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she's more cheery, less apprehensive. that's good. [break][break]

if she kept up her walls with her, marisol would feel a little bit worried - but it means that eris was raised properly. at least.. up until this point, because she still can't understand what kind of parent would leave a child like this alone. thankfully for eris, it's been so many years in this profession that marisol doesn't question it anymore. not everyone is born in luxury. [break][break]

the flush on her face is cute - especially when she's just embarrassed about being called out. it puts the both of them in that same boat. [break][break]

"instead," she hums instead, her gaze snapping towards some tracks that she casually approaches "how about i treat you to some ice cream once we get back up?"

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neither of them have the luxury to think, or to theorize. [break][break]

though her gengar is happily throwing out SHADOWBALL at the stampede, it's only a matter of time until they retaliate upon realization that their siren song is no longer effective. lo and behold, some of them realize, and have started prepping their own bodies to be thrown at the trainers like the threats they were. though they looked cute, and looked fluffy, you learn quickly that pokemon are not to be judged by appearances. [break][break]

there's not much time to react, and so she whistles to grab the attention of her krookodile. there's little he can do, but a stomp on the ground is enough to signal to the large, bandit-like beast. with a stomp in the ground, the pokemon's EARTHQUAKE creates fissures and cracks in the earth around them; not only rendering some GYRO BALLS unstable, but jutting rocks from the ground to hopefully, hinder some of their movements. [break][break]

the field is uneven, although marisol's GENGAR is unharmed due to LEVITATE. [break][break]

on the other hand, she's worried about the band that Josh Devlin had brought with him; she wants to shout if he were okay, but they can't communicate. that was the double-edged sword. [break][break]

she'll treat and apologize to his pokemon after they get out.

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surprise is one of them. [break][break]

but she can't be blamed, surely; it's just been so long since she's seen this familiar face. busy schedules have kept her from being able to properly keep in contact, despite still responding at her leisure. the joy she feels runs deeper than it should, and she pushes down the nagging urge to be more familiar than she admittedly is. [break][break]

"horrible time, actually. it's still a mess in here." her smile and chuckle couldn't place it further from annoyance in spite of the dry comment. she ultimately steps aside and away from the door, walking deeper into the apartment; though now it's to quickly walk to the living room. [break][break]

by the time he arrives, she's already clearing out some papers on the coffee table. quickly, she's trying to stack them up in a pile by her (now cold) cup of liquid candy. [break][break]

"sorry for the mess." she hums, moving more papers aside with a yawn to escape her lips.

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marisol is familiar.[break][break]

back when kyurem first descended how ever long back, there were patients who came to her, weeping, about their loved ones lost to the ice. she'll never forget the mortified faces of family, never forget the tears of friends, and will never forget the reflection in the ice she saw with cold, dying eyes. [break][break]

what was on his arm was not kyurem's ice. but if not that, then what was it?[break][break]

still skeptical, but never voicing it, she wears a small smile. it's practiced, crafted by habit. hospitality and what felt like decades to hone and master make it unreadable - eerie for the keen eye. she has no line of questioning, and he doesn't look like he'll spill the beans. there's no use asking when this line of work is no questions asked, no strings attached. [break][break]

she turns her attention back to the musharna, who floats in the air with her same, drowsy cry. "i have no anesthetics on hand." she admits, waving her hand to waft some of the dream mist towards the frostbitten trainer "so i need to put you to sleep for a little while." [break][break]

she could knock him out, right here and right now, but that would be immoral - never minding that the work they were doing now was anything but. the doctor in her liked to ask for consent. [break][break]

"if it makes you feel safer, you can have some pokemon out to monitor me."

