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LITTLE CRISES HELP YOU RELISH THE CALM

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Driscoll unclips the flashlight from his belt and stows it away in his pack as he enters the mouth of the tunnel. Though the corridor's dim lighting leaves much to be desired in the way of visibility, Emile the Chandelure floats just behind him, allowing for a flickering lavender luminescence to dance across the rocky outcroppings and causing the shadows to shift and stir with each step.
[break][break]
"Now, Emile, this is your first data collecting expedition," Henry confides quietly to the Chandelure, who swings back and forth in place somewhat bemusedly. "I require a subset of Steel-type pokemon to study, so I'm relying on you to handle them appropriately. Contamination of the samples is unacceptable."
[break][break]
The Chandelure's eyes widen comically as he attempts to comprehend, at length uttering a trilling sigh and spinning in place. Henry's going to assume that means Emile obviously understands. Excellent.

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Tagged: Georgette Bluebottle

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LITTLE CRISES HELP YOU RELISH THE CALM

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Although his lavender flames cast a strangely guttering light on the surrounding environment, Emile seems to be in his element. The Chandelure swings idly from nothing at all, lilting this way and that between shrines. Here and there, one of his wrought-iron limbs will uncurl with a slow creak, pressing the violet flame to a cluster of incense that catches fire with a smoldering hiss, wisps of fragrant smoke rising to hang, striated, in the air.
[break][break]
While it seems the Ghost-type is not met with as warm a reception as, say, a friendly Arcanine, Emile does his best not to startle any shrinegoers looking to pay their respects, and in most cases save the very young, succeeds. As night descends, his yellow eyes focus carefully on neatly-stacked pyres of wood, only awaiting a flame he is all too happy to provide. A carefully-targeted Flame Burst begins with a flash of violet and culminates with the dry wood going up with a WHOOSH, crimson-and-yellow flames crackling merrily as they reach toward the sky and chase away the faint chill encroaching upon the air.

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Tagged: Thomas Benoit Caprice Isaac kyle lopez Katherine Fairburne Amber Lenoir MATIAS SILPH @hunt
Notes: VERDANTURF BONFIRE

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LITTLE CRISES HELP YOU RELISH THE CALM

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"It's possible," Henry conceded with a nod as Jessica looked over the phone. "Provided it hasn't sustained too much damage from exposure." He glanced over the map, flipping it over to the back side before righting it. "Treasure? I can't imagine, not here. And to come all the way from Kalos? Surely there are wild goose chases much closer to home for that."
[break][break]
Passing the map to Jessica, he turned his attention to the airline ticket. "Hugo Bonhomme? Certainly sounds like we've got a Kalosian to deal with." He flapped the ticket idly at the map that Jessica now held, frowning. "I don't know that this really gives us much to go on - the route is still fairly broad to search, and I don't have any water-types handy for a diving mission to see if the poor fellow's bit it at the bottom of the seafloor."
[break][break]
Henry regarded Jessica with a curious expression, sucking thoughtfully on his teeth. "Well? It appears we have few options. We have a name, which gives us a target to research. We have a phone, provided it's not too damaged to be of use to us. What course of action would you prefer?"

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Tagged: @jessica
Notes: DEADLY JOB

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LITTLE CRISES HELP YOU RELISH THE CALM

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Although the festivities of the season are winding to a close, Henry feels he's obligated to at least attempt participating in seasonal recreation of some sort. It's what people do, yes? Of course. It would be...weird, if he didn't. He'd heard it enough in the past - no one likes a stuffy nerd. He scoffs, pulling his long woollen coat a bit more tightly around him, a sudden chill breeze tugging at his scarf.
[break][break]
Wandering Slateport is not a new activity for him, but catching sight of the skating rink currently occupying one corner of the park certainly is. Surveying the frozen pond - or puddle - he tilts his head slightly, as though weighing his options. Not too crowded, this late in the day. Why not?
[break][break]
He passes a few notes to the attendant, murmuring, "Size twelve, please." He accepts a well-used but serviceable pair of skates and, with some difficulty due to the leather gloves currently protecting his hands, manages to remove his shoes in favor of the more recently-acquired footwear.
[break][break]
A long, slow inhale provides a sense of peace and clarity to him, as this time of year always seems to, the cold energizing and refreshing him rather than causing him to recoil. Standing, he carefully negotiates his way across the frost-kissed turf to the rink's entrance, sliding onto the ice in a smooth, unbroken movement.
[break][break]
It's not until his glide sees him approach a curve in the wall that he recalls he's never ice-skated a day in his life.
[break][break]
"Yeeeargh!" He yelps, arms windmilling as he attempts to correct his course, only succeeding in plowing straight into the skater ahead of him and sending them both tumbling down. He supposes here lies the irony in trying to perform an outdoor activity.

