“Well, it actually can – “ she started, but the other was already on her way, trying to fly up and encountering the lightning. Though, likely because she knew kind of what to expect, she ultimately did not end up being shot down by the bolt. It seemed close from her perch though, as Lash intently watched what was going on there. Granted, she was not quite certain what to make of it in general. She did not know this woman very well, so she was not inherently of vested interest in her well-being. But at the same time, it would be kind of a waste to see her shot down and injured. Plus, she would not exactly feel great about giving off a lot of Schadenfreude in that regard.

In essence, she felt kind of neutral about it all. Not like she could do much anyway, being bound to the ground. Yet, it all seemed to work out, so that was probably fine to begin with. Both the woman and her Beedrill returned soon after. “Good, now that we have sorted out that I was right all along, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I have a bit of experience with space-time-distortions. Even more experience with phenomena not turning out to be such a thing. There might just be a lot of electric types duking it out, so it’s best to keep our guard up and not rush things. Plus, I was just taking a rest here, actually.” She certainly did not feel like she could climb much further for a few minutes at least.



PART OF
TAG WITH Shalin Nariya

This was still a bit iffy, but she took it. No point getting worked up over this. Even Toxel seemed content, by now taking to her side instead of hiding behind her. Whatever happened, happened. As long as there was no bad blood, everything was probably fine to an extent.

Plus, she got a proper apology. Lash couldn’t not accept this. But she could snark a little, still. “It must be such a burden to not need more wealth,” she thus commented, accepting the apology mostly by dropping the issue altogether. “But I guess that wish is fine. Kind of naïve and pointless, but fine. Wishes are supposed to be selfish. If you want to help people, just go out and do it. But if you wish for something, wish for something that you can’t achieve on your own and makes you happy. That’s the point of wishing things on occasions like this.” Clearly, she was talking like someone beyond her apparent years, but Lasciel was not exactly trying to fit in or hide here. When she met someone who felt younger than herself, mentally, she just had to speak her mind proper, arms still crossed.

Yeah, she rarely was not pouting these days, really.


Elise Calcifet

A Sandile. Now that was not exactly a ground-breaking commission, pun intended. But still, it was better than nothing. If she could find and catch one, then she could sell it and get back into the game. To an extent at least. It would take years to build up a reputation, especially when she had to appear like this. But fortunately, this old client of hers had only contacted her through text, so she could at least postpone the inevitable disbelief until she could present results.



But that also meant actually getting one, so it was probably best if she focused more on the tall-ish grass in front of her. Fortunately, there would be nothing odd about what she was doing for others that might come across the route. It was a decently warm spring day, sun out and not too far from civilization. Having someone of her size trying to catch some Pokemon would be entirely natural and would not rouse questions. Still, she did stay on the edge of the grass for now, having sent out Houndour into it to look for other Pokemon. Not because she was scared or anything, of course. But that grass now did reach up almost to her shoulders. It would be hell trying to wade through that with possible wild encounters about. Hence, she tried to play this smart, not hard.

Josh Devlin

“If you think that will make you stronger,” she replied, clearly not quite believing that it was a good way to do so. But who was she to complain in that regard? After all, she was trying to throw herself headfirst into a space-time-distortion, something that most people feared, in order to regain the strength she had lost before. This clearly was not the most thought-out plan of her own.

Still, at least there was a logic there. Without those wondrous distortions, she would not be able to return to her old form for years. If there was no other way, then it was fine. But there were more ways to get stronger, in her opinion. “Anyway, I saw a few people trying to just up and fly there, but they all got zapped. I think they all survived, but I don’t think it is a good idea to take the easy route. Though I can’t actually say that climbing up won’t result in the same outcome, come to think of it.” Furrowing her brows, she started thinking, not even noticing the stinger, just the buzzing of Beedrills.



PART OF
TAG WITH Shalin Nariya

So, there was a trainer. Blonde and bubbly, that was the first impression. Lash liked to think of herself as someone who could somewhat gauge another quickly like that. Often, that turned out wrong. But she was also right just enough to not change her ways. In business, one often did not have the luxury of getting to know someone slowly enough to decide whether or not they were trustworthy.

In this case, she decided that the girl was not dangerous and swiftly took her hand from the Pokeball she had almost released, sighing inwardly. Fighting in a city with lots of people around was always a hassle unless it was a sanctioned one, so it was good to dodge that for now. “Well, as long as everything is sorted out I guess that is fine. I don’t too much appreciate my poor little Toxel being called suspicious, though.” She briefly flipped some hair over her shoulder, as if trying to make a point with that.

The little one in the meantime was still hiding, but it was eyeing the ghost very curiously regardless, given that it seemed angry. There were no outward signs of any Schadenfreude, but it felt a bit of that at least, even though it could not quite articulate that.


Elise Calcifet

Ah, there it was. She had wondered just where her Toxel had wandered off to again. It tended to do that, especially in crowded places like this. Though it also always found its way back, regardless. Lash hadn’t exactly worried per se, just wondered if she would have to go looking again. Yet, as fate would have it, the little one came dashing out of the bushes not too far from her, the rustling causing her to instinctively check up on it.

Unlike most that looked her age, she was quite apt at such things, after all. Toxel seemed to only notice her a little later, but swiftly scurried to hide behind her kimono-clad legs. The reason for that soon became apparent when a Misdreavous came floating out of the very same brushes soon after.
Lash squinted a bit, scrutinizing that one, but reaching for another of her Pokeballs. She was not quite sure if this was a wild one, so she decided to wait a bit more and just glared at that Pokemon. Toxel would be a bad matchup, so she had her Houndour at the ready. But she didn’t quite bring it out yet, in case this was a trainer’s Pokemon. Didn’t want to start a needless fight, after all.


