what is even happening??

accepting

"hm?"

the sound of another's voice had francie's whole person perking up. like the ear of a canine pokémon, perched and attentive. her eyes blinked, curious, and then she eyed a head of blonde hair. oh, but what was he riding?!?!? the sight of the galarian pokémon caused her to grin.

"hello there! sorry if nicky and i startled you! he's harmless unless told otherwise, i promise."

because that's comforting to a stranger, sure.

"oh! are you here to investigate the rumors of a herd of galarian rapidash in the area?? i read about it in the rumor mill."

by the time she'd finished blabbing, nicky had lowered his head toward the stranger and allowed francie to slide off of his giant head. she landed on the ground but remained with her butt on nicky's head. he didn't mind, and if rock's could purr, that's what he was doing as he basked in the sunshine against the snow.

BARNABY FINCH

the arcanine batted away the snover with ease, and every other pokémon that crossed their paths as well. there wasn't much else they ran into. little things here and there. the terrain was harsh, but nothing her lycanrocs hadn't managed to climb or scale before.

once in littleroot town, after the brief sprint through the trails, francie popped off the sled and immediately showered her bowys with affection, thanking them and then smiling up at megan.

"you and your arcanine were a great help! thanks so much, really. you've done an amazing job raising him."

francie, naive as she was, just assumed everybody had raised their pokémon like she had hers. it was rare that she'd get a random pokémon from a lottery or something. even her lycanrocs she'd hatched into rockruffs herself.

Megan Whitmore

"linc!" she calls, and the midday lycanroc slows his pace, growling with bristled fur at the other two. he's protective because he knows his rainer is, admittedly, super naive.

"hold up nic," she tells her onix, who slows and lowers himself so francie can slide off. "hi! my names francie--not again!"

she felt herself lose footing and frantically waves and flailed, balance returning to her in all the antics, and then she sighed out a cute little, "phew, caught myself."

after clearing her throat, she continued her introduction.

"i'm francie myrtle, a ranger and representative of the silph company." she pulls out her own identification, eyeing the one held out to her and then smiling as she looked at the tall and serious stranger. her own expression was a bit too smiley for the situation, but she smiles to hold herself together. always had, wouldn't ever stop; not again.

"you were the initial ping, weren't you? so you're on the case of the missing person as well?"

Greyson Connors

i'm crying you're so sweet what the HECK

accepted

being called into fortree to help a friend with a power problem was probably one of francie's favorite things that had happened other than being accepted into FERNANDO SILPH's fold as a ranger. she represented the silph company as a ranger much like Raziel Beckett and she was thankful for the opportunity and experience.

really? she loved it.

as she entered the city of fortree she was a bright smiling ball of energy. her eyes focused on the power lines, noting which side of the city was suffering from a power outage and which weren't. apparently some pokémon had made a nest within some of the power lines to keep warmer during the colder times.

made sense, still, the needed to be removed and safely taken elsewhere.

as she got closer to the specific power line, her lycanroc louie, the dusk form, made his way over to begin sniffing around.

"hey alexei!" francie greeted with a grin. "other than the obvious," she waved at the power line to emphasize her point and then offered a hug.

"how are you?"

a cuckoo in the nest
Alexei Ivanov

taking with...

Alexei Ivanov

a leader role was indeed hers and while it wasn't executed in a way most were used to, she had her own method, and executed it as such;

"right on!"

francie pumped her fist into the air and then gripped the sled, feet planted, grin flashing across her face less like a bright sunny day and more like the hot summer beach days where the sun fries you it's so excited to be out.

"let's go boys!"

that's all they needed. immediately the three of them took off in perfect sync, used to working together since they'd hatch from their eggs. so used to working together that francie typically battled with all three at the same time, sometimes training them apart from one another to help with their diversity. but usually? double or triple battles were their expertise.

and, naturally, missions like this. truthfully, francie realized she should have been a ranger a long time ago. her boys and her loved it and really, that's all a girl could as for, right?

