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Traveler Lore
With Potatobi (shroomish) and Donut (gengar)

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Clink. With the metal carabiner safely affixed to a curving root and the ends of her rope tied together into a knot, Lore tossed it over the edge of the overgrown cliff. She watched it drop and whip against bushes and moss-covered rocks, soon obscured by the brush growing off the ledge. From where the trainer stood, the tree canopy was no less heavy than that of the forest below. These were old wilds, the kind that can only be found where wilderness extends beyond every horizon. Like a wellspring of life, the brush was alive with the chatter of bug types and myriad vibrant berries hung in all directions; heavy footprints of large pokemon could easily be found along animal trails, and to the trained eye of a pokemon professor, the faint traces of species long gone extinct.

If there was anywhere the mystery and mythology of the pokemon world still thrived, it would be hidden in places like these. Lore's cotton t-shirt, sporting the movie poster for the hit sci-fi flick Clefairy in Space, was perhaps as out of place as it could ever be.
"Are you ready, Potatobi?"
The trainer prompted the mellow Shroomish riding on top of her head, which gave no response. It wasn't a cause for worry; she was a shroom of few words, after all. Giving her safety knot a tug, Lore began her rappelling descent down the cliff in a sequence of slow, more-or-less aimed hops. A huge backpack weighed heavily on every bend of her knees, exposed elbows locked as toned arms worked to keep her stable- yet she slid down the rope in a controlled fashion, a traveler well used to such exertion. The adrenaline of rappelling had worn out long ago, as Lore had climbed dangerously through her entire tomboyish childhood; but she experienced all moments of explorations with the charm and thrill of adventure pumping through her veins instead.

Inevitably, the trainer ran out of rock face. Below her, a solid surface of bushes, as if the lower forest had climbed up the sides of the cliff.
No choice, then.
Lore inched down into the fluffy green and swung her legs until they found hold on a branch, getting a couple scratches in the process. It was her fault for sporting shorts, but they're comfy and easy to wear.

From this standing position she crouched the rest of the way into the canopy, peering through the branches for the best way to navigate her way down. She and Potatobi, still faithfully riding on her trainer's head, found themselves face-to-face with a Meowth. It was standing on a branch mere inches from Potatobi's perplexed face, a surprised look on its own. Before Lore could even say hello or appreciate the strange shape of the gold coin that adorned it, the Meowth's soft, cream-colored fur bristled in a wave. With silent agility, it darted toward the cliff face and disappeared among the folds of rock.
Aww.
"Have you ever heard of pokemon villages? It's folklore, but I wonder if that Meowth just now went back to one?" She asked Potatobi rhetorically, hoping to stir up the Shroomish's sense of wonder- but unbeknownst to the human, her pokemon had noticed something in the cliffside and fixed it with great intensity for the entire remainder of the climb.

Maybe were it another pokemon, they would have alerted their trainer; but Potatobi was wise and jaded, despite her young years. The shroomish was bred from a long line of Intelligence contest competitors, but had failed to make the cut. The breeders would have released her to the wild if she hadn't been adopted by this dorky, reckless androgyne. There was a place for her by the human's side, and surely Lore would drop dead if Potatobi failed to keep watch on her hopeless partner- so the shroomish finally looked away, determined to forget; to protect that meowth's world, and her own.

Finally at the bottom of the cliff, Lore turned to look at the ground for a landing spot. Her eyes widened. Instead, what she found was the last thing one might expect: another human having a picnic. An elegant lady dressed in what might be fashionable garb for a trainer, no less. Eyebrows raised, Lore had to rub her eyes before attempting to greet what might very well be an illusion induced by wearing mushroom pokemons on your head. Who knows what kind of spores they might produce.

"... -Hey there!" She finally managed to blurt out, smiling uncertainly.

Without having witnessed Lumina's herky-jerky reaction to noticing Lore's descent, she found the other trainer's composed response to be quite mysterious. Her polite introduction, however, elicited the same from the rappelling traveller- it would only be proper, after all. Eyebrows raised in bewilderment, Lore gripped her rope with one hand and rubbed the back of her head with the other, cracking a friendly grin as she engaged a possible apparition in conversation. Potatobi was fixing the Eevee with an equally suspicious gaze all the while.

