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Just like the peppermint in the grizzled ranger’s mouth, Sarah was feeling the cooling effect of her surroundings as she trudged back through the tundra biome. She was close enough to the elevator door to start tugging off her winter uniform accessories, standard issue scarf and cap in hand as the one gloved fingertip pressed the button to let her back through. Moments later she was stepping back into the lobby to finish out her shift at the front desk. She’d completely missed the man’s voice calling out and was so distracted staring at the to-do list in her hand she’d not seen him upon reentering the room either. They were short staffed today, and she was trying to do it all - as always.

It wasn’t until the smell of the minty candy snaked its way up her nose that her eyebrows shot up and she whipped her head around in a flurry of long black hair to see the man standing there taking up all that space and looking pretty disgruntled and ready to get through whatever he was here for. She didn’t recognize him as a coworker but he still seemed to carry himself like he’d been through more than enough of their trainings. Her head tilted in curiosity as she greeted him, ”Hello! How may I help you?” voice soft and even toned, hands still fidgeting away with the buttons on her overcoat. It was like a sauna in the main room compared to where she’d been, with the summer sun beating down outside.

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A slow smile crept to her face as his gruff exterior shifted little by little. Good. She preferred trainers be relaxed during this trial. It did nobody any good to be stern and stressed! That would only result in the Pokemon freaking out as well. In fact, she made it a point to make sure all questions were asked and answered before even taking them to the elevator. You could never be too careful. ”Kalos transfer...hmmm…” she said, the s at the end of the region name taking on a soft shh from the way she’d grown up hearing it pronounced. Her eyes lowered to the computer monitor as she typed in a few details to bring up their appointments, both today and upcoming.

”Ah, looks like we had you scheduled to be arriving tomorrow afternoon! No worries, you’re here now! So I assume you know all about how the rankings system works here, transfer or no?” she asked, shrugging the coat off onto the back of the cushy office chair and having a seat to gather the proper papers he would need - a few other forms from the run of the mill trainer since he was a ranger in another region. Background checks would need to come through and they needed to know how to locate him quickly if any issues came up.

“We do in fact offer the capture option for starter Pokemon in this region. As opposed to the lab in Cassiopeia we…. she realized she’d left him standing and interrupted herself, ”Please, feel free to pull up a chair while we go through the first step in the process.” her manners forgotten only momentarily before she continued with her usual spiel, ”We give trainers the opportunity for the chance at any Pokemon in our many biomes, some rare and some common. It’s all a matter of chance and we encourage only the right type of trainer attempt this method.” she said, giving a little sniff as the feeling came back in her bright pink nose.

”This is just standard paperwork, I’m sure you know a thing or two about what you’re looking at there…” she continued, handing the clipboard across the tidy desk to him, giving the faintest of dreamy sighs, ”Rank 6, hm? What a shame...”

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Sarah hummed a nonsense tune as she turned to take care of a few email replies and tick a few things off the central to-do list so command would know they’d been taken care of. The taillow flock was doing better after the avian influenza scare a couple weeks back - it had been a false positive but they’d still ostracized the poor thing when it came back, no matter what its diagnosis said after the fact. Even among….or well, perhaps even moreso among, the wild Pokemon here and in the region itself, pecking order and politics seems to run rampant. Nobody was safe from being put in their place or out of it.

She hadn’t been with the Rangers long herself, she’d lucked out with coordinating before the sudden influx of new people to the region and was still coasting at the bottom of the pack herself. Seeing all the trainers passing through day in and day out made her wish she’d stuck it out a little longer herself instead of jumping headlong into Rangerhood. This man looked rough around the edges and she hoped she didn’t look that worse for wear by the time she got within the realm of the rank he’d had.

She balked a little at the accusatory tone he took on. As if she was the one deciding which trainers got what. “If they prove themselves worthy and the Pokemon accepts their offer to go with them then they’re more than welcome to take them, rarity or not. It’s just the luck of the situation. Any trainer worth their snuff could take whatever Pokemon they get out of here and turn it around to be a worthy partner.” she finished, standing as he handed the paperwork back. The warped pen made her heart sink. It was her favorite…and she hoped the rip in the last page wouldn’t cause her any issues down the line as far as storage and regulation.

“If you’ll just follow me…” she said, moving from behind the desk to start back towards the elevator.. A Pancham that had been snoozing in the corner in a box full of gloves and scarves discarded from other Rangers rolled out of her nap spot to try to steal the chair back, preferring it to where it had moved when she’d come back into the room. Sarah heard the scuffle and remembered she should probably get a Pokemon to come along just in case they had any trouble, “Petunia, come on. You can nap later, silly!” she said, standing and waiting for the panda to shuffle along after them.

