Set in the original region of Arciel, Legends Rising is a route-inspired, but not strictly route-based, Pokemon roleplay. Pick a faction, pick a class, and strike out into the wild to take on the League, master Contest coordination, research the mysteries of Pokemon and Arciel, and much, much more. Will you be a classic trainer? A criminal? A farmer? Choose your destiny on Legends Rising.
A deep, guttural groan escaped from Juni as she reached up and slapped a hand over her forehead. “Tell me about it,” she sighed. “Grant funding is only getting tighter, and my K-900 only lasts for one more year. I’ve got to run around publishing to have any shot at tenure, and then they still want you bringing in grants and…” Juni was muttering to herself now, something about a paper she hadn’t quite started or something….
Red eyes flicked out and down the waterline searching for an escape of some sort. She really didn’t want to think about all the stress and strain that came with funding— and it seemed Nature Itself had other plans as well. What she saw floating off in a small group was a herd of migrating Lapras. “What…” Juni shifted and squirmed getting to a weird standing position to get a better look. “Oh wow,” she breathed. “I thought Lapras were migratory, but they’re out there playing on the ice…” Oh wait, they were part Ice Type weren’t they? Huh…. Land Pokemon are better, and I just caught the fucking Horsea…. But it was nice to look at.
A particularly large one, perhaps the matriarch or patriarch of the group, threw back its head and began a harmonic song causing the others to do so as well. Juni’s breath caught as she listened.
Listening to Juni go off about grants and tenure and papers she hadn't gotten started just made Senara feel justified in going off and doing her own thing after college, rather than trying to stay in school and keep at it. She was happy doing what she was doing, even if her actual job wasn't what she thought she'd wind up doing with her life. Oh well, it was in her field and it made money and it gave her access to the mines, and she could be a hundred percent independent. It was worth it. "Hahah, you just make me glad I cut out and stuck with work instead of going back for my PhD! No offense, like, you've got so much more on me, but I think I'd go crazy trying to keep up with a rat race like that."
Over the water and ice, Lapras were gathered and singing sweet, haunting music along to the sounds of the waves. A few Cloyster sat on the floating ice alongside them, just "chilling"--was that a bad pun? Yes, yes it was. "I've got a cute lil' Lapras, but she's just too small for me to ride around. And I've got this beauty," she leaned over the side of her seat to pet Crepe on the back. A few happy bubbles crowned around his head, "So I'm not going to complain~" Even if some of those larger Lapras were quite beautiful...
...hmm?
Senara saw a splash of far brighter color than those of a Lapras or Cloyster come close, and squinted to make it out under the cool dark water. It was a lot of colors. Garish, bright pink and yellow and blue and...wow, what in the world was it? It didn't look like a native species to the area, not with those colors. It looked like it belongs in the tropics.
Had it been released by a tourist?
That was bad for a lot of reasons. Environmental and otherwise. .
The least I can do is catch it and get it out of the cold water, whatever it is...
"Hang on, I think I spy an invasive species," she undid her seat-belt again, this time not even bothering to make Crepe slow down. She kept her balance just fine. With another blue and pink pokeball in hand she gave it a quick toss. Dive balls were made for this sort of thing after all. And hey, maybe once she knew what it was, she'd want to keep it.
Juni snorted softly at Senara’s words. “If I hadn’t been so close for three years, I probably wouldn’t have gotten mine,” she admitted. “If you ever want to go back, though, you should talk to me first.” She forced a laugh right after. “I’ll talk you right out of it.” At least being a researcher gave her more of an appreciation for the environment, though. The pod of Lapras and settlement of Cloyster were … very pretty indeed.
Something caught Senara’s attention, though, and Juni’s right after. Her head turned, and she squinted but… wasn’t able to make out what it was, exactly. The mention of invasive species earned a hum from Juni. Or something that forgot to migrate in this cold weather.” Involuntarily, Juni shivered. Watching Senara stand up and toss the ball, Juni watched it in the water. Would it be that easy? Apparently so. “Wow.” Juni shook her head. Pokemon were so easy to catch sometimes and so difficult other times.
