[FIN] Coincidences

[BlackFireKitsune]

Alder's travels around Kodo had now found him in Sagestone, a small town on the southern half of the island. It hadn't taken him very long to see the majority of the outside of the town, but mentions and advertisements of cave tours resulted in him seeking out the establishment. The building wasn't hard to find, nor was it hard to procure for himself a private tour, and once finished he moved to stand to one side and patiently awaited the arrival of his tour guide. While waiting, his gaze traveled around the inner walls of the facility and their various decorations.  

[Blood_Goddess]

"Hey Ray, you've got a two-o-clock private scheduled that's waiting here in the office when you get your gear from the last class' wrapped up- over."


A gloved hand reached down to snatch up the radio strapped to her belt, stopping where she was from reorganizing the flashlights and neatly coiled ropes.
A private huh? those always had the potential to be interesting.
"Hot damn." She replied back into the radio "what kind of private do I have to look forward to? Over."

The voice on the Radio already knew where she was going with this "Yeah yeah I know you Ray, its the pokemon one- over"

"Yeesss." Ray thrust an arm down with a balled fist, clicking the button again "Ahhhh I love clients with good tastes, I'll be there in time for the tour, time me- over."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As Ray has promised she had returned to starting point just in time to collect her customer.
the office was full as usual, the tall women stepping into the doorway and putting her hands on her hip.
It was hard to miss the women, she generally made herself known in whatever given room she was in. It was hard to miss her now as a Zubat perched upside down in a rather disgruntled way on her shoulder strap, mostly hiding his body under the tent fold of his wings, and a Pikachu at her heels, holding his head high to examine the guests in the room.
"Well look at all these people in here about to have the time of their life!" She called boisterously in greeting to all the guests.
Conversing and playfully interacting with people on her way up to the desk to collect her information.

"Alright, now who's the lucky sucker who gets to follow me blindly into the caverns today!" She teased looking through the names and pausing.
the notched eyebrow arched a little as she read over the name, glancing it over a few more times before she looked up and scanned the room.

Alder was a name that meant enough to her, but upon spotting that individual in the room, she knew it wasn't just someone with that name.
"Well now," She said, closing the chart and stepping out from around the counter "Alder." she spoke to get his attention, holding a thumb up in the air "You're with me."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

The boisterous woman caught his attention with her loud, friendly words to various other customers milling about, and made him smile. And it appeared that she would also be his tour guide today, a fact which made his brows raise as she addressed him. The expression turned back into a smile as he stepped towards her. "Alright. Since you know my name, might I ask yours?" He asked, and extended a hand for her to shake with a jovial smile. "Just so I know the name of the woman I'm following blindly into the caverns today."  

[Blood_Goddess]

This made her wonder, not a week before she had gotten a text from Luke, saying how Alder had wanted to speak with her, and now, here he was out of no where.
What this on purpose? Because she declined any involvement was he actually finding a way to seek her out? That seemed a bit... odd.

"What you don't know?" She teased, a wide lopsided grin taking over her features.
"Ray." she finished, holding her hand out to accept his in a hand shake. "This here is Imp, and Breeze." she introduced the pokemon in turn, "They're going to be helping me out during this tour too."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Her initial response confused him, but he eagerly shook her hand regardless and nodded, "Please to make your acquaintance." Wait - Ray? This couldn't be the same Ray that Luke spoke of, could it..? "Please to meet you as well, Imp and Breeze," he made sure to greet the pokemon as well, making eyecontact if possible with the Pikachu at least, given that the other didn't have any eyes to make contact with. "You wouldn't happen to know a redheaded young man by the name of Luke fon Fabre, would you?" He hazarded. Why else would she have greeted him like that?  

[Blood_Goddess]

The Pikachu snapped his head up to look at the man, blinking up at him before he lifted a hand to his forehead and a kind of solute.
Ray grinned lightly at the Pikachu, then arched her eyebrow up at the man.
"So am I to assume that a certain little red head pointed you in this direction." She said, putting a hand on her hip. "This seemed a pretty round about way to talk to me." she pointed out with a laugh.

She took a step backward, making a gesture to the door. "why don't we begin that tour huh?" With that she stepped over and held the door open.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"He told me you lived in Sagestone, and that he would message you for me," he explained as he offered the Pikachu a smile, then focused back at the woman again. "He never mentioned any sort of workplace whatsoever. I'm traveling around Kodo at the moment, you see, and visiting all of the cities and towns, as well as any prominent attractions. There were lots of advertisements about these cave tours, so I thought I would take one." He'd had absolutely no idea whatsoever that the very person he'd wanted to speak to in this city would work here - and be assigned his tour guide, no less.

