman then caught it after that, and she started feeling slightly bad for the immediate populace.

Holding out another ball, she siphoned her Braixen back into its confines. “Here, take a bit of a break for now.” After a subsequent flick of her wrist, she sent out the familiar Pokémon from before—her Primarina. Around that time, Sofia spotted a rather endearing, predominantly blue-coloured Pokémon rounding the corner of the cave. Maybe she could be a little gentle about this? It looked more curious than anything. Welp…

“Brunnera, use Sing,” Sofia said, and thus commenced the beautiful, haunting melody that emanated from the first Pokémon she ever formally accompanied. Rather not expecting the confrontation, the Amaura likely slipped into a quick slumber, slumping onto the rocky ground below. “And follow up with Sparkling Aria!”

The song continued to flow, the tempo of the melody picking up, and a large orb of water collected above her Primarina. It tore through the air towards the Amaura, slamming into it at such a trajectory that the cumulative force was bound to send it into a wall. Its consciousness suspect after the combination, Sofia took the opportunity to reach into her pocket and toss a Pokéball towards the creature, hoping to seize it within.

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Megan Whitmore | Attempting to catch Amaura!

Watching the familiar crimson, amorphous energy be sucked into the iconic capturing device, she waited, and soon witnessed the fruits of her labor. Adorning a smile, she stepped closer to where she tossed the ball and picked it up; minimizing it to its diminutive size and stowing it into her pocket. By the time the blonde finished her own brief spat with the Skarmory, and her subsequent successful capture of it, her attention panned towards the nearby other blonde and the apparent successful repulsion of a belligerent Makuhita. Putting two and two together, she wagered the Lucario must have given it a good crack upside the head.

Before she could offer much of a response, she noticed another anomaly behind this stranger. Politely, she pointed towards the imposing Empoleon approaching the woman, because she reckoned she might want to look out for the immediate danger. “Ah, over there…” Maybe it stirred from a nearby slumber after hearing her Lucario beat the shit out of that Makuhita—she didn’t know.

Her Braixen alerted her to the immediate existence of another encroaching hostile, and she turned around to face it. A Breloom—and she had to take cover behind nearby rocky protrusions to avoid the sudden SEED BOMB onslaught. Her Braixen took the brunt of it, but as it moved rearwards and was a poor choice of target for such a move, it didn’t appear affected as dramatically as the belligerent thought. In response, it expelled a violent, vehement torrent of flame at their aggressor from the kindled end of its ever-burning stick, engulfing it in a FLAMETHROWER. Conclusively, the oppressive scent of its own partial incineration was likely enough to send it running away back from whence it came.

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Megan Whitmore | passes

Evidently, their period spent in technical isolation concluded with the persistent reverberation rinsing throughout the expansive, cavernous environment. Her cerulean eyes widened before elongating under the weight of her furrowed brow, her attention trained on the near distance where she made out the forms of two figures. One feminine, the other a particular fighting type the blonde knew of. With the fruitless efforts of pulverizing the rock only bearing fruit in the form of alerting every waking denizen of the cave to their existence, Sofia released a diminutive sigh.

Having expected to be joined by wild Pokémon as a result, she reacted quickly to the goosebumps covering her nape. Pivoting and turning around, her eyes widened as she caught glimpse of a an airborne Skarmory a short distance away. It seemed disturbed and belligerent—hmm, she wondered why.

Raising her currently vacant Pokéball, a thin stream of red light emitted from it and unto the Primarina at her side. It was fortunate she did, too; the armored bird Pokémon whisked through the air her companion used to be with a razor-sharp METAL CLAW.

While it recovered from its momentum, one deft motion later and the blonde tossed and released Amaryllis in his steed. A juvenile Braixen left in the wake of the bird, it turned around and prepared for another round. However, the Skarmory boasted a keen intellect, perhaps as sharp as its notable perception. After taking inventory of her last action, it spun itself around in an amorphous blur, releasing myriad crimson SPIKES to pollute the battlefield; a makeshift minefield for anyone intent on future switch outs. Even as far as the other blonde and her angry Lucario.

In no time, it became apparent that Amaryllis wasn’t fucking around. Kindling the end of the stick in his grasp, he traced a shape in the air—the outline of the ensuing attack. The sweeping motion unleashed a familiarly shaped FIRE BLAST to crash into the Skarmory with violent intent, the subsequent eruption turning it momentarily into an airborne, metallic wreath of flame. Once the smouldering discontinued, a mesmerized Sofia caught her bearings and tossed a vacant Pokéball at the Skarmory.

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Megan Whitmore | Attempting to catch Skarmory!

Stowed within a historical landmark, a cave laden with rare stones, Sofia sported the symbiotic desire for both research and potentially expanding the numbers of her new family. Perhaps it could be deemed fitting—even at the expense of further exhausting a tired idiom—to be killing two birds with one stone in a location seemingly littered with the latter medium. It seemed like a lucrative trip to humour while she had several days to spare outside of her field of work; or rather, it was loosely associated with her normal area of expertise.

Sparse, midday sunlight peeked through the yawning, cavernous maw that denoted the entrance of the cave. Sofia already found herself within the grounds, trailing her fingertips along the sometimes coarse, sometimes smooth stony walls that comprised the earthen interior of the Granite Cave. Accompanied by her signature companion, a large Primarina made its way alongside her, nearly half a foot over her in stature—but the distinction mitigated somewhat by it being more length-wise inclined from head-to-tail.

He looked ahead, and seemed to be quietly taking inventory of their mutual surroundings. Sofia wagered that, given the location, she may find better sanctuary in the azure soloist’s presence than the alternatives, but that depended on the potential adversity. Either way, she kept her eyes peeled, sapphire twins visually probing her surroundings for anything of note—animate or not.

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Megan Whitmore

Oh no. Ms. Olson departed with her partner, and he found himself feeling an oppressive loneliness viscous enough to breathe with each waking breath not spent in her company. When it came to his interactions with others of his ilk, he found himself deficient in popularity. Perhaps it was the eccentric, emerald plumage—or maybe the massive eyes which seemed to pry into the very souls of those unfortunate enough stand within his stout, foot-high wake. Either way, the aura and aesthetic he sported worked against him—and his salvation lay in the human who happily took him in and showed him affection.

Ever the quiet one, those gargantuan windows to the soul trained on the duo who departed from himself and his nearby feathered associate. A thousand-yard stare imposed on the two as he found his latest plight being the gnawing void in his heart; the feeling that spread through his feathers and talons akin to a numbing anesthesia, the thirty seconds away from his trainer encompassing and lacerating his psyche. Well, no, that might have been an exaggeration—but nonetheless, the grass quill Pokémon twisted around to face the fellow bird who addressed him with his giant black saucers centered with a pinpoint of light; eyes derived straight from a horror movie. Still, he sounded strangely pleasant.

“Indeed—well, to an extent. You see, not for too long—that would be quite taxing, you see, and certainly not adequately enough to bear Ms. Olson’s form atop me! Oh, how I wish I was far more adept at it, and that I were much larger…”


@matilda