"woo! great job guys! keep it up! megan and her arcanine will keep us well protected, so don't worry about that. keep a close eye on the road, lincoln!"

the midday up front and his keen eyes would keep the team going in the right direction. most of the manpower of the sled being pulled was up to louie, the dusk in the middle, with his tough claws keeping them at a fast and steady pace. while lyonel and his no guard would make for good snipes if megan and her arcanine were too busy with other obstacles.

Megan Whitmore

that calm and collected smile looked like FERNANDO SILPH's, if she had to put a name to it. but ... less fernando and more mr. del mar-- oh shit, or was it more like mr. mar?? now she didn't know what to call him!

"no problem sir! happy i can be of service. i um, admittedly was in town so it's not like i traveled far. no worries there!"

the positivity oozing off of her person would make some queasy, hopefully mars had a decent stomach about him. her eyes narrowed at the walls and she fished into her pockets, pulling out her lycanrocs. all three of them.

"they've been freshly groomed and polished, so you don't have to worry about them making a mess." francie reassured the owner of the bank, a bit nervous that she wouldn't do a good enough job. louie was immediately sniffing, ears twitching, along with lincoln. meanwhile, lyonel gave the meowth a sniff before snickering at the cat and attempting to taunt it with a swish or three of his tail.

"also, they're feline friendly." she stressed the words and eyed lyonel, who looked her way and then laid down, to show submission, before swishing his tail again.

lyonel was posted to keep francie safe at all times and lincoln and louie usually took point to make sure things went smoothly for francie. her carracosta, captain, and coalossal, kole, could likely make enough of a smokescreen that the bugs would leave.

"my idea is to smoke out the weaker bugs. i'm thinking, if i post my coalossal and carracosta there, at the main vent with the air conditioning turned off, i can send smoke through the vents and walls and push the bugs out. set up a trap here for them with some of my ranger gear, mass catch them, then release them back into the woods. so long as you have an actual exterminator out here to lay down some scents they don't like, they shouldn't reinfest the branch."

at least, that was her thoughts. she turned toward the owner with a smile.

"work for you? The smoke'll dissipate once the air's turned back on and there shouldn't be much of a smell to it. maybe uh, light some candles for work tomorrow?"

Martín del Mar

"a lance-- oh! oh, uh, yeah. i just meant, you're like a sneak attacker. i uh, i don't play video games so i don't know the actual terms..."

boy oh boy did she feel old now.

"but anyway, cool, glad you like the idea." she cleared her throat and hoped it washed the embarrassment off of her face, rolling her shoulder because wow what a powerful pat that had been. she'd bruise, for sure. she bruised like a banana.

"i'm francie, by the way," she finally introduced with a bright grin. bright as the sun, really. "francie mrytle!"

Megan Whitmore

"...why don't you have more clothes on?"

why that was the first thing out of francie's mouth was because it seemed like fernando literally had nothing but some jogging clothes on like that was acceptable. did he take a special pill?

"i feel like you're gonna freeze if you go in like that. it's gonna be super cold in the cave-- do you have a rapidash or arcanine you're riding or something?"

her coalossal to her side huffed, and with it, his molten core gave a small wave of warmth, to which francie naturally grifted toward because she'd been waiting in the cold for ten minutes for mr. jogger-no-clothes.

FERNANDO SILPH

before she could retort or make many comments, simply listening as the other spoke, arkose gave a wolf. just as they took off in the show to catch up with their pokémon, she heard the distant howl of louie, the return howl of lincoln, and a rumbling within the mountain.

"thaaaaat's not good..." a roar, all to familiar to her ears, had her tensing and stopping where she stood. lyonel followed suit, huffing out a snarl to tell arkose to stop as well.

"if i'm not mistaken, it's an aggron. it must've claimed this part of the mountain as its own. no wonder we couldn't get through."

already she was beginning to fish through her belt, to pull out her coalossal. as he was summoned, she gave him a fond smile. another roar could be heard overhead, along with the clashing of steel against rock.

"sounds like they've started without us!"

immediately she climbed atop her coalossal, holding out a hand to help mattis up.

"i promise, it's faster if we hitch a ride. i'll tell you when to jump, he'll engage the aggron immediately."

as she trained him to do.

@mattis