security manifests itself at her table several games deep as the men sitting before her grow increasingly agitated by their losses. katja puts a muzzle over her relief as her boss is taken from the table and escorted out of view. she signals for another croupier to take her place. a bathroom break, she tells them as she breezes past, her fingers picking at the knot in her bowtie.
[break][break]
 finally. in the bathroom stall, she relieves herself of her stuffy croupier outfit. no more overt pleasantries teetering on the line of flirting, no more bearing the whites of her teeth at drunken men so they'll stay at the table. flat-faced and dressed in more casual clothing, katja walks out of the casino a completely different person. 
[break][break]
"excellent work today, sir." she looks him over. he's standing on two feet now, the belligerent drunkenness gone like a puff of smoke. turning toward the street, she crosses her arms and fixes her attention on a blinking sign in the distance. "security wasn't too rough with you, were they?"
[break][break]

+ no more cards pog rigged gacha rolls 4 Martín del Mar

the mismagius's shrill, pained scream forces her eyes open. she jolts as if awoken in the midst of a nightmare, sitting upright. katja is unusually slow on the uptake, taking a moment to process the pokemon battle being waged in front of her, the warm press of zayn's body against hers, the unnatural cold that seems to seep through her clothes, through her skin, to the bone. 
[break][break]
hand moving on its own, she reaches for the pokeball on her belt — where is the other? — and tosses it towards the weakened mismagius. in a flash of light, her kingdra bursts from his capsule. spinning, it whips up a twister that drives the ghost-type back into the depths of the forest, leaving a trail of devastation as it chews through the foliage. 
[break][break]
"shit," she hisses under her breath, reaching up to squeeze the bridge of her nose between her fingers. she realizes zayn is underneath her, then, and shifts onto the grass beside him. "did i pass out or something? i ... i don't remember ..." anything. to her memory, they had been canvasing the forest, but she couldn't remember falling down.
[break][break]

[break][break]

+ paranormal activity 4 @zayn

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

katja misses the goomy and vic's successful capture attempt, too absorbed in commanding a fight to hear the click of a pokeball sealing a wild pokemon inside.
she looks back at him for a fleeting second, lifting a hand to absentmindedly tuck a lock of hair behind her ear, and just as promptly turns her face away. it's easy for her to lapse into silence like this, tunnel-visioned on a task. 
[break][break]
she catches a glimpse of a small, blue dragon on a ledge beside the waterfall. it doesn't appear interested or afraid of the commotion going on in the river below. "there, dragalge," she orders, extending an arm to point at the bagon. her pokemon disappears beneath the river's surface and, moments later, launches from the depths. she releases a water pulse — it misses, but the attack is enough to draw the now-irate bagon toward the cliff's edge. 
[break][break]
dragalge spits a thick, purple liquid at the other dragon. the toxic takes effect within seconds. dizzyingly close to the lip of the cliff, the poisoned bagon slips and takes a plunge into the river below. dragalge dutifully brings the dragon to the surface for katja to toss an empty pokeball at it.
[break][break]

+ Victor Wexler  catching bagon a month later pog

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

the kick connects, driving him down to a knee. perhaps humans aren't so weak after all. a laugh rises in her throat, cruel in its bite. her eyes narrow at the stubborn way he stands, at the way he insists on being bullheaded and stupid. the threats don't seem to appeal to the spirit's senses until the pokeball expands in his hand. her expression grows stormy.
[break][break]
"very well," she says flatly. a purple aura surrounds her, curling like smoke off her body. it knots together above her head, forming the silhouette of the spirit that inhabits her body. as the pokemon cuts the last of its invisible marionette strings, katja's legs give out and she collapses.
[break][break]
the mismagius screams, inarticulate, and uses MAGICAL LEAF to yank foliage from the treetops around them and send them flying at zayn.
[break][break]

[break][break]

+ paranormal activity 4 @zayn

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

"we're looking for a dratini," katja tells her kingdra. "you know what to do." in truth, her kingdra and dragalge know little else beyond the fine art of beating the shit out of things. she slides a leg over her kingdra's back and dismounts with a graceless splash, the cool water swirling up to her chin before she begins to tread water. her kingdra disappears beneath the surface to keep an eye out for dwagons.
[break][break]

+ skipping pog

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

an inkay swims by. not a dragon.
[break][break]
i should try swimming out further. the first dratini had likely been some kind of fluke, venturing so close to the shallows as it did. she tosses a pokeball and her kingdra appears in a flash of light. "take us out there," she tells him, pointing out towards the endless stretch of blue. the seahorse swims to her side and offers his back with a huff of his name, sinking ever so slightly as she climbs onto his shoulders. 
[break][break]
"okay," she shifts her weight, wincing as her denim shorts wick up ocean water. "let's go." she rocks back slightly as kingdra kicks it into gear. the dragon-type begins to ferry her toward the deeper parts of the ocean, leaving a wake of foamy waves trailing behind them. 
[break][break]