“The biome primed for a capture session is the forest.” she told him, stepping into the lift and pressing her palm to a panel before keying in the code to take them where they needed to go. “There’s a wide variety of Pokemon there, so I’m sure anything that comes along will suit you well.”

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Sarah nodded, taking his comment to heart and taking her time to respond more adequately, ”You’re right, I think, perhaps, I used the wrong wording for what I meant to get across. All Pokemon are at their base wonderful creatures and we’re lucky to have them.” her hand rested on Pancham’s head, a fighting Pokemon who turned out to not be up to hurting a cutiefly.

“But if you need one for a certain task or career, it’s up to you to make sure they are able to bring out that potential. So a trainer may come in thinking they need a Vulpix to perform in contests. But if a Bellosom presents itself, then the trainer’s ability lies in what they would be able to bring out in that surprise. The other side of that coin, however, is being able to see what’s in a Pokemon that may be better suited for other things, and allowing them to flourish there too. It should be a partnership and not an ownership on either side of the equation.” she wrapped up her spiel once the elevator doors closed behind them and went into her rehearsed speech on what to expect.

His comment on forest fires caused her to not be able to avoid a slight chuckle, “Good, you’re using your noodle, Leon.” she said, glad he wasn’t hiding the fact that he was running a process of elimination on the potential starters that could walk by in this biome. “And yes, just whatever decides to show up. We’ve managed to luck out so far and not have multiple show up at once….not sure what we would do in that case to be quite honest.” Being the very basic rank she was, she wasn’t privy to any information on just how things managed to run as smoothly as they did. They just...did.

The elevator doors slid open briskly to allow a different kind of warmth hit their skin. A sticky humidity causing the air to thrum with the high pitched whirring of a slew of bug types. Sarah felt the hair on the back of her neck stand on end at the sound. She loathed bugs! Petunia toddled over and grabbed her hand, gnawing on a bamboo leaf and giving her hand a tug to pull her on out onto the soft mossy earth. Sarah steeled herself and led Leon out too, “Good luck, Petunia and I will trail you and stick close by if you have any questions or if things go a little wonky.” God she hoped nothing too tough or aggressive came through. She had stronger Pokemon in balls on her belt but she didn’t want it to come to that. She hated battling.

They didn’t have long to wait when a patch of grass began to shake, ending with a long dead log to roll straight up and backwards. < Hyaaahh! > a puny shout bounced up the path towards them as a tiny mushroom pushed his way up out of the ground...apparently being the source of the entire log moving all on his own. < Yeaaah get sooome! > he yelled, flexing the tiny slits in his stem that posed as arms. He was heckin PUMPED!

“Huuu….well….there you go. Foongus...uncommon...level five...feel free to introduce yourself and see what his personality is like….he seems pretty lively to me already.” Sarah said, giggling.

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The Foongus had turned its back on the pair, continuing to flex and pump himself up as he hopped in place, thrilled that he’d managed to move the log - a task he’d worked on for weeks now, to be honest. He’d started growing on the underside and knew he had to move it or perish! Or at least...that’s what he’d cooked up in his head. He almost didn’t hear the comment from the sweaty human man with his silly haircut and cut abs. But it was as if he were tuned in to specific trigger words to set him off.

He whirled into the air and landed a foot away, closer to them on the path, his stubs going to where anthropomorphized hips would be on his stalk < Who you callin little, punk? Bet your butt I’m tough! HrrrRRGGHHH > he squeaked, doing another forward flex, straining just a little with the grunt as his eyes bulged and the design on his umbrella’d top seemed to pulsate.

It took him a moment to realize there’s been an actual question posed to him. He stopped the flex to catch his breath, hopping a little closer, spinning on his stalk to look back at the lodge, < Did you miss it?? I could prooooobably do it again! I moved...that...LOG! > he said, getting pumped up all over again remembering it.

He gave a little boing getting some good air and spinning again, so psyched! < I’m the biggest and strongest and toughest of all my brothers. They don’t have my drive! My stamina! My STRENGTHHHH! > he erupted, < Anyway what’s it to ya? Who are you? Only people I ever see go by look like that funny looking Bellsprout. > he said, his circular mouth forming the closest thing he could make to a mischievous grin as he teased what he saw as a skinny body and big head with Sarah. Not everyone could be blessed to be a mushroom, after all!

Sarah’s lips pursed in annoyance but she gave a little huff and shrug and let them talk it out. < You like liftin logs? I bet you couldn’t lift that one….> he challenged, swelling his stalk again.