[h3][color=palevioletred]Eryn Montero[/color][/h3][hr][sup][i]Wet Caverns  ||  Day 3: Late Morning[/i][/sup][indent] [/indent]
When the Onix roared—and by roared, she meant produced an earth-rattling cry that made her bones tremble—Eryn thought her living days had come to an end. A gross overestimation of her charisma was about to lead to her death at the hands of an extremely large Onix. Thankfully, though, instead of finding herself crushed or trapped in a collapsing cavern, Eryn saw a second Onix emerging from within the tunnels, then a third, and then a fourth and fifth. However, her relief faded when she realized that she was now surrounded by Onix. Though she had an exit waiting for her, what were the chances of her escaping five Onix at once?

When the original Onix opened its mouth for a second roar, Eryn closed her eyes, hugging Dei and bracing herself, but Dei shifted in her arms, prompting her to reopen her eyes. Instead of coming together to ritualistically bludgeon her to death, it seemed the Onix had gathered to discuss what to do with her. And, since she couldn’t understand a single sound being made at this point, she directed her gaze down to Dei, whose eyes were fixed on the biggest Onix with wary attentiveness. 

[color=palevioletred]“Please tell me we’re not going to die,”[/color] Eryn whispered. 

Dei flicked his tail, and Eryn traced his gaze to the Onix beside the biggest one, who’d produced an egg from the shadows while shooting Eryn a displeased look. Eryn, though, hadn’t noticed, her jaw down as she stared at the egg that had been deposited in front of her. It took Dei whacking her with the side of his tail to snap her out of her staring, and she immediately swapped to a grin, which she took note to drop a few degrees of intensity off in order to not seem as utterly delighted as she was.

Clearing her throat, she met the main Onix’s eyes with a slightly-dimmed grin. [color=palevioletred]“Thank you so much Mr. Onix! I promise that I’ll do my best to train this Onix to be the strongest out there—maybe even stronger than you, but that’s the dream,”[/color] she said, backtracking with a sheepish grin. 

Then, meeting the scornful gaze of the Onix who had handed her the egg, she composed herself with a more solemn expression. [color=palevioletred]“Thank you, Ms.—[i]Ms.[/i] Onix. Don’t worry, your kid will be safe with me. I’m pretty fragile compared to him, after all.”[/color]

She attempted a laugh but quickly realized that the mother Onix wasn’t laughing along. So, with some more awkward thanks to all the other Onix present as well as a final goodbye to Ms. Diglett and a casual remark to Eri to note the Diglett and Onix’s forms—because who knew the limits to his shapeshifting powers—Eryn traded Dei for the egg and set off out the makeshift exit. With her back to the Onix, her face-splitting grin had appeared again, but it relaxed as she stared at the egg while walking. Was there a way to tell if an egg was about to hatch? The egg itself looked rather standard, with an impeccable surface marred only by indents that mimicked the surface of the Onix’s natural habitat.

A crash behind her sent her shooting up into the air, and she looked back half-expecting to see the horde of Onix coming at her. Thankfully it appeared that it was only her exit being collapsed behind her, and though Eryn was a little disappointed she wouldn't be able to have her own "secret entrance" now, she figured she had too much to be grateful for to care. And, having concluded that she would indeed live to see another day, she refocused on the egg with a hearty sigh.

[color=palevioletred]“Egg hatching, well, we can get the egg checked at the Pokemon Center!”[/color] 

She looked to Dei and Eri with a smile. Dei had adopted a sort of apathetic exasperation by now whereas Eri nodded and smiled at her in her form. Neither appeared to have a negative reaction to the introduction of the egg, which was a plus in her book.

[color=palevioletred]“Oh, Eri, you wanna hold it?”[/color] Eryn asked, offering the egg out to Eri, whose eyes widened as she did. He shook his head, and when Eryn frowned, he waved [i]one hand through the other[/i].

[color=palevioletred]“Woah! Woah, Arceus, what… What was that?”[/color] 

Eryn rounded on Eri, reaching out to touch her double, and just as she’d seen, her hand went through Eri’s arm as if there were nothing there at all. It took her some more staring and another hand pass or two before she nodded, sighing. 

[color=palevioletred]“Yeah, got it. This form is an illusion, which explains why your ability is called ‘Illusion.’”[/color]

After another moment of consideration, though, Eryn dropped her frown for a grin again. [color=palevioletred]“Hey, drop the illusion, Eri.”[/color]

As soon as Eri did, a funny look on his face as he stepped towards her as his normal self, Eryn scooped him up and held him beside the egg, smooshing them together in her arms. 

[color=palevioletred]“Alright, dunno how long I can keep this up, but let’s get to the Pokemon Center before I find out. You think you can keep up, Dei?”[/color] Eryn asked, glancing back at the Charmander.  When he nodded, she grinned, taking off up the hill towards Lakewatch Town. Obviously she didn’t get too far before she was forced to set down Eri and just hold the egg alone, but whatever. By the time she’d reached the town proper, she’d already narrowed down possible names for the Onix. Dumont if they were a boy and Peri they were a girl, or Monty and Per-per, as she’d taken to cooing at the egg.

