[attr="class","mimi"]"i know martial arts," she answers slowly. she's never had to use her skills offensively, and his admission that he did not want to use force has her letting out a deep breath. she nods, glad that the more experienced of the two is taking charge. she'll follow his plan.

at his cue, mimi decides to tell him of her lost heirloom. "they stole a necklace of mine. it has a dark sphere, with a small fire-like pattern." implicitly, it's a request to keep an eye out for it. hopefully they'd find it.

her hand goes to her belt, where her pokeballs rest. she picks the one housing her dragonite, and he's soon released into the air. "one each, then? after you."

[attr="class","seelie"]

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-dragonite"]

Laurence Anderson

[attr="class","mimi"]mimi nods "nice to meet you, lars. call me mimi" of course, it'd be even nicer to meet under better conditions, but he'll help her recover her necklace and that's good enough for her. if the metagross is anything to go by, he must be quite capable as well. she leads the man towards the edge of a rock formation, and has him take a quick look as she fills him in.

"it was only two that ambushed me and my friend, but i expect there to be a lot more here. at least four. two of them are on patrol right by the entrance, as you can see." mimi stops, uncertainty evident in her frown. "what's the standard procedure? will you have to apprehend them? confiscate their pokemon?" she really has no prior experience with situations like this, and that scares her a bit.

[attr="class","seelie"]Laurence Anderson

[attr="class","mimi"]this time, she can't help the chuckle. "do you really have two left feet?"

she'll have to see for herself.

"well, yes, both hands." mimi answers, dedicating a moment to securing his hands on her waist. didn't he say he'd tried this before? nevermind, she's here to fix that first failure. "you could also try closed position. it's kind of like the old waltz movements, with your left hand holding my – or ava's – right. it can be a little harder to control, because it widens the area you have to be mindful of."

mimi wraps her arms around lance's neck, closing the distance between the two. she knows ava. she's sure she'll prefer this to the alternative mimi mentioned. "don't think too much; just sway to the music."

[attr="class","seelie"]LANCE VOLLANS

[attr="class","mimi"]mimi's gaze takes the same path upwards that lance's does. two encounters with the same ghost can only mean one thing, and she's all for it. "are you kidding? we have to go and confront it, if it's been following us!" she says a little too excitedly. oops.

he has no chance of escape, considering she's not only holding his hand but pulling at it. "maybe it's fixated with you. i read ghosts will sometimes target a specific person." where had she read that? probably one of those fake occult websites on the internet. definitely not somewhere trustworthy.

[attr="class","seelie"]

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-drampa inactive"]

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[attr="class","mimi"]she doesn't contain her laughter, mirthful and completely trusting. why would she have any reason to doubt he'd eaten the buns by himself? "have they not been feeding you here or what?" she hands him a can of sweetened green tea, and gladly picks up one of the remaining buns.

"it's fine. did you like the pork? i added a lot of filling this time. lean protein is good for recovery."

[attr="class","seelie"]LANCE VOLLANS

[attr="class","mimi"]the color on his cheeks doesn't go unnoticed. mimi waits as he moves to play the song he's chosen, curious. had he ever been this thoughtful when it came to a girl? she's just happy it's ava that gets to see this side of lance. she knows her friend will treat him the way he deserves.

"it's a nice song," she says after a few seconds of listening to it. sweet, slow, the kind of ballad popular a few years back. she wonders if it's a song he and ava have shared before. "the second thing you have to be mindful of is the place you'll be dancing in. we don't want either of you accidentally getting hurt."

of course, they don't have to worry about that in their current venue. a big, open room in mimi's ancestral home. "okay, now for the real lesson." she extends a hand, motioning for lance to approach. "put your hands on my waist."

[attr="class","seelie"]LANCE VOLLANS

[attr="class","mimi"]a grin finds a way to sneak into her face. "you're not wrong." while mimi did not train only dragons, the passion for that type of pokemon had been instilled in her since she was very little. shifu, her drampa, had done the job of her nanny, and so many other baby and not-so-baby dragons hanged out in her garden that it was natural for her to fall in love with them.

"huh?" she exclaims, turning quickly to the portrait in question. she doesn't see it, and by now she begins to wonder if lance isn't just conditioned to believe he's seeing ghosts. "was it the same one from before? do you think?"

throughout it all, her grasp on lance's hand remains firm.

