francie tilted her head at her onix, eyes narrowed. her onix simply tilted his head right back. the onix kept his gaze steady and, eventually, francie blinked.

"awe dang! you win again..." francie rubbed her eyes and pointed toward the dessert close to the north of the route. "excuse me but i blame the dessert, i got sand in my eye."

the rock snake gave a hiss of laughter, rolling his rock body around on the mountain side. francie timed her hop, landing on his big head and causing the onix to sit upright.

"thanks for always giving me a good laugh, nicky."

that's right, nicky the onix. cause, nix, so nicky-- somehow when she was twenty that made sense okay?

BARNABY FINCH

francie made her way into shoal cave with a brow arched. the beanie on her head was holding her blonde hair down as the breeze from the ocean mixed with the cold of the cave. her coalossal was called forth almost immediately and she snuggled up close to it, along with louie, her dusk formed lycanroc.

"alright..." she accessed her phone and bit her glove to pull it off, texting fernando that she was in place whenever he was ready, and that the coast was clear.

not just of pokémon, but of people as well.

she then pulled her glove back on and gave her coalossal a kiss, to which it hummed and its fire within its belly started to burn a bit more brightly.

"now just to wait on him."

the mission was simple enough. no ranger business, no, he'd plucked her from that today. this day was meant for exploration into shoal cave to snuff out some rumors of 'rare items' beneath the earth of it. their hope was that they'd gotten to it after the 'newbies' came in and swarmed to take all the less rare items at the 'surface.'

a brumal bounty ww mission
FERNANDO SILPH

taking with...

FERNANDO SILPH

while she didn't look it, francie was five years the girl's senior so in a way, she was definitely the boss in a lot of ways. not that francie would flaunt it. she'd just assert her authority when it was needed. otherwise, most people could and liked to take the lead.

"oh, really? okay. cool, uuuuuuuh..."

she clearly hadn't been expected to take the reigns. most of the time people underestimated her five foot zero stature and told her that they didn't believe she was a ranger let alone a capable one. maybe the lycanrocs helped make her look competent. what a change.

"if you wanna harness him, i mean, you can. i was thinking you could possibly be more of a rogue, travel on the outside of the sled while we go forward. fend anything off that tries to stop us so the boys here don't have to slow down."

Megan Whitmore

"oh, wow. no pressure, huh?"

francie laughs, the idea of her having an understudy for whatever reason seems absolutely preposterous. maybe because the last time she had any sort of 'understudy' was, erm, never.

but here fernando is saying she's capable and she refuses to let him down, so she takes a deep breath and decides to be courageous, taking the wine bottle and pouring herself some in a cup. she hands the bottle then to fernando and takes the cup for herself, swirling the contents because she knew it helped with the taste.

"y'know what? i'm excited. he'll have more ranger training than me and maybe he can help show me the ropes. i'll get the hang of it quickly enough."

confidence is key, right? that's what she always told herself. be bold, confident, and fearless; her new motto, or close enough.

with that, she raises her glass toward his bottle and smiles at him with that same fearlessly bold confidence.

"to new beginnings."

FERNANDO SILPH

the company was appreciated. even if she didn't voice it, it was clear in how her body language seemed to perk up. there was no confusion of whether or not he was flirting or just being friendly because he had a boyfriend, so he was just a friend!

it was magical and she preferred her friends taken... if that even made any dagum sense.

"i love a good onix dig! i once had my onix help me dig through a passage in mt. coronet. nicky was fantastic, made such a great passage that some of the miners there were able to dig up some new fossils and gems."

which got her thinking...

"i heard there's supposed to be a similar dig soon here in hoenn. i've signed up for it, hopefully i'm selected. but there were a lot of candidates..."

truthfully, she'd heard about it through FERNANDO SILPH and hoped that she got selected for not only her own natural curiosity, but for his sake as well. so he'd have ears on the ground, so to speak.

@mattis

"the second?" she doesn't care that she's not the first because she's hardly ever the first. always walking in everybody else's shoes and she's just fine with that. it shows with enthusiasm as she finally moves away from fernando and gives him some space to move about his own office.

because she'd just realized she'd been literal inches away from him having that conversation for far too long. so with a smile, she makes her way over toward where he has glasses posed and takes one, setting it down near the wine bottle in a silent plea for more.

"i'd love that, for sure. happy to be a representative of the silph company... but who's the first? oh-- am i gonna be his understudy??"

she didn't want to seem like she was stepping on anybody's toes. walking with, but not above, just beside, or even behind. that was perfectly fine with her.

no fuss, no butts, no coconuts-- or something. what was that saying? eh.

FERNANDO SILPH

"sir yes sir!" the rangette gave a salute, mostly just playing around and goofing off like her own lycanrocs, before turning and catching herself before she tripped on lyonel and his snow angels.