Elise Calcifet

“Suuure,” she replied, her pitch going appropriately up a little as she said that. Clearly, she was neither inclined to just take the other at her word, nor intimidated by the Pokemon that also towered above her. “Besides, you did not scare me. More the kind of reasonable worry that one might get from potentially being run over,” she added with a shrug and a flip of hair over her shoulder, as if trying to appear cool there.

Then, she blinked. Took her a moment to realize that Shalin was not just a name but the woman’s name to boot, not the Pokemon’s. Certainly an unusual one, though she wasn’t one to talk. Thanks to her mother’s odd sensibilities, she had one too. “Anyway, I am Lash. I don’t have some kind of grand epiteth this side of Hoenn, but I think I am quite decent overall. And those clouds up there are something I want to investigate. I think it might be a space-time distortion once more.”

Shalin Nariya

Oh no. A guard ghost. That was not good. Toxel froze when it heard that cry, only its eyes moving up to see just what had noticed it. It was one of those ghost types it had seen before, but never actually battled. Mistress did not use it against those. There probably was a reason for that.

The human had also noticed. Not good. Sure, it had not taken anything yet from the other’s bag, but the way the human asked was clearly an accusation. It might have been said in a softer voice, but all those other humans were the same. They could not be trusted. Toxel needed to act fast, think fast.
Probably do the latter before the former. But that was not its strong suit. So, it acted on instinct. With a short cry of its own the little one sprung forth into action, jumping and rushing the Misdreavous, giving it a Nuzzle to paralyze, then bounce off of it, onto the human’s head and jump from there off back into the brush.

Well, at least that was the plan it was putting into action.

Elise Calcifet

It was night. But there was also a lot of light. Up in the sky, hanging over the streets. Light was everywhere. Yet it was all up there. Hence, the human’s eyes were all drawn up there, too. Something was going on that even had the mistress mesmerized.

Which was a good opportunity for Toxel to get out and do his thing. It usually pretended to be lazy around other people just so they did not look at it too much. And once they had all but forgotten he was there, he could go looking for his favourite thing: human food. On days like this, just about every human had food on them, but they ate it carelessly. So, he scavenged about, getting a bite here, a scrap there. Not being very big was good since even small amounts of food were quite nice.

But Toxel was looking for a bigger score, as it stalked through the brushes behind the bench a certain blonde was sitting on. And that one looked awfully distracted. Deciding to risk it, Toxel crawled slowly out of the brush behind the woman and up the bench beside, hoping for a bag or something that it could either rummage through while the human was distracted – or snatch and run away with, back into the brush, if spotted quickly.
Either way, this was Toxel’s grand caper, for sure.

Elise Calcifet

Despite her appearance, Lash had seen a lot of strange behaviour that needed a second glance to spot the consent, but this was something else entirely. That Ninetales was going way too wild, in her opinion, and it was but a miracle that the greenette survived that one. But, she did. And since she did and seemed fine, this was probably fine after all. No need to worry. No need to fight.

Good. She exhaled, slowly, just accepting the situation. She had seen weirder things, after all.
Then, that woman, most likely on accident, played at her small frame which immediately drew a pout from the young one. “Well, maybe you should be more mindful where you and your Pokemon are going. I might not be as big as you but I do stick out here and I would like to not be run over by someone who is getting it a bit too roughly from her own Pokemon.” She harrumphed after, arms crossed, both picking up the other’s wordplay, possibly corrupting it a little, only to then dismiss it. Because that was how Lash got when someone remotely mentioned her height.


Shalin Nariya

What was that noise? Despite the thunderclouds above regaling her with lightning and, well, thunder, every so often, it was still somewhat quiet down here. A low rumble here and there, sure, but nothing so loud that it would draw her attention much. By now, it was just background noise, really.

Which was why when there was something out of the ordinary, she perked up, even tired as she was. And while her body was still overly young, her instincts were still the same. If something moves towards you at high speeds, you react to it. Could be just a trainer pulling a stunt or not noticing you. Could also be a wild on the hunt. She did not take the risk and forced herself to jump back onto her feet and move behind the ledge. It was not high enough to hide behind, but this would offer some cover.

Reaching for the ball containing her Metagross, she waited until the last moment to actually use it. Which was good, because the agility user rushing towards her had a rider. Just one it apparently did not like very much, seemingly trying to shake them off.
Lash really did not know what to make of that. So, she just quietly watched them, eyes focused on the woman in a bit of a stare, seeing how things would develop.


Shalin Nariya

She really…should…have…picked up….a flier….Lash thought to herself as she huffed and puffed. Wiping a brow of sweat from her forehead, the little one looked up towards the thunderclouds above. Usually, she would find some kind of shelter to wait for a storm to pass when she came across one. Yet, this was no ordinary storm. It was fully localized around the peak of this mountain that she was trying to hike up. There was a trail, so that should be possible, at least if her legs did not give out until then. After all, whatever was going on up there could be a time-space-distortion.



It was certainly keeping most flying Pokemon from getting up there, at least. She had seen one brave soul try it on a Pidgeotto, only to be thrown back down to the ground. They fortunately caught one another, so no deaths as far as she could tell. But still, a flier could have taken her part of the way.

Lash sat down on a nearby outcropping to take a rest. Those small legs coupled with lower stamina certainly made hiking a lot more difficult than she was used to. Plus, the air was kind of cold in general, which the exertion only exacerbated. She panted a bit. Break was a good idea, really.


Shalin Nariya

taking this with raikourider Shalin Nariya