despite the worry on his face, reese waits patiently. when the doors open, he looks up, startled. the marill is mostly unresponsive, still wrapped up in his jacket and bleeding sluggishly. reese stands up and follows aubre, only handing the marill over once it's been prompted. the scrubs he pulls on over his head, shaking it after she suggests they're the wrong size. as long as they fit, he doesn't really care about looking the most fashionable right now.

"i can't tell you much." their voice is tight. "i found it like this near the beach. there was nobody else around." they have no clue what happened, and they'll likely never know. wild pokemon fights rarely turned this violent, so they can only assume it might have been a mishap with a trainer. but he doesn't understand why someone would just leave the poor thing like that.

the marill stirs, crying out in pain. it's starting to come to again, and it's realized it's in an unfamiliar location. it wants to get up, but it doesn't have the strength. reese eyes it nervously. "please let me know what i can do to help."

'eye opening' is one way of putting it. reese is staring at the berry grove when he hears the pitter-patter of massive rat feet coming directly at him, and he turns just in time to see the raticate coming straight at him. he lets out a cry of shock and fear, stumbling back, nearly slipping and falling on the ground. he catches himself as shalin introduces herself. still shaken, he tries to pretend he wasn't just fearing for his life just now.

"r-reese... rhodes..." they mumble an introduction. a captain? but shalin looks like she's roughly the same age as him... reese shakes themself out of their head and turns again, pointing at the grove. there's a single zigzagoon standing guard, but they know from experience there's plenty more hiding in plain sight, waiting for someone to try and take 'their' berries. it wouldn't be an issue if they weren't hoarding them; reese firmly believes the berries growing here should be free for anyone to take.

"i'm not really sure what i can do to help, but... m-maybe i can back you up with my roserade's stun spore if things get nasty...?" one or two zigzagoon aren't intimidating. a whole clan of them, however, might overwhelm with sheer numbers...

it's been quite some time since reese last participated in a contest. he'd thought this would be an easy way of dipping his toes back in the water, and yet his legs shake as he approaches the stage. his roserade beside him, in contrast, is buzzing with excitement, ready to be back in the spotlight. guilt lances through reese as he remembers how they used to participate in contests together, and how his partner used to have so much fun.

they try to shake themself out of it. stepping up in front of the judges, they try not to fidget with the sleeves of their sweater. it's hard to look everyone in the eye. "h-hi, so... i'm reese, and this is one of my partners, petal," they say. god they hope nobody here recognizes them, neither the other contestants nor the judges (however unlikely that is, since anyone who keeps up with contests on social media will likely know his name at least). "today, we're... going to be making honey milk tea, with accents of rose and mint, and, um... brown sugar pearls." he'd played with the recipe until he'd gotten it the way he likes it.

first, he reduces some sugar and honey into a sticky-sweet syrup in a heated pan. while that's simmering, he boils some water for the black tea, letting it come to just under a boil before he pours it over the packet of rose and mint tea. in another bowl he mixes together half-and-half and sweetened condensed milk until it's frothy. a little bit of extra honey goes in to cover the bottom of the cup, and then he pours the brown sugar pearls in. as he goes, he explains what he's doing, feeling a little more at home now on the stage. the honey syrup he just made takes up about one fifth of the cup.

once the tea is finished steeping, he pours it in until it's over halfway full. next comes the milk mixture, which mingles with the golden liquid as reese stirs it. ice comes next, just four ice cubes to make sure it's chilly when the judges try it. for the finishing touch, their roserade uses sweet scent, a few of its petals wafting along on the breeze. reese takes a few of them and drops it on top, then sticks the straw in.

"...and that's how it's done."

there's a berry patch between verdanturf and mauville that reese likes to visit sometimes. he discovered it on his first week here, when he was pretty much just wandering blindly and trying to get his footing in the unfamiliar region. since then, he's come back every couple of weeks to see what's sprouting there at the moment. the area overall reminds him of his hometown in floaroma, the scent of blossoms carried on the air. it's not as sweet, but the vegetation does help perk him up.

today, though, they've run into a... slight problem. that problem being that a small group of zigzagoon had taken up residence by the trees, barring everyone else from entry. reese tried to talk them down and just got snarled at.

standing a little ways away, brow furrowed, reese tries to decide what to do. they put out a call for a ranger to potentially come by and resolve the situation, but they don't know if anyone will actually show up or not...

taking with Shalin Nariya and reese!

BUBBLE TEA BREWING SIGN-UPS

Character: REESE RHODES [break]
Pokemon: petal the roserade[break]
Favorite flavor: rose milk boba[break]

it's a quiet afternoon at the clinic, until the doors burst open. a somewhat haggard-looking young man with hot pink hair hurries in, a bundle held tightly in his arms. he's soaking wet and out of breath.

"s-sorry, i-- you were the only clinic close enough--" they hadn't even checked if they do emergency visits here, they'd hurried straight over. they figured it was better to see a doctor as soon as possible. "i found this marill, and..." he unwraps the wet jacket in his arms, revealing a young marill with claw marks on its abdomen. this was no playful pokemon battle; its breath is ragged, and it's clearly suffering a great deal.

"i didn't know where else to go..." they'd waded into the water in order to retrieve the poor thing. now reese is here, looking like a dog caught in the rain, wide eyes pleading with the receptionist.

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