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it isn't the true source.[break][break]

so she's not the only one who thinks that. perhaps it means she should start turning her attention up to the sea or the skies. still, dangerous as it may be down here, there's nothing wrong with being in the presence of the aftermath. a shame, she doesn't have the authority to look into something as large scale. [break][break]

not that authority has ever stopped her.[break][break]

josh's words are met with a relieved smile, followed by singing by horrid beasts in the distance. though marisol isn't all too familiar with these beasts, she was at least educated on what she might encounter down here. scream tail were so cute, if you ignored the destructive power they had. [break][break]

along with the krookodile, a gengar pops out of their pokeball. she fights the urge to sleep from their enticing song, though not effortlessly. frankly, the only reason she can is because she fights sleep on a regular basis - the slight bags under her eyes act as the wounds from each battle. [break][break]

the gengar moves first, blasting a small group of approaching beasts with SHADOWBALL to disrupt their singing. the nurse, in an attempt to keep herself further conscious and lucid amidst the festering singing, pulls out a pair of noise-cancelling ear-plugs - something that she was always prepared for upon researching the pokemon down here. [break][break]

"catch." she calls out to josh, passing another bag of a similar pair. it's unfortunate that she wouldn't be able to hear him anymore, but they wouldn't have to worry about falling asleep on the job.

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she'd say something, but if it were a frostbite caused by something supernatural, there's not much she can do about it. [break][break]

he's light-hearted about the injury, something she's familiar with seeing Isaac Merlo as a patient. patients tended to do this; they put on a front and they don't elaborate, trying to look like an unfaltering wall when they should be at their most vulnerable. marisol has seen enough of these people in the hospital rooms, on the operating beds, at the end of their lives--[break][break]

an icy gaze doesn't falter, but there's the hint of warmth and concern at the tug of a frown when she can properly see the injury. it's odd, though, when she looks at it; there's the concern, yes. there's the worry, and the confusion, but there's another feeling mixed in with everything else. the gleam of purple and red is unnatural, and yet so.. eerily familiar all the same. [break][break]

the doctor squints, staring at the ice that, otherwise, looked perfectly normal. or.. as normal as a kyurem's never melt ice may have been. "this was caused by kyurem?" she doesn't try to hide the skepticism in her voice, nor does she suppress the quirk in her brow. [break][break]

her head, on the other hand, races as she idly dances her fingers along the belt of pokeballs, eventually pulling out the one housing a musharna. "i don't think i could melt the ice from the dragon, but i can likely remove it."

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graduating has not made her any less tired. [break][break]

the only thing to show for it is the plaque on the wall, and a license to boot. that's it; the reading and the studying and the workload has stagnated and remained the same. her sleepless nights and (though noticeably lessened) baggy eyes tell the same tale. unfortunately, work always demands her attention. it never stopped. [break][break]

she's still tired when she idly sits on her couch, folder in her lap and papers sprawled over the coffee table - although carefully kept away from a cup of something adjacent to liquid candy. she fully intends to drown herself back into her day work before the graveyard shift later that night but, before she could, there's a ring from the bell. [break][break]

".. who is it?" not a question meant to be answered, considering that no one else was in the room. she wasn't expecting any visitors today, and if something came up, she'd get a phone call. was she forgetting a prior appointment? [break][break]

she's too tired to think about it, so she gets up from the couch to open the door. she'll worry about how she looks later on--[break][break]

is what she thought, until she sees who is at her door. "leo?" she asks, without bothering to correct herself.[break][break]

tired eyes light up, and the (joyful) surprise is clumsily hidden.

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filthy, lowly, underhanded and blighted. [break][break]

the land above isn't so kind as the sterile lab coated in stainless steel and desks of white. machines whirr softly underground, far enough removed from the world. when she asked for an underground lab, the best thing she could think of was something literal; marisol isn't wealthy enough to run her own practice by legal means. besides, this environment suits her much better (she's brought back to the maw of the beast; like a lamb to the slaughter - only this time she has no shepherd to blame). [break][break]

the doctor herself is engrossed in her own research, but not so far gone that phone notifications go without attention. when she hears the vibration in her pocket, she pulls away from the microscope and glances down with a subtle expression of indifference. he was here, but wasn't going to come down. the typhlosion lounging around the lab catches the slight furrow of her brow, but marisol doesn't do much else. [break][break]

> two minutes.[break][break]

grabbing a surgical mask from a hook, she turns off the microscope and moves to a control box in the next room. it drops the pressured strings and seals off the vents, making it safe for herself to traverse down the trapped hall. when she reaches the ladder to the hatch, she takes a breath, and climbs up until she can push the hatch aside from above.[break][break]

there's no light to greet her - instead is a freakishly tall man who looms above. [break][break]

like she promised, it only took two minutes her to fully climb out of her hole in the ground.[break][break]

"do we have to speak out here?" she narrows her eyes, a frown growing beneath the mask.