Her eyes fixed on the island before them, not too far off now, but still enough to be a reminder that she missed the ferry and was out on a swimming pancake. Still no cellphone or service. “I kind of wish Ivy wasn’t on an island,” she mused a little more to herself than not. “It seems so isolated from everything.” Granted Plum, the very capital, was on an island, somehow.
Post by Senara Spargo on Feb 17, 2020 14:48:11 GMT
Alright, now that? That made Senara laugh out loud a hundred percent genuinely. "I'll remember that, Dr. Savage! Maybe while I'm in Ivy Town I'll get bitten by the 'continuing education' bug and need some convincing otherwise. Heheheh~" She picked up the pokeball from where it floated on the water, scanning it with her pokedex and pursing her lips together. A Bruxish? From the information on the app it was a tropical fish--very out of place for being in Arciel's waters in winter. Poor little thing. It teleported off to the PC.
I'll figure out what to do with her later...hah, maybe he'd like it, even if it's Water-type.
Or he'll hate it. Either way I want to show him.
Senara returned to her seat and flopped back into it, Crepe never once breaking stride as he swam forth. "I think it's peaceful, honestly," she tilted her head up to look at the sky. It was early enough that there was still pink and yellow tints to some of the clouds, and the heavy wind whipped traces of snow through the air, "Like, I prefer the mines to the sea, but there's something relaxing about the isolation. It can be a nice escape. Mostly. My hometown in Kalos was similarly isolated from the rest of the region and it was far from perfect..." Senara sighed softly, and played with the belt on her seat rather than immediately snapping them, "Then again, Kalos is just ripe with tourists no matter where you are, compared to this region. Especially when you're connected to Lumiose."
Juni Savage WC: 285 Both are also the northern most towns of their region! (11/15)
A small snort escaped from Juni as Senara spoke. “I suppose that’s true,” she hummed. Ivy was much quieter than Bass or Birch. But I need more land…. Hm, wasn’t Cherry Town on the other island? Didn’t it supposedly have farmland? I’ll have to look into it later…
Juni adjusted her glasses and then her ponytail. She kind of sort of knew where Lumiose was if you handed her a map, but the specific details about it or Kalos for that matter evaded her. “I grew up on a farm outside of Rustboro City,” she answered. “The city was always busy, but the area leading up to the Rusturf Tunnel was relatively quiet... except during Skitty Swarming season when everyone and their grandparent was out searching for one.” Juni laughed, half-heartedly missing it, half-heartedly glad to be out of it. “I’ve never been to Kalos.” Or any other region outside of Hoenn or Arciel. “What was your favorite part of it?” Rather than ask what it was like in the traditional sense of the word.
Senara knew very little about the cities in the Johto region, but a few of them have corporations that she'd looked into coming out of school. The Devon Corp was one of them. It made sense that somebody now working in Ivy Town and studying plate tectonics would have lived so close to a city so focused on iron, stones, and fossils. She'd either have grown up surrounded by it and loved it, or loathed it and gone in the total opposite direction. "Aww, Skitty swarming sounds so adorable! The most swarms we would get near Laverre were Bellsprouts and Foongus. Sometimes there'd be these huge migrations of Murkrow but...I never got lucky enough to catch one."
Her belts clipped together with a harsh metallic noise, which was almost what Juni's follow-up question sounded like in her ears. What was her favorite part of Kalos?
Leaving it.
...well, no. That's only true about Laverre. If I'm being honest...
The corners of her mouth turned upward, but calling the expression on her face a "smile" might have been generous. "There's a cave by the coast," she started, "Where the walls and floors are so smoothed out from the tide that they're as smooth and reflective as mirrors. Grotte Miroitante. Or...in English, I believe it's just called 'Reflection Cave', which is a little on-the-nose compared to our name for it. But it is beautiful. Water doesn't reach the cave itself anymore so its safe to go in at all hours, and even if there's no sunlight inside it still has this glow to it. I think it's from the Carbink that live inside?"
"I met my starter in there...but not before I got horribly lost for a day or so, because I was the sort who thought I could go into a cave full of wild Pokemon and be fine...smart, right?" She snorted and brushed a finger over a pokeball at her hip. "She's my baby."
