Marianne was beginning to feel a bit more confident about this whole battling thing. She took slightly more purposeful strides as she looked about herself, her Klefki chiming at her side as they searched for an opponent who wasn't super duper terrifying and scary.[break][break]

She wanted to fight nice, normal people. People who didn't have giant terrifying metal machines of death (like BARNABY FINCH, who also had the audacity to bring cameras. CAMERAS!).[break][break]

"H-hey!" Marianne said, waving at a dark-haired stranger that looked like he probably wasn't a secret terrorist in disguise, and who also didn't seem to be a smarmy camera hog. "I'm Marianne. I see you have a Vital Pass! Do you, maybe, want to battle? I'm new to all this."[break][break]

The bespectacled woman fidgeted uncertainly, while her Klefi was meanwhile the very picture of unbothered grace.

TAGS – Josh Devlin[break]
NOTES – Vital City Tournament: Josh vs Marianne!

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"If we banned the public from the museum, I don't think I'd have a job," Marianne mused, taking the comment far too seriously as she leaned back with a hum. A thoughtful sip of her latte served as a pause between her thoughts. "But... it would be a lot cleaner. I think my boss went to your party, actually? GIDEON GRAVES?"[break][break]

She hoped he had a nice time. And also didn't flirt with any terrorists who had a flower shop this time. Not that she wanted to tell him how to live his life, of course.[break][break]

"Ah! Speaking of bars, I heard your favorite one closed down? Howling at the Sun!" Marianne exclaimed, the memory striking her like a bolt of lightning as she snapped her finger. "I know you were super fond of it. Did you want to explore other bars until you find something you like?"[break][break]

Nenet had kept Marianne on a need-to-know basis regarding the saga of Zev Harcourt, and it showed in both her inability to remember the bar's name and her misunderstanding of why the other woman had enjoyed it so much (Hint: it involved slit skirts and alcohol).[break][break]

"Does Jupiter like snacks?" she asked suddenly, aware of the cross look that Nenet was giving her Yamper. "I have, uh, some Pecha Tarts that Barney likes. Maybe they might lift Jupiter's mood?"[break][break]

Marianne waggled it in front of the stubborn canine, hoping to earn some goodwill.

TAGS – Neffatari Nzingha[break]
NOTES – Mission: Bond Bridge (January).

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It wasn't that Marianne, like, hated Ghost-type Pokemon. They were perfectly fine! Much like Bug-type Pokemon! Just not her favorite thing, which was also totally fine, not everyone had to like the same things right, but the way the Dusclops was staring at her in that teeny-tiny waiting room was the worst, most unsettling, creepy-crawly feeling ever. She squirmed every second spent standing there awkwardly, desperate for a human interaction.[break][break]

Thank Arceus the whole thing lasted only a few excruciating minutes![break][break]

The pungent scent of incense tickled her nose as they entered the room proper, and Marianne fought back the mighty need to sneeze, anxious to be polite in this person's office. This desire didn't translate to rude staring, however, which Marianne felt incapable of not doing.[break][break]

Wow. That certainly was a hat.[break][break]

"Oh, yes, hi." Marianne cleared her throat, attempting to act normal and not like a gawking weirdo. "Lady Crane, I presume? Tea sounds perfectly nice."[break][break]

Lady Crane. She felt she was in one of those period dramas with stuffy ruffly blouses and gloves where everyone sighed about the upcoming ball. Well. Or she would feel that way, if it weren't for the splendidly over-the-top kimono the woman was wearing.[break][break]

A lot of genres were being combined today. It was a little fascinating, to be honest.[break][break]

"So..." Her eyes shifted from side to side behind her glasses. "This is my first divination ever, actually. How, uh, does this work?"

TAGS – Mitsuru Kagami[break]
NOTES – Mission: Employment I

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"We have a president?" Marianne repeated dubiously. She was pretty sure dahlia goode was a commissioner, not a president... Was there an election she missed or didn't know about? "You beat Commissioner Goode? I'm shocked she came! I think the only famous person I've met here is, uh, Barney Lynch."[break][break]

His name was technically BARNABY FINCH, though she'd forgotten. Things like this were how misinformation campaigns got started, incidentally.[break][break]

The THUNDERBOLT caught the metallic sheen of the Klefki with searing accuracy, the ear-splitting sound causing Marianne to yelp slightly in shock. Oof! That was a critical hit, for sure.[break][break]

"Oh, stay strong, Angel!" she shouted to her Klefki between cupped hands. "C'mon, let's try FAIRY WIND!"[break][break]

Residual static cling from the dissipating thunderbolt shifted and changed, swirling in a sparkly pink FAIRY WIND that the Klefki aimed at his smug-looking Pikachu![break][break]

TAGS – aaron faust[break]
NOTES – Vital City Tournament: Aaron vs Marianne!

