"we could always use the help," she says with a nod. "it's nice, really. drills are long sometimes, but i've met so many wonderful people." the last rangers rising meeting they'd gone to had been so much fun! and there'd been so much good food, but she's biased. she mostly ate what she cooked with her dad. 

"aw, i met a super nice girl with an adorable sylveon. i hear they're kinda hard to raise though. temperamental, i think." and no way, no how could she manage that. she can barely handle maugrim right now.

at his question, she smiles brightly, and kirin drifts closer to nibble playfully at her hair. 

"yes! i raised her from a lil stantler. she's my bestest friend ever and she'll never let me down."

lucian flores

☉

if it weren't for the moonlight shining down on her, reassuring her, she would be a lot more nervous about her first legendary encounter. tapu bulu strikes quickly and efficiently. she's lucky she was standing still or the vines would have absolutely tripped her. 

oleg warbles and psychic energy expands by her ankles, buying her enough time to step out of the way before they can ensnare her. fire licks at them almost immediately and she yelps, scurrying backwards, jaw dropped because she had no idea celesteela could use flamethrower!

"oleg, can you - "  but he shakes his head. he's still concentrating on keeping the kartana friendly. so she says, "okay, okay, i got this," and confidently reaches for another ball at her hip. grass is weak to ice, right? 

morena emerges from her ball and blinks like a deerling in headlights at the conundrum, fur ruffling. the flames are still going, but they've mostly eaten through the greenery, leaving morena able to pounce over the kindle and launch towards the tapu bulu with a wave of freeze dry. 

"whoa, it's so fast," she marvels as it dodges cleanly and zeroes in on the real threat - monday's celesteela.

Lulu Flint

☉

her heart thuds loudly in her ears - BABUMP BABUMP BABUMP - and all the world is painted red with the sound of her blood. it doesn't frighten her, though. it makes her feel oddly connected to her surroundings. like if she lifted her hand just the right way, the kartana might listen to her like they do oleg.

when they touch down, she's far less graceful, too awed by the stairway to heaven before her. idly, she mourns her feet. they're going to be very unhappy with her tomorrow. the celesteela could have landed them closer.

but it couldn't, could it? there's something in the air here - thick and wanting. they have to take these steps themselves. anything else would be sacrilege. 

"it's a temple," she says, perfectly confident. oleg beeps out one long-winded tone, almost dourly, and saskia adds, "and i think it has a guardian."

moss thickens on the weathered stone steps. weeds burst through cracks. and from the flora, a shape manifests. it regards them coldly. and then it attacks.

Lulu Flint

☉

she simply preens at that. how could she not? monday cares dearly about her tears and about her new friends, even though she doesn't believe they're certainly new friends, and saskia, for a moment, even believes in herself. 

is it odd that she recognizes the celesteela beneath them? is it strange that her mouth turns so pleasantly upside down and she has the most darling desire to press a kiss, like she would a newborn, upon its brow? 

there is a cut on her hand. oleg sits like a toddler in front of her and takes it gently with his own, beeping forlornly as he applies pressure to the shallow wound. 

the ground beneath them rumbles and then there is no ground beneath them anymore. she holds on dearly, one hand clumsily going around monday's waist before the other can say no, and she dreamily watches the landscape change. 

"it's nice here. i didn't like it before, but i like it now. it's better with you."

Lulu Flint

☉

she didn't think she'd need to tell her twice, and the frantic look in her eyes does it anyway, but still she's bewildered after robin clambers on. kirin gallops as smoothly as she can with two young women and one oleg on top of her. the rocky terrain doesn't pose as much a challenge for her as it might a horse; she's used to the snowcapped mountains of sinnoh. 

when they finally come to a stop, it's by a stream, and she's panting hard. saskia slides off, blinking because robin's already on the ground. 

she looks from her and back at kirin and then back at robin. 

"you said you don't do psychic types back there," she says and extracts a shaking oleg from her hair, leaving her with quite the windblown rat's nest. he spins around and then falls flat on his back with a sigh. 

"that's okay. i won't make you ride kirin again and oleg will - oleg, stay away from her!" the little alien beeps cheerily up at their savior, wiggles his arms, and then dances in place. 

"ergh. anyway, i think two walking wakes is still, like, crazy anyway. maybe we don't need to embellish too much," she says with a nervous laugh. 

after all, she doesn't want anyone thinking she's more competent than she actually is. 

robin coello

☉

oof. she feels kinda bad about that one. the walking wake can't be bad. she'd be pretty upset too if a lot of people kept wandering around in her home. she looks away, rather quickly, from the blood forming underneath the rocks. 

robin says not to cave them in, but oleg doesn't really understand. knocking down that first one had been so much fun! so now all the rest of them above are shaking and sasky says, "oh gods, robin, run!" 

she slaps her hands down over oleg's eyes and takes off. kirin rams her horns into the standing walking wake's side, throwing it off balance after it had sidestepped sinistea's shadow ball. and then she breaks towards them. the stirrups of her saddle swings. 

