“Eh, a weird kind of phenomenon. Hard to explain.” She suddenly went very sparse in terms of descriptions, a good indicator that she was not entirely fine to talk about it at length. Again, she did not at all think that the other would really be able to understand, really. It was best not to gamble with people that were helpful like this. Best to keep things ambiguous, at least for the time being.

Fortunately, the talk of ride Pokemon obviously got the other excited, quickly. And doubly so, she produced something that looked quite tame and safe to ride, unlike that Kommo-o. A Pyroar was one of those fire types that did not have permanently active flames as part of their body, which was a very good thing. Less of a hazard that way. “Looks fine, really,” she replied while the Pokemon even acted as if it wanted to give a ride. Well-trained at the very least.

Still though, since she was still not completely used to being short, Lash took a bit to actually get up on the Pokemon. But she was definitely not the type to want even more help than this, so she swiftly scrambled for a second try, getting onto the Pyroar this time around. “Is this the right way?” Best to ask for that much confirmation at least though. She definitely did not want to be tossed off on a path like this.

Shalin Nariya

Lash here is always looking for anything Space-Time-Distortion related, so she would be glad to do Surviving Space-Time with a capable partner. I could see this work out mhm

Well, that question was obvious, wasn’t it? Dang. She should have foreseen that much at least. Lash sighed to herself, half annoyed at her own incredulousness in that regard. But it could not be helped. She had most certainly brought this upon herself. “Well, I am not really looking for a thing or a Pokemon in there. I just kind of hope that something that happened once while I was in one will happen again.”

Then again, she hoped that it would specifically not happen again. Or rather, that the opposite would happen. But those were semantics, really. The important part was that she might get aged up again, but she couldn’t just say that. It would probably come across as incredulous, even to someone who apparently had some kind of experience in that regard.
She sighed, then she decided that it was probably best not to lose time. Even if she had to jump over her own shadow to do so. “Anyway. I guess instead of wasting time resting I could….like…maybe….ride on one of yours? That way we can get to the top quicker, if you want to wait for me anyway.” She did not add a stereotypical pout. She could have had, though.



PART OF
TAG WITH Shalin Nariya

pkmn-hoenn.boards.net/thread/31473/moderated-bonking?page=1&scrollTo=365982 mission 2 letter
pkmn-hoenn.boards.net/thread/31657/wishing-cc?page=1&scrollTo=369609 mission 2 letter
pkmn-hoenn.boards.net/thread/31688/space-time-distortion-13?page=2&scrollTo=369791 distortion, 1 letter
pkmn-hoenn.boards.net/thread/31304/kingambit-swarm-clangorous-celebrations?page=2&scrollTo=363967 swarm, 1 letter
pkmn-hoenn.boards.net/thread/29272/candy-crush?page=1&scrollTo=335759 mission, 2 letter
pkmn-hoenn.boards.net/thread/28989/penchant-exotic?page=1&scrollTo=372812 mission, 2 letters
pkmn-hoenn.boards.net/thread/30708/changing-paths-mission?page=2&scrollTo=372816 mission, 2 letters
pkmn-hoenn.boards.net/thread/31635/island-exploration?page=1&scrollTo=372857 mission, 2 letters
pkmn-hoenn.boards.net/thread/31415/faynes-mission-wishlist?page=1&scrollTo=373224 Plotter post, 1 letter
pkmn-hoenn.boards.net/thread/15060/violets-garden garden post, 1 letter
pkmn-hoenn.boards.net/thread/21264/volcano-oh-dw?page=2&scrollTo=310082 page 2 DW, 2 letters
pkmn-hoenn.boards.net/thread/31554/top?page=2&scrollTo=373269 mission, 2 letters

Oh. A nicknamer. She hadn’t quite caught that the other time, but it was evident now that a random Kommo-o was being brought out. Lash herself had never gotten into the habit herself. It really only seemed useful when one had many of the same Pokemon, but since she almost always sold duplicates anyway, it felt pointless to her. And a Kommo-o certainly could fetch a decent price on the market.