+ skipping pog

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

"oh." so they are competing for the wild pokemon in this cave. the realization doesn't seem to effect vic at all, but katja can feel herself becoming a bit more on edge. she doesn't want to lose out on new additions to her team because he's vying for the same. still, his disposition rivals an intense sunny day and neuters her desire to ice him out with something blunt. "nice."
[break][break]
she offers to let him have the seadra — a faux charitable move to distract him from what else may crawl from the crevices of the cave — but he declines. at the mention of his kingdra, she peers down below the bridge and watches bubbles rise to the surface. against her belt, her own kingdra's pokeball lurches once. 
[break][break]
there's a loud splash, then waves surge up the rocky walls containing them. a sigilyph flaps furiously to gain altitude away from the water while her wounded dragalge swims in agitated circles below. tension gathers at her brow.
[break][break]
"smokescreen," she orders, her voice clinical. plumes of black smoke twist upward in pursuit of the psychic-type pokemon. the sigilyph flits about erratically. "ready a dragon pulse." dragalge steadies, a blue orb gathering in front of its face. she follows the sigilyph's flight path with her eyes. [break][break]

"now!" and the sigilyph is sent tumbling weird head over weird tail into a far wall. it wouldn't be bothering them anymore, surely.
[break][break]

+ Victor Wexler skipping pog

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

a wailmer erupts from the surface of the ocean, bobbing on top of it like a great beach ball. katja lifts her chin, taking her eyes off her submerged hands, and feels a knot of disappointment when she sees who is making all the splashing. not a dragon. [break][break]katja and the wailmer watch each other for some time before the whale pokemon grows disinterested in the nothingness hanging in the air between them. with a languid cry of its name, it disappears back under the waves with a splash.
[break][break]
katja straightens up and presses a salt-soaked hand against her brow to shade the bright afternoon sun. surely there are more dratini around here?
[break][break]

+ skipping pog

katja presses the safari ball against cool scales and the long serpent disappears inside. the ball struggles once inside her grasp, then goes still with a satisfying ding! with more training, he could definitely become a valuable member of her team — especially if he is actually food motivated and not just bad at hunting for himself.
[break][break]
she attaches the ball back to her belt and bends down to dip her hands into the surf. the prickle of warmth along her exposed arms is a quiet premonition of an upcoming sunburn. she rubs wet hands up her arms to cool them off, but the regret of not wearing sunscreen lingers. 
[break][break]
she feels something brush against her hands when she puts them back in the water, scales and fins brushing against her palms as it swims by. it's a tiny, barely-there touch that could easily be mistaken for seaweed or some kind of sea debris — which is exactly what katja assumes it is. the wishiwashi continues to follow whatever course it's taking into the waters to her left, unknown to her. 
[break][break]
not that she'd be very hurt if she knew a pokemon had slipped away just — quite literally — under her nose. the only dragon-type in this zone, that she knows of, is a nigh six-foot serpent.  
[break][break]

+ skipping pog

katja deals del mar his card. with a fluid motion, she flips it face up in her grasp and places it down in front of him. the card brings his total up to a perfect twenty-one. her eyebrows raise in performative disbelief as the rest of the table erupts in grumbling and loud curses at this drunkard that has laid claim to all the chips they had put up for bet. her boss seems to live and breathe this role, kissing the ring hanging from his neck with a look on his face like he might burst into relieved tears.
[break][break]

as a croupier, as a team rocket member, she can't entertain his histrionics, but she can entertain his drunken request for more chips. she asks how much he wants and gives him the chips. everyone else stays glued to the table, their eyes darting toward the tall stack of chips del mar has accrued. several demand more chips, which she obliges with a smile. 
[break][break]
katja takes a glance at del mar's near-empty glass and hopes he can handle his drink. she passes out cards and reveals one of her own — an ace. casino rules call it an eleven, which have some of the men at the table tugging at their collars. she hardly needs to signal for him to hit — of course a drunk man with nothing (and everything) to lose would test his fool's luck again.
[break][break]

+ space does not really know card games but she will fake it til she makes it in rigged gacha rolls 4 Martín del Mar

the punch connects, sending a shock down through her shoulder from the impact. another growl crackles in the back of her throat, unnatural, inhuman, as it hisses past gritted teeth. he spits, painting the grass a deep red. "whether i win or — " she stumbles over the word lose. is losing an option? " — no matter, i will take down as many of you as i can."
[break][break]
he's out of range of her fists, now, so she lashes out with a kick at his legs. "i'm going to make you feel the hurt of this forest!" 
[break][break]

+ paranormal activity 4 @zayn

[attr="class","pokeclass"]