Juni Savage WC: 348 Look at these nerds bonding like normal people... (12/15)
Juni felt her features weaken slightly as she watched Senara’s do the same. Oh… She didn’t know what exactly was wrong but could feel it was anyways. As Senara began speaking, though, Juni listened in silence. Reflection cave… It sounded beautiful just from the description alone. Kind of like the Shoal cave…
As Senara went on, though, the significance of such a place began to click into place. Ah… A smile fell back onto her features again as she looked forward. “Sounds….like you had a really formative experience,” Juni stated, reaching out and brushing a few stray messy hairs away from her face. “There’s a place in Hoenn you might like called the Shoal Cave. The tide still rolls in and out, and you can access different levels only depending on the time of day. It really… shows how the sea and land can work together.” A small laugh escaped from Juni. “It may be one of my favorite places in Hoenn, now that I think about it.” Though the ash of Fallarbor Town may have passed it up just a bit.
Post by Senara Spargo on Feb 20, 2020 14:27:41 GMT
"A formative experience" was definitely one way of putting it. Senara's day in that cave by herself was something that haunted her a little to this day, but she wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. She looked from the sky to Juni as she spoke of a place similar to Kalos' caves in Hoenn. It sounded like a beautiful place, though Senara would be worried about getting stuck in there when the tide came in. Still, there were probably a lot of interesting things one could find in a place like that. If she ever visited Hoenn...
Ah, I'm getting to vulnerable with her. She's still a stranger.
Senara grinned brighter. "That sounds so cool! Hoenn always sounds so interesting when I hear or read about it--like, an entire city in the treetops? Or on the sea?? And, like, we have Ash City, but it's not at the base of a flippin' volcano like--oh, what was it, I knew this one, it's super famous for it's springs..." Senara pursed her lips, actually unable to remember the name of the town she was talking about. She probably only knew the Kalosian name for it anyway. Bleh. "Bah. But it was one of the places I was considering when I got out of school to work at. It was soooo hard to choose. But, uh," a momentary pause, "In the end, I went with Arciel 'cause it's quieter. Or was, before all these tourists and foreigners started showing up. Heh, I know, pot, kettle, but I've got my citizenship! So, like, that totally counts for something right?"
A surprisingly soft smile pulled across Juni’s features as Senara mentioned Fortree City and Sootopolis City respectively. “Lavaridge,” she answered Senara’s not-quite-question. “It’s also home to the Fire Gym. It’s very small and quiet, but the hot springs live up to their hype.” Groudon, she wished Arciel had something like that here.
She listened as Senara described why she’d chosen to come here and then immediately laughed after. “That makes one of us,” she went on. “I did my masters studies in Hoenn and then went to Unova for my PhD work, and then when I finished I was offered a position here and never got the chance to bother with citizenship in Unova or here…” She shrugged her shoulders a little. “I’m technically here long term on a research visa just so that if I ever did want to go home it wouldn’t be that hard.” Granted, she did like Arciel from what she’d seen of it.
Speaking of seen… uh?? “Are you seeing what I’m seeing???” Juni sputtered as she realized what she was looking at. There was just… a swimmer… in the water…. Legit swimming… in this icy hell water…. And was she being chased by that large Frillish or were they racing or oh dear Groudon…. “Should we help????”
Lavaridge! Right, duh, it had such an easy-to-remember name. "I'd love to visit them someday! I don't think I've been to a real hot spring before--you'd think there might be some near Ash City but, eh, more reasons to travel someday right?" So long as it was anywhere but Kalos, she could see herself going around and travelling some more once she had the money saved. She liked Arciel enough to call it "home" right now, but that didn't mean she couldn't see more of the earth while still coming back here to roost.
It was at the suddenly far more surprised and confused tone of voice from Juni that Senara came out of her personal musings and looked into the water. Wh--oh, wow, there was in fact a swimmer in the water, swimming alongside a VERY big Frillish. It looked like she was holding onto something though like a kickboard. A Poliwhirl? "Are those even surf legal?" She muttered, and looked away from the swimmer, back to Juni. Help her? Maybe? But she wasn't wearing nothing, she looked like she was at least in a proper diving suit...it was still pretty damn cold out, though. "Maybe she's doing the Beartic challenge or something?? I think she's trying to catch it? God, I would not want to surf this on a Pokemon where part of me is in the water, no way."
