mar was pleased to learn the name of her new associate. "ye can call me mar, but don't blink if ye hear anyone call me maguerite or margo or anythin. ye gotta go by a lot of names in this business. aqua's fine, but think of a back-up should ye need it." authorities were getting better about putting names to faces. she had spent her time in previous regions as different deviations of mar, but she never told non-rockets that just 'mar' was her name, allowing her to exhaust those names to people she would screw over.

"hurtin the rich? i love it." she stretched her arms over head, abandoning her chair and letting the fire distort her image as it cackled between her and aqua. "we can show em who runs this region all day long. so long as ye don't steal from rockets. they don't tend to hoard much wealth, except to influence politics. i don't prefer the upper echelons of rocket, the ones that do the real politicking, but if ye do good, ye can run with em and demand some positive environmental changes. or pretend to be a ranger and run with them. we all wear more 'an one face here." she hoped aqua would get comfortable with that duplicity. it was a necessity for successful operations, most of the time.

some wore multiple faces better than others, but she kept things simple. she liked the easy stuff, getting her hands dirty and stealing. she didn't care much for the larger region-centric plays, the ones that involve government or secret labs. "well, let's get ye some real grub, yeah?" she started walking down towards the beach, not looking for aqua to follow. if they needed more time, they could take it. mar was just eager to be on her ship before she developed land legs.

Aqua Kennedy

☉

mar took pictures of the swarm. this was another piece of evidence of hoenn's peculiarities. she had seen a swarm or two in kalos, but they never looked like this. in fact, she had never encountered this pokemon before. it was strange to see so many of these pokemon interacting with each other because things weren't totally docile, but they weren't totally aggressive, either.

they were striking odd poses, with two having an intense stare-off only to face the interruption of a smaller lokix coming in with a dynamic entry, kicking one to the ground. but then the trio were just standing around, no longer fighting. it was very peculiar.

PQOHabxa

☉

the duo are almost to freedom when the net falls.

"argh!" mar drops the artifact and reaches for her cutlass, glad to have such a clear opportunity to use it. the two of them hack away at the net while their pokemon fight off the ghostly defenders of the temple. she can hear klefki's fairy wind go off against the duskull army as mar cuts a person-sized hole in the net between her and aurelie. "let's bust outta here before the ceiling falls on us." she holds the net up for aurelie to step through first, glad one of her first real adventures in the region was with such a competent countrywoman.

mar replaces the cutlass in its sheath to grab the artifact, running the rest of the way to clear the entrance and once again stand outside. klefki and her other pokemon scurry out after her. mar catches her breath as a stone falls at the entrance, blocking the golurk, though she didn't think it would follow them out of the temple if it was under clear instructions to protect the inside.

"aye, we did it." the glow of success surrounds her as she flips the artifact over in her hand, inspecting it. it was heavy from the real gold it was made of, but.

hm. the symbol it should've had on the back wasn't there. the ancient, ancient language that should've marked it was completely absent. it was unblemished. it was fake, then. no ghost powers.

"it's just a hunk of metal," she said, unable to hide her dissatisfaction. then, she held it out to aurelie. "it'll sell fer a real pretty penny, though. i was only interested in it to try and get more information about darkrai. i heard he had connections to the nightmarish, ghostly realm this artifact could access, but... if he does, it isn't this that he's connected to." despite the lackluster result, she was happy about the exploration. all expeditions were a special kind of pleasure, so she wouldn't mark the day as a loss. it brought her closer to the truth. and, hell, she got a cutlass out of it. she just hoped aurelie would be content with the heavy gold.

Aurelie Lefevre

☉

a hungry stray, hm?

this was perfect. capsakid had been starving when mar found her, and she'd offered the capsakid food and earned her loyalty. capsakid was a feisty little villain without mar's tutelage, a natural. it was a match made in heaven, or somewhere much hotter.

mar was happy to see history repeating itself. "i've got plenty o food fer ye and yer crew." she looked to them with satisfaction, like the delcatty that got the cream. "come t' me ship. me rations'll hold ye over til we get to the next city. meanwhile, we can see what plans ye got on yer docket." mar rose to her feet slowly, not wanting to scare the pokemon. "and if ye stick 'round, i'll get ye a special somethin." she gestured to the cutlass at her hip, custom made by aurelie, a fellow kalosian.

