Post by Windchime on Jan 29, 2014 17:13:43 GMT -6
Lola Jenny
Age: 35
Age: 35
Gender: Female
Orientation: Bisexual
Profession: Mercenary
Occupation: The Between-City Mail Carrier and Head of Mi-aro's Postal System
Appearance: Even if it weren't part of her name, there would be no doubt that Lola is part of the Jenny clan. Standing at one hundred and sixty-eight centimetres (just over five feet, six inches), she has an athletic figure and long legs, her skin tone carrying a faint tan from spending time under the sun.
Her hair is a rich turquoise, naturally wavy and often very unruly. She pulls it back in a low ponytail that hangs to her mid-back to keep it out of her face, though a few shorter strands, just barely reaching her chin, hang to either side of her face to frame it. Her eyes are a bright, sharp amber and her facial features, with a smooth jawline, full lips, and small nose, can swap easily from warm and sweet to harsh and unforgiving.
But then, how could you possibly tell her apart from the crowd? Well, if her arms are bare at the moment, you might notice a set of claw marks on her her right, outer forearm, pretty much an even distance between her wrist and elbow. They consist of three slashes, made by fairly thick claws; a heatmor's claws, to be exact, as indicated by the fact that the space between each claw mark and around the general area are also burn scarred.
Everyday Clothes: Lola's outfits tend to be not quite old-world-Jenny styled, but clearly influenced by some of uniform styles that had been popular over the years in different regions. One big thing, however, is that she wears pants, not a skirt. Skirts on the job? What were her ancestors thinking? That they'd take down criminals with the power of sexy? Nope, no skirts on the job for Lola.
Instead, her most common outfit is a set of long, cream-coloured pants, a cream-coloured, short-sleeved collared shirt with a back necktie, a light blue vest overtop of her shirt, a black belt, and simple, black boots. When it gets colder, she throws on a dark blue jacket with red sleeves and pair of white gloves. Usually pinned onto her vest, right over her heart, is a little, gold-coloured badge in the shape of a closed envelope.
Formal Garbs: Lola owns a little black, strapless dress. She looks very good in it, and is very aware of this fact.
Pack: Pack? Singular? Yeah right. Lola herself carries a shoulder-bag-style mailbag and a backpack, her Zebstika has a set of saddlebags, her Samurott has a (water-resistant!) backpack, her Stoutland carries a pair of saddle-bag-like bags, her Snorlax carries a giant shoulder bag and backpack, and her Heatmor carries a (fire-resistant!) backpack. And if that's not enough for the task at hand, she owns a cart too.
Personality: Lola is a woman of the warmest of hearts and the most vicious of furies, driven by a love for the people of Mi-aro and an iron-like will to see her job done, no matter the size of said job or the size of the reward. Jokingly called 'the Scourge of the Winding Path' by some, she's made her way down that long, winding road so many times that she has nearly every feature memorized, or at least as well as she can as the surroundings change from year to year due to the feral pokemon population, a population that she constantly finds herself beating a healthy fear of herself into.
If you met Lola when on the job, you'd be hard-pressed to think she even could smile. Her answers to question tend to be short and to the point, save for when she considers elaboration to be important enough for understanding, and she can be found barking orders at her pokemon in a harsh, demanding tone. No 'please,' no 'thank you.' Just do it and do it now. Don't think her cruel or unfair, however; she never asks anyone who works with her to put themselves into unnecessary danger or push themselves beyond their limits, and you can bet she's pulling her weight at every opportunity. She just doesn't tolerate any foolishness that could interfere with work.
This is contrasted sharply with how she is in her downtime, as she seems to shed at least ten years of age in an instant, acting like a carefree twenty-something, exchanging hugs and fist-bumps with pokemon she was ordering around not long ago. Cheerful, energetic, eager to laugh (as long as it's not at someone else's expense; her humour actually tends to be self-deprecating...or punny), and willing to just sit and chat about just about anything.
Especially if you're cute, though she's not a shameless flirt. Well, not that much one. Not all the time. Okay, fine, she's horrible about it, but it's a rare thing that she goes beyond admiring glances and playful banter, since, at the end of it all, she's married to her work. Go back and forth along that route with her a few times, fighting off the local feral pokemon, and maybe she'll take you up on that offer of a dinner date.