[attr="class","seelie"]

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-drampa inactive"]

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[attr="class","mimi"]rather than one bun, she hands him the entire basket. of course she's confident; she's made these delicacies from the moment she was born, pretty much. just the one wouldn't be enough to satiate a sick man's hunger, especially when said man is lance. she looks at him expectantly. "well? go on, don't be shy."

a thought crosses her mind. subtle, but so ingrained in her customs that she has to berave herself for forgetting. "we're missing the tea." and then, quickly, "i can buy some real quick if you want. i saw a vending machine by the elevator."

[attr="class","seelie"]LANCE VOLLANS

[attr="class","mimi"]everything is a blur after leaving lance at the hospital. she'd asked to be directed to the best hospital in the city, and she supposes it makes sense that it'd be league-funded. a million questions from nurses, doctors, league officials, until at last she returns to the sea.

mimi isn't here for revenge; she just wants to take back what's hers. family heirlooms don't just sprout out of the ground, they're treasured and kept safe by the next cheng in line. so that's what she's come to do. she's lucky to be offered the help of a league official to do it, even if she has no idea who he is besides a last name.

"so... anderson, do you have a first name?" she asks. as a civilian, military forms of address throw her off. "the pirate hideout should be around here, if we're to believe the locals."

[attr="class","seelie"]Laurence Anderson

[attr="class","mimi"]mimi is no dancing expert, by far, but years of traditional dancing classes must be of some use. besides, it's to help a friend not disappoint another friend. she supposes that part of the crushing process involves being self-conscious and worrying about whether one’s skills are good enough for the intended partner. not that she knows.

”there are two things you want to keep in mind when you ask her to dance,” she enunciates without much preamble, her friend mask momentarily swapped for that of a strict teacher. it's similar to the one she uses to train her pokemon, if she stops to think about it.

her hand is raised, fingers ready to enumerate each lesson. ”first, you want to choose the right song. a slow dance may be ideal. it's a close, comfortable dance, and doesn't require too much concentration. you could chat while you dance, or even try and steal a kiss.” this last part is mentioned specifically to watch his reaction. lance’s crush on ava is adorable.

[attr="class","seelie"]LANCE VOLLANS

[attr="class","mimi"]where could all the other dratinis be hiding? mimi and her drampa have been in the safari for over six hours, according to her phone. that's a long time to be inside a safari zone without a warden coming in to retrieve her.

"we might as well have some bbq while we wait, shifu."

one of the three pokemon eye the sunkern casually passing by suspiciously. probably reading the mood, it runs back to the tall grass.

[attr="class","seelie"]

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-drampa"]

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-dratini"]

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-dratini"]

[attr="class","mimi"]or maybe it's time for tuanzi's first lesson. a pokemon zooms past the group. too fast to see, but mimi is certain it is a vibrava. the violent vibration of its wings can't be mistaken. "tuanzi, you should watch this," she calls for the jangmo-o's attention, before turning to the garchomp soaring above them. "after it."

the garchomp descends at a speed only bested by the vibrava itself. their comparative advantage? the vibrava can't fly very far distances due to its developing wings, while the garchomp's are fully developed. naturally, the cat-and-mouse chase ends when the vibrava can no longer keep up. the garchomp strikes with dragon rush, to which the vibrava answers by summoning a sandstorm. it hopes to run away in the storm, but doesn't count with the garchomp's sand veil ruins its plans.

"when you can't match an opponent in one of their qualities, best them with a different one," the woman narrates the moral of the story.

[attr="class","seelie"]

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-garchomp"]

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-jangmo-o"]

[attr="class","mimi"]mimi shakes her head no when lance asks, and tilts her head at the frown developing on his face. she has no time to ask, though, as he tugs at her hand to keep going. smiling to herself, she wonders if he's liking the tour a little more now.

they reach the bottom of a grand staircase and decide (or rather, she decides) to climb them. "do you like ghost pokemon, lance?" it's an innocent question. she's come to associate the image of a shedinja to him. his star pokemon, she'd call aave. mimi doesn't have any ghost pokemon herself. "i've heard tales of a very cool-looking half-ghost, half-dragon roaming the skies in galar. i want to tame it one day."

she's so caught up in imagining how she'd meet it, how she'd befriend it, how she'd battle with it, that she doesn't notice the reappearance of the same grin and eyes lance had seen before. this time, it shows up in replacement of a portrait's face. no less scary than the last time. like the last time, though, it blinks and disappears after a second.

[attr="class","seelie"]

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-drampa inactive"]

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