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Tagged: Georgette Bluebottle
Notes: BREAK THE ICE

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LITTLE CRISES HELP YOU RELISH THE CALM

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As Henry rounds a corner in the corridor, he takes a step and suddenly stumbles, one arm going out to brace himself against the rocky wall of the enclosure. A wave of nausea overtakes him, and for a moment his vision goes dark.
[break][break]
He's no longer in a tunnel under Mount Chimney, but an undergraduate laboratory, his professor looming over him arrogantly. "You are making a mockery of this institution, Driscoll, and if you think your work is grounded in any manner of scientific spirit, you're sorely mistaken."
[break][break]
Professor Glascoe slams a thick file of papers onto the table in front of Henry, who cringes, mouth open in shock. "You were sloppy with your specimens, and to store them in the morgue freezer is the absolute height of hubris. The temerity on you, Driscoll, I will never understand." The older man snarls, turning around to rifle through the contents of his own desk. "You stay there. I am discharging you from this program, and then I'm alerting the authorities. You may count yourself lucky if you're allowed to mop the floor in a laboratory by the time I'm through with you!"
[break][break]
Henry chokes, clenching his fists at his sides helplessly as he stares at his professor's back, fear igniting every nerve in his body. "You c-can't. You can't..." he murmurs, his voice high and so, so much younger. Lurching from his seat, he rounds the table and tugs at Glascoe's elbow ineffectually, his vision blurring with hot tears. "You c-can't. This is all I have, after m-mom..." he chokes out. "This is what I'm here for..."
[break][break]
Glascoe whirls angrily, his arm slamming into Henry's chest and sending him careening backward, colliding with a shelf of instruments that clatter down around him as he slumps to the floor, grimacing in pain. "If this is what you are here for, Driscoll, then you SHOULDN'T BE HERE! That thing was an abomination! You are tampering with phenomena no one understands! I will lose my license before I allow your brand of disgusting, naive egocentrism to cause the next pandemic or worse! STAY! STILL!"
[break][break]
The professor punctuates this with a vicious kick to Henry's ribs, and he doubles over, clutching at his chest. Satisfied, Glascoe resumes his search, while Henry stares blankly at the older man's back, glasses askew. "You can't..." He glances down helplessly, his gaze passing along shattered glass and ring stands before alighting on a long, curved scalpel, gleaming invitingly.
[break][break]
He curls shaky fingers around the cool steel handle of the implement, whispering softly to himself, a mantra. "You can't, you can't, you can't..." He rocks forward, crawling on his knees and one hand, the other lifting the cold, heartless blade. "You can't."
[break][break]
One stroke. Achilles.
[break][break]
Glascoe crumples with a cry of shock and pain.
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"You can't."
[break][break]
Two strokes. Carotid.
[break][break]
Crimson mars the sterile white floor.
[break]
"You can't."
[break][break]

[break][break]
Henry enters the lab the next morning, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose anxiously. He unshoulders his messenger bag as the rest of the class files in, opening it and rummaging through to find his notebook and a pencil.
[break][break]
Ten o'clock, and the professor hasn't shown to begin class. Ten-fifteen, and the other students begin talking among themselves, idly joking that the professor must be having some trouble with the stick up his arse.
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Ten-twenty-four, and Henry blinks away the image of his professor's corpse splayed on the floor in front of his lectern.
[break][break]
Of course it's clean. He made sure of it.
[break][break]

[break][break]
Driscoll vomits onto the rocky floor of the cavern, the contents of his stomach acidic and stinging as he blinks away the vision. Ahead, Eckart stands, furious, over the curled body of a Chandelure, beaten into submission with an Overdrive that still echoes in the cavern, the air singing with electricity.
[break][break]
The scientist wipes his mouth with the already worthless rag before tossing it to the side, struggling to stand upright as he regards Eckart, then the Chandelure. "Did that fucking thing Hex me?" he snarls, his usual composure broken. "You had no right! NO RIGHT!"
[break][break]
He heaves a deep breath, then two. Eckart growls in the back of his throat, soft and reassuring, and Driscoll blinks. Sighs. "Fine. Fine. We'll see how that works." He unclips an empty pokeball and throws it at the Chandelure with slightly more force than might be necessary, but damn it, it feels good.