"Yeah, what a surprise! Hahaha... Likewise, pleased to meetcha. My name is Lore. And this is Potatobi! I'm a traveller, and she's a... shroomish."
The androgyne began to extend a hand, but given the distance between them and her position suspended from a cliffside, it could hardly get more awkward. "...Uh, lemme just, get down- Donut?!"

Clink.
The sound of a carabiner closing; except this time, it was no longer attached to Lore's belt. Instead it was spinning around an ephemeral clawed finger, at the end of a silvery arm sticking right out of the rock face. As his trainer and her shroomish fell, the rest of the Gengar emerged from the rock and cackled down at her. No look of betrayal passed between them; only Lore's eternal, long-suffering eye roll.

In a series of crashing and branch-snapping noises, the gray-haired trainer disappeared into a bush; meanwhile, Potatobi bounced harmlessly off the grass and weed-covered forest ground.

Suddenly, an arm shot out of the bush, pointing directly upwards at the silver gengar presently engaged in an aerial victory jig.
"...And that is Donut, my Gengar. He likes to prank people." Lore stated this in the flattest voice imaginable, though she was actually embarrassed. Great first impression there, buddy.

"Er, thanks! Your name is very beautiful." Most people would probably not feel as flattered being told that their name would suit a pokemon, but the thought of it escaped Lore as she clambered out of the bush, right into receiving Lumina's concerned attentions. The androgyne went rigid as she was being checked for injuries, unused to such proximity. "-Ah, er, I'm uh- fine. I'm ok." She stuttered awkwardly, not making eye contact. She did have a couple scratches and bruises, but most of those were old. When Lumina began to laugh and smiled again, all of the traveller's awkwardness left her.

"You hear that, Donut? We're grateful." She swiped a leaf out of her hair and tossed it through the Gengar, who then crossed arms and hovered slowly away in false offense. Lore shrugged. "Never mind him, am I right Potat- o...?" Waving a hand where her Shroomish would normally have been sitting, her face went blank. She'd finally noticed the missing weight. Where had she lost her hat- er, pokemon, this time? Oh. Potatobi had rolled onto her little feet in the grass, where she'd proceeded to fix the Eevee with a look between placid and annoyed. Keep dreaming- I'll never play with you, she seemed to say, despite the grass type's determined silence. No amount of cute brown long-eared pokemon hopping around would get a reaction from her, nope. When Lumina picked up the Eevee, Potatobi peered at her all the while.

Lore, on the other hand, smiled at her and gave her a little wave. "Hello Chai! Nice to meet you." After greeting the pokemon properly, she stepped forward and picked up her grumpy shroomish, depositing her back on top of her head as she turned back to Lumina- who had in that time retrieved a sandwich. She brightened at the offer that ensued; People often didn't know what they were getting into when they fed the ever-hungering Lore. There were definitely more feelings of loyalty than ought to be proper, for one.

"Hmm... there is indeed a faint rumbling in my stomach! We will be more than happy to join you in your picnic. After all, I have over here..." She sat on the mossy log with a graceless thump and set her massive Lairon brand bag besides her, from which she began to take out one tupperware after another. "-some meatbuns... -spring rolls,... fruit salad,... normal salad,... say, what kinds of food do you like? Let's share!"

At Lumina's question, Lore stopped snapping open the covers of her tupperware and looked at the pink-haired trainer like she just realized something.Whoa, I... I never even thought of that. She then laughed, slapping her knees once. "Pffthuhu, that's right! Nobody in their right mind would travel with such impractical food. But I'm not in my right mind," she straightened up her sitting posture and proudly laid a fist in the center of her somewhat flat chest, picturing oodles of noodles behind closed eyes, "I am in my stomach's mind. TOTALLY worth the extra weight. So let's eat!" She finished enthusiastically, offering Lumina the spring rolls in their container.

She grabbed one herself and took a small bite, savouring every bit of it. Contrary to what one might expect, she was a very slow eater. "So," the traveller continued in conversational tones, watching the Eevee act way too cute. "Potatobi eats fruits and vegetables, and even then, very little. Donut's a ghost, so he doesn't really need food. But what do you feed an eevee?"

Meanwhile, Potatobi would have none of it. She heard the trill and hopped... to turn away from it, and then muttered in pokemon language. Shroomish shroom. Shroomish. Donut would probably have a blast scaring the poor fluffy animal, but at least they'd stop bothering her that way.

As if on cue, a dark shape slipped into Chai's shadow, which then became somewhat... pricklier. And smilier.

