Oh. A noisy one. Oddly enough, Christopher found himself oddly calm in this situation. Well, he looked the part at least. But that had always been one of his stronger suit. Even in his youth, he had supposedly always looked like a dependable adult of sorts. He never really got it. But the other kids had told him. So there was some truth to it at least. Probably.







…







That did not really help him at all, now did it? Mentally, he sighed to himself and tried to compose himself, even though he appeared to be stoic on the outside, still mostly looking to his side where he was seeing some sort of console not too far away. All while he was using a pin from his pocket that had fortunately been in reach to try and get those binds open. He doubted that it would work, but he was trying nonetheless.







That was what they had taught him, after all. Plus, as long as he was doing those sorts of things, his mind remained focused on them and he could sort some things out. “You should not be so loud. That is never good in a precarious situation,” he noted, as if talking himself more than the other, while still not looking at that one.





Ezra Settentrione

Two down, one left. But Chris felt fairly good about this so far. Granted, given that this had been promoted to him as some kind of ghost hunt, he had not actually captured any yet. But that was only partially because the Pumpkabooh flew away like that. Heck, he probably had just failed to notice it because he did not care too much about ghosts.



He was kind of happier, at least for now, with the two he had gotten. And when, upon continuing his trekking, the came across a small, yellow spider emitting sparks left and right, he knew right then and there that he would just not go for any ghosts today. That one, especially at small size, seemed just kind of…fitting. He was not quite sure what to use it for, but it simply felt like it could be useful. So, he threw his last ball at it.


- catching joltik

Soon after missing the pumpkin, Chris came across a skull-faced little menace. Well, emphasis on little. Because while the young Cubone did come swinging her cub at him, it did so somewhat half-heartedly. Or maybe that was the wrong wording. He did have to dodge backwards a bit to get out of the range of it. But he still knew full well that a Pokemon like this had access to more devastating moves.

Maybe the organizers had taught it to behave. Maybe that was just how she challenged people. But Chris decided to meet the wild one’s gaze head-on still as he reached for the Pokeball. The Cubone did hold a steady stance instead of further attacking, which he took as another sign that this was to be a battle of wills of sorts. It was something he could get behind. Smirking a little, he let loose the ball, while it probably ready itself for trying a parry or something like that.

Maybe he was just overthinking all of this in general. But that kind of encounter was just kind of fun in general. So, he decided to just enjoy it. That was what he paid for, after all.

-catching Cubone

Frankly, he almost missed the next one entirely. For one, he was still thinking about the caught Fennekin, which saw him both elated but also a bit hesitant to proceed in general. It was a certain degree of responsibility he had taken on by extending that offer to the Pokemon. It had accepted by itself, certainly, but he still would have to live up to that implicit promise made.

Hence, he was still lost in thought a bit as he passed by the pumpkin. His mind had just casually considered it Halloween decoration and not paid it any heed. It took a few moments afterwards when he wondered why one would be resting on a tree stump in the middle of the forest. But as he turned to see more clearly, the Pumpkaboo was already floating up in the air, doing whatever it was doing. Reflexively, he grasped the Pokeball he had been given, but ultimately decided not to make the throw. It would be a difficult one. But it also just did not feel right. So, he simply did not, instead deciding to move down the path further.

Soon after the brief encounter with a Corsola, Christ came across something much more lively, if a little skittish. In fact, he probably would have missed the little one, had it not curiously peeked out from the underbrush briefly, rustling its leaves enough to be noticed. The Fennekin at first retreated, but did not run.

Recognizing that kind of behaviour from the range, the man squatted down for a bit, giving the little one time to make a decision on its own. After all, he was not here to battle Pokemon and capture them that way. Sure, he could just throw a ball at it and try his luck. But it just felt more right to wait, give it time until it eventually came out of the foliage properly, facing him with clear eyes that met his own.

It was only then that he would gently toss the ball at it.

The first Pokemon he met did not hide at all. In fact, he could hear it wailing from afar, what looked like a Corsola sitting near a small stream and crying out towards the setting sun. He briefly was tempted to catch it until her realized that it was oddly coloured. And not in the kind that shinies were.



No, this kind of coloration meant something else. And while he was not opposed to ghost types in general, he was not sure if he could handle something that seemingly felt strongly about something, that seemed to be mourning. Maybe he could help it. The chance certainly existed. But he was not quite sure he could do it. Or if anyone truly could.



Maybe it simply needed to work through things on its own. He did not know. And hence, he did not feel qualified to become its trainer and moved on. Since it was here, it probably was not in any state where it needed help in the physical sense. And since that was all he could provide, he decided to walk further into the forest instead.


- skip

Frankly, he was not quite sure what he was supposed to make of this. On one hand, it was nice to be gifted something both nice and useful out of the blue. He just wished it had not come with the comment about expanding his roster. That was a bit weird to come from a co-worker, after all. Plus, he already felt as if he had more Pokemon than he could feasibly train a t once.



But then again, that was common these days, wasn’t it? Apparently, given the traffic of the PC system, people were catching a lot more than they needed. It was not necessarily his thing, of course. He had made it pretty far into life without going for great hunts or the like. But at the same time, he was starting to see some limitations at least. He could not always hide behind doing maintenance, not with all the fighting going on.