But that was neither here nor there. She was a bit of a poacher at times, yes, but not a thief like those of Team Rocket proper. Not really due to reasons of morality, more pragmatism. It was always such a hassle to not just steal one but also to wrangle it against its will – even more so than with wild ones. Too much of a bother. Especially when the world was teeming with wild ones.
Though, fortunately, not up here. This was reasonably safe. “That is fine by me. And I guess there is a link. I mean, these distortions are wild. Anything can happen in there, as far as I am concerned. If I didn’t have something I needed from those, I probably would stay away from them after going through a few.” She sighed. It really was annoying that she had come to this very, very obvious solution after it would have been nice to not be turned into a little girl.




PART OF
TAG WITH Shalin Nariya

Houndour’s head rose above the grass, ears perking up. Clearly, it had heard something. Just not something anywhere in the grass it seemed, for it seemed looking towards the direction of the nearest town briefly. It then returned to the path briefly, seemingly trying to locate what it had heard or smelled.

Then, it returned its attention towards the grass. Slightly confounded by this behaviour, Lash shielded her eyes against the sun with her hand and looked over the grass as best she could, trying to figure out what was going on. There was something moving swiftly through the grass, it seemed, but she could not make out what exactly it was. That could be a wild Pokemon, potentially, so she steadied herself. However, instead of the low snarl that Houndour usually emitted when it noticed a threat, it instead started barking loudly.
That was probably not the best idea. But it had already done so, hence it would probably pointless to tell it to stop. Lash instead focused and prepared for anything. Since anything could happen, that just seemed like the right call there.



PART OF
TAG WITH Josh Devlin

Some people were filled with fear and worry when a space-time-distortion appeared. Granted, she probably should have been too, then she would not be in her current predicament. But since she already was in this predicament, there was very little that could go wrong anymore, in her opinion. The line could always only go up from here on out. Which was why she was hunting any and all space-time-distortions she could find.

Even if that meant having to trek through this awful desert. It had been an arduous journey so far, but Lash knew it would only get worse. Once again, she cursed the body she was stuck with for this. It just tired out too easily. She’d had to take a break in front of the dome at first, knowing that otherwise she would just end up running out of energy too fast. An agonizing wait, especially since this could fade away at any time.

But still, rest had been important. Once she entered, she brought Metagross along with her. It was her strongest offensive option, after all. Together, they went through the membrane, the oddly familiar feeling of a world shifting around her soon encompassing Lash. Within moments, she found herself shuddering – for the world within was much, much colder than the outside. And darker. Or rather, devoid of colour. She blinked once, then twice, but everything seem a lot more grey than what she was used to already. This definitely was not a place she wanted to stay in for too long.

Fortunately, she did not have to. Probably? Frankly, once inside, Lash looked left and right, trying to determine what to do next. Having been preoccupied with finding another distortion, she had not yet managed to figure out how to actually use it. Metagross beside her was as still as the grave, as always, so she could not rely on it to help. A reliable partner, yes, but not exactly the most expressive being in the world.

She sighed, before starting to walk a few feet along the perimeter, trying to see what was going on there. Usually, she saw a lot more activity in places like these. And she did have the feeling that something was near, even though she could not see anything among the grey dunes. Or maybe it was – Lash looked up and her Metagross seemingly saw it at the same time, advancing towards her position and staring upwards. Glinting eyes, hovering, the faint sound of wings beating. Something was in the skies above.

Which was bad since her Metagross was mostly focused on closer combats. That was a pretty bad sit-
Cold. Things got even colder now. Lash could not help but clench her chest as she fell onto her knees, as if something had just straight up punched her in the gut. There also was a stinging pain in her leg as she came down on something, but she ignored that at first. Instead, she tried to focus her widenes eyes, frantically looking around to see if something was responsible for whatever had just happened. And not too far away she did indeed see a blot of grey that was different from the rest. That moved.

That yelped, when Metagross hit it with a Zen Headbutt at full speed, knocking it aside. The small Pokemon was flung away a good distance, though more towards her side than away from her. Acting before she thought, Lash fumbled for a Pokeball as harsh lightning started to fill the skies, causing the flying Pokemon to shriek and fly away, even as she threw it at the small white Pokemon.

Roll for ageing: ehgLqvok

Then, in a flash, it was all over. The ball bounced on the ground even as the distortion dissipated all around her alongside it. “What? No, not yet,” Lash simply mumbled to herself, free hand grasping the odd red shard she had fallen onto. Inspecting it briefly, she saw her own reflection in it.

Which was unchanged.

And her heard fell once more, though this time not because she had been hit by a shadow ball.



1. Picking up red shard.


2. Failing to roll high enough for age-up

“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