making her way over to the ball that had clicked to signify she'd caught the houndour, she immediately let the poor thing out and started to use a few items, to nurse her back to health. a little revive here, a super potion there, that kinda jive.

lyonel stayed close by her, making sure nothing moved in the brush. when he did hear something, he quickly zero'd in and used an IRON TAIL to attack. the little DWEBBLE that had gotten caught by his eye went rolling, returning the attack with a ROCK BLAST before moving closer to francie, as if she'd protect her from dangerous doggo like she'd protected the little doggo!

"don't worry," she told the dwebble before eyeing her lycanroc. "you're safe with me-- and would you stop picking a fight with everything that breathes??"

the dwebble was safely tucking itself into francie's arms as she withdrew the houndour and then used a pokéball to attempt to capture the dwebble.

lyonel, on the other hand, snorted like 'bet' and then made his way through the grass again to go about terrorizing the local wildlife. really? hadn't that pretty boy asked for a ponyta? maybe this would scare one out.

// capture attempt DWEBBLE, -1 pokéball

BARNABY FINCH

they made it. they succeeded, they were alive.

and francie's adrenaline had her grinning like a mad person. why? because they were exploring a cave!! it was so much fun! at least, she was having a blast. all the different cogs in the machine were turning and they were all moving forward.

a little water wasn't about to scare her, no sirey bob! so she just beamed at her lycanroc who really wasn't lookin' like he wanted to go cave diving.

"awe, c'mon lou, it'll be fun. besides, we gotta clear the way for fernando!"

instead of going first, francie waited and let a few others go first. then, she sent her lycanroc in first who was clumsy, but managed to make it into and through the water with a decent bit of ease.

francie could see others digging around in a small cavern, picking stones. she decided not to, but she did keep her eyes peeled-- which is when she saw... something in the water.

so in an attempt to hopefully find something a bit more interesting, she waved for louie to go with her, using him to pull her down more. as she reached the bottom, he went for the surface. as he broke the surface, francie grabbed whatever it was she found in the mud and guck at the bottom of the water and then propelled herself up to the surface.

as she exited the small pool of water, she turned, clearing her nose a bit as louie shook his fur of water and snorted out water himself. she cleaned the item in her hand, hoping it was something good.

"let's wait here for fernando, lou."

TL;DR

+ braves the water just fine
+ attempts to discover something in the water let's hope the roll's good
+ decides to wait for FERNANDO SILPH on the other side
!! discoveries include...

SPOILER: Click to show

MOON STONE, WATER STONE

WwiyjKVA

after the bear hug is finished, francie releasing her hold and keeping herself upright, she gives nia a warm smile. it is only as nia introduces herself that france realized that she really hadn't introduced herself the whole freaking time.

"ohmygosh," how embarrassing! "i'm francie! wowee, i'm so sorry i forgot to introduce myself. supe' rude, my b."

each word's delivered with a small laugh and a little tint of pink to her cheeks.

her lycanroc boys were keeping themselves busy by playing in the snow and on the ice, making designs and helping some of the smaller children get their ground when they fell. because they're pokémon after their trainer's own heart.

Nia Acadia

he was the more experienced ranger, but he had given her the authority on this one. perhaps because she was first to the scene? made sense. francie would have done the same thing, had, most of the time.

"thanks! alright, tilly! positions please!"

hearing her name, the aerodactyl gave a small whine of a noise, moving over toward francie. raising her mega-bracelet and placing tilly's megastone within, the beast transformed before them. the harness was placed expertly, francie clearly knew the beast's mega-form well enough to know where the spikes would protrude.

once francie was mounted up on tilly's back, the mega aerodactyl shook herself a bit and then sat up a bit more straight, wings at the ready.

"soon as you get your charizard harnessed and evolved, we'll head up!" she told matias before looking to the other of her pokémon. "burrow under the ground if you have too, summon water, but help us get this beast lifted up out of the sand once we're in the air."

they all gave their own form of acknowledgement to their trainer.

MATIAS SILPH

buckle up buttercup there might be typos in this one too.

as her lycanrocs gave a sniff here and a sniff there, francie watched closely to their mannerisms. louie and lincoln were sure to get the work done. lyonel was really more of her guard dog. she'd trained him to stay by her in case she needed protection, so that's exactly what he does. keeps close and finds himself enraptured by the ... cat.

he asks himself, why is she suddenly so pretty? why does he want to pet her? could she please step on him???

"alright! well, if that's the case..." she pulls another ball out, a luxury ball, and tosses out a houndour. the little darling pup immediately makes her way over to lyonel for play time, fumbling on her own two feet and face planting into his rear end.

"hey! over here, missy." that's not her nickname but francie's voice brings the houndour's ears perked up. she stiffens her features and squares her shoulders, suddenly regal and super serious as she walks over and sits for francie.

her little stubby tail gives her away, she wants treats.

"alright, follow louie and lincoln and when they point out the nest, use one of the vents and use smog to smoke them out, yeah?"

with an excited ruff, she bounced over toward louie and nipped at his legs. he quickly gave her a growl which set her into 'work mode' beside him, sniffing around like she was totally bound to find something.

francie glanced over at lyonel, who was oddly laying down and behaving with the meowth, before looking to their employer and smiling.

"sorry, i know it looks like chaos right now but they're sure to get the bugs handled."

Martín del Mar

"oh, she can hold it by herself, look at you!"

she half spoke to kim, half spoke to the baby in her arms. she did, however, keep her eye on said bottle for a while just to make sure it was steady before looking back to kim.

but looking at him and thinking about what she had to confess to kim made her look out the window.