She could call out and ask, maybe, but that might scare off the Frillish if she was trying to catch it. But what if it was harassing her? Did Senara really give a shit, though?
"I mean, look, we're close enough to Ivy," she finally said, gesturing across the water. Ivy really wasn't too much farther away--twenty minutes at most. "She could totally surf back if she starts getting too cold...I doubt she's in any real danger."
Juni Savage WC: 335 Not super interested in a battle. xD;; The Frillish is cool though. (14/15)
Groudon, Kyogre, Rayquaza…. Juni couldn’t believe someone would willingly just…. swim this frickin channel. “I???” She guessed maybe the woman was trying to catch that creepy ghost fish but at what cost??? “No thanks???” Juni wasn’t even particularly talking to Senara then just more or less expressing an explanatory.
As Senara mentioned how close they were to Ivy Island, however, Juni did look forward again. “Oh, huh…” She had been so caught up in the conversation up to that point that she hadn’t even realized. “We’re making amazing timing…” she admitted reaching up and ruffling her own hair slowly. She shot the swimmer one last glance before looking more forward again.
Post by Senara Spargo on Feb 27, 2020 22:03:18 GMT
"Some people are crazy, mais que pouvez-vous faire." Senara snorted as they passed the swimmer and her questionable life choices. "He may not be the fastest creature in the sea, but Crepe makes up for that in size~ The channel's a lot smaller when you've got such huge fins, right précieux?" As she spoke the leaned her body over to rub a hand on Crepe's cool, wet flesh. He let out a bubbling sound of embarrassment but, to his credit, didn't sink down below the surface this time! He was learning after all. Phew.
The beautiful buildings of Ivy were dazzling in the morning light. She could make out the tops of its acclaimed observatories even from here. While she did have a love of all things earthy, there was something of an allure to the stars as well. Moonstone was, after all, claimed to be from the heavens and fallen to earth millions of years ago. And there were Pokemon that had similar origin rumors to them. One would have to have their head buried in the sand to not be a little curious about space. Maybe she would stop by or watch a planetarium show while she was in town! That'd be so much fun!
"Is there a particular port you want me to drop you off at? Or is just along the pier alright?" Senara squinted as she looked for wherever other surfers had collected on the beach, trying to find somewhere less crowded than the ferry port or the main docks.
Red eyes dropped down to the Mantine doing all the pulling. Shifting down, she reached to pat him as well. “Thanks again for the ride,” she spoke more to him than to Senara this time. Maybe once she had— whatever she was going to name this sea horse— ready to ride, they could travel alongside one another next time. Hah….
Juni’s eyes raised upwards now to Ivy in the distance. Right. Time to get home and get to work. She had so much she still needed to get done. It was home for the time being, though, and she was glad to be there. “Oh, uh….” Juni’s thoughts were pulled away from that as she looked from Ivy Town to Senara and back again. “Any pier is alright, I think?” She knew her way around Ivy Town well enough to not be too worried about getting lost or anything. “The one the ferry uses is over that way,” she pointed in its general direction, a little more south than where they were right then.
Any pier in a storm...err, no, that's the wrong line. Senara nodded and moved her foot--like a ballet dancer changing positions--so her toes pointed toward the direction of one of the docks that was close enough to the ferry to be an easy shot into town without being right amidst the crowds. Crepe began to swim in that direction. At Juni's pat, though, there was a noticeable wiggle in his route, and his wings ducked under his body just enough to look like he was curling up on himself. The action made water rise up over his body, reaching just to the ankles of the women on his back, but icy sea water was icy sea water no matter how much or little one was in. Senara squealed in surprise.
"Creeeeeeeeepe!!" She tapped her heels against him rapidly, getting some water sprayed on her legs, but the movement was enough to shock Crepe out of his sheepishness and he pushed himself back up over the water, lifting them from the water.
Senara let out a genuine, slightly manic laugh. "Well! That woke me up!"
