self-esteem issues / private

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  • [fancypost bgcolor=;border:0px;width:450px;text-align:justify;font-size:8pt;line-height:1.4;]It's not that Ilima habitually lurks near Verdant Cavern, but yes, he is currently lurking near Verdant Cavern. And so what if he is? This is, after all, his trial, and what with him being Trial Captain, it is sort of his duty to at least linger near the place every so often, just to establish that it is indeed still a working test for young trainers looking to completing the Island Challenge to complete. As simple as it is, this first trial is vital; if you can't get past it, then you can't get past Hala, and if you can't do that, then you're screwed, anyway. And besides, as simple as it at first seems, that giant Raticate is terrifying. He's heard many a startled scream come from the bowels of this place — but honestly, he quite likes the oversized creature. When not enraged by the concept of another foolhardy kid coming to take an item from it, it's particularly kind. Like any other creature, despite the fact that it's not even half-tamed, it's easily bribed with food, and Ilima isn't afraid to give it what it wants. Who would be, when the other option is probably it gnawing off your arm? Nobody wants that — least of all him, who sort of needs his arms for Z-Power and all that. They're pretty important, his limbs.


    For once, though, his lurking has a purpose, because there's currently a trainer in there now, failing at his trial. He's heard multiple shrieks of frustration, and the frantic pattering of feet that can only mean the poor kid's not had a chance to heal their Pokémon and is being ruthlessly pursued by one of the many, merciless critters that live in that cavern. Well, there's a reason he said that they ought to be liberal with their potions and revives — but who listens to Trial Captain Ilima, first of many? Who listens to the easy one? Certainly not this trainer, that's for sure, and they're suffering because of this. It doesn't take long for them to stumble out, a bit of a mess and followed by feral shrieks, and Ilima looks up from where he's sat on a rock, watching them trudge bitterly past him. "Potions," he coos, lifting a finger. It's not difficult to tell that this kid wasn't raised here. They'd've paid attention to his advice otherwise. "Don't be shy with that pocket money!"


    At his side, his Smeargle huffs, and he sets a hand on its head, rubbing at its muzzle thoughtfully and sending the defeated trainer on their merry way. "Now, they'll be ready for her. And angry," Ilima reflects, glancing back at the cavern's dark mouth. He doesn't envy the trainer one bit.
    [hr]
    [spoiler=tags | updated 11/27]

    [size=7pt]black links are empty + all opinions are ic + new character


    [hr]
    [size=7pt]GENERAL INFORMATION: [biography]
    · Captain Ilima | No Nicknames | ♂ | Unknown Sexuality
    · Unknown Birthday | Phys. 12 m/o | Roughly Real-Timed
    · Member of BlizzardClan | Trial Captain, "Dreamboat"


    RELATIONSHIP INFO: [heart chart] [notes]
    · Single | No Crushes | No "Maybe" Crushes
    · NPC Parents [Immigrated] | Generation 1
    · No Apprentice | No Best Friend | No Archenemies
    · Mostly polite and dignified. Welcoming and competitive.


    APPEARANCE: [anatomy ref] (not fur colour)
    ○ SPECIES: SALUKI | STATUS: HEALTHY [UNHARMED, 100%]
    · pale pink (#f3c5b3) fur. lean and slender; long limbs, feathery extremes.
    · grey-blue eyes. graceful-looking and elegant; moves with a prancing gait.
    current injuries: none so far; uninjured.


    PERSONALITY: [click] [click]
    · inspired by ilima from pokémon sun and moon.
    · reserved, urbane, passive-aggressive. lowkey snarky, welcoming, scholarly.
    · competitive, distinguished, whimsical, somewhat formal. flamboyant to a point.


    INTERACTION & CONFRONTATION: [combat info]
    · Moderate Difficulty | Somewhat Trained | Determined
    · May Start Fights | Won't Quit | Won't Kill; May Negotiate
    · Can powerplay peaceful or nonviolent actions.
    · Attack in [color=white]bold white
    , [color=black]bold black
    , or bold underlined.

