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had they been anyone else, the fron on their facecould have been taken as dislike of the league member in front of them. if they had been anyone else, the twitch of their hand, just slightly, would have been anything other than a desire to help him up. "i think you already know why." it's just as much a confirmation as it is an admission of guilt.
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behind them, the tyranitar grumbles a low warning growl, teeth baring down on the struggling form of the greninja. kasper doesn't have to look back to know the violence the poor aquatic type is recieving, and only partially because of the man's reaction. it looks like it pains him just as much, and just for a second the question of if it would kill him if the greninja dies crosses kasper's mind in a horrible worry.
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they don't want to kill anyone, especially. they're about to speak, to tell the tyranitar to release the greninja, but the man in front of them recovers enough that they don't have to. they reach for a second pokeball of their own- just as plain and normal as the pokeball their tyranitar would have been in, save for a shallow chip from a fall- and toss it just as simply.
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the arcanine is already on guard as soon as he's released, ears perked and eyes focused on the golum, but he doesn't move. not yet. not even when the tyranitar barely lumbers out of the way of an attack, blood beading up from the scrape delivered by the golum, prey still trapped firmly between its jaws.
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"get out of here." it's not the answer he wants, but kasper won't give him that, and, if anything, it's more a request than it is a demand. a promise to let him go if he promises to leave. a childish, tiny glimmer of hope that he will.

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there's a moment where the frog-type pokemon moves, alongside its trainer, and it seems like everything's going to be okay. it seems like, for that moment, that kasper can just get away with sending a warning. they've never hurt anyone- they've never even tried to hurt anyone.
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and then the blow lands true, and kasper winces. they're not sure if their opponent sees the almost apologetic look, or if it even matters, but it's there, fleetingly, and then gone the next second. a part of them wants to leave it at that; they deflate like they're the defeated one, caught between a world where they didn't have to do this and this one, where they do.
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a little nagging voice at the back of their mind asks them why they're even doing this. they could find a new job, some other shop that would hire a barista, and they could live a normal life, away from-
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the frog type pokemon leaps forward with an ice punch, and anything kasper thinks, any of their potential plans, are put on hold. carnation is the bigger opponent, too large and clumsy to duck out of the way in time, and the blow lands square against its chest.
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there's a telltale second of weakness, of the tyranitar having to recover from the force of the blow, before his head snaps forward to try to catch the frog pokemon in a bite.

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back when they were younger, kasper had loved the idea of being some sort of fishing champion. it as an idea that had faded with time, but sometimes the thought of it made them nostalgic. which is why, when they had heard of the swarm, they thought they should try catching one of the pokemon out again.
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"here goes nothing?" even if, as they threw the pokeball, they wanted it to be something.
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Xo8qvXGL

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there were a lot of weird things that happened in and around hoenn, and kasper was so stranger to rumors of it all at the very least. if the rumors had been anything else, they probably would have believed it. ghosts? as long as they stayed far away from kasper, it'd be fine.
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doppelgangers, though? kasper wasn't the bravest, but it only felt right that they set out to try to prove someone wrong. and what better place than a big, scary, abandoned warehouse at night?
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they were starting to realize that literally anywhere else would have been better. especially when their flashlight flickered and went out all at once, plunging them into darkness. the sort of darkness that left them seeing something moving, maybe towards them, but unable to tell what it actually was.
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so maybe this had been a bad idea after all.

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so far, kasper wasn't sure if it was some sort of loyalty to rocket, fear, or stupidity that made them wait outside their apartment. so far, though, they did know one thing, and it was thatthey were actually going to die of boredom.
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it had taken maybe five seconds for them to sit down on the ground just in front of their apartment door, and it had taken half that time for them to pull up some mindless, screen-tapping game on their phone. it had taken a fraction of that time for them to get bored of it, but they still sat on it, because it passed the time better thaan anything else.
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now they just had to wait for-
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oh, shit. they didn't know who they were waiting for, actually, and they hadn't given their exact apartment.

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to the surprise of probably everyone, kasper had never been to the safari. when they were younger, their father had been so worried about the idea of wild pokemon and two kids running around. and then, after their brother....
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well. they had never thought about it too much. and today would have been no exception, had they not heard about some of the pokemon there. a part of them wanted to put it off, but a larger part of them wanted to check it out.
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which is what landed them where they were, dressed casually (despite the very real potential that a pokemon could easily attack), and the four pokeballs they had bought in their pocket. now they just had to...wait? or maybe they were supposed to sneak up on the pokemon, themself?

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fuck.
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kasper knows enough to know when they've been caught, and the way the man narrows his eyes is more than enough proof of that. they freeze like a deer pokemon in the headlights, and some part of them knows that there's no way they can talk their way out of this. not reasonably. still, they swallow, and their explanation comes out just as unsure as before. probably because of the fact that they're still blatantly lying.
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"i mean- just because you haven't seen me around doesn't mean-"
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their attention flicks toward the pokemon, briefly, and their frown deepens. the tyranitar by their side catches the tension in the air, and starts to step forward. abandoning all pretense of being on the same side- partially to spare themself the disappointment- kasper nods. permission. a signal.
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and all at once, the tyranitar lunges forward with a smack down aimed at either pokemon or trainer- whichever would be unable to get out of the way fast enough.

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they had been completely distracted by other things to think about the last pumpkaboo, but the size of this one alone made it impossible to do that- much less the commotion that it caused. it's easy enough to circle around back to inspect the pokemon, but...well. maybe they don't have great math skills.
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regardless, they scribble down a quick guess. the pumpkaboo was big, right? so why not go all out?

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