"the first time i left, i was threatened by silas. when i had heard he was dead, i came back, tried gym leader again, but i just kept finding myself distracted and pulled in five different directions. matters of the heart, mostly."

she'd confessed to kim once that she was pretty sure she loved fernando. it ended up with a forced piggy back ride and ice cream.

"i took your advice and i distanced myself from fernando, for a while. from hoenn as a whole. it...kind of made me miserable. i just kept worrying and wondering what was going on. and then all the news articles certainly didn't help. talks of wormholes and rocket takeovers."

she looked back to kim with a soft smile.

"and then i decided, i needed to take a big step back. so, i isolated myself from everybody. turned off most forms of communication, kept an emergency beacon on me in case i came into any danger, but just took a year to focus on myself. to figure out what i really wanted, outside of everybody else's influence."

because francie was very good at being influenced by other people. it was her greatest flaw, losing her own voice among thousands of others.

"that's about the time i reached the peak of mt. coronet. i got wrapped up in the legends of the sinnoh region, went to researching, and then ... decided to come back home. get in contact with everybody again and... specifically, fernando. i told him how i felt, gave him no choice in refuting how i felt, but explained that i understood with where he stands in the world that he can't afford for us to really explore the emotions; which i've accepted."

unrequited love.

kim cole-essam

"ohmygod," francie leaned forward, out of her seat, standing up now. she was beaming from ear to ear. why?

"i was just thinking that i'd love to dance and was afraid that whoever was gonna show up tonight wouldn't like dancing."

yes, tell her you're a closet pessimist francie, good job.

"but i'm like super relieved that you wanna dance!" she just gripped remi's hand, taking her captive, and dragging her out to the dance floor. "you'll have to show me some moves though cause i've never done it! like, other than in my bedroom by myself."

she should have specified what she'd never done by saying 'dancing' but she said 'it' instead so enjoy her accidental comedic innuendo cast.

Remi Cassel

the reunion was sweet, for sure. seeing alexei all excited and groggy was fun! she'd seen him in 'mom mode' as she called it once, making tea and getting this situated for a brunch with eeveelutions.

and yet look at francie now, having left her eeveelutions behind only to gain another one and be on the hunt for others. why? who didn't like an eeveelution, really though.

"it's me! oh uh-" she looked to mattis, who looked confused until it dawned on him, and then she gave a cheerful chuckle at his realization. "yeah! so uh, i know alexei from back when i was erm, petalburg's gym leader."

which she still technically could be but, she was leaving that mantle down for the time being. just because she didn't want to overcrowd herself with responsibilities. and, mostly, FERNANDO SILPH hadn't mentioned he wanted her there. so she didn't bother even thinking of it as an option.

"but look at you! with a hot boyfriend and cute little babies everywhere!!"

she'd whispered in her excitement, moving to wrap alexei up in a hug. then she froze, looking to mattis.

"oh... should i have asked permission to hug you?"

@mattis Alexei Ivanov

as instructed, she gave the avian and gym leader some room to move. her eyes followed them, looking to tilly as she nodded. tilly knew the command, backing away enough to let the two get some room. all while keeping her eyes on that talonflame to make sure it didn't lash out.

being told the egg was big had francie furrowing her eyebrows in confusion. for the size to be notable...

"is it too big for tilly to carry??"

she'd cupped her hands over her mouth as well, calling up to alexei as he flew above.

Alexei Ivanov

as fernando's absol gears up for a FUTURE SIGHT, francie immediately stiffens when her name is called. it's Nia Acadia, which has her raising her eyebrows and she would be smiling if she wasn't busy instructing her lycanroc.

"get behind it, reversal!"

as her command is called, the lycanroc allows for the attack of the steelix to come against him. the rocks crumbling. that camouflage is what the lycanroc uses to cloak himself, coming out of them to hit the steelix with a powerful REVERSAL, knocking it into the cave wall with sheer force.

"matias?" her mind travels back to moving a wailord with MATIAS SILPH and she smiles, pulling out her phone and getting his contact through the ranger app, giving him a small ping, watching his location show, and then she points for nia to see that matias is being a badass at a steelix.

"that way!" she instructs before moving toward fernando more, a few steps back. "good luck! louie, this way!"

she turns, leaving the group and following FERNANDO SILPH instead of sticking around. louie follows, that FUTURE SIGHT helping to move some rubble and create some distance for them.

TL;DR

SPOILER: Click to show

!! has thus far found...
MOON STONE

+ does not ignore FERNANDO SILPH
+ partners with him against steelix again
+ says hello to Nia Acadia
+ hollers for MATIAS SILPH / sends a ping to his phone via ranger shit
+ louie uses REVERSAL to protect franz
+ goes with FERNANDO SILPH and cas(if i remember correctly)

YfV5nxtr

taking with,

@beck

new year, new me (ww) mission

excited? man, you kidding? francie loved kyle's energy. it matched her own, in ever respect. with her, a small little excited houndour that was nipping and yipping and having a wonderful time chasing things and hanging out with her momma fran fran.

with a small snap, she got the houndour's attention. the flame doggo gave a small bork before pushing its snout into francie's fingers, shaped like an, 'ok' sign. then, francie promptly booped the snoot before giving her houndour a snack.

she was keeping the houndour out with her because she wanted to try and train her as a ranger partner. francie had gotten quite a few new additions to her team specifically to help with her new job and she was thankful for it.

forever the rock hiker girl, but for now, a new step in a new direction, y'know?

"new year, new me, or something like that." she mumbled to herself while sitting at the coffee shop and waiting for the man of the hour to meet up with her for coffee.

"you're gonna love him. he might love you more, but that's fine."

kyle lopez