gastrodon's little dance does incredible work. oleg wriggles in her arms, clearly wanting to play in the rain, but he at least has the self-preservation to realize that it's probably not a good idea. nevertheless, saskia promises she'll let him do it next time.

she completely lights up when papa compliments her; her smile is electric. the superpowered discharge fans out over the grimer and the muk and finally the moans die down. the mass slumps all at once. their unique forms become more pronounced. 

in their triumph, she barely has time to throw up her arms in defense when the muk makes one last attempt to hurt them. gastrodon's pinkish body takes on a discolored purple and it trills in displeasure at her side.

she shrugs off her pack and goes rooting around. she wouldn't be much of a ranger if she didn't bring proper supplies on the field! after discarding a couple of burn heals, she finally finds two antidotes. better to be on the safe side. 

"can you help me, papa?" she asks as she holds out one of the antidotes to him. 

Nikolaj Volosenkov

☉

kirin trots beside her. as much as she wants to follow in her papa's footsteps, heavy hitters like his steel-types just don't click with her. and through schooling, she's learned she has to lean in to her talents. she's fast and thinks quick on her feet and maybe does things a bit unorthodox. 

and the best way to figure out what she's good at is to try and train a bunch of different types!

so with a fairy incense swinging at her side, she travels down littleroot, eyes peeled.

SOLO WILD - FAIRY INCENSE

☉

she has very little concept of personal space so she peeks curiously over his shoulder to look at his pokedex. her eyes flicker to and from the mural, comparing both, and she decides that yes, it must be a hisuaian arcanine and also now she wants a hisuaian arcanine. they're not as fluffy as the ones native to this region, but gosh if they're not cute. 

"do you know a lot about stuff like that? art and things?"

memphis evren

☉

telling saskia to slow down is like telling water not to be wet. she nods immediately with all intention to follow through, but she just gets so excited to talk to her that one bite turns into a furious race to swallow so she can get another word out. 

"yeah! his name is memphis evren and he's an architect. wait, no, an archivist. we explored this really cool tomb together and found these murals! i took history classes at school, but didn't realize just how cool stuff like that is. he works for a museum director."

Camila Volosenkova

☉

"oleg, come back!" and thankfully, he listens. he's not strong enough to teleport all the way over to them, worn from what he's already done, but he flits through the trees and then leaps from the last one, landing heavily in saskia's arms. she oomphs as she circles her arms around him and watches papa's magnezone unleash a powerful wave of electricity. 

they mass doesn't seem to like that very much. 

oh!

she reaches for another pokeball at her belt as he starts moving them away from the crawling sludge. her gastrodon emerges beside them and shakes its head, the sides of its slug-like body rippling when it senses the danger around them. 

"i have an idea! look! gastrodon, use rain dance on all those grimer." the armored slug turns and does just that, summoning a torrent of rain to fall below them. the slope gets slippery and those that had recovered from their paralysis lose traction, moaning as the fresh rain weakens their grimy bodies.

and now they're perfectly vulnerable to another discharge from papa's magnezone. 

Nikolaj Volosenkov

☉

this is nothing like those awful muk and grimer she and Nikolaj Volosenkov ran into. these little guys are adorable. she's here to watch over the swarm and make sure trainers don't get too excessive with their catching. don't want to overwhelm the local wildlife! 

still, she can't help but try and join in on the fun. and if she's permitted to take one by the end of the catching frenzy, well, that's a win! but what would she ever name something so absurd-looking like these little guys? melli? if it's a girl? or maybe plumeria?

maybe she's getting a little ahead of herself...

SWARM

_v|ERcbW

☉

ambition. does that mean she doesn't have ambition, if she hasn't been able to reach the heights he has? and so quickly? no, no - she can't be too hard on herself. she's learned so much and she could be on her own if she wanted to. she's just...still figuring things out. 

trees are creaking. one of them fells right in front of them and rolls down the slope. a couple of the grimer just slowly crawl over it and eat it through. she looks in dismay at the toxic pollution. papa asks her what to do and she furrows her brows. 

it's just so weird. oldale's pride and joy is its wildlife and stretches of it are protected by the rangers. streams are kept clean, its forests free of trash. these grimer shouldn't have even been able to spawn, nevermind coalesce like this. 

and why here? fluctuating in one grimy mass like this?

