[Jodie Rey]

Man, this school had a great graveyard. Large, anonymous, and totally haunted, it was everything a spirit lover could possibly want. She would have killed for a place like this to explore as a kid. Tonight, however, she wasn’t here to bask in the landscape’s sights and majesty. She was here to catch a certain pokemon. A poochyena, to be specific, and she’d heard this was one of the places they could be found.

Poochyena was an odd pokemon to wish for, she knew. The little black dogs were looked upon as weak, even pests - a pokemon a new trainer caught and then tossed once they caught their state-of-the-art skitty. But ever since she’d first seen them in Hoenn, Jodie had been enthralled with the little piles of fur. She’d always wanted a dog pokemon. She’d always loved dark types. The issue was even more pressing now that she was a security guard; they were supposed to have a good noise on their teams, for sniffing the stinky intruders out and such, and she was severely lacking.

Try as she might, in all her six months in Hoenn, she never once managed to catch a poochyena. It was ironic, how easy the task was supposed to be, and how hard she had failed at it.

That would change tonight. Jodie weaved lightly through the graveyard grounds, scanning for pokemon ahead. Honedge, wrapped around her backpack, kept an eye out behind. The moon was high and inevitable request to get back to work wasn’t far away, and she’d already wasted more time than she’d like to admit in the cafeteria and showers - if she wanted to find anything at all, let alone the illusive poochyena, she’d have to put some actual effort into her searching. At every shadow or whisper of movement she turned to look, hoping to spot the pokemon she had already mentally claimed as her own. She just needed something to chuck a pokeball at.

Looking for a non-shiny poochyena

[Kitten4u]

Behold!



Species: Poochyena
Gender: Female
Ability: Quick Feet
~Moves~
Bite
Taunt
Scary Face
Odor Sleuth

[Jodie Rey]

Jodie’s wish was delivered like a sudden ray of light from a dark and stormy sky, in a manner exactly opposite of that. The trainer’s search had taken her to the edge of the graveyard, where tombstones became near indistinguishable among the grasses and brambles. There, curled beneath a weathered statue of a flower, was a messy lump of fur that looked as chaotically sculpted by the forces of nature as the stone it took shelter under. The pokemon blended in so well with the night that she would have missed it completely, had it not chosen a patch of obnoxiously yellow flowers as its bed.

Indeed, she was so close to missing it that by the time she spotted it, she was nearly tripping over the little pokemon.

Jodie let out a yelp. The pokemon let out a yelp. Both struggled for balance - trainer attempting to find a place to put her foot that wasn’t occupied by grave or pokemon, and pokemon attempting to separate fleeting dream with reality while simultaneously trying to figure out what to do about this sudden and frightening situation.

She hadn’t even bothered to see if the pokemon in question was the poochyena she was looking for. It looked poochyena-ish. A good enough observation for her, she was determined not to let this time of searching be wasted. Her priorities were clear. Reflexively, Jodie threw the pokeball she had readied in her hand. She then promptly tripped over the stone grave and landed face-first in the overgrown grass.

A pokeball landed beside her. Jodie sat up, eyes locked on each shake of the ball. One, two, three - and..! The pokeball snapped apart. Her poor luck wasn’t about to give this up just yet. The freed pokemon (who was, in fact, a poochyena) glared at the trainer. The poochyena had spotted the pokemon on Jodie’s back - she knew what this person wanted.

“Wait, wait!” Jodie raised her hands defensively at the growling pokemon. The poochyena was perhaps a foot and a half away, and was doing a great job of showing off her very pointed teeth. Jodie wasn’t keen on losing her nose today. Thankfully, she had a plan. “You… hungry?”

The poochyena hesitated. Jodie was smug as Caliburn moved on que, dropping a small bag of pokemon food into the trainer’s open palm, grabbed from her bag with her scarf-like hand. She’d come prepared.

The pokemon’s stance relaxed slightly and her tail hazarded a wag. Most trainers and wild pokemon that didn’t outright ignore her had wanted a fight - a losing fight for her, more often than not. An offering was strange. And she was hungry…

The battle was won. If taxes are certain for humans, a love of food was certain for pokemon, and Jodie abused this fact to no end. Halfway through the bag of dark-type pokemon food, the poochyena had lost all hostility and any control over her madly wagging tail. “I’ve got more where that came from.” Jodie said. “Come with me, yeah?”

She tried another pokeball, and this time, it clicked shut. Jodie stood up, brushed herself off, and retrieved the pokeball, her grin spreading all the while. She had successfully completed the task of a fledgling Hoenn trainer.

As she turned to leave, Jodie glanced at the rose-like tomb. A nearby tree seemed to have sheltered the stone carving, and it was in comparatively good shape. Good enough that she could actually make out etchings on its face. Jodie moved closer, and found she could read the grave. "Rhoda Marning" was etched in fine and swirling print. The date and inscription was faded beyond legibility.

“Rhoda?” Jodie wondered aloud. “A fine name, that.”

She nodded to the grave and departed for the academy. Maybe she’d have time to give Rhoda a bath before she’d have to go back on shift.

Poochyena befriended and caught!