They pulled up to the docks, right to where the wooden planks were nearly flat against the surface of the sea. Crepe held quite still as Senara unbuckled and began unfastening the waterproof bag from the back, bringing it to the pier and setting it down there before opening it. Being on solid ground after waving back and forth on a gigantic Mantine was so nice. "Here is your bag, Dr. Savage!" She didn't take the bag itself out from the waterproof case yet, but rather let the woman take it herself. Senara had no interest in trying to snag anything from her purse. She'd had fun. Which was odd. She usually didn't like meeting people but another scientist--in her field no less--was...nice.
Really nice. Maybe she should say something? This might become something good. Maybe another friend. She hadn't had a normal friend before. Just her Pokemon and Gabe and she supposed she could count Greer since they'd been pleasant.
Do I really deserve friends, though? I'm already overreaching. I should let her go.
The thought chilled her worse than the ocean water. She smiled again.
Smile when you're upset.
"I'll look you up on Poke'din, if you're alright with that? For that 'talking you out of seeking higher education' chat of course~" Her voice was so much more flippant than she felt. Even if Juni said yes, would she ever actually look her up? It was possible she'd even look Senara up herself. But, hey, maybe neither of them would ever actually do it and this would be the end of her anxieties. Which was all she could really hope for.
The squeak that escaped from Juni as Crepe took on water was debatably human. “Gold-groudon-cold-coldEEGHGHGH!” That came out more like a keyboard smash than any human word or phrase. As they rose again, though, she breathed out dramatically. “Good Groudon…” She managed to smile and shake her head a little softly.
Hopping up onto the pier once they were there, Juni let out a sigh of relief. She wasn’t exactly on land yet, but she was close. Bending down to pick up the bag and throw it over her shoulder, Juni righted herself again. “Thanks,” she smiled a little. Fishing her Pokeballs out of her bag, she went about setting them in her pockets where they belonged— only to catch a side glance at Senara. She didn’t know what it was, but something had changed in her. The offer though had her adjusting her glasses. “Sure, I could show you around the lab sometime if you’re interested,” she commented. “There’s actual wet lab science still going on and whatnot even if I'm mostly computational these days.”
A pause and Juni considered something else. This has been... really fun for a cold not-boat tour.... “Actually, lemme give you my number,” she stated shifting her bag and pulling out her cellphone. “Poke’din doesn’t always update or tell me when someone’s messaged.” Another pause. “Maybe we can get lunch sometime or something either here in Ivy or on the mainland.”
It was almost in the clear. Juni had her bag on, pokeballs put away, and Senara had pulled out her own backpack and returned Crepe to his pokeball before she followed up her vague invitation for a possible future meeting, with a concrete offer of her phone number, and asking to get lunch sometime. Senara felt her breath catch for a second. That was the opposite of what she'd wanted. She wanted to have minimal means of re-connecting with this genuinely interesting person who didn't know anything about her--and she wanted to keep it that way!--so that any actual future meetings were just happy accidents. No pressure, no expectations, not threat of getting attached to somebody she didn't deserve to have an attachment to. But instead Juni went right for the throat.
And turning her down would put her even more on the spot.
Still, as cold as her blood was running, she couldn't help but feel a little...happy. Senara made sure her hands were dry enough before digging for her own phone out of her bag. "Oh, duh, sure! Rattle it off, I'll text you to get you mine, yeah?" As Juni gave her the number she plugged it into the address book under "Dr. Juni Savage". She also took a second to look at the rest of the numbers on her phone. She had one from that girl in the mines, one from Greer for in case they ever needed a ride again, and Gabe. Normal people probably had a lot more than four numbers on their phone, didn't they.
All the same she texted a quick message to the number: [ Hi hi! Senara here! Bonjour! ] Senara then slid her phone back into her bag. "So you text me when you're free and we'll try to do lunch, yeah? I'll hopefully have a flying Pokemon soon to get me from here to there faster, but I'll be in Ivy a while! Lots of fossils! Til then, good luck, doctor~"
Juni gave her number readily and fished out her phone to wait for the text. Her area code was still Hoenn, actually, but it had worked just fine up till then and would presumably thereafter. Sure enough, once she got the text, Juni flipped over to the number and stored Senara’s name under colleagues. After that, she pocketed her phone again and smiled. “Sounds good, take care…” Juni took a few steps sideways and waved her hand before heading off right after. That had been nice.
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