the jagged pass did not treat him well -- though cirina and roan were given an opportunity to bond with him, the price was an invading storm of tempestuous winds and raining onslaught. zeke had been lucky enough to evade the worst of it, his clothes only taking a short shower before finding cover. the wait was tedious, but the storm passed and he found himself hiking the rest of the way to lavaridge town in the slick conditions of the storm's aftermath.

and then he ate shit about halfway to his destination; thankfully, the gods were smiling just enough to spare him to humiliation of an audience.

now he rolls a pokeball in his right hand as he stands by a fencepost on what he believes to be the outskirts of town. a gash runs along the length of his left forearm, a reminder of the slip from before, blood still fresh on the skin. he is without a first aid kit for the first time in a while, an irony he does not fail to recognize as he eyes up the wound.

"you're worth it, right?" his voice is soft as zeke speaks to the pokeball, a convenient stand in for the duosion he's just captured.

his eyes fall back to the ugly mess on his arm. a gash -- such a small problem, something the veteran would not take a second look at if it weren't so ugly to the rest of the world.

a ranch sits beyond the fence, its small town charm luring him in with the potential promise of a quick bandage before going on his way. the less bloody of his hands pushes through a latch door, and his towering figure searches for the entrance of the house.


@spring

the presence of @yiannis is enough to put zeke at relative ease, at least for a moment. he watches on in awe as the councilman blocks the entrance -- but not before silph bursts through to greet the enemies voraciously. the reunion is short-lived; zeke feels more needed inside than out. the building rumbles, its foundation impressive enough to withstand the attacks from above for now. there is a momentarily lapse in action just in front of him, enough to make zeke feel useless. suddenly ian is sending his pokemon off and moving on himself -- the first floor is fine enough. "i'll meet you up there." his words are directed at ian but he does not spare any time before bolting out of the main area and into a hallway on the western side of the building as ian took his own path to the top.

part of him hopes to find dahlia goode , another is worried that finding her means she is vulnerable. the building around him is unfamiliar as it is, the crumbling of brick and mortar only further exasperating his lack of experience here. league members are scattered throughout the halls, scrambling to reinforce any areas of destruction in order to weed out the rocket members. ian's superb work near the entrance is not enough to protect the flanks of the building from breaking.

he comes upon more webs, these ones blocking a doorway into a stairwell that will surely lead him up toward the source of the ruckus. "tamara, tear it down." he's still at a jog as his altaria rushes forth, a ball forming at her beak momentarily before bursting through the web in the form of a moonblast.

the second floor proves more ravaged than the first, images of slateport painted into the gaps in the walls. sirens wail far in the distance, and zeke realizes this is not the only place of attack.

searching for the commissioner and the source of rumbling feels contradictory and futile -- he stops in the middle of the hallway, his eyes falling upon the closest person to him, @devon .

"have you seen the commissioner?" zeke chooses to protect the woman in charge rather than try to single out rockets.



- talks to @yiannis  
- breaks down a web set up by t-pose and rushes upstairs to the 2nd floor
- honestly just confused about the layout of this place, forgive me
- asks @devon where the commissioner is because this i'm a hot mess and i just need some direction
- EDIT: realized i didn't process any of the previous posts so now mine makes a little more sense lmao

thunder cracks once again, this time louder but somehow less intimidating in nature. the trio is coming into its own already, roan rejoining zeke and cirina in the middle of the makeshift battlefield. the sounds of pokemon can be heard above the winds as they pick up more and more. they keep zeke and his pokemon on edge, their backs all to one another in an attempt to keep an eye on every possible area of attack.

their patience and teamwork is quickly reward as a duosion appears. it quickly assaults them with a psychic, choosing the mawile as its target. roan floats helplessly as the mystical aura encapsulates her. zeke lets her float, his eyes dropping to the luxio that remains rooted to the ground. "cirina, wild charge!" the preoccupied duosion is forced to drop the mawile abruptly, its floating form drifting upward to allow the luxio to run past it. cirina does not let well enough alone; instead, she vaults off of a boulder and strikes down the duosion with a thunder fang from behind.

a night slash erupts from its front paws and she swipes the psychic type with pure darkness, weakening it further but not enough to call the battle a victory. duosion throws up one last moment of defense, another psychic, but the luxio overpowers the attack and breaks through its restrictions, hurdling forward and knocking the duosion out with a wild charge.

with a smile, zeke calls the luxio back to his side and throws a pokeball out to capture the duosion.