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Notes: CATCHING CHANDELURE. SCHEDULING THERAPY.

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LITTLE CRISES HELP YOU RELISH THE CALM

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Driscoll fumes to himself as he tramps further along the tunnel, Eckart the Toxtricity moving along smugly in step with him. It seems more and more, lately, the scientist finds himself in increasingly ridiculous climes chasing a hunch. The sweltering tunnel he now navigates through is no exception, and the cloth with which he periodically wipes his brow is already damp with sweat.
[break][break]
"That man was sweating every color of the rainbow before he passed out. I've never even heard of a hallucinogen that does such a thing, but I'll be damned if I don't find its source," the man grumbles, almost to himself. Eckart offers a scoff and a wide, smarmy grin, causing Driscoll's mouth to pull downward into a bitter frown.
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"I don't know why you're laughing - you should be having a worse time of this than me, you overgrown lizard!" Affronted, Eckart prods Henry irritably in the ribs with a small jolt of electricity, causing the taller man to flinch backward instinctively. "Brat," Driscoll scolds, though not without an affectionate cuff to the back of the pokemon's head.

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LITTLE CRISES HELP YOU RELISH THE CALM

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Henry waited for Jessica to approach, nodding approvingly as her Aurorus made a serviceable path for her to cross. "I suppose that's a more reasonable way of going about it. I can't confess that patience is one of my virtues, unfortunately."
[break][break]
He chuckled wryly, though the humor quickly faded from his features as he took in the surroundings a bit more closely. Whatever had transpired here, it couldn't have been good for the person involved. Still, what an odd place to be abducted from - or worse.
[break][break]
As Jessica released her Milotic and Crabominable, Henry nodded to himself and tossed out a pokeball of his own, a Baltoy appearing in a flash of light. Perhaps not the most useful in a fight, but that's not necessarily what the man was bracing himself for. "Ambrose, get that bag loose, if you would."
[break][break]
The Baltoy offered an affirmative chirp in response, twirling over to the mostly-buried duffel bag and vibrating gently in midair. The sand around the duffel bag seemed to shiver and shake in response, sloughing away as the buried bag was slowly unearthed. Henry reached down gingerly, pulling open the zipper with a tug and lifting a corner of the bag to send its contents spilling across the sandbar.
[break][break]
The bag, it seemed, didn't offer a great deal more in the way of clues: a cell phone, a keyring with a small Furfrou figurine attached, an airline ticket from Lumiose City to Slateport, and a map of Hoenn with one particular stretch highlighted among the water routes - the bit Henry and Jessica were now standing on, in fact.
[break][break]
Henry reached down to pick up the map, shaking a bit of grit off of it before showing it to Jessica, tilting his head curiously. "Looks like we have a tourist on our hands."

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Tagged: @jessica
Notes: DEADLY JOB

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LITTLE CRISES HELP YOU RELISH THE CALM

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The sudden addition of two more pokemon to the fray allows the melee to distract Amber from Driscoll's frankly bemused expression. He had not, it seems, expected her to attempt to rise to the occasion. The extraction might not be as clean as he'd have preferred, but with precious few onlookers having stayed to brave the swarm of pokemon and Eckart already on the move, he supposes it's as close as he might manage, given the circumstances.
[break][break]
He fancies himself too mature to rise to obvious bait, but 'geek' - really? The scientist glances up to his Klang with a half-smirk, shouting, "The young lady's giving you a barrel, Reynard - Shift Gear and shoot the blasted fish!" In response, the rotation of the Klang's gears increases dramatically, and if it was nimble before, it practically zips from point to point through the air now. Orienting on the densely-packing masses of Porygon2 being herded by Dante and Lucifer, the Klang wastes no time, unleashing blazing arcs of electricity with its Zap Cannon in a stunning display of precision, if not wholesale power.
[break][break]
The Porygon2 struck by the attacks begin to drop to earth, where they are whisked away by a tumbling Eckart almost as soon as they touch the ground. As though spotting this, a cluster of the Porygon2, indignant at the treatment of their fellows, swarms Eckart as he attempts to retreat across the plaza to the designated retrieval point. The violet pokemon is briefly lost in a swirling mass of cotton-candy pinks and blues, until a teeth-rattling Boomburst is unleashed from within, sending the would-be rescuers sprawling across the pavement.
[break][break]
Eckart, very reasonably, takes the opportunity to snag another one or two within his grip before loping out of sight, no doubt to return for the next lap.
[break][break]
Henry plugs his ears in consternation, the shockwave from the Boomburst having disoriented some of the Porygon2 still hovering over the plaza. Reynard, orienting for another Zap Cannon, grinds in protest as the electricity fails to manifest. "Out of PP already?" the scientist grouses. Though the Klang swiftly rejoins the fray using Gear Grind and bowling through the Porygon2, it is clearly a less effective way of clearing the air.
[break][break]
From his periphery, Henry catches Eckart down the alleyway once more, though this time the Toxtricity offers him a curt nod before loping off. Time to formulate an exit strategy, then. "We're thinning the herd, but Reynard can't keep this up much longer! I suggest you finish this - go all out!" He bellows, his gaze flicking to Amber as though in agitation.

