[attr="class","mimi"]"ugh." mimi needs a moment to regain her senses. her head is pounding, no doubt having hit one of the many hard surfaces in the boat. what alarms her the most is the abscence of other sounds, of any groans from similarly pained individual next to her.

red. she can see red spreading in the water. mimi doesn't think it twice: she jumps, and her garchomp abandons her battle to follow.

the sight that greets her back into the water makes her want to scream. bubbles erupt out of her mouth instead of any human sound. she kicks, the moments before she reaches him stretching out like an eternity.

a harpoon, pointed and long, seems to grow out of his arm. four fingers lined up in a straight line. they slide down the water, emulating what she wants her garchomp to do, before pointing at the two offending people and taking out a second pokeball.

they don't have more pokemon on them, she reasons, she'd just have to deal with the tentacruel to scare them away. the drampa would take care of lance, keep him out of harm's way.

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

[attr="class","mimi"]for a brief moment, mimi fears the dratini won't accept. it needs a moment to consider her offer and finish its berry. thankfully, in the end, the pokemon jumps into the safari ball happily.

the group keeps moving until they reach a stream, small but loud. the waters run quickly due to the slant in the hill. a tentacool jumps out of the stream, and the sheer speed makes it look like a wild attack. mimi takes a defensive position. however, just as quickly as it jumps, the tentacool descends back into the stream. phew.

a little farther away, she can already discern a series of cascades. exactly what she's looking for. "we can rest there," she tells the drampa.

[attr="class","seelie"]

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

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

[attr="class","mimi"]mimi's head tilts in serious thought. the weight of the two ghosts is lifted temporarily, and mimi answers in a truly curious tone. "you think so? i thought these overwater bungalows were really charming."

she follows his gaze only to reaffirm her stance on the matter. "they'd make good retirement homes."

in that moment, mimi's jangmo-o takes advantage of the diversion to flee the scene. the atmosphere when his trainer and his new friend was so dark it was giving him bad vibes. he has a solution, though. while hiding under his trainer's hand, he's seen a pokemon with a funny hat that he can befriend. so that's what he runs off to do, to talk to the funny-hatt water pokemon.

she notices it a second too late. from their vantage point at the top of the rock, the jangmo-o slides down to the very base of the formation. "tuanzi!" she calls after him, to no avail. sigh. "sorry, i'll be right back."

propelling herself up to follow the little devil takes no more time than it takes for the jangmo-o to charm the skrelp into joining the team. somehow, it's a very short time. somehow, the two pokemon have enough time to coordinate a double baby-doll eyes attack on her.

by the time she can continue her conversation with lance, mimi's been forced to offer the skrelp a pokeball of its own. "you're living in lilycove, then?"

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

[attr="class","mimi"]her eyes follow the action with a squint. not at the actions transcurring, but at what she's hearing come from lance. "are you underestimating me, vollans?" the words come out colder than she means them to be. being looked down upon leaves, has always left, a bitter aftertaste in mimi's tongue.

whatever. there's no time for this.

the dewgong's fin-like flippers are already looking pretty tattered. somewhere deep inside, mimi feels very sorry about it. the competitions she's used to are far less violent, far less grim. however, pirates wouldn't have that sort of moral compass, so she has to swallow her guilt and do the best she can to drive them away.

crunch after crunch, the tactic is slow but effective. "careful, guimi. you can kite it." mimi really does not have much to criticize of the garchomp's approach, circumstances considered.

lance's question draws her out of the battle she'd immersed herself in. she blinks. see the owners of these pokemon? she doesn't, and now that he mentions it, that's really worrisome. "they couldn't have left them behind, could– wait, behind you!" she pushes him aside, scared that the tentacruel might hit him, and in the process makes the boat dip to the side.

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

[attr="class","mimi"]"did you see that?"

mimi squints, certain that she's seen the shadow of a pokemon pass by. her eyes roam the area. excitement builds in her belly, a feeling she hasn't experienced in a while. she can feel her blood pumping in her veins. the adrenaline rising.

sure enough, a dratini makes an appearance before her. one of the famous mirage pokemon.

it's smaller than the average dratini, barely reaching her waist at half height. as soon as it catches a glimpse of her, mimi bows to it, a hand outstretched to convey no intentions of harming it. the dratini doesn't pull back, and that gives her the courage to slowly approach it.

once she's within patting distance, the woman retrieves a berry from her belt bag. she offers it to the dratini. a peace offering, so to speak. a smile pulls her lips apart when the dragon type seems to accept. "good boy," she encourages.

while the dratini eats, she runs her hand through the pokemon's luminescent scales. they're hard, but not rough. they're perfect.

"how should i say this?" her nerves speak for her at first, as she tries to remember how to recruit a pokemon to her team. "hey, i've been looking for someone like you to train with. you're still growing, but i can see you've got a lot of potential. what do you say? wanna give it a try?"

how embarrassing; this baby dragon is basically making her feel like a teenager again.