  • [align=center][fancypost bgcolor=;border-top:0px;border-left:0px;border-right:0px;border-bottom:0px;width:460px;line-height:105%;font-size:75px;text-align:justify;color: rgba(183, 225, 221, .5);margin-left:50px;margin-bottom:-68px;margin-top:-30px]❀[/fancypost][fancypost bgcolor=;border-top:0px;border-left:0px;border-right:0px;border-bottom:0px;width:406px;font-family:verdana;line-height:105%;font-size:40px;text-align:justify;color:#f6fafb;font-family:georgia;text-shadow:3px 0 3px #b7e1dd;letter-spacing:.55px][size=17pt]ILLIE [size=28pt]ℬ[/size]ASKERVILLE / [size=19pt]リーリエ[/size][/size][/fancypost][fancypost bgcolor=;border:0px;background:linear-gradient(to right,#f6fafb,#b7e1dd,transparent);height:1px;width:406px;padding:0px;margin-left:84px;margin-top:-12px][/fancypost]
    [fancypost bgcolor=;border-top:0px;border-left:0px;border-right:0px;border-bottom:0px;width:410px;font-family:verdana;line-height:115%;font-size:10.5px;text-align:justify;margin-top:3px]Lillie loves pokemon, is positively enamored with them — they make wonderful companions, as well as fascinating topics of study. Growing up in Aether Paradise, she’d been surrounded by pokemon of every type, shape, and nature, though regardless of their differences, she had taken immense joy in watching them, leaning precariously over the railing to marvel at a Butterfree’s gossamer wings as they caught the sunlight, or catch a better glimpse of one of the Buizel as they surfaced briefly for air. Observing them all had always been a favourite pastime of hers, and such would easily explain how she had ended up with her current set of circumstances. Perhaps becoming an assistant for a celebrated figure among the scientific community in Alola hadn’t quite been what she’d had in mind for herself, but she couldn’t bring herself to regret the decisions she had made up until now... If she were to be completely honest, running away from home had probably been the best choice she had made for herself. She had done her absolute best to tolerate her mother’s increasingly erratic behaviour, but there was only so much she would take: witnessing her mother hurt that pokemon that had been left behind by that wormhole had been the final straw. She didn’t care if it had been for an experiment or not — seeing pokemon get injured was something she wouldn’t stand for.


    “Um... I think we’re almost there...” she muses aloud quietly, squinting at the various lines and labels on the map in her hands. “So, if this is Route 2... we just need to go there... and then there...” Her delicate features are obscured by the shadows thrown across her face the rim of her sunhat, though her emerald gaze seems to burn bright with a fierce focus and concentration, as she mentally traces the carefully, hand-drawn path, attempts to commit it to memory. She has never been the best with directions, but she's quite determined to prove her reliance and make it to her appointment with Professor Kukui on time. “—and then, we should end up in Hau’oli City—” Her own startled squeak cuts her off mid-phrase as she feels a sharp tug on her bag, and she nearly stumbles right into the tall grass just off to her right. Perhaps she had gone a little wild with the repels before even setting foot into this route, but still, just knowing that there’s wild pokemon lurking in there... it's a thought that is jarring enough to bring her out of her initial shock, and it gives her just enough time to regain her footing... though she ends up doing so in a slightly clumsier fashion than she would’ve liked.


    A sigh of relief allows her to release the pent-up tension from the sudden scare — she hadn’t even realized she’d been holding her breath. After brushing off her dress, she immediately makes to smooth out the wrinkles in her only means of navigation, no doubt caused by her having gripped the thin paper a tad too tightly, before finally turning her head to pin the white bag at her side with a sudden stare, the green of her irises flashing with mild disapproval. “Nebby, please...” she pleads, biting back a note of exhaustion, “I promise it’s just a little longer, but... you really do need to stay in my bag. We'll get in trouble if anyone sees you.” Lillie is, in all honesty, tempted to launch straight into her usual spiel about how it’s dangerous for her companion to leave her bag and wander off. There’s the possibility of someone seeing and questioning, or of Nebby getting lost... or even the chance of some passing member of the Aether Foundation finding them, and her style of dress is conspicuous enough (she would certainly change it, but having been so dependent on her mother all her life, picking out clothes for herself is not something she considers to be an easy task); having Nebby, a species of pokemon unknown to the majority of the population frolicking about would do little to serve their best interests. However, she doesn’t, for she’s well aware that she’ll only sound like a broken record, and if her words hadn’t done anything to deter her little friend’s desire to cause mischief before, then there isn’t much use in her continuing on now. She can only hope that the pokemon will listen for once and be patient — at least until they can reach the outskirts of the next town.