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"Cameras? Waiver?!" Marianne barely had a moment to process this concerningly nightmarish information before the ground caved open beneath her feet, splitting apart in a powerful EARTHQUAKE. Only the vague reminder that this was being filmed kept her from letting out a scream of surprise, but the terror in her eyes was very real.[break][break]

Angel the Klefki let out an unhappy METAL SOUND as the ground closed in around her, dented and damaged by the shattering earth as she tried to lower her opponents' defenses.[break][break]

Marianne could barely stand to look. What a horribly unfortunate type matchup.[break][break]

This forced her attention to the man across from her, and recognition dawned in a sudden flash of clarity.[break][break]

"Hey wait! My mom watches your talk show. You're uh.... Barney Fowl, right?"[break][break]

She had never been much good at names.[break][break]

TAGS – BARNABY FINCH[break]
NOTES – Vital City Tournament: Barnaby vs Marianne!

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"...Oh," Marianne said softly as her poor Klefki fainted. "I'm so sorry, Angel. We'll do better next time."[break][break]

Usually she took such, such good care of her Pokemon. Rarely did she see them faint, and rarely was it from battles like this one. Her heartstrings tugged a little with guilt that she had failed Angel as a trainer, only for the stranger to give her a Revive.[break][break]

"Thank you. You're such a talented trainer, Andrea. You must battle all the time!" She cradled her newly revived Klefki in her arms, relieved by how quickly the tired thing perked up. "I hope your next battle with Chomper goes well, too. We will give it a real try in our next fight, won't we, Angel?"[break][break]

A pleasant jangling of keys agreed.[break][break]

TAGS – Andrea Vaneau[break]
NOTES – Vital City Tournament: Andrea vs Marianne!

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The odds were decidedly not in their favor.[break][break]

This was just proof that you couldn't trust textbook explanations for battles! Fairy-type advantage meant nothing in the face of battle-seasoned Pokemon! Marianne had always tried to keep her head down during the various nonsense the region had endured, but this made her suddenly afraid if a terrible, truly bad thing happened, she might not be able to fend off even the lowliest of Rocket grunts.[break][break]

Oh, dear. Maybe a self-defense course was in order for her New Years' Resolution.[break][break]

"You can't just give up!" she said to the Klefki, hands balled into fists as she crouched near it. "I'm cheering for you!"[break][break]

A METAL SOUND rang loud and clear as her Klefki made a last-ditch attempt to escape the Hydreigon's dastardly plans.[break][break]

The result? A decisive failure.[break][break]

TAGS – Andrea Vaneau[break]
NOTES – Vital City Tournament: Andrea vs Marianne!

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Marianne was a woman of science^tm. When other girls had been playing little paper fortune games guessing at their future spouses, jobs, etc., she'd been reading National Pokegraphic and soaking in curious stories from around the world.[break][break]

This, however, did not stop her mother from regularly trying to get her only child into newfangled 'spiritual' thinking. By proxy, Marianne had amassed quite the collection of healing crystals, a dusty old Tarot deck she'd never learned how to use, and enough good luck charms to make her vanity look tacky.[break][break]

One day, Marianne had arrived at her apartment to find her mother had broken in with her spare key to reassemble all her furniture according to some 'balance of energy' that made absolutely no practical sense. It took positively forever to fix everything back.[break][break]

So all in all, she should have been relieved that her mother's ask this time was just... a booked session with Mitsuru Kagami. That's it. No chachkis, no knickknacks, no holding hands and releasing a balloon of affirmations into the sky.[break][break]

Just a session. One hour of her life spent listening to some divination silliness.[break][break]

That was surely reasonable. It wouldn't kill her, right?[break][break]

"Um, hi? I'm Marianne Lovelace. I think I'm your afternoon appointment?"[break][break]

And a skeptic, who probably will not be of much use to you at all, I'm so so sorry to waste your time, the guilt behind her eyes whispered.

