she quickly shakes her head.
"no issue."

that's what these pokemon were for - fighting the good fight, keeping the peace, or anything else she needed them to do. she knew that a few of them had been bred specifically for this work: the pawniard came from a long line of such pokemon, for example.

the rest would learn as parvati did.

"so, should we... start?"

at some point the run stopped being about proving herself to her captain. she stopped worrying about keeping up, because she was keeping up, and soon enough the finish line would be crossing beneath her feet; it wasn't demarcated anywhere that she could see, but the captain called over his shoulder and that clued her in.

after reaching the required distance she went a little further, just at a staggered pace. her legs were aching in a good way and she knew not to stop abruptly, or the muscles would tense and strain, which wasn't a great feeling. parvati was, essentially, prancing around until the last of her energy depleted.

"that was -- fun --" she said between gasps.

looking from the captain to the green deer and back, parvati remembered that they weren't finished. she had almost entirely forgotten about the last thing on the itinerary. with a quick breath in through the nose the cadet stood properly at attention.

"i -- should mention, sir, that... i haven't had much experience with pokemon." what a thing to admit out loud. parvati wasn't ashamed by this at all. "i have a small team, but most of them were inherited. i don't know if that will change anything."

regardless, parvati was determined to figure this out and succeed.

running lent the girl a sense of freedom. it was one of the few things she had excelled at in middle school, when she'd started her growth spurt, and then triumphed with in her final school years. the local track team was sad to lose her; though, parvati had always had her eye on a military career, so it wasn't a huge surprise.

the pace increased; she kept up, soon smiling through the familiar burn in her lungs. when a sharp green silhouette appeared behind the captain however, parvati lost a step. she hadn't expected the arrival of a pokemon (especially one like virizion!).

the distance between herself and the captain had lengthened. parvati steadied herself and did her best to ignore the presence of the creature (which wasn't all that successful), and managed to find her stride again.

The main road connected to a series of branching paths winding west from Lilycove. As the city diminished one way, the alpine cliffs rose up to dominate the field of view, and down along one of those smaller dirt paths was Parvati.

Still in her fatigues for the most part, but with her outer shirt unbuttoned so that she could feel air on her exposed neck. The black tank-top gave her figure more boyish angles. Her hair was barely contained by a thick scrunchie - she wanted it out of her face and off of her neck.

She came to a stop at a bend in the road. Gulping at air, hands on her knees, leaning in to the wind as she huffed and puffed. A canteen hung off of a thin leather strap across her shoulder, which she pulled against her chest, opened, and drank from. A bead of water slipped out of the corner of her mouth and she didn't notice until it soaked in to the cotton of her shirt.

As Parvati finished drinking she swiped the back of her hand against her face, capped the canteen, and got ready to go again.

It was her day off from her duties - but that didn't mean much, given all that she had to live up to. Every moment she could spare was spent trying to make herself stronger; besides, it was a beautiful day out and without orders to fulfill, she had no idea what to do with all of her excess energy.

Okay, so maybe it wasn't a smart idea to try and strong-arm your way in to a job when you weren't prepared for it, but when Parvati heard through the grape vine that there was a swarm reported near Verdanturf, she knew she had to find her way out there.

All she wanted was a little bit of action. Did she know anything about these Musharna? No. Had she done anything beyond basic training? No. Was she out of her depth? Probably. The trip took a few days, most of which Parvati spent too wired to sleep, or passed out at odd hours; she was still adjusting to the more regimented aspects of military living.

The goal was to investigate the musharna, protect them from possible poaching, and see them safely on their way. There was a possibility that this was some kind of seasonal migration, which made no sense to Parvati. She'd tried to read the report she'd been given but on more than one attempt, woke up with ink staining her face or the paper stuck to her face, thanks to a thin layer of drool.

If she was going to be any use out in the field she'd have to do better. It was with this heightened level of gumption that she finally pulled herself together, making her way to one of the small outposts along the route, get signed in, and get the heck to work.

One hand minded the pokeball that now housed the cramorant. The other pinched the bridge of Parvati's nose as she lingered within a cloud of frustration. The stranger might have seen the cramorant's binge eating, or maybe they were only passing by after the fact, but Parvati hadn't noticed them until they spoke.

Blinking owlishly at the boy, Parvati cleared her throat, thinking fast.