Aqua Kennedy

☉

the kid was all talk. mar didn't have her cutlass with her, so she'd have to threaten the brat the old fashioned way. she gripped gwen's collar, uncaring of trainer battle rules.

"ye magenton was unattended, sweetpea, and pokemon of all types hang in towns just like this. ye should've had it on a tighter leash if ye didn't want anyone to mistake it fer a wild pokemon. but givin lip? sure seems like ye want some bruises." maybe more than that, but mar wasn't sure how deeply she wanted to teach this lesson. she hated snot-nosed brats, but she hated letting this brand of bullshit slide more.

capsakid cried out at the poison jab, headbutting the shroodle while it was in close range for the jab. tinkatuff cried out at the thunder wave, shocked into stillness by the move. mar, meanwhile, stared the kid down, visibly uninterested in the pokemon battle going on. no, she clearly displayed the message: you're my problem.

Gwendolyn Conway

☉

mar's boarding the ship as clobbopus and capsakid turn to the offending shieldon. capsakid's trying to pull clobbopus back, but the angry pokemon has been dying for some action. he pushes the shieldon around, completely confused by the terastalizing that he's never encountered before. clobbopus uses bind to hold the shieldon tight and keep it from running. oh, he's desperate to swing on the little ground type.

capsakid cries out angrily as she tries to pull the clobbopus away to board the ship and follow orders, but the sea pokemon is not listening to reason. all the while, mar's unaware, getting on ship and pulling dhelmise up to stop keeping the ship tight on the coast. arceus, she can't wait to leave this stupid beach and get away from that stupid furret.

paxton concordas

☉

mar saw two ways to play it as shalin referenced the cargo manifest. she could insist she wasn't shipping, but because she would be trafficking frequently, she didn't want this captain-elect to spread word about her ship not being a transport ship (so if anyone saw it carrying, they should flag it). she didn't know how often this woman would scour the seas. she couldn't risk another run-in if she made that claim.

besides, the ship was obviously designed for cargo. she had to lean into it.

"rockets took it."

stupid. she didn't look distressed. time to sell it.

"they came on board and took everything. one of 'em had a pokemon that used hypnosis on me and cap here. i woke up to nothing. i wasn't carrying anything important, just some potions for a friend looking to host a tournament." yeah, that could explain using up her cargo space... but how often did private citizens host tournaments? arceus, this lie was getting away from her. "anyways. i have a lot of calls to make and apologies to give. and revenge to get." her tone took a much more sinister tone. "the sooner you leave, the sooner i can get back to getting on track."

Shalin Nariya

☉

the world folded away into fire and hell. she wasn't familiar with the city under siege, but it thrilled her. she thrived off of chaos. she didn't cause this episode in particular, but she also wasn't beholden to it. her home was a wooden boat on the sea, led by the moon and the waves. she had basically lived on the water her entire life. as such, she had little experience to have sympathy for those losing their home, and part of her really wanted to play in the scene.

mar was more taken with xenon's familiarity with the simulation -- she already knew the guy's pokemon. "not a lot of heat," she admitted when her partner asked what she was packing. "i don't do a lot of fair fights or straight battles, so. my pokemon are primarily laborers on the boat." she had nothing to hold up to renown competitive pokemon like the guy had. as such, she followed her senior's lead, taking an odd path that had her confused until a surprise attack came from a wall, and it was all the more clear that xenon knew much more about the simulation than mar had guessed.

"why does the simulation keep throwing such weird situations at us? are we always supposed to have two distinct choices? what does this prove?" she had asked to visit a simulation to learn more about them, but maybe a little more research would've been better before diving right in.