At her suggestion, he smiled and nodded as he moved to follow her, a twinkle in his eye as he replied, "Yes, let's; I'm very interested to see if these tours are as good as I've heard."  

[Blood_Goddess]

She honestly wasn't sure she would buy THAT level of coincidence, but in all honesty she would be just as surprised to have been sought out and talked to by Alder about one of her pokemon.
He didn't so much seem interested in that, and honestly, she could live with just giving him a tour.

A wide grin spread over her lips, almost unsettling so as she clapped her hands together as if to brush dust off of them. "Haa haa haa! talk about a coincidence, well either way, they picked the best one on the lot to show you around."
with that she started down toward the caves. "Now as you probably know Kodo has spent many generations growing in population as well as industrial and economical. Our town here, Sagestone, being so close to the first settlement in Kodo, that has grown to become the largest city on the Island, Sandlewood, was one of the first resources for the island, the mines here are dug for the rich minerals and raw materials that Kodo used to grow, and are still used today in trade.
though if you probably noticed the town isn't exactly thriving here, it remains a mining town, where people come to work, only recently have we been opened up for some touring in the natural caves that the oceans have carved and the mines that have been used up."

She explained as they walked, making their way toward the coast. "This is also a great site for a large and concentrated population of underground pokemon, obviously not native to this island, but thriving regardless."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

While Alder was still curious about the black pokeball and the pokemon within it, he had come here for a tour and had every intention of enjoying that tour. Perhaps he could ask her questions towards the end, or later, if she didn't mind... Either way, he laughed as she did, a grin present on his face at her words. "Did they? Well I'm glad, then," he said as he followed her, and listened closely as she began to speak, and nodded or made agreeing noises where appropriate, and occasionally interjecting with comments or questions.

"Has opening up the caverns for tours increased the amount of tourism you see in this town?" He asked curiously. "And were these non-native pokemon imported specifically to create wild populations, or accidentally?"  

[Blood_Goddess]

"Tourism yes," she explained pausing just at the mouth of one of the caves that overlooked a ledge to the ocean, turning sharply on the heels of her boots and putting her hands on her hips as she addressed the older man.
"With the increase of pokemon trainers on the island as well, these caves provide a new challenge on the island, since the paths within stretch out all the way into the mountains of kodo." A finger pointed up into the large towering mountains they were standing under.
"Precious gems are said to be found inside as well as the occasional Pokemon fossils." this grew a wide grin, her eyes half liding "and I think that would help answer your question about pokemon on this island. According to some of the findings by the miners on this island pokemon have been inhabiting this small island since before humans, and have ever since. Though with a much lower number then the islands like Johto, or Kanto who have pokemon that are native to only those arias. The reasons are only recently being speculated,"

With that she gave a click through her teeth. "Alright then, I hope you remember you're training, because here we go."
and with that Ray ducked into the first cavern. "lets go find some Pokemon."
It was honestly strange to be giving the league champion, who she had heard recently returned a tour.
He had been the champion during her days in the League, and her exile from them.
For now she just had to remind herself that this was just a client. She never had to care about her client, who they were and what they did.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

He listened attentively while she explained, and looked with raised eyebrows to the mountains she pointed to for a few moments before focusing on her again. The fossils more than the gems attracted his attention, and he smiled and nodded, then moved to follow her into the mouth of the cave, ducking as she did. So far he was enjoying the tour, and learning quite a bit more than he would've if he had skipped the tour entirely and just wandered around the region on his own. He could travel and listen to the various accounts of different trainers about their own experiences, which was very helpful in and of itself, learning a little of the history of the region helped as well. Or at the very least, it couldn't hurt.

"Do you know what pokemon are native to this island? I've seen quite a variety of wild ones during my short visit," he explained, then added in more perplexed and serious tones, "and some that are quite a variety of colors." Such a thing wasn't natural in other regions - or at least not to such a wild extent as was found here. Some pokemon could be slightly different, or vastly different due to breeding, but those were rare and expensive. Kodo seemed to have a vast population of colorful pokemon, and he had to wonder if it had something to do with their diet, or if it was due to more sinister reasons like what they spoke of in the panel previously.  