    It’s not long before the blonde continues to press on, picking her way through route, taking care to avoid the various grasses and flowers and rocks that litter her path — anything that might sully her pristine, white garments. She’s nearing her destination and her confidence in herself is growing. She allows a smile to touch her lips, as she once again reaches for her bag to pull out her map, just to ensure that she’s traveling in the right direction... and of course that’s when things go wrong. It’s been proven, time and time again, that her luck isn’t all that stellar.


    The Cosmog she’s been toting around chooses this moment to pop itself out of her bag, startling her her badly in the process and nearly give her a heart attack, before zooming off at a speed that prior to this she’d have thought impossible for her companion to achieve. Thankfully, she's quick to recover from these sorts of situations, and before long, she's hurrying after the nebula pokemon, tightly gripping her bag and holding onto her hat. “Nebby, where are you going!” she cries after the retreating form of her friend, worry hovering like a grey cloud about her dainty figure, as she runs as fast as her current attire will allow. “Please, come back! You’re going to end up lost or hurt!” The latter is what she fears the most — it’s already happened before, at the hands of her mother and her unchecked obsession, and she refuses to be a bystander. On the day when she’d taken Nebby from the lab and escaped, she had promised herself that no harm would come to the pokemon under her care. And still, she had already failed once, when those Spearow had set themselves upon her little Cosmog with sharp beaks and hooked talons. She had been helpless to do anything... in the end, it was that one trainer and Tapu Koko that had rescued Nebby and resolved the situation, but neither of them were here to come to her aid now — this was a problem that was all her own.


    Nebby dashes straight into a cave, the one Lillie recalls having read about in a book... Verdant Cavern, or something along those lines. It’s supposed to be a trial site for one of the Captains, and therefore it’s not a place she dares to venture near... at least, not of her own volition. Stopping at the yawning mouth of the cavern, the young girl peers apprehensively into the gloom — she searches the shadows from where she stands, but the light is ultimately far too low for her to make out much. And so, she’s forced to resort to using her hearing. Stilling herself and ignoring the unnervingly loud beating of her heart, she listens...


    There are little to no outward signs save for her stance to give it away, but her trepidation is mounting with every passing second. What she hears are the sounds of scrabbling and squeaking, and it’s anything but a comfort and only adds to her distress. She knows, from all the times she’s with the professor doing fieldwork, that those pokemon (Rattata, she assumes, but until she sees them she can't be certain) are agitated... to the extent that she can't even bring herself to trust in the repels that she’s relied on all this time.


    “Oh, Nebby...” she breathes, lifting both her hands to partially cover her face. She feels positively sickened... almost physically ill. She’s frightened — and the dread is far greater than before. There’s no telling what’ll happen or what already has come to pass — for all she knows, Nebby could be lying injured on the ground somewhere in there, but she has no way of knowing... no way of helping... there are so many things she can’t do. There is only one thing that she is absolutely sure of , and it’s that she can’t go in there. Nebby is really the only pokemon she has... and she’s only traveling with it as a friend, she’s not a trainer, and she has no pokemon of her own. It’s a messy situation, and once again, Lillie finds herself feeling more useless than she’s ever felt before.
    [hr]
    && oh god,,, i just meant to type three paragraphs maybe, but this ended up being a lot longer than i anticipated,,, don't feel the need to match it or anything - i doubt i'll be able to pull this again the next time i go to post ;;



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