"we gotta take it slow. it's not normal. look how many there are!" she says in hurried, hushed whispers. "oleg, see if you can get closer to the cluster. but be careful." 

he beep-boops and teleports up into the trees above them. and then blips two trees down, going lower and lower with his short little hops, until he's right above them. while looking on, though, the mass starts writhing. the grimer all groan in unison and start rolling over each other in waves; a humongous muk emerges from the center.



it moans up at the tree and reaches towards the little alien. "oleg!" he beeps spastically and then steadies himself with one little arm against the tree. the lights on his face flash in unison and a psybeam blasts a small hole straight through the center of the muk.

the mass shudders at once and turns away from oleg, towards the source of noise: right where sasky and nikolaj stand.

Nikolaj Volosenkov

☉

cheaters get their due and sven's as competitive as ever. she almost feels bad because she can tell he's wrestling with the fact that he'd been in first place almost the entire time and no one likes to get hit with a blue shell, nevermind a blue shell in real life. 

"noooooooo," she cries as he throws himself in front of her. he doesn't exactly weigh a lot, but there's only so much she can do with him pinning her down and with the game actively still going on in front of her.

she tries to wriggle. she tries to shove him off with one hand. and when all else fails, she gives up on the game and just starts tickling him for revenge. 

sven korolev

☉

underfoot isn't exactly treacherous but it's damn well close. oleg is barely touching the ground, but that's not fair. he has the advantage of being able to teleport if he starts to fall. meanwhile sasky has to make sure she doesn't trip and fall head over heels down the stone steps. 

memphis calls out behind her and, exasperated, she calls for oleg one more time. one threat of not giving him a treat for a week has him teleporting instantly next to her. he looks up at her, beeps angrily, and then kicks a rock. 

"oh, hush. it could be dangerous! i'm just looking out for you." he beeps again. "do not use that tone with me."

but with that settled and the pokemon successfully wrangled, she lopes the flight back up to memphis. her jaw drops and she reaches out to touch the worn mural. 

"aww, are those hisuaian arcanine?" she says, squinting. 

memphis evren

☉

"yeah!" she says brightly and tells him about answering the call to action on kirin's back and how kirin almost ran over someone and wouldn't ya know? that someone was greyson. her smile strains though and she laughs a little nervously when she admits she accidentally broke the crystal instead of scavenging it. 

"he's good, i think! he seemed kinda stressed. he told me he was gonna help me train maugrim, but he's been really busy, i think. did you know he's one of the elite four now?"

and here she is, trying to keep her balance because oleg has started mimicking the sounds of a plane and has his arms stretched out over her head, intent on driving her around like his own personal aircraft. 

Nikolaj Volosenkov

☉

cave? no, crypt. she stares forlornly down at the stone stairs, feeling the hair on the back of her neck raise. the little adventurer wilts, just a little, because she would never, ever admit that she'd let something as silly as fear stop her from exploring. 

"oh, well, better to ask forgiveness than permission, i think," she says and puts on her brave face. oleg looks up at her and then back down at the stairs, and then back up at her, and then back down, and then all at once he gives a whirr that sounds like breeee-wooo-dooo-dooo and he runs down the steps, leaving a balking saskia behind. 

"oleg, waitcomebackitcouldbedangerous," she bleats in a rush and starts chasing after him. 

memphis evren

☉

maybe papa isn't too happy she's here, but saskia is buzzing with excitement. a ranger mission? with her papa? protecting the town they love? it checks every single box on her list, despite his worry; they gear up and talk strategy for the field (and he has to ask her once or twice if she's listening) but then they're ready and they're there and her smile just

falls. 

the devastation is awful. kirin gets a little too spooked as they move closer and without anything protective on her hooves, saskia thinks it's best to recall her. so she replaces her with oleg instead.

the little alien decides quite promptly to teleport himself on top of sasky's shoulders. she would have hoisted him up there anyway so she doesn't mind. 

"i don't yet," she says sadly, adding it to a running mental checklist of things she needs to do. said checklist is pointless because whatever is mentally written on it is then completely forgotten five minutes later. by sasky, anyway. oleg remembers and will be sure to attempt to remind her in about a week with little headaches (not that that will help her actually remember what she'd forgotten). 

"but oleg will help - i'm sure!"

they walk carefully through the forest and once, sasky stops to stoop down. she graces a gloved hand against a toxin-imbibed root and frowns. oleg beeps a melancholy tone. 

"do you think the grimer and muk are acting like this because of everything that's going on? Greyson Connors and i found a tera crystal around here a couple weeks ago..."

Nikolaj Volosenkov

☉