TAGS – Mitsuru Kagami[break]
NOTES – Mission: Employment I

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"Nice to meet you, Aaron. And aw, she doesn't look like a monster, does she?" A sharp gasp betrayed her surprise when it looked like her Klefki had struck a more decisive blow against the Pikachu than expected. Had she... gotten the early advantage?! That hadn't happened before! "Ah, look, look! Oh my gosh, Angel is doing so well!"[break][break]

She jumped a bit in admittedly girlish excitement despite herself, starting to understand why people were so obsessive about battling here. "S-sorry, hope that wasn't rude... I haven't had the best luck so far!" she said with a sheepish laugh, watching as her Klefki bristled at the STATIC of the THUNDER WAVE.[break][break]

Tiny jolts of electricity sparked from the metal, which lashed out in the dark pulse of FOUL PLAY.[break][break]

"How about you? How have your other battles been going?"[break][break]

As the saying goeth, however, pride comes before a fall. Her Klefki's early squeak of success began to falter almost immediately.[break][break]

TAGS – aaron faust[break]
NOTES – Vital City Tournament: Aaron vs Marianne!

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She sucked in a deep breath as she mustered every bit of enthusiasm to agree to this, feeling woefully out of her element already. That Andrea Vaneau's Hydreigon had been a lot harder than she'd expected! Things were far more complicated on the battle than simple typing suggested.[break][break]

"Well I guess I'll start, then?" Marianne agreed, and though it wasn't really a question, her statement certainly had the lilt of one.[break][break]

As her Klefki entered the field it started things out with FOUL PLAY![break][break]

"Is someone, uh, filming this?"[break][break]

There was a suspiciously curious Rotom here...[break][break]

TAGS – BARNABY FINCH[break]
NOTES – Vital City Tournament: Barnaby vs Marianne!

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Eesh. This was going horribly.[break][break]

Marianne scratched her head as she tried to think of answers, only to stare at her Klefki flail about from one flame-ringed jaw to the other. "Think, Marianne, think!" she whispered to herself, but nothing really came to mind. Weren't Fairy-types supposed to be good at this line-up, theoretically?![break][break]

Maybe she wasn't 'grinding' her Pokemon's 'levels' enough, as the kids said.[break][break]

While the trainer struggled with indecision, her Klefki decided to retaliate by PLAYING ROUGH as fiercely as the dragon that had it in its grip![break][break]

TAGS – Andrea Vaneau[break]
NOTES – Vital City Tournament: Andrea vs Marianne!

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"Gosh, it's the worst, isn't it? The museum had that problem last year. A little alcohol and people turn into animals!" She was pretty certain, pretty horribly terribly certain, that people had done dastardly, unmentionable things in the museum last year. (Thankfully for Gunner Graves, these suspicions were never confirmed with conclusive evidence.)[break][break]

She attempted to mimic the blowing on her latte, tentatively taking a small sip after and finding to her relief it didn't fight her.[break][break]

What Nenet suggested next, of course, didn't get received so smoothly. Marianne proceeded to choke on her coffee at the mention of 'slit skirts.'[break][break]

"Oh, please no. Let's not put that mental image in anyone's head."[break][break]

How to put this? Neffatari Nzingha was, without question, the most beautiful, most intelligent, most effortlessly cool person that Marianne knew. She was pretty sure that Nenet could walk outside in sweatpants and a T-shirt and someone would offer to let her model for a perfume commercial, and Nenet would sigh and explain 'oh no, she couldn't possibly' because she was about to receive some prestigious reward for research that was about to save the region from its next incoming meteor.[break][break]

Okay. Maybe that was a bit dramatic, but it felt true to Marianne.[break][break]

"And alcohol just makes me sleepy. Or chatty. Or chatty enough I talk myself to sleep. It's like. The antithesis of the things you should do to attract people."[break][break]

She nimbly dodged the other question of 'whom,' turning her attention to her Phanpy being kicked over unceremoniously. "Oh, Barney-baby, are you okay?" she cooed as she righted the little elephant, pushing him back so his flailing four legs found their place firmly on the ground. "Don't antagonize Nenet's Yamper! Play nice!"[break][break]

The Phanpy trumpeted a bit indignantly, hurt that he was perceived as the bad actor here. The betrayal!

TAGS – Neffatari Nzingha[break]
NOTES – Mission: Bond Bridge (January).

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