[Blood_Goddess]

Adjusting her belt as she lead the Leaughe member further and further into the cave, glancing to the strap be her shoulder as the Zubat became more active to the darkness.
Taking a pause as the light had almost faded to nothing, the women paused by one of the bolsers, crouching down by the Pikachu who had been keeping up with them the entire time,

"Native, none that I've seen, and none that have been reported." She told him "Every pokemon species here had origins already linked to other Regions. Zubat and Pikachu for example. And speaking of Pikachu, hey Breeze how about you shine a little light on the subject huh?"
tapping the pokemon's shoulder playfully the Pikachu stood up high on his hind legs, giving a confirming "chu!"
A second later the aria filled with light, creating long shadowing grooves within the jaggedly carved walls of the cave.

"Thank you sir." Ray told the pokemon gratefully.
She had reached for one of the pouches on her belt, pulling out a compass that she had begun to consult when one of Alder's questions caused her to glance up at him. studying the elder man for a second before she shook the hair out of her other eye and grinned.
"Well well well, and here I though I was the only one who seemed to catch up on that little detail."
lifting her boot off of the rock she had rested it on she turned to face the man.
"An interesting fact about Kodo, was that the settlements here didn't rely on the use of pokemon to accomplish any of their growth, Kodo was a human based culture, much like many of the smaller islands who have a small Pokemon inhabitant, that would of course lead one to believe that while there is evidence of pokemon life here before humans, that maaaaybe it wasn't nearly as much as we originally believed there to be."

It was here that she left her answer open and unfinished, instead glanced down at the compass, in order to gauge their heading before snapping it shut and turning to look down one of the branching passes. "Alright guest, you choose, descend into the depth-" she pointed down the left pass. "Or are you up to the possibility of walking out here completely drenched." her other hand lifted toward the right pass.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Hmm," he hummed thoughtfully, then nodded. That wasn't such a strange thing, given that other regions were similar - they had pokemon native to other regions. They could've gotten her naturally, or they could've been imported - he could see the latter if the island was trying to foster a larger trainer community - or there could've been other reasons. "Thank you, Breeze," he added after the Pikachu obliged Ray's question, grateful for the light that flooded the caverns, and he had to wonder if the pokemon belonged to this woman or if it was more of a company pokemon, one of many that aided in giving tours or exploring the caverns. Instead, he frowned lightly and added, "I see." A pause. "That could be for any number of reasons - population increases, importing pokemon from other regions," he added with a shrug, knowing full well that wouldn't explain the colors that some pokemon seemed to possess naturally, then gave her a sidelong glance, "Or were you hinting at something else?"

As for her question, he glanced at both paths, looking at each for a few long, thoughtful moments in turn, then offered Ray a grin and a shrug, "Why not both?"  

[Blood_Goddess]

"I would be willing to bet on any of those," She agreed with a light shrug, both her palms lifting up, lowering them down only to lift a finger back up sharply. "But its always good to look at the numbers. Its a bummer the people here didn't really pay as much attention to the pokemon population as they could have, but by the time they started noticing the growth, it was.. well needless to say noticeable, even for a group of people who didn't used to care that much about pokemon, thaaats a bit odd... how can you NOT care about pokemon... I mean geeze-."

As he voted for both Ray let out a snort of laugh and a crooked grin "You're the boss." she told him
This would certainly be a good commission, though she honestly didn't feel too thrilled about being around Alder a whole lot. Whatever, Job was a job.

Picking the downward slant one first the tall women took the lead.closely followed by the Pikachu.

"The Pokemon population had increased substantially, going from a ratio of one pokemon every hundred people, to something more like a hundred pokemon to every person." Her eyebrows arched. "A slow progression and breeding populations are one thing. but if you just keep in mind that this all happened in the span of a couple of years, after generations of low population, Kinda odd huh?" She laughed. "And then, as you asked before, almost just as suddenly the island is seeing these strangely colored pokemon popping up, almost like candy!
Sure you can say its just importing, as the population of the island grew, something in the diet or even the climate- that I will dispute, so don't go there-."

the long women slipped further into the darkness, reaching forward to grab a hold of the wall as the ground started to slant, hopping from foot hole to foot hole "Watch you're step!"

"All of this has happened in the last ten or eight years of Kodo. But anyway, that is one way to look at it, The natives here don't think anything of it after all."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"I completely agree," he said wholeheartedly, "I don't know how some people can go on not caring for Pokemon." Alder followed after his guide, choosing his steps more carefully as she warned him to do so. He held his hands up with a light chuckle, "Alright, alright, I won't. I agree, it does sound highly unnatural and practically impossible through normal means in such a short span of time. What -- they don't think it's unnatural at all?" Perhaps they'd just become conditioned or something, but really? At least some of them had to be concerned.

He remained silent some moments as he followed along, carefully choosing his steps as they descended into the caverns, then tested the waters, "Have you, or anyone else, noticed an increase in appearances of legendary pokemon here?"