Lola, at the end of the day, just plain adores people. And civilized pokemon do count as 'people' to her. If she's met you more than once, chances are she remembers your name, occupation, and anything else she may have learned about you from the interaction. And she genuinely cares about your happiness and well-being. This does result in her being a tiny bit of a gossip, though purely of the 'listens to it' variety, as she sure doesn't spread anything. And she'll actually verify with said person before she goes believing whatever has been said, as she knows what an awful game of telephone can go on in a community, but she still pounces on any opportunity to hear something about someone she knows.
This loving personality does not mean she can't get angry, however. Those who would cause people harm, or who would shirk responsibility with no thought to others' suffering...Well, welcome to Lola's Boot Camp, because she'll tear a strip off of you and shout you into the ground Drill Sergeant style. And quite possibly draft you into her little mail-carrying caravan for as long as she thinks it will take to get the point across. Running the route with her is pretty much the go-to community service for anyone who is fit enough for travel or, better yet, who has pokemon. It's also a nice job for the occasional new mercenary, if they find her abrasiveness on the job to be worth the pay.
Likes: Physical exertion, pretty things (and people), a job well done, sleeping in (on days she doesn't have to work, of course!), fresh peppip berries, dog pokemon, equine pokemon, the colour blue
Dislikes: Work not getting done, people being needlessly difficult or obstructive, liars, bland food, cold weather
Backstory:
Lola was born in Unova, to Racquel and Marcel Jenny. It was a world where desperation let to cutthroat crime, and with both her mother and father working as police officers, while they never pressured their daughter to follow in their footsteps, little Lola saw no other path ahead her but helping others. This initially manifested in a desire to be a superhero--which came with a rather unhealthy, and mercifully shortly-lived, habit of trying to get joltik to bite her so she could get joltik powers--which matured into a desire to join law enforcement. While she soon realized that she could not make the problems of the world go away with sheer force of will, she was an empathetic and stubborn enough child that planned to try.
However, at ten years old, that's when it all changed. Arceus appeared, and created the portal. Before Lola knew it, the Jenny clan was leaving for it in spades, ready to help the migration in any way they could. On the other side, she was immersed in aunts, uncles, cousins, and various distant relatives as they pitched in together to help with the building efforts. Being a ten-year-old girl, she couldn't do much, but regarding what she could do, there was no stopping her.
Really. People tried. It took a lot of work to make her go to sleep before she reached the point where she was practically passing out on her feet.
Then, of course, after Port City, there was New Pallet. No one was stopping her from helping there, too, even if the soon-to-be-route through the burrow-ridden territory to get to the fertile land it was going to founded on was dangerous. She hauled a heavy-for-her load all the way there and worked herself to the bone right beside the rest of her clan.
From there, she ended up living in a large home in Port City, packed together inside of it with her parents, along with two of her aunts, their husbands, children, and a whole menagerie of domestic pokemon. Her cousins quickly became the siblings she never had, and their entire chunk of the clan squeezed into that home became extremely tight-knit.
When Lola was sixteen, her mother's Zebstrika and Samurrott ended up with a clutch of pokemon eggs, raising the number of pokemon in the family higher. Two of the eggs hatched into an adorable, but headstrong, Blitzle, and a cheerful little Oshawott, and they became Lola's first pokemon. Archie and Blade, respectfully, followed their headstrong trainer everywhere, getting into rumbles with the feral pokemon that lived on the outskirts of town and getting stronger for it. The two brothers were downright synchronized as they took on the local pokemon two-on-one, and Blade quickly reached the Dewott stage; boy, was Archie surprised when he suddenly wasn't taller than Blade anymore!
Their winning streak came to a screeching halt within a couple of months, however, when they met another two-pokemon team. One day of training led them to, of all things, a Lillipup and Munchlax working as a team to gather up food and protect their small territory. The two feral pokemon had formed a friendship somehow, and even though Archie and Blade got the jump on them, those feral pokemon fought with all their might, backing each other up and fighting the two trained pokemon to a standstill.
Seeing this, Lola made a decision. She called off her pokemon--though given that all involved were exhausted, it was likely that all four of them would have collapsed even if she hadn't--and offered to let the two feral pokemon come with her. Archie and Blade, while surprised, dutifully translated this information for the Lillipup, who was justifiably wary given that they'd just been ambushed, but an offering of tasty food to sweeten the deal (pun intended) made the Munchlax immediately believe that Lola was the best person even and toddle over to hug her leg. To him, food-sharers were wonderful, and worth trusting.
