as fernando surfaced, francie had finished cleaning off her piece. she twisted it over in her hand a few times before holding it out for fernando to see.

"it's the top of a fossil, from what i can tell. worth keeping my hands on just in case i can find the bottom somewhere else. though, pity, cause the bottom's probs down there where the top came from..."

the rumbling caught her off guard. it sounded familiar, like burrowing. her own excadrill, wilbur, makes the same noises inside a cave.

"...if we don't want to be caught up in the chaos, we'd better get a move on and head away from the group."

it wasn't rare to end up disrupting a bunch of pokémon while searching for goodies in caves, but it was also as easy to avoid if one timed it well enough. so without much thought, she took fernando's hand and glanced around, heading off toward their guide.

"@cat's this way," her lycanroc quickly moves ahead, using a CRUNCH against a small drilbur that had tried to cross his trainer's bath. "best stick close to her, since she's leading the way."

her lycanroc managed to find something while chomping on the drilbur, but he keeps it within his maw until he knows his trainer is safe enough to investigate.

TL;DR

+ laments she's got a half of a whole fossil
+ pulls FERNANDO SILPH toward @cat to keep close by the instructor
+ louie finds something while protecting the two, keeps in his mouth
!! discoveries include...

SPOILER: Click to show

MOON STONE, WATER STONE, FOSSIL TOPS

pkAV1RCc

"no problem!"

francie had already dug into her pockets and pulled nicky's pokéball out, tossing it to reveal the onix.

"nic! you're in a city, don't get crazy. but we need a little finesse, yeah? we've gotta get that nest and move it someplace safe, okay? think you can lend a head?"

nicky looked to francie curiously before looking to the nest. he was used to helping francie mover around while on his head, so he supposed that he could carry a nest.

"just for an extra bit of help, i'm gonna send louie up."

louie's head whipped around to glare at francie, making a sort of, 'THE FCUK?' expression. to which francie just smiled and gave his snout a kiss as nicky lowered his head. with a snort, louie got up on onix and decided to steel himself as nicky rose his head up toward the nest.

with a friendly groan, the onix introduced himself to alexei. louie started to wag his tail despite himself because new people francie liked were always fun. plus, he got to help hold an egg. which he secretly loved. cause he loved lil baby pokémon.

Alexei Ivanov

"i'm a little bit of a lot of things," francie thought over while caressing the dwebble in all the right places, trying to get him to calm down. He eventually ended up relaxing by curling into his rock a bit and against francie's arms. "i was a trainer for a while, then a gym leader, then a sort of hoenn representative for a while before going back to being a trainer again. now i'm a ranger, helping to represent the silph company within that outlet."

she took a small breath, thinking it over. was she good with pokémon? she supposed so. lots of people said she had a real knack for it.

as she contemplated and put the houndour into its new capsule, putting that capsule on her belt, she looked toward lyonel who was fussing with something else in the grass. with a rush, suddenly lyonel came sliding out of the grass while holding the head of a cranidos.

all it took was lyonel being that close and using his IRON TAIL to twist and crack against that skull of the cranidos for the poor little pokémon to grunt and hit the ground.

noticing something else in the grass, lyonel gave a huff and howl. francie immediately knew what it meant.

"watch out, something else is in the grass." she warned barnaby.

// capture attempt CRANIDOS, -1 pokéball

BARNABY FINCH

"hello emma!" francie greets without a second thought, smiling and ignoring the fact that she got there early. she just liked mountains and the more she got to explore them the better. namely while working-- like getting paid to do what you love or whatever.

lucky duck.

"and it's nice to meet you too, na'au. i'm francie," she pulled her leafeon up into her arms and beamed a bright and warm smile. "and this is fiona!"

emmett brookes

francie listened to paxton, nodding at the idea of a nest and shrugging.

"i mean, it's not uncommon for one to have just kept digging and ended up here. but it does seem very pointed, i agree. i'm thinking somebody might've trained it this way."

could have even been a rocket grunt for all they knew, or just somebody who wanted to make a quick buck. either way, she released her dusk form lycanroc, giving him a quick pet.

"louie, meet paxton. we're on the case of the curious grinch who is stealing people's presents so, let's try and get a sniff, huh?"

as francie pointed out the tracks, louie gave a sniff and started to follow the smell. as he did, francie waved for paxton to follow, keeping up with her lycanroc as he sniffed the trail out.

paxton concordas

"yes! yep, that's me. responder. happy to see somebody's out here looking as well, that's a relief."

and she'd be making a note to the rangers as well. man, they really needed a quicker way to move around the region than just ranger stations and possible rangers in the area. at least, to francie that was the fact.

maybe they could come up with an app or something, via silph co., y'know?