"get on kirin! hurry!" she says as she scrambles. oleg pulls at her hair when she lets him go so she can help robin hoist herself up behind her. 

robin coello

☉

dr monday's smile is so heartbreakingly beautiful that it manages to take sasky's breath away. her eyes smart, tears like pale opals, and she brushes them away with her jacket as she follows. the moon is their destination and it doesn't seem silly. it doesn't seem impossible. it seems right. 

their fantasy bubble bursts from the kartana's razor edges. one of them whips by her cheek; it happens so quickly, she doesn't realize the shallow cut on her cheek is blood and not from her crying. 

kirin is quick to react, but panic doesn't touch saskia. not under the light of the moon. instead, she calmly whistles and her wyrdeer hesitates. oleg appears in her arms and she whispers with a giggle what she wants. 

more cuts appear along her cheek, slicing through the protective outerwear of her standard issue ranger's uniform, but she doesn't notice. oleg swells in her arms; psychic energy warbles out from his body and all the attacking kartana simply stop, awed as their power is drawn from their bodies. 

power split and guard split bolster the alien to the point where he's too heavy to hold so he pirouettes onto the ground, beeping as he holds up his hands. the kartana sway and sasky laughs. 

"look, monday! we made them friends!"

Lulu Flint

☉

"freelance explorer? that's so cool!" she squeals. if she wasn't already a ranger, she'd definitely want to call herself something awesome like a freelance explorer. maybe an intrepid adventurer. whenever she has free time, she's usually sticking her nose in catacombs (she wonders what's up with memphis evren these days...) or seeing how far her spit can go from the top of the ferris wheel with her bestie sven. 

the chasms are not her choice of fun, though. if it were her day off, she'd be as far away from here as possible. case in point - the roar down a ways makes her palms start to sweat. 

"yeah, kirin will keep us and lily safe," she says through a smile, though it's a bit forced. "are you gonna keep her an eevee? or do you think maybe she wants to be a vaporeon? or a leafeon? it'd be kinda funny if you named her lily and she became, like, a flareon."

lucian flores

☉

"learn from me?" she says dubiously and laughs. now, isn't that hilarious. regardless, she's happy she didn't completely ruin her brand new friendship. 

by the time they return, the drone has finished its work. kirin looks sasky over as though assessing for damages and, when finding none, goes to grazing again on the grass. 

"job well done! let's hurry and get these samples to the league."

Lucia Aldrete

☉

she comes nose to nose with robin and has the distant thought of this is just like in my romcoms, but there's little thought to be had there when they're being attacked on all sides. she scrambles up to her feet, looking as grateful as she can at the proffered hand. 

"yeah, kirin's the best baby," she says smartly. a little more distance from the fight sounds like the best course of action so she follows, throwing a worried glance over her shoulder while kirin throws everything into holding off the angry pokemon.

"uh, but won't that trap us in here with them?" she says, heart skittering. that doesn't stop her from doing what robin suggests. she's quick to trust and even quicker to act. so after a couple of precious seconds of fumbling with her pokeballs, she sends out the one she's looking for. 

oleg appears in her arms and upon witnessing the scene, starts beeping in rapid alarm. sasky smacks his face in an attempt to get him to quiet down, even though she knows that's not where the noises come from (where they come from is still a mystery, even, she thinks, to the alien). 

"you gotta get the crystals down, oleg!" he looks at her like she's grown a horn, but he scrambles up her shoulders nonetheless and flings his pudgy little arms out. the stalactites above them shake and shudder and one by one they start to crack.

robin coello

☉

oh! it's dr monday. she's so, so happy to see her when she bounces up and monday seems excited to see her too! (no, sasky, she doesn't.)

when she walks through the portal, kirin is at her side and her big, doleful eyes shine in the full moon. she tilts her chin back and sasky follows her movements, brows furrowing, and then the dreamiest smile drifts over his face. 

"oh, monday, isn't this place so lovely? i'm so happy to see you again. you were amazing last time we were here."

Lulu Flint

30 depending on the lunar phase, your character's moods may be affected for better or for worse.

☉

things are easier for sasky when she doesn't overthink things. when she just has a moment to do those things. so despite her worries and hesitancies about walking back into scary-gnashing-teeth-pupper territory, she trusts robin. and she kind of trusts herself. 

when it happens, though, she just reacts. the walking wake charges and she yells, "KIRIN!" and the wyrdeer is there, psychic connection drifting against her thoughts, seeing the future sasky wants. 

her horns grow a brilliant shade of pink and she rams into the walking wake from the side, right as sasky dives into robin. they miss each other by inches and sasky "oofs," as she splays them in a tangle. 

"kirin, confuse it!" she wheezes from the ground. "robin, are you okay?"

robin coello

☉

sasky is all sunshine and rainbows. until she's not. she feels awful and even more so, because she makes lucia feel awful. it's so clear, by her motions, that she's doing this to appease her, and her heart gives a little anxious stir. 

she was lucky, by most accounts. her parents' pasts were complicated, and still are complicated, but she's never doubted for a moment that they love her. she always had a roof over her head. food on the table. and the comfort of her papa's arms when life brought her down. 

"it's not your fault," she says gently. not a finger twitches in lucia's hair, even as she kneels to get on her level. her bright green eyes are like emeralds, as warm as the earth, as she looks at her. 

"i'm sorry. my papa always tells me i gotta pay more attention to people, but i'm real bad at it. i'll be better next time, 'kay?" she promises. 

Lucia Aldrete

☉