"Not lost, exactly - a member of my team gave me the slip. Its all fine now though." As she explained this she clicked the pokeball, now decreased in size, against the standard-issue belt she had picked up earlier in the day. The rest of her team was neatly aligned along her waiste for quick-draw scenarios.

"I've been assigned accomodations around here, somewhere -" which was a big change, but a welcome one. Before she could say much else, the boy introduced himself and welcomed her along; evidently, they were destined to be neighbors.

"That works for me! You can call me Parvati if you like."

They weren't far from the complex. The landlord, who looked more than a little distraught and a touch suspicious to Parvati, spotted them soon enough and erupted with an explanation. Or a plea for help; there wasn't much difference.

"Some bugs? Should be a piece of cake."

saffron city. it had been in the news but parvati didn't keep up with that stuff. too busy figuring out the rest of her life.

she got to her feet and stretched, feeling her lower back pop.

her height had always worried her mother; she rivaled her brothers and soon outgrew them. on one hand her lankiness was unbecoming - but if she wanted to use those long legs, she could blast past competition.

not that this was a race. her confidence visibly boosted when she prepared to start the run, and soon she was jogging alongside the captain - conversation cut short as she measured each breath.

after exiting the building, they stopped side by side. parvati knew what to expect to some degree - although she had anticipated meeting other cadets, she wasn't the type to question things outright. besides, the captain had explained himself adequately enough.

she gave a quick look around and stepped away from him, at which point she dropped to do the push-ups. it didn't take her long; she was lightly winded in the end. the sit-ups were next - and as she repositioned herself, parvati felt the flutter of anxiety again. she waited for the cue to start, expecting to be timed, and began when necessary.

"you're not from hoenn, so -- where?"

she tried to speak between movements. as if that would make the laborious nature of this test pass any faster.

when he begins to walk she quickly moves to follow, finding a pace alongside him. while he might be privy to her full background, she doesn't see a dossier in his hands. the question itself is innocuous.

"yes." she doesn't look around much as they walk together, eyes front, and with a rigid gait that proves she's a new recruit should anyone spot them together.

"here, actually. my parents moved to lilycove just before i was born."

someone was waiting for her. seeing as it was her first day, that wasn't a surprise. the surprise came when parvati recognized the face she was seeing - a member of the elite four? he looked young but parvati bypassed that and went straight to intimidating.

once, her younger brother ranjan had entertained the thought of becoming a full-time trainer with the league, but the pressure from mom and dad put him off of it. parvati could recall a few months of obsessive magazine collecting; the latest issue of the HNN mentioned one matias silph being promoted in to those ranks.

"cadet atiyeh, reporting in." she said on cue.
while her superior made a far better introduction, she berated herself interally for how ridiculous she sounded.

"ah, thank you -- captain. i'm glad to be here." her skin was humming with nervous energy, but she kept herself composed despite feeling absolutely out-of-place, as one often did in new places.

Parvati hadn't meant to be roaming the side streets of Lilycove, but here she was. It had taken her ten minutes to orient herself, another fifteen to spot the bulky shape of a Pokemon among some tipped-over garbage cans; yes, this was one of her's, buried face-first in someone elses refuse.

After marching up to where the plump blue shape sat against the sidewalk, she tapped her foot, and then nudged the creature's rear-end. The cramorant gave a strangled bark. There was a trampled burger beneath one of its feet; pieces of small wax paper, likely for candy wrapping, rained from off its back; its mouth was full but open as it turned to face her, stuck that way from all that had been collected.

"Do you need me to say it?" She said, crouching so that they were eye-to-mouth.

The cramorant blinked in its wall-eyed way, looking a modicum more tense than before.

"Pandu..." God, why are you the way that you are.

"Spit it out."

Its features straightened for a moment. The rest of the bird sagged in defeat, knowing it would be unwise to ignore its only reliable food source, even if it had found itself a bounty. Parvati was frowning with her chin propped on her fist, all tucked together where she sat waiting for the end result.

Pandu wheezed like a deflating whoopie cushion as it turned towards the can laying on its side, and returned the garbage from wence it came - mostly intact, a little bit soggy. Without a word of praise to the bird, Parvati gave a sigh of her own and returned him to his pokeball. As she stood she straightened her uniform and looked around again, trying to gather her bearings without the looming threat of the hungry idiot to contend with.