[attr="class","rosepost"]Slowking and her had recently crossed paths compared to her two mainstays, Togekiss and Pelipper, but he was a dear ally regardless. "We've been through some things. I know he's tough as nails." She nudged his shoulder, and Slowking finally looked pleased and relaxed. She knew Pelipper could get on his nerves, but it was good that he could bounce back. [break][break]

"Gorgeous Pyroar," she complimented as one nudged her. She was thankful it wasn't nighttime when she'd need sunglasses to look at them. They reminded her of the way Illumise could glow at night. She had recently learned of crystalblooms and their impact on pokemon, but she had yet to encounter one in person. His collection was almost more impressive than the feat of illumina. "I can't imagine managing so many pokemon at once!"

[break][break]Josh Devlin [break]

[attr="class","rosepost"]She had braced for the storm as best she could. She managed deep breaths and counted time until the whipping winds dissipated. Forty-three seconds later, the winds had died down and she could uncover her face and breathe normally. In front of her stood the unmistakable Josh Devlin. [break][break]

She got to her feet and clutched at her chest, ears flushing with embarrassment. "Oh, I am so sorry about that! I didn't - I didn't know Pelipper could hit that hard. Or that he'd disobey me and use hurricane," she added with a sharp look at her Pelipper, who knowingly fluttered down to the ground. Her Slowking took that as an opportunity to crawl out of the sea he'd been rudely tossed into. She latched her arms around the six foot pokemon and squeezed. [break][break]

"I am so, so sorry about the trouble. I promise I wasn't here to cause issues on the beach. I know that's the last thing anyone needs." The why went unspoken. War sat on everyone's tongues these days. "I'm Keiko Mori, an officer. I work with HBIC for cases of mail fraud." The courier hoped he believed her; she didn't have her mail delivery bag with her today since she'd marked it off her calendar as a day just dedicated to her pokemon and their need to grow.

[break][break]Josh Devlin [break]

[attr="class","rosepost"]Her pokemon weren't growing stronger, they were growing angrier. She didn't know how else to teach them than to assess their sparring skills and find strategies to improve their combat, but the two pokemon were fighting with more rage than skill. Pelipper dove low with a tailwind but was interrupted mid-flight with Slowking's headbutt.[break][break]

Even Keiko flinched at how hard that hit looked. [break][break]

Pelipper, pushed past the breaking point, launched a hurricane despite Keiko's prior instructions not to. The winds kicked up huge tufts of sand and even threatened Keiko's safety (who got low and covered her face as best she could to avoid inhaling sand). The storm tossed Slowking towards the ocean and continued its reign of terror towards Josh and his pride, the hurricane on a warpath much like Pelipper himself.

[break][break]Josh Devlin [break]

[attr="class","rosepost"]She pinched the bridge of her nose. Her Pelipper was her longest companion and also the most obnoxious. Slowking was a new member of her team and an important one because of the wide variety of moves he could learn with technical machines. "Strategy, Pelipper. You can't do the same thing over and over again."[break][break]

It didn't help that she felt a hard deadline approaching - though when it was exactly was vague. She just felt a ticking clock about the strength of her team. She needed to be able to protect herself; Hoenn had proved to be a much different beast than Sinnoh. She felt her own patience wearing thin like Slowking's, who was annoyed with Pelipper's repeated supersonic and used disable. [break][break]

Pelipper cawed in upset and betrayal. "You guys, we have to work harder," she tried, but neither pokemon was as interested in her direction as they were with one-upping the other.

[break][break]Josh Devlin [break]

[attr="class","rosepost"]Sylveon scurried ahead, sensing something. She slowed in her pace to watch as Sylveon tasted the air. [break][break]

A brutal swing came from out of nowhere, a striking limb attached to a tall fairy. Sylveon barely dodged out of the way, kicking up a sand attack as he found new footing. He faced the Hatterne and growled. It prepared a brutal swing again, but Sylveon used copy cat to strike the Hatterne with the same attack. Hatterne startled at the sudden turn of battle, and it's pause gave Keiko the window she needed. She tossed a pokeball to capture it.

[break][break](catch)

[attr="class","rosepost"]'I'm already stuck in the past, I don't want to be stuck in the future too.' Poignant. He had these brilliant moments of self-reflection that seemed to conflict with his naive perseverance, but it still suited him. These little fragments that became the mosaic of Rex, and she could see him for all his parts if she just looked a little longer. [break][break]

Like he was. He was red like magikarp, and she let the moment hang between them like a morning dewdrop on a heavy blade of grass. "I like that: living in the moment." She closed the distance between them, easy enough with how stunned he was, and brought a hand to his chin, forcing him to look her in the eye. [break][break]

"This moment is precious." She kissed his nose. "And this one." She kissed his cheek. And she leaned in, teasing at his mouth, but she didn't press her lips against him. "And why don't we visit the Pinap palms and see if there's a precious moment there, hm?" She dragged him along, clothes roughly folded on her arm but forgotten just as quickly, dropped at the border between sand and grassy growths. [break][break]

She leaned him against the tree, kissing from his jaw to his ear. "Why don't you keep track of time for me?" She dipped her mouth lower.

[break][break]Althus Rex [break]

[attr="class","rosepost"]His question struck her as a little insane, really. "How do you not?" In Sinnoh, just about everyone kept one eye forward and one on the past, mindful of how history repeated. Mindful of the rhythm of Almighty Sinnoh's life and will pulsing through reality.[break][break]

"Time is a privilege," she explained as she joined him out of the waves. She took her blouse off, though it was a bit of a fight as the neck of her top caught on her hair pin. "Being wasteful of it is, well, kind of sinful?" Sin wasn't perhaps the best word, but it was such an understood topic where she was from that she had a hard time articulating some of the tenets of her faith. Absorbed in her task, she let the blouse fall and took a moment to pull out her pins fully, letting her hair down for the first time in a few days. [break][break]

She continued undressing as she spoke, looking off at the sea as if the right vocabulary would swim right up to her. "It - you just have to plan ahead, y'know? Scrambling for your next step is terrible. In most situations, but in this one specifically, of course." She bent to gather all of her shed clothing, feeling at the fabric to estimate how long they'd need to be laid in the sun. [break][break]

"It scares me sometimes, how little I see everyone else plan. But, to be fair, you're very focused. Very present." She finally turned to him.

[break][break]Althus Rex [break]

[attr="class","rosepost"]Like vulnerability was a competition between them, he insisted he needed her even more than she needed him. She nearly laughed, but then he was kissing her, and she kept him close with the hand tangled in his hair. [break][break]

Even still, untamed guilt gnawed at her at the insistence. She couldn't speak to anything off of the island. Who knew who they would each be when they were free? She needed him now, but she wouldn't need him after the island. She would only want him. And if he really needed her afterwards, she feared the consequences. The responsibility of being needed. [break][break]

The metaphor was lost to her now, but there was something to be said about the lines of survival or compromise or lying. It all looked to the same to her from the sea. "I'm with you," she says instead of anything truly incriminating. "Now, let me take care of you." She dips her head in for one final taste of sea salt before nudging him towards the shore. "If you get an infection, I'm never letting you live it down." Doctor's orders, and all that. [break][break]

"And now we'll need to lay these clothes out to dry but get you somewhere where we reduce the risk of sand getting into the wound - that'll make for improper healing, and we'll have to..." She rattles off their next steps, thinking several steps ahead while staying in the safety of the confines of the island. What happens after, she can't face just yet.

[break][break]Althus Rex [break]