Deadass, she thought she'd been out here this entire time completely on her own. Every time she'd turned around, Salem had conveniently been in her blind spot or behind a booth or up high on a ladder just above her line of sight. It helped that Remi was half blind.

And that she was wearing wireless earbuds and blasting her awful music.

But one falls out with the turn of her head, she steps on it, and she hears a voice curse and spit. It drags her attention abruptly upward to the unsteady, shaking young man perched on the tippy-top of a rickety ladder. She slow-blinks and shakes her head.

"You have a deathwish? You look like a baby Girafarig."

She abandons her string of missing lights and her missing earbud and strides over to help hold the ladder steady. What she doesn't see, however, is that the ladder is unsteady because someone's been taking bites out of the legs on the opposite side.

Oops!

mission: trapinch who stole xmas

@salem

☉

A handshake.

Remi glances down at her extended hand, and she takes it if only to pose as polite. But what surprises her more isn't the fact she's shaking hands with a stranger, but that the woman is talking about her tiny Bulbasaur as if it might stand any sort of chance against the wilderness.

Though, upon watching it trot up to Bane and introduce itself so boldly, maybe she's being a bit harsh. Not a lot of Pokemon just strode up to the Pangoro without fear.

"It's all in the way you square your feet."

She's being sarcastic, but something tells her this girl might take her seriously.

Pangoro glances down at the tiny turnip staring up at him. He grunts, rolls the stick around to the other side of his mouth, and offers an awkward, stiff wave. But they exchange a knowing glance that not even Remi can interpret.

"Cool. Alright. Let's get moving, then."

mission: digging yourself into a hole

Matilda Greenlaw

☉

"Is that right? Sounds shit."

She doesn't hide the bitterness in her voice. The drink in her hand is steadily emptying, but the pain she feels is too strong for alcohol to numb.

"Excuse me?"

She snorts, stares at him, and leans back in her chair to size him up.

"Apologies, boss, for boring you."

Remi finishes her drink and squints a bit at the burn.

"I'm a smuggler. I'm pretty good at finding and retrieving rare Pokemon - sometimes other things if the situation calls for it - for the right price."

mission: recruitment act. 1

THEO BECKETT

☉

"Yep."

Nope, but that guy was a total creep. She could be 'chargacola' for one night, though. What even was that? Was it a drink?

"But you can call me Remi, instead, if you'd like."

Remi slides into the seat next to her if she was sat next to a bar, or across from her if they were at a booth. For how awkward this entire thing was, Remi was surprisingly good at keeping it together. One had to think if she had been lying about not having done this before.

francie myrtle

☉

He listens, follows direction, and leans into her reciprocating touch. She gasps, legs wrapping around to pull him closer. Something falls off the desk and breaks, but she doesn't give it another thought.

The room fades away until all that exists is the two of them.

virgil roach

☉

Both of them? How bold.

"Well. Any friend of Virgil's is a friend of mine."

There is a faraway look in Cap's eye for a moment, but Remi is hardly the prying or mind-reading type.

"Favourite bar?"

Remi laughs, but he's got her. This is her favourite bar. But she does tilt her head and suck in a breath, giving him a side-eye and a playful smirk.

"I don't know. I tend to work alone. Too many cooks in the kitchen and something catches fire."

Caprice Isaac

☉

She struck a chord. She could see it in the tiny little fire behind his eyes and the absence of noise after her statement. He was considering his options, calculcating the distance between his fist and her face -- or maybe that was all her.

"Cool."

Remi side-eyes him and his neck-cracking display. His indifferent, cold attitude also amuses her, indicative by the sharp exhale of air through her nose and the uplift of her lips in a smirk.

"You betcha, neck-snapper."

She winks and steps away from him to approach and disappear into the first tent. Inside are a huddle of Bulbasaur, led by one aggressive, desperate Ivysaur trying to keep his herd in line. They're all weak and frostbitten, their mottled skin pale and splotchy.

"Pop the trunk, Jenkins. We'll put the turnips in the back closest to the front of the truck. They look like they need the heat."

mission: cold caravan

@elliott

☉

"Clearly."

Remi's interest is piqued just as much as it is fraught with worry that she might be Evelyn's next experiment. But she does turn the question around on her, prompting the woman to point at herself in confusion.

"I mean.. sure. Gooo Rocket!"

She raises her imaginary pompoms in a weak display of solidarity, offering a sarcastic smile. Remi had always been a cowardly, selfish person. Working for Rocket had been borne of greed and necessity. They paid well, really well. But so far, the loyalty she offered to them had not been quite the same in return from them. Some people in Rocket were real dickheads.

But maybe there was some room for change - for her and for them.

"Yeah, see. I don't really hang around the labs. Gavin's cute and all but, sciency shit really isn't my thing."

And frankly, if Evelyn was hiding something, Remi didn't care not worry about it. That was her business, not Remi's. Just as long as her business didn't include Remi via experimentation and mind-control.