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Tagged: Amber Lenoir
Notes: DATA LEAK

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LITTLE CRISES HELP YOU RELISH THE CALM

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Ah, the classic case of the blind leading the blind. At least Henry doesn't need to worry about being on the back foot with regards to information.
[break][break]
"Well, then, it looks like we've got our work cut out for us! I really do hate getting my hands dirty, but, hm. Perhaps this is a chance for the both of us to get a little more reliability." He grinned wryly at Jessie, the irony of the situation not lost on him. It was a far cry from his usual test tubes and fluorescent lights, but field research was still research, he supposed.
[break][break]
He turned in place, pointing to a stretch of sand across a shallow inlet with a frown. "There's some debris on that sandbar, and it's a bit far removed for the usual, mm, tourists. Perhaps we start there, if you don't mind getting your feet wet."
[break][break]
Henry tipped Jessie a jaunty salute, two fingers against his brow, before he carefully maneuvers toward the indicated area. His boots splash through the water messily, though it doesn't really reach any higher than mid-calf on the man, and although the ground underfoot was not the most conducive to travel by foot, it didn't look as though it would take long to reach the other side.
[break][break]
He squinted, trying to get a better look at the area as he approached, distaste twisting his mouth into a scowl. "What on earth...?"
[break][break]
Though not much littered the sandbar as he tramped inelegantly across the sand, amid the usual seashells and detritus were several pieces of cloth: a black shirt emblazoned with a Charja Cola logo, a pair of jeans, and one grubby sneaker were half-buried in the sand and bleached from days of exposure, while nearby the rounded edge of a duffel bag peeked out from beneath a dune. Clearly, someone had been here, but not for several days, and it appeared that they didn't expect to stay gone.

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Tagged: @jessica
Notes: DEADLY JOB

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LITTLE CRISES HELP YOU RELISH THE CALM

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"A pleasure to meet you, Jessie," Driscoll nods, eyes gleaming brightly from behind his spectacles. If he notices the Delphox assessing him, he gives no reaction to it, instead hefting his bag from one shoulder to the other. Perceptive little thing.
[break][break]

Well, if he's to be investigating foul play in the expansive waters of the Hoenn region, he's at least marginally more happy to do so if his partner has both a means of traversing the terrain and a mind to get it done efficiently. "Most certainly, or at least as ready as I can be for the vagaries of this particular assignment."
[break][break]
He flashes a charmingly rueful grin at this, running his free hand through his short hair in a nervous gesture. "Do you have any details on the parameters? I'm afraid all I was told involved a missing person, and it seems like a broad area to investigate. Any ideas, perchance? I'm a little green when it comes to this sort of work, frankly."

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Tagged: @jessica
Notes: DEADLY JOB

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LITTLE CRISES HELP YOU RELISH THE CALM

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Keyne is, to put it mildly, out of his element. The Swellow circles above the well in a calm, lazy spiral, feathers ruffling slightly in the wind as he waits for an opening. As he spots the next cluster of Zigzagoon being brought to freedom, he folds his wings against his body and executes a steep dive into the narrow well, deftly avoiding the Ariados' string near the side wall before flaring his wings out to arrest his descent before he hits bottom.

[break][break]

His sudden arrival does more to startle the remaining Zigzagoon than comfort them, though one curious specimen edges closer to the bird cautiously. Dipping his head, Keyne carefully takes the Zigzagoon about the middle with his talons before flapping his wings, rising out of the well to deposit the smaller pokemon carefully with its brethren.

[break][break]

With a powerful surge, the Swellow takes flight once more to resume his languid lap around the yawning mouth of the well, eyes keenly observing the ongoing rescue attempts for another opening to allow his descent. Slower going than he's used to, perhaps, but slow progress is better than none at all.

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Notes: LITTLEROOT WELLS