To his credit, Arthur had indeed bitten the Malamar. He did as good a job at it as one could do a job at biting something, Bridget liked to think. However, that did not make up for what happened next. Her little orange friend was sent up into the air, and then tackled, sending him flying! Bridget had an idea, though. She took out Arthur's poke ball, and popped it open, causing it to return the creature to its spherical break room. Usually, this would be the part where a trainer sent out some other pokemon. This was not the case today. Instead, Bridget opened the same poke ball again, causing Arthur to once again be immediately in the fray and ready to go. Followed by some much-welcome moves on the part of Quinn and Nathan. “Gust! Now! Apologies for that too.” “Blegh! Thanks, bud! Really needed that! I’m good now! Peat, we gotta pull our weight too! Bubble!” "Well, let's not get shown up, eh? Keep on Biting!" Thus did Arthur do as commanded, swinging open his jaws once more and not relenting in the chomps of violent intent against this unusual specimen the team had suddenly been met with.

hi 1. local but am fine with non-local too 2. fakemon 3. darker, but i don't love anything dark just for the sake of it

The man didn’t answer the inheritance question, and given the state of his house, he could only conclude that the answer was a resounding “No.” On the plus side, he got the Sherlock Holmes reference, and Brian’s respect grew slightly. In terms of creepy old people he’d had to deal with on this job in the past week, he was better than most. It felt like they understood each other, even if the man clearly didn’t understand what Brian’s job actually entailed. He saw Carmen taking notes, too. Or at least he hoped she was taking notes and not just texting someone while on the clock. Some of the questions she asked were even worth answering whether it was a ghost dog or a real dog, not that the man gave the best answers all told. He seemed confused, and Brian’s respect levels went back down. That didn’t make Carmen exiting the conversation early all that great either, but whatever. She was going in the right direction. He could wrap things up here. Brian sighed. “No, she’s half left,” he said. “Or all left, now.” He thought about making a lefties joke too but somehow had enough restraint to hold back in case he angered the man who almost certainly had a gun somewhere amongst all the other hoardings. “Anyway, you’re right that we’ve got the right magic for the job, we just need to get up close and personal with the ghost first.” The man nodded, oddly willing to accept that explanation. "Well, guess that makes sense… I don't want you poking around too much, though. Never know what can be used against you, especially these days with those idiots in charge and all.” “Classic idiots,” Brian said tactfully. “We will need some way to let you know when the job’s done, though. You at least willing to share a name and/or phone number or do you want us to just knock on your door again? I’d suggest disappearing into the night, too, but I don’t want you to think we’re scamming you out of your hard-earned money.” First came a grunt, either out of annoyance or it was just something the man did. “That weird boss girl didn't give you all that?” he said, so it was probably the former. “Well, you can call me Kevin. As far as giving my number, you can ask your boss for that.” Kevin checked a clock. “I’ll be here all night, though. Not gonna go anywhere with strangers wandering about.” Brian nodded. “Well, I’m Brian, so now we’re not strangers. Anyway, I’m going to go follow after uh, Watson, you called her. Her name is Carmen. Get some rest. We’re going to make sure whatever it is can’t bother you anymore.” His only stop before leaving Kevin’s house entirely was to make sure Carmen had grabbed the seals after bringing them inside. Amazing, Brian thought. She actually remembered something. He wasn’t careless going across the field, but he wasn’t exactly careful, either, especially when he got closer to the treeline and could see Carmen frozen in place looking away from him. Perhaps in retrospect, especially given previous encounters with the supernatural involving Carmen-sized girls, he could have at least put his guard up a little bit. Then again, she was just stuck in a staring contest with a stupid deer, so it would have been for nothing anyway. The deer huffed and ran off as soon as it saw Brian, too. “Were you going to stick a seal on it or were you just going to make kiss faces at each other?”