And so, Little Scamp the Lillipup and Ox the Munchlax joined the team. For two years, Lola trained them alongside her two starters, until she had a Zebstrika (Archie took very well to being taller than Blade again, but took less well to being trained be ridden; if anyone other than Lola sat in his specially-made saddle, he'd misbehave something horrible), Samurott (Blade took very quickly to the 'samurai' concept, and upon his final evolution started speaking with particularly formal speech, which Archie mocked him mercilessly for), and a Stoutland (The 'Little' part of Scamp's name was dropped pretty soon after they realized that he was well over a hundred pounds and it didn't quite fit anymore).
Ox, however, remained a Munchlax, not because he wasn't happy enough, but simply because he liked himself the way he was, and Lola didn't push him. Part of the reason she didn't push was because she wasn't sure she could afford to feed a Snorlax, but respecting his wishes was a factor, too.
As Lola celebrated the fact that she was eighteen, which was awesome, she became aware of something. Things getting from Point A to Point B on Mi-aro, those two points being, in either order, Port City and New Pallet, took two forms, which was by foot, and by air. And 'by air' just mostly meant that the person in question was lucky enough to have a large flying pokemon. And such things were generally being delivered by the person who was sending them, or a third party that someone was able to pay and/or beg for assistance from. This occurred to her when some of her distant relatives who had taken up residence in New Pallet showed up to wish her a happy eighteenth birthday and give her her present, and one of her second-cousins needed to be treated for injuries that feral pokemon had inflicted on her. Nothing serious, luckily, but definitely an eye-opening moment.
That was when she decided what she was going to do. She'd lived in the old world. She knew of the concept of mail and mailing things. Mi-aro needed a mail carrier! She was an adult now, and she had enough strong pokemon to make it on the route. Lola quickly started spreading the word around Port City, that if anyone had letters and/or packages that they wanted sent to New Pallet, she was their girl!
Lola may have...overestimated her capabilities that first day. A little. After filling her new mailbag, Archie's saddlebags, an old backpack that she gave Blade, some bags that she gave Scamp to carry, and a small bag for Ox to haul around (all of this was thanks to one of her cousins, Kaitlin, who was a wizard with a needle and thread), there was still way too much. Ox saw Lola starting to panic over how she was going to handle this, and suddenly took off his tiny bag with a look of determination on his face. Suddenly, he started glowing white, and promptly grew to about five times his original size. One hastily-made Snorlax-sized bag later, and they were on the road.
That first day was tough. Lola went on foot, since, with Ox hauling so much of the mail, they'd be forced into a slow pace even if she had ridden Archie, which would just unfairly tire out of the Zebstrika for no reason. They fought off a number of territorial pokemon, including a veritable horde of Durant who took offense to them getting too close to their newest anthill. And when they reached New Pallet, they still had to find all of these people and deliver their letters and packages to them. They weren't terribly organized, and ended up running from one side of the settlement to the other more than once. When it was all over, they all gratefully crashed at one of the local inns and were all pretty much in a coma until sunrise.
The next day was much like the first, gathering letters and packages from everyone. New Pallet had less to send than Port City did that particular day, so she was able to recall Ox and get on Archie's back to make the trip much faster with just them, Blade, and Scamp. Port City was a much larger place to run across to find the destinations of the mail, however, and they still ended the day exhausted.
Exhausted, but happy. Lola felt useful. She was helping people and, in a way, protecting them, by taking that route instead of them. Just like the Jenny clan had done in the old world.
In the years that followed, Lola got herself better organized, and her pokemon got even stronger from the frequent battles. She was slowly saving money--and it was indeed slowly, despite what she made from her heavy workload, since it really did cost a lot to feed this much larger Ox--with her eye on the future. After four years, and very proud Lola managed to scrape together enough money to buy a chunk of land in Port City for Mi-aro's first ever post office.
It took a year to put the building together and hire the help, but soon people had a place to drop off their letters and packages, and there were people who would pass out the ones Lola brought back from New Pallet. She still had to do the distributing and gathering herself in New Pallet, but that was all right. She started saving money again, hoping to build another post office there as well.