"lyonel! you turkey would you get up please?"

although her tone is scolding, he hisses out a laugh and wheezes at her reaction before getting up and shaking the snow from his fur. he walks alongside her, then promptly picks her up onto his back by snaking between her feet.

"whoa! hey!" her laughter blots out any sort of ego and she looks to mattis with a small smile. "they constantly lug me around..."

because she's just so petite they can't help themselves!

louie does jog ahead though, sniffing as he goes, hopping up to a better vantage point while lincoln gives a bark toward arkose to let him know they're gonna survey the surrounding area in a small radius ahead of the trainers to make sure nothing ambushes them, and to make sure the groundwork is steady to climb.

"those two usually scout ahead and this dope stays with me. if arkose wants to scout with them he can." franice offers, a smile on her face as lyonel finally puts her onto the ground while they walk.

@mattis

"ranger work?"

she'd helped a great deal of them in the past and her parroting him is her wrapping her mind around the mental image of her as a yellow power ranger. but that's not what he meant, so she disciplines her mind and smiles fondly at the nothing.

"i think i typically did a lot of ranger work as a trainer, just never got the rewards for it. namely when hiking. i once helped a guy down a mountain with a broken collarbone."

is she boasting? no, she's just proving that she's done a great deal of ranger work before without actually going through the right channels.

"and at one point, i was trying to create a sort of ranger system in other regions too, outside of the league control. not that it uh, settled all that well in any region but kanto. most police circles get a lil pissy when you mention rangers."

with that, she shrugged, and smiled.

"if you think i'll be well suited for it, then sign me up."

FERNANDO SILPH

why francie put herself up to these she'd never know.

but this time she wasn't at a restaurant. no no, she'd been led to a night club via her phone's GPS and was told to go to the bar and order herself her favorite drink, and that's how her partner for the evening was supposed to find her.

now, francie wasn't usually the type to go out and about on dates but... really, she'd learned, what harm was it to go have a little fun? and a night club??? well, she'd never been, so it was a new experience all around.

and boy did she love it! the vibe was good, people were happy and dancing, and she was watching her glass like a hawk to make sure nothing was put in it but what the bartender had put in.

she had a bit of make-up on but she was more a naturalist so she just highlighted her lashes with some clear mascara and made sure to actually take a shower and not go roll around in the dirt with her boys like usual. a pair of cute sneakers, an adorable white dress, with a pair of leggings and a jacket cause it was cold outside. oh, and her hair half pulled back to keep it out of her face while she danced.

if she danced.

she hoped her partner liked dancing, she'd always wanted to try it!

festive flirts ww mission
Remi Cassel

slateport park had a new special attraction in the winter months. as it was frozen over due to the climate, it made for very easy ice skating. and francie, in her free time, sometimes liked to go down to the park with her lycanrocs and just explore.

currently, she was using lyonel and louie to help balance her. how silly she must have looked with louie the dusk lycanroc helping to hold her up by her butt and lyonel the midnight lycanroc holding her hand to keep her steady.

but she got the hang of it! she got the hang of it enough that her lycanrocs and their rocky talons were jogging along with her while on the ice.

of course, she wouldn't be francie if she didn't accidentally bump into somebody.

"sorry sorry sorry watch out!"

collision.

whoever she'd hit, she sat up and gave them an apologetic smile.

"my bad! i'm still trying to find the breaks..."

break the ice ww mission
Nia Acadia

truth be told, she's relieved he isn't fighting her on it. she's been worried about him, all this time. now at least she can see him alive and well with her own eyes. it's more of a relief on her young heart than perhaps he'll ever understand or recognize.

"well, you know what i'm best at. surprises, being underestimated, exploring, and smashin' stuff."

she let out a small laugh, mostly joking by the end of listing off her many talents. but she had a few good points in there and decided to stick with that as her roster.

"i know that i haven't been the most reliable human being in the world, so, i'm here to prove that i can change that. if you need to put me on simpler tasks for me to prove it then, i understand. i'll... uuuuuh... do paperwork?"

that sounded menial, right? but the face she made at the idea said she knew nothing at all about paperwork.

"or like, drycleaning..."

FERNANDO SILPH

"a... green trapinch, you said?"

francie was wrapping her mind around the mission at hand with a blank expression and trying to hold in the urge to laugh. because they'd reported a pokémon was stealing gifts, but apparently the pokémon stealing them was a green trapinch they'd nicknamed, 'the grinch.' and it was just too perfect!!

"okay, i understand. as soon as the officer gets here, i'll see how they want to progress forward. thank you for your statements."

with a sigh, francie glanced at her watch and arched an eyebrow. a small little place like oldale town was doing what small towns did best; making a big huge fuss over something that was likely catch and re-locate-able. a trapinch? she could easily take that over toward mt. chimney and set him wild in the caves.

but she'd have to see how the local police force wanted it dealt with, since they had first dibs on this particular job...

trapinch who stole xmas ww
paxton concordas