So, he was both a bit iffy and a bit grateful about this present. Enough to actually come here today, figuring that spooky season was a good enough time to go looking for something more exotic. Not that he was scared, of course. This did seem like some kind of curated experience, of course. Still, walking through the autumn leaves in the fading light of the afternoon did have something to it that just saw him being a little tense, at least as he was observing for potential Pokemon to cross his path.

PURCHASING/REDEEMING

welcome to the poké mart!

5X Pokeball (100 PD)

1X Safari Ticket (50 PD)

HARVESTING

be sure to visit the pretty petal flower shop near rustboro!

1X berry

TOTAL

do come again!

150 PD

Frankly, he could not tell about his own ride’s fatigue the way this man could. But that was only natural. He had little experience in that regard. Even the ride Pokemon they’d had were only used for short bursts of time by the guests and otherwise simply roamed about as they wished. Moving great distances without a break had never been the point of it all, so that simply did not come up.



Plus, this man knew his own Pokemon well enough to pick up on subtle differences like that. Chris could not help to do that all. It had gotten a bit slower on average, but that could have had any number of reasons. He was not one to jump at conclusions in these kinds of regards. Especially not when it was not a do or die kind of situation. It was best to simply go with the flow the river of time took in that regard. “Well, I didn’t quite do as much,” he honestly noted while being patted, feeling like that was a bit much praise. If anything, the other’s Pokemon had done more.

But he also knew not to fight these sorts of things and instead left it at that. “But yes, Mauville is the general direction. I have somewhere else to be before going back to the city proper, but that is only about halfway there from here, I reckon.”


Josh Devlin

Ah, there the head ranger was. Chris could tell that his own assigned duties had been shorter, just from having had taken a gander at the other’s haul. He’d had more eggs on him at least. That probably meant more clients, too. Though, of course, that was never guaranteed anyway. But rule of thumb still was that what looked like a lot of work oftentimes was exactly that. No foul for thinking that way at least.



Well, in his opinion, for whatever that was. “There is one more egg on the list. Judging by the colour and destination, it probably is a Chansey.” Not that he even needed to make a guess, as educated as it may have been. Yet, he felt compelled to. Not necessarily to impress a higher-up. But more because he wanted to try. “That is the Pokemon Centre inside the city, of course.” They probably did not have any extra facilities here inside the busier areas, so it made sense to requisition leftover eggs from the outskirts like that. Well, at least he assumed as much again.


Josh Devlin

An awful lot of action, huh? That certainly wasn’t a problem for Chris. His chosen field did not lend itself to too much action. And even then, he only joined relatively recently, all things considered. It made a lot of sense for him to not be quite as involved as one of the head rangers. Hence, he waved the other a temporary goodbye before making his way towards his next destination.



That was the kind of duty he was usually given, after all. It was meaningful and of import, but also kind of relaxing at the same time. It did beat trying to force through a code before a deadline at least. And yet, this achieved something tangible. Once he handed off the egg to the forester – who informed him about the Scyther idea being spot on – he had contributed to a change of sorts in that man’s life. Pokemon often stayed with you for years on end, after all. Even if some of them just ended up transferred and rarely used.



They were still family nonetheless. Well, mostly. The Boltund her was riding now, while obedient, was not his. And he did not feel as much a connection to it as he did to his own, who was still trying their best to keep up.

That was probably somewhat useful training, at least. Smiling somewhat at that display, he headed off towards the other spot on his route. Whoever distributed the eggs to them had probably planned for this exact scenario, after all.


Josh Devlin

Ah, right. That thing. Christopher still had mild concerns about the application, from a data security perspective. And privacy, of course, but mostly just the safety concerns. He hadn’t really looked into it, but any tracking software always had at least the potential to be problematic.



Which did not mean that he mistrusted the one who made it. That man was on the other end of the tech hierarchy to Chris, after all. He probably was vetted as thoroughly as anyone could be. But he was always a bit wary of tech like this. Which uncomfortably reminded him of his own father.



So, for now, he just dismissed it with a light shrug. “Of course. Though I reckon we will just have the usual, uneventful deliveries. Not that he often delivered eggs, but it wasn’t too different from the grunt work he often did. Only he could not call it that since Rocket had appropriated the word. “I will see you when we get closer to the city then, I reckon,” he noted, before starting off on the loaned mount to deliver what he expected to be a Scyther to the forester.


Josh Devlin

Time flew while on Pokeback, he found. One moment, they started, the next, they were already at the first stop. While the head ranger took on two eggs himself, Chris just made sure that the one he got was secured as snuggly as possible. These were rather fragile things, after all. He did not even want to think what might happen if they got one damaged. But that was normal. The fail case in anything that mattered was always best not truly acknowledged, he found. But that did not mean to run from the truth, of course. It just meant being confident enough to not fail in the first place.



For the moment, he let the other handle the administrative matters while simply delivering his own egg. That left him with enough to check out the itinerary on his phone before the other could even ask. When the question came, he had already prepared everything. “Next is a forester a bit more to the west, near the woods. Probably some kind of species that is useful in the woods like a Scyther.” Naturally, the last part was conjecture. But he always worked best if he had at least an idea as to what it was all for. Some context did wonders for his motivation. “Think we should split up and meet up again when we get closer to the city? I personally am fine either way.” They were not under heavy time constraints, after all.


Josh Devlin