In the Center while she was waiting for a nurse to check on her egg for her, Eryn struck up some conversations with the people around her, inquiring about the sorts of Pokemon around the town. Specifically, she looked for information on Pokemon her team would be effective against but weren’t too far away to travel to. Then, after that, she quickly made her way to Route 5 to begin a walking and training until the egg hatched because, after all, it was an Onix, and an Onix would be pretty sweet to have on the team with a little training.
[center] [/center][hr][hider=Actions][u][b][color=palevioletred]     Actions:          [/color][/b][/u]
Accepted the egg (of course) and moved onto Lakewatch Town, where she healed her Pokemon and got her new egg checked out (while sneaking in some casual conversations about what sorts of Pokemon were on Route 14, Route 5, Route 6, and in the Frozan Cave). After that, she'd move onto training on Route 5, where she’d first throw in Tula, then switch for her “most effective” Pokemon against whatever is there, running back to town to heal whenever necessary. She’ll do this until either the egg hatches or until levelling efficiency plateaus, at which point she’ll look around for some trainers to battle.[/hider]
[hider=Pokemon][u][b][color=palevioletred]     Pokemon Party:          [/color][/b][/u]
[indent][table][row][/row][row][cell][hider=Dei — Charmander][h3][color=palevioletred][sup]Dei[hr][/sup][/color][/h3][img]https://www.smogon.com/dex/media/sprites/xy/charmander.gif[/img][hr][sup][sup]Charmander  [color=palevioletred]◼[/color]   Level 12   [color=palevioletred]◼[/color]   ♂   [color=palevioletred]◼[/color]  Blaze   [color=palevioletred]◼[/color]  100%[/sup][/sup]
[indent][sup][color=palevioletred]||[/color]  Scratch
[color=palevioletred]||[/color]  Growl, Smokescreen
[color=palevioletred]||[/color]  Ember[/sup][/indent][h3] [/h3][/hider]
[/cell][cell][/cell][cell][hider=Kyllene — Mawile][h3][color=palevioletred][sup]Kyllene | “Kylie”[hr][/sup][/color][/h3][img]https://www.smogon.com/dex/media/sprites/xy/mawile.gif[/img][hr][sup][sup]Mawile  [color=palevioletred]◼[/color]   Level 12   [color=palevioletred]◼[/color]   ♀   [color=palevioletred]◼[/color]   Hyper Cutter   [color=palevioletred]◼[/color]  100%[/sup][/sup]
[indent][sup][color=palevioletred]||[/color]  Astonish, Bite
[color=palevioletred]||[/color]  Taunt, Growl, Fake Tears
[color=palevioletred]||[/color]  Fairy Wind[/sup][/indent]
[h3] [/h3][/hider]
[/cell][cell][/cell][/row][row][cell]
[hider=Tula — Magikarp][h3][color=palevioletred][sup]Tula | “Tutu”[hr][/sup][/color][/h3][img]https://www.smogon.com/dex/media/sprites/xy/magikarp.gif[/img][hr][sup][sup]Magikarp  [color=palevioletred]◼[/color]   Level 10   [color=palevioletred]◼[/color]   ♀   [color=palevioletred]◼[/color]  Rattled   [color=palevioletred]◼[/color] 100%[/sup][/sup]
[indent][sup][color=palevioletred]||[/color]  (Struggle)  
[color=palevioletred]||[/color]  Splash  
[color=palevioletred]||[/color]  N/A[/sup][/indent]
[h3] [/h3][/hider][/cell][cell][/cell][cell]
[hider=Erebi — Zorua][h3][color=palevioletred][sup]Erebi | “Eri”[hr][/sup][/color][/h3][img]https://www.smogon.com/dex/media/sprites/xy/zorua.gif[/img][hr][sup][sup]Zorua  [color=palevioletred]◼[/color]   Level 10   [color=palevioletred]◼[/color]   ♂   [color=palevioletred]◼[/color]  Illusion   [color=palevioletred]◼[/color] 100%[/sup][/sup]
[indent][sup][color=palevioletred]||[/color]  Scratch, Pursuit  
[color=palevioletred]||[/color]  Leer, Fake Tears  
[color=palevioletred]||[/color]  N/A
[sub] [/sub][indent][color=palevioletred]—[/color] [i]Silk Scarf[/i][/indent][/sup][/indent]
[h3] [/h3][/hider][/cell][/row][row][/row][/table][/indent][indent] [/indent][/hider]
[hider=Inventory][u][b][color=palevioletred]     Inventory:          [/color][/b][/u]
[indent]Pokédollars — 6173
[list][*]Potion — 1
[*]Pokeballs — 6
[*]Great Balls — 2
[*]Old Rod
[*]Escape Rope
[*]Egg (Onix)
[/list][/indent][h3] [/h3][/hider]
[@PlatinumSkink]