"do we know where they were last seen? could try and snuff them out from there."

Greyson Connors

"that's me! francie."

quickly, she returned the lopsided smile with a bright and cheerful one of her own. she was like the sunrise and the sunset, altogether, meshed with the warmth of a sunflower field.

"it's so nice to meet you, like, i was super nervous cause you're flawless, still am a little intimidated by you."

her foot's in her mouth and she can't move forward, just stuck there, until skyler beckoned her with a tilt of her jaw and thankfully she takes the hint. she nods and eagerly follows skyler wherever she wants to take francie.

"oh, are we going out to sea?" she didn't mind, made obvious by how she kept her smile in place. "are there like, safety procedures or something i should abide by or...?"

life jackets and stuff is what she meant, but y'know.

skyler dross

mission link

"i mean, it was a while ago and i'd only been here once. like now? now it's like, 'oh i've totally been here.' but when we first walked in it was just like, 'wait have i been here? i dunno.' y'know?"

somebody stop her from talking, she'll just keep going. because that's who she is. but, as she spoke, she distracted herself with all the cuties around the room, petting here and there. everybody but the espeon because she looked a lil angry.

but that felt like a challenge, so she took a seat on the couch next to the espeon and pointedly left her lap open just in case before looking toward alexei who was talking about food.

"we were thinking hot chocolate. anything that goes with that is fine with me, or we don't have to eat, i'm down with whatever. i'm just happy to be here!"

Alexei Ivanov @mattis

watching the conversation in the air made her a little anxious. because she couldn't put in her opinion? no, because she wasn't going to put in her opinion. because this was a little out of her element, to an extent. alexei was taking point and that was fine, but recently, she was used to doing her thing.

this time, she was just gonna follow his thing. follow his lead and put in her two cents when spoken to. speaking of...

"nicky's got a pretty big head, my onix." francie began as she put a hand on her chin. "and nicky'll be tall enough to get his head up there, maybe he'll be a better help? could be big enough to hold the nest as a whole..."

Alexei Ivanov

"that's alright! could use the warmth on a day like this anyway."

it's cold, it's winter, and the warmth makes francie feel a little more relaxed. she gives tilly a small pat, smiling and kissing the rough skin while avoiding getting an eye poked out by there mega-spikes.

"leggo tills!"

the mega evolved aerodactyl gave a screech before flapping her wings and raising, sure to move in sync with matias' charizard to pick up the giant whale. the help from francie's other rock pokemon was helpful, the drednaw and the carracosta making sure the whale was guided into the deeper waters a bit more easily, following on the sand at first and then into the water.

"there's a release on the side! on three, we can drop it nice and easy into the waters! sound good?"

MATIAS SILPH

as she's introduced, francie just gives a warm smile and waves. but then fernando leaves room for her to talk, and that has her moving over and holding her hand out to razz like a proper weirdo who apparently still shakes hands. like that's a thing anymore. don't people just nod or smile?

no, not francie, she offers handshakes like some kinda creep.

"hello! it's nice to meet you mr. kingsman! you can just call me francie."

oh, and he's young, she noticed. but it wasn't a judgement, just something she took note of for the sake of if anybody asked. like the fact that he's got black hair and the fact that the living space is very homey and she already worries her rock pokémon will end up in their pokéballs most of the time.

no, she really didn't think twice about the scar. wondered what happened maybe, but it wasn't any of her business.

Raziel Beckett FERNANDO SILPH

the hug is welcomed with francie's bright smile and an excited wiggle within the hold. francie is all excitement and happiness, squeezing angelo likely as hard as angelo is squeezing her; though she puts forth the effort and he likely doesn't have to do that.

"it's good to see you too!" she either remains or pulls away, depends on what he does next. but she's a person who reflects the movements of others most of the time. "i'm sorry it took me forever and a day to get to come and visit. it's been a really rough few years for me... and before that, just busy, y'know?"

excuses aside, she grins. "but anyway, how're you angie?"

angelo vestri

the idea was to scope out the area of mt. chimney that had recently been affected by some less than nice wild pokémon. they'd been moved, but francie was sent in as a ranger to make sure that the surrounding mountain side didn't have any damage to the environment that needed fixing.

most of the time the surrounding pokémon would fix or adapt and the rangers were sent out to ensure that this was still the case. that they wouldn't need to lend a helping hand.

so there francie was, in her ranger gear, with her badge and pin, waiting for her 'help' to arrive so that she could get to hiking and get started on investigating the area and ensuring that it was in tip-top shape-- for the most part.

emmett brookes

mission link