[attr="class","seelie"]

[attr="class","mimi"]mimi lets the drampa lead the way for a bit, stopping only when a gastly surprises her by appearing out of nowhere, staring at them from a meter or so away, and then moving on. her hands feel cold after the encounter. the drampa emits a sound akin to a growl and mimi nods. they continue.

[attr="class","seelie"]

[attr="class","mimi"]she nods once more, almost desperate to agree. when he squeezes her hand, she squeezes back. but when he pulls away, she doesn't try to seek the warmth of his hand again.

he opens his mouth for a sentence that mimi can't process immediately. she can't tell if he's talking about– no, it definitely is about ava. he doesn't know about anything else. she hasn't told him, and that's for the best. they both deserve the time to mourn the passing in their own ways.

she forces a smile, a mix of sadness and gratitude fighting for dominion over the nerves on her lips. "i know." what else could she say? she knows for a fact that any pain she can feel, he feels multiplied.

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

[attr="class","mimi"]this may not be exactly how she pictured her trip to hoenn at first, but mimi doesn't complain. "i see." it makes sense, actually. the region's geography, from what she'd seen so far, makes it a perfect breeding ground for pirates. "in that case, i should make good on that promise to help fight them, right?"

a whistle has the garchomp descending right into one of the enemy pokemon, mouth open for a bite. the dewgong, she decides, strategically picked for the softness of its skin against guimi's fire fang.

noticing the ease with which her garchomp's fangs bore into the dewgong's skin, mimi discards the possibility of thick fat as the pokemon's ability. hydration, then, which makes things just a tad easier for them.

"target the flippers, make it harder for it to move!" and the garchomp follows her lead.

the feraligatr might prove more troublesome, given their skillset. on the brighter side, "those jaws can't do much if you don't have a physical body." the spiritomb's appearance is more than welcomed.

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

[attr="class","mimi"]mimi nods. she counts the months since october, and realizes the anniversary of their passing would be coming up soon. almost a year. she's gone without knowing for almost a year. "no, it's not your fault. i should have been there. i'm really sorry." he doesn't have to spell it out for her. his departure from sinnoh was prompted by their death.

she looks up and finds him staring at some point in the distance, lost in the only thing there besides them: the sea. her reaction is unconscious. instinctive. her hand reaches out to his, and it rests there. a small gesture meant for comfort.

"it's a little late, but i'm here for you. if you ever want to talk, or if you ever want to not talk."

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

[attr="class","mimi"]lance's mantyke is hurt, but the garchomp sees it as an opening for a dragon rush that pushes it back and out of reach from them. on her way back, she brings the small mantray under her arm.

when lance suggests swimming up to the surface, mimi doesn't need any sort of explanation. not only are they out of their element, battling underwater also makes communication a lot harder. she agrees, they should return to the boat.

the garchomp returns to their sides soon after, and mimi can't be more thankful for her speed. there is no time to ask for permission, so she simply grabs one of lance's arms, hooks it around the garchomp's back fin, and taps her back as signal to get them out of there. this time, the dragon rush is used to create an escape.

"what's that? a tentacruel?"

seriously? she could not have possibly expected the boat to be compromised either. a third pokemon, or rather the tentacles of a third pokemon, are searching through their possessions.

"guimi, to your right!" she calls, and the garchomp begins to summon a sand tomb in said direction. but there isn't enough sand to pull from in their immediate vicinity, and the tentacruel is faster. before she can stop it, it's gone.

mimi turns. "it's probably with them." she instructs the garchomp to take flight and keep an eye out as she inspects whatever is left on the boat. "i doubt they came here just to steal our clothes."

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

[attr="class","mimi"]the lulling idle motion of the sunkern has shifu bobbing his head back and forth with it. mimi laughs, patting the drampa condescendingly. "you've been with kids too much lately." after a quick scan of their surroundings, she urges her companion forward. "where do you think the dragons have hidden themselves in?"

[attr="class","seelie"]

Mimi Cheng
safari ticket purchase (please debit 50pd) + spawn please!
pkmn-hoenn.boards.net/thread/9912/immortals-pt-1
♡

[attr="class","mimi"]how long has it been since her last trip to a safari? too long. for a decade until now, mimi's professional team had been composed by pokemon specifically bred and trained for the competitive scene. pokemon to be lent and borrowed, used and repurposed. this was one of the darker sides of professional training that mimi was frankly glad to have left behind. even for only a while. she passes through the gateway into the safari zone with this thought in mind.

"retirement... we've had a long run, eh, shifu? we could settle down somewhere nice, become teachers. you did like fallarbor a lot." of course, a drampa's natural habitat are mountain ranges.

after a few steps, she decides it's no time to be thinking about retirement. safari zones are places for excitement, for meeting new pokemon friends.

[attr="class","seelie"]