Lore swelled with pride and delight to see Lumina enjoying one of her spring rolls. One of the best things about having great food to eat is to have friendly people to share it with! ...Not that she would have ever expected to be doing so in a deep forest, far from any known human route. Neither had she expected the pink-haired trainer to be so full of charm. Lore had gone back to watching the pokemon at play, not wishing to stare impolitely at someone while they ate- but after being serenaded by the heavenly sound of Lumina's laughter, she abruptly distracted herself by lifting Potatobi off the top of her head to deposit her on the log between herself and Lumina. Lore rubbed her nose and quickly returned to the conversation, as if that'd wipe away the slight blush which had intruded upon her habitually steely composure.

She shot Chai an amused grin after Lumina's recollections of food theft. Donut was performing some kind of... synchronous dance with the Eevee. This was a relief; at least he wasn't tormenting her. "Ohh, zing! ...Huh, captivating idea. Maybe we could couple it with whatever... this is. It's kind of hypnotic." She blinked and tore her attention away from the mesmerizing pokemon motions, snapping shut the PokeGear that she'd whipped out to record five seconds of it. "Think it'll go viral? But wait, back to what you were saying before- you mean... you went around the whole plateau?" The traveller inquired, taking a bite of her food as she kept regarding the other girl with her brows raised. "That's an impressive trek on its own! Must have taken a lot of planning." The question begged to be asked; why go through all the trouble? The love of hiking, perhaps? Training her Eevee where the concentration of pokemon is higher? The rumors of old ruins? Looking for rare pokemon? She felt like she'd asked too many questions already, however, and ought to give Lumina more of a chance to speak.

Knowing well how antisocial she was, Lore had not forced Potatobi to play; but with both the Eevee and Gengar's attentions on her, the shroomish could only grumble in protest at the increased proximity.

"Shroom. Shroomish shroomish shroomish."

Donut was more than happy to oblige, always eager to seismic toss his friends. "Gen-GARRR!" He exclaimed, leaping out of Chai's shadow to grapple at the Shroomish presently sitting between two humans. She tumbled off the log in an attempt to evade- it was lazy, but worked nonetheless. Donut's arms swiped at empty air as the Shroomish rolled into the bushes; rustling noises were then heard making their way toward the distance. Oh no she di-int!1!!1 The chase was on. Donut motioned towards Chai. Two VS One? Always better than one-vs-one!

Underbrush kept rattling into the far distance, which Donut chased- before it abruptly stopped, causing the ghost to halt. Hide-and-seek, was it? He was good at that game! Donut pointed his arms together for a dive and plunged into the bushes to begin his search.

Of course, the rattling had actually been caused by a rapid firing of bullet seed. Potatobi was not without her ways. She stepped back into the clearing just in time for Lumina to fall onto her, toppled by Chai's overhead bound.

Lore watched in half horror, half amusement as it all happened too fast for her to react. "PFFFFF-" She promptly stashed the spring roll back into her box and offered Lumina a hand up. "Oh man. You both ok, I hope? Today's the day for falling, innit!"

It figures that when Potatobi could afford to feel a little self-satisfied, this pink lummox would nearly squash her! It was like the world could never let up trying to drag her into silly antics. It was a force of nature with a pesky Gengar's name all over it. The mushroom pokemon's mood was beginning to sour, but she could only feel irate towards Donut even for the hapless human's clumsiness. She regained composure as Lumina began to fret over her and simply hopped up to sit on the log again while seemingly gazing far into the distance.

"She seems fine, don't worry 'bout it." Lore said, wondering if Lumina was as light as she looked. "Hey, if you've got the aches already, we should... keep moving as much as we can today!" She grinned with a gleam in her eye... but suddenly, a worry struck her that Lumina would misunderstand her humorously delivered compassion as the schadenfreude she was passing it off as. Raising an arm to rub the back of her head with, the hiker bashfully explained the sincerity behind the joke. "...Since, you know, the aching will only get worse after you get a night's sleep. That's how the muscles work."

Meanwhile, a certain silver ghost was still soaring around soundlessly, phasing through ground and vegetation on the lookout for Potatobi. A-ha! Finally, a shadow in the bushes! There she was! "GEN... GARRR!!!" Donut solidified, tackling the shape with his arms outstretched... except that his face smacked into it at full force and it hadn't even budged. "Gen... gar!" Uh oh.

((Feel free to choose what pokemon rises out of the bushes?!)) xD