"good work, you two." they've earned his trust and he's earned theirs.



@ solo wild | catching duosion!

the air in the casino suddenly shifts, and zeke no longer feels like he is bullshitting. smoke billows from silph's nostrils, filling a tense silence. zeke's molars grit against once another, sensing that it is opportunity that now fills the air as the smoke dissipates and disappears into the gaudy casino rafters.

it's somehow going to be an opportunity for both of them, he feels but does not confirm, instead studying the piercing blue eyes of fernando eliard silph for a sliver of understanding. zeke is not valuable, and yet feels himself being eyed as a prize through those bright blue irises.

gods they are so...inhuman again.

'something more?'

zeke's head nods slowly, almost imperceptibly. he is too preoccupied with his reservations for any deal that is too be struck with silph to vocalize a response, though only for a moment. silph is a friend, he reminds himself. the list of things that silph has done for him runs through the back of his mind again -- all of this appearing just beneath the surface of his stony face.

"i think so."

FERNANDO SILPH

"maybe not better than here." his bluff is called, though not necessarily intentionally. the curiosity in silph's voice is apparent, and zeke can feel the man reaching for more information before he goes ahead and outright asks for an elaboration. the difference in their lives is more apparent now than it ever has been.

"i...want to matter. not in that bullshit 'everyone matters' way..." the words feel juvenile on his tongue but do not stop for fear of embarrassment. rather, it is the lighting up of the pachinko screen, the image of a marowak disrupting the train of thought. he's picky, but takes the pokemon for fear of completely wasting silph's money. as the pokeball dispenses, he heaves a sigh before pocketing it.

"being a cop here...it's bullshit. i used to do so much more. now i'm nothing again." another kid from the saffron slums doing nothing for his name.

another sigh escapes his lips, this one coming out heavier than the one before. "i guess that's just life."

FERNANDO SILPH nabbing the marowak

the challenge does not go unanswered for long -- under the cloak of rumbling thunder, a medicham breaks from behind a boulder and rips into roan with a force palm. The unexpected attack staggers the mawile, sending it spinning across the rocky surface as both cirina and zeke back away from the medicham.

both he and the luxio this would be roan's battle to face, watching helplessly as the mawile got back to her feet quickly. the pokemon square off, eying one another warily as another clap of thunder frames the battle. roan breaks the moment of hesitation, her short figure closing in on the fighting type. the massive maw that trails behind her opens up, its weight seemingly insignificant as the small pokemon leaps into the air. roan comes down on the medicham with a play rough. she takes advantage of the type advantage, allowing the maw to shred the enemy with relative ease.

they break apart, but only momentarily before another round of force palms and play roughs are traded off in a somewhat comical dust cloud.

thunder claps again, and they break apart from one another. medicham is exhausted, unable to match the obvious type advantage. "iron head." the attack initiates and terminates quickly as roan smacks the challenger into the rock from behind which it appeared, knocking it out cold.

they stand again, waiting for more.



@ solo wild

omg wait i forgot to mention that i love that you used candles by daughter for your lyrics and shit for nubia i've loved that song 4ever!!

but yes i think we should definitely have that awkward interaction asap! nubia seems like such a...cinnamon roll. and i'm always up for a mission, nubia or nimue or whomEVER!




i kind of think aya would be coming from the same place, since staz loves to see what makes people tick? like, they could probably kill each other, which makes aya hate/respect staz. plus staz has a big mean daddy too, so they're kinda the same while being totally different? so yeah, another let's do a mission whenever kinda deal if you wanna ever feel these two out!

the winds whip and the mountain moans at explorers, thunderous clouds encroaching rapidly enough to worry zeke rainey. the darkness from the heavy rain waiting to unleash turns the whole sky black on this late evening, but he is out anyways. 

nobody is around, nobody but his pokemon. his mawile, roan, and his luxio, cirina, walk beside him. they are the newest to his team, and zeke desires to test their strength and forge a connection between him and them before taking them into true battle. criminals, rockets -- they were brutal, desperate, merciless scum and would not stop to spare a pokemon's life. fate has excused him from such a goodbye up to this point, and although he is thankful he is not blind to the fact that it would not excuse him much longer.

so they walk the jagged pass on mt. chimney, challenging any pokemon brave enough to brave the impending storm and the trio of intruders.



@ solo wild