"Yeah.. wow. It's almost like you guys want Rocket to look like the bad guys."

Coercion, interrogation, forced cooperation. Something about the League and Rocket captees. Yeah, it all sounded totally crazy, but crazy was sort of up her alley. Crazy paid well.

"Hey, whatever, lady. As long as you aren't looking at me with those poison manipulation ideas, go off."

Evelyn Vespera

☉

Narrowly avoiding getting trapped by the Ariados' spider webs, Mandibuzz dives down into the hole to retrieve lost Zigzagoon.

At some point the bird mistakes even kyle lopez's Obstagoon for one of the trapped Pokemon. After what is probably a confusing scuffle of feathers and black and white fur, Mandibuzz abandons the Obstagoon and goes back to Zigzagoon retrieving.

For the most part, the scary-looking mange-bird doesn't cause more damage than good. However, it is totally exhausting to have to keep retrieving the same stubborn Zigzagoon when they come tumbling back down. Who was in control of these guys?

Someone seriously needs to put a fence up around this well.

kyle lopez Hideo Kino MATIAS SILPH Melody Miro @jessica Henry Driscoll francie myrtle

☉

Remi wasn't a breakfast person, but for the sake of appeasing the intimidating Mama Joey and Stevey, she cracked open her protein breakfast bar and washed it down with a half bottle of water.

But then it was onto the good stuff: the cave diving equipment and the instructions and.. yeah. She was ready. So ready. So unbelievably ready. All she had to do was get down there and get digging and all of the profit would be hers.

Well, some of it. She had to share, obviously, and that was fine.

Somewhere in the sea of unfamiliar faces, she spots the angelic face of one miss francie myrtle. She raises a brow, purses her lips, but otherwise doesn't address it because there are more important things. Like buckling up, carabinering in, and giving her and her Pangoro partner a pep-talk.

And then they're in the cave, fully decked out and fully prepared to load their pockets full of weird spheres.

Remi does another quick sweep of the room and notices, this time, a few more familiar faces. A few being bryan delarosa and Eris Halla. The pipsqueak in particular pulls her into their orbit. Call it the 'mama bear' in her.

"Hey, kid. You can stick with me if you'd like."

Her Pangoro continues to meander about, using one sharp claw to pluck at something shiny in the wall nearby. Remi inclines her head and offers a bemused grin Eris.

3vdhvpZ2

tldr: - grabs breakfast in the form of a protein bar
- gets all geared up, super pumped, lets go boys
- finds eris in the mines and approaches her
- mama bear mode engaged, no harm will come to the child
- pangoro roots around for gems

Eris Halla

☉

She catches onto the teasing lilt in his tone and it pulls a smirk more firmly across her face. Intrigue and some sort of hunger glints in her eye as he ups the ante with another bear.

If nothing else, it certainly puts him in her good books. It's not every day a man knows how to handle a Pokemon like that. Remi is not the least bit subtle about how she sizes him up this time, or how she admires the hulking frame of miss Bernadette.

"I wasn't lying. Charizard aren't something you just fuck around with for the hell of it."

He calls for someone named Gabrielle, and she raises a brow, only to see that he was referring to his cat. Knock off a point for that, never mind the fact that she has a Meowth of her own at home. She picks up strays, okay? Especially if they like bears.

"Convenient."

Remi appears quite satisfied and impressed by the HYPNOSIS display. With a unceremonious thud, the Charizard falls asleep. His bellowing is soon replaced with snores. The flames stop pouring out of superheated bars, and, after Beartic steps in to cool them off, all three bears are able to lift the heavy crate up off the ground.

"Shall we, then?"

BARNABY FINCH

☉

It's called right place, right time, baby.

If you look like a duck and talk like a duck, no one will know that you aren't a duck. She's picked up a thing or two from her scientist friends, and from plenty of years spent hassling Pokemon and learning the ins and outs. So naturally, she's capable of spouting about a little bit of nonsense about a little bit of everything. Just enough to get by, y'know? Just enough to not raise a brow.

Now, naturally, the woman wasn't really here for archeological means. The pretty stones and the uncovered fossils aren't really what she's interested in. It's the wild Pokemon and the potential opportunity to smuggle rare beauties out of the area that really interested her. But sure, fancy stones and priceless fossils were nice too.

"..and there's more hired guard on the way--" there's her cue. She looks the part, too. Rugged, gruff, a little intimidating. Though she isn't exactly built like a truck, she wears an eyepatch and covers up with dark clothing and rough leather. Oh, and she has a huge, hulking Pangoro at her side. A body guard for a body guard. Cool, right?

"Yo-- we can get started whenever, science-lady."

Though as soon as she opens her mouth, the archaeologist is already gone and working. One-track mind, probably. Whatever, that made it all the easier if the woman was so buried in her work that she doesn't notice anything else.

mission: digging yourself into a hole

Matilda Greenlaw

☉