Xenon Antheil

☉

mar side-stepped the tynamo, hoping a wild charge wouldn't come her way. she had had enough electrocutions for one week after surviving the swarm of pichu-line pokemon. it ruined her hair. and, really, she didn't think shock therapy was very effective for her. "stick close," she insisted as skrelp started to wander off. geez, she'd always benefitted from her spirited pokemon, but things were taking a bad turn.

skipping

☉

mar blinked in surprise at how quickly josh transitioned from his righteous anger to understanding. it was clear that children coming to harm was an emotional trigger for him, though that wasn't unusual in more goody-two-shoes members of society. still, she stored that information away for later use, should she ever have to fight him.

but she wasn't one to make enemies unnecessarily or burn bridges. it was better to acquiesce, even if she didn't want to put skrelp back on stage. "aye, i'll keep things simple with skrelp." she ushered the seahorse back to the water and let josh take the lead, his experience and confidence with pokemon showing through despite the obstacles.

the whirlpool might have been a good opportunity to use a reduced-power dragon pulse, but mar didn't want to invite the risk of any battle moves. instead, skrelp did forward somersaults through the water along the whirlpool, spitting out small jets of water each time she broke the surface on the up-roll. it was cute, but not distracting from josh's pokemon, who deserved center stage after the quick reaction earlier. "aye, that's it. gentle, skrelp." they could finish sweet and simple. so long as they avoided any other accidents, it was a success.

Josh Devlin

☉

"careful," mar insisted as skrelp hurried ahead of her. the skrelp was more and more impatient these days, eager to stay on the move. she wasn't sure what had spurred the behavior, but it was growing more and more overwhelming. she wondered if it was like capsakid's own excess of energy, a sign she was getting ready to evolve. oh, were mar's babies growing up already? was she ready to give up skrelp for its larger form? she hoped dragalge would be agreeable.

☉

aurelie kept the hoards of pokemon back with a strange pokemon she hadn't seen before, but she wasn't a dex completionist, so that wasn't so unusual.

mar released klefki, the fairy floating above to the item instead of forcing mar to climb up and secure it herself. mar instead sicced all of her pokemon on the golurk which had caught up to her and aurelie. the robot moved down to grab her, but clobbopus clocked it with superpower, but it did nothing to the ghost. capsakid chomped down on its leg with crunch, hurting the golurk greatly. it leaned away and tried to shake it off to no avail. while it was consumed with removing capsakid, klefki used fairy wind to knock the artifact down.

mar ran underneath to catch it, though the heavy artifact hit the ground. she picked it right back up, but had no time to inspect it for damage. "we're running, baby!" mar laughed hysterically as she ducked under the distracted golurk's legs again, heading back the way they came. klefki flew after her, while clobbopus and skrelp retrieved capsakid from the golurk's leg and ran along. "c'mon, let's not be characters in this ghost story!" despite her words, she wasn't worried at all; ghosts couldn't handle two kalosians!

Aurelie Lefevre

☉

mar breathed a sigh of relief as Josh's quick thinking stopped the sludge bomb from poisoning the audience. as skrelp got out of the pool just josh and his pokemon, mar approached to thank him and received his anger, instead. her feathers were ruffled at his tone. "i obviously didn't tell skrelp to use sludge bomb! she misunderstood the signal. and look! it's not like the kids are all sick or nothing. yer lookin fer trouble getting in me face like this."

she let her anger show, more angry at him than skrelp, but the seahorse was going to get earful when this was over. "they should cancel the show! who cares about how the pokemon look when clearly something's wrong!" she bent down, looking her skrelp in the eyes. "why are ye so anxious?" the skrelp made a short noise and looked away first, but mar couldn't dive into it while dealing with the other trainer. "ye really think i'd try to poison all these kids?"

mar did a lot of unethical things, obviously, but he didn't know that. and really, she'd been plenty successful in not involving kids in her schemes besides as distractions, but she wasn't going around putting loads of em in the hospital.

Josh Devlin

☉