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she wants to research. [break][break]

it's such an endearing reason; so innocent. familiarity is when she can look at this girl and see a piece of her own, old curious self in her. there was a time where she just wanted to learn more about the world, then learn more about people like her mother and father, so she can help the people around her. save for the academic knowledge, there's always some goal - sometimes the goal can simply being able to say that you know. [break][break]

that's something she can sympathize with. [break][break]

"sounds like you've had your share of adventures." and with the state of the region, she'll have more. marisol just doesn't know how to feel about a child being on so many life-threatening ones. [break][break]

clearly, her uneasiness is picked up by eris. it's a little embarrassing, but maybe it's a good thing that she brought up a rule to follow. it's a little embarrassing, however, that it has to be eris reassuring her - really, it should be the other way around. nevertheless, she wears a smile and hums as they continue down their path. [break][break]

"we retreat, and you also let me treat any wounds you might get." she hums. if eris has been down here more than a few times, she shouldn't have much to worry about... but she still will. [break][break]

"also, you don't lick any rocks while we're down here." a repeat of what caused the poor girl to go to the doctors isn't ideal. "deal?"

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marisol can hold her ground. [break][break]

it was imposing, the air was heavy, but she was never someone weak of heart (although if you asked her, she could name very specific circumstances where the iron wall will crash down like a house of twigs). "even so," she hums, giving a wave and slight, reassuring smile to the pokemon he brought along with him "i feel more at ease with you and your pokemon here." [break][break]

there's no lie, of course. she's only a nurse; not an army, nor anyone too strong. she just happened to have two gym badges, but never proved anything grandiose. [break][break]

her attention turns to area zero, in light of the explanation. her lips curl slightly, in thought, followed by a hum. there's been so much discovered in such a short amount of time; infinity energy, space-time rifts and distortions, dreams, stories... it's gotten to a point where her head would spin had she not been trying to keep track of everything. much of this defies the laws of science - most of this has become the new topics of science. [break][break]

... ah, yes. that's what keeps her from crumbling under the pressure. [break][break]

she is fueled by curiosity, so she listens intently to the explanation. "perhaps deeper in the chasm." deeper in the caves, or residue caused by what created this chasm to begin with. if it's the latter, it has to be something powerful - far more than the beasts they find down here. she glances up towards the sky, their homeland further up above than what she can describe. "although i would love to see what could make something this large~."

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that.. didn't answer her question. [break][break]

perhaps it's true that she's been here more often than the nurse, but marisol has to ask again; why was eris here? she's a child - not someone who should be exposed to this dangerous environment. not someone who should be putting herself into this situation. she isn't someone who should be knowing about all of this, and someone who shouldn't be risking her life out here, on the field. [break][break]

that's something for adults.[break][break]

her gaze softens, although only for a moment, before she wears a defeated smile. "i see.." [break][break]

her words do nothing to soothe her, but she just has to accept that this is the situation they've found themselves in. the nurse perks up, and moves to continue on the path once again. "we should be careful tracking the beast down, in that case." she hoped that they wouldn't find the monster.[break][break]

"i assume you've encountered a paradox pokemon already?"

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that's certainly a way to make an entrance. [break][break]

he's quite.. grandiose, wasn't he? perhaps he was excited, although neither was a bad thing. her krookodile appears less intimidated by the party that approaches them, instead puffing up his chest in seeming pride whilst greeting the official's team. the trainer herself gives the pokemon a passing glance of acknowledgement, before turning to the trainer himself. [break][break]

a smile stretches across her lips. she's quite calm, all things considered, though she'll admit that the pressure of these imposing and rare pokemon put her on the verge of cracking and losing her footing. when the air starts to get heavier, she has to wonder: was it the infinity energy, or was it that they were so deep in the earth? [break][break]

both was possible. [break][break]

"something else, you say.." [break][break]

she pauses, glancing back up to the quartet that follows him "it's reassuring if you say they're only something else, and nothing too dangerous." the offended gaze of a krookodile pierces from behind, but she chooses to ignore it. [break][break]

"there've been increasing reports of stampedes. does anyone know why they're being so violent?"

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