It was when she was twenty-six that she finally found a fifth member for her little squad of pokemon. It was a light day, traveling from New Pallet, with just her, Archie, and Scamp out. Blade had suffered an injury the previous day that made her wary of pushing him too much and keep him in his pokeball for the day, and Ox's strength wasn't needed for the moment. It was about half-way down the path that the trio were jumped by about five, very angry and territorial Heatmor.
The resulting battle was fierce and very, very close, since Lola's member of her team with a type advantage was the one injured, and even with Ox taking on two at once, it was terrifying. One managed to get past Scamp and attack Lola herself. Lola sure wasn't giving up without a fight, though, and beat the feral pokemon with anything she could get her hands on, including her bare fists. She managed to beat the Heatmor back long enough for Scamp to race back in and finish it off for her.
Eventually, they were triumphant, and even managed to keep their precious mail unburned! The same couldn't be said for Lola, who was left with a set of severe slash and burn marks on her arm, the scars of which she still has to this day. They hurried to get back to the city to get her medical attention, but not before the in-pain Lola fished out one of precious few pokeballs she had to her name and captured the Heatmor that had attacked her and left her with those injuries in the first place.
This turned out to be...Well, in hindsight, years later, she wouldn't necessarily call it a mistake, but at the time? Hoo boy. The only two feral pokemon she had tamed had both been used to humans due to living in close proximity to them and had been willing to give her a chance. This Heatmor had never laid eyes on a human before and clearly hated her with every fibre of his being. She named him Mars, and boy did he live up to it.
The only reason he never got the chance to finish what he started was due to Blade, both because of the fact that, being a water type, he could better protect his trainer from an angry fire type, and also because Mars grew to rather like Blade. The feeling was less than mutual initially, due to Blade being furious over the harm to his trainer, but the more Mars relaxed and warmed up to Lola, the more Blade warmed to him in turn.
The last member of her team would walk into her life a year later, when she finally got the money to build a post office in New Pallet as well, along with having managed to convince one of her cousins to run it. During construction, a particularly bold feral Budew wandered into the area and simply refused to be shooed away. Lola finally let out Mars, figuring the imposing fire type would scare it off. Instead, the Budew responded with a Water Sport attack, and the battle was on. The scrappy little thing managed to dodge a few of Mars' attacks, and even hit him with a Stun Spore, before he finally roasted it. Lola, once again impressed by the tenacity of a feral pokemon, didn't hesitate to capture the little plant.
Thus, Venus joined the team. While she was tiny, and thus not overly useful for carrying loads, Lola brought her on every trip between cities once she was sure she could trust Venus not to run away. A year later, in a particularly rough fight with a feral Drilbur, Venus evolved into a graceful Roselia, and was clearly downright giddy at the moves now at her disposal. She quickly became the first to launch into a fight with the feral pokemon, taking advantage of the fact that she, unlike the others, was unencumbered, as she danced around her opponents' blows.
Life was good for Lola. Post offices up and running, a full team of six pokemon, and a feeling of accomplishment when she ended every day. And, of course, Saturday nights and Sundays to have to herself. Barely a few months after a particularly cheerful celebration of her thirtieth birthday, however, she became aware of trouble brewing in the family. Namely, a distant relative of hers was having trouble with her teenage daughter. Her name was Kiki, sixteen years old and pretty hot-headed from all descriptions she'd gotten of the kid; she wasn't exactly a typical Jenny-clan girl--her last name wasn't even Jenny--but she was family, and it turned out she was shirking her duties on her mother's ranch and sneaking off to laze about and waste time.
Lola was nothing short of furious, and she offered to set the girl straight. Kiki's parents, perhaps a bit hesitantly, agreed. So, when Lola caught Kiki one Monday, having snuck off for a nap when she was supposed to be minding the pidgey, the poor teenager quickly learned the meaning of 'Boot Camp.' Lola tore a strip off of her and drafted the girl, who had never been out of New Pallet in her life--Lola knew this because she had the audacity to complain about such and use it as an excuse for her behaviour--onto the Winding Path, carrying a heavy load of letters and parcels. She then let Kiki crash in her living room, and took her back to New Pallet with another load the next day.
And then took her back to Port City the next day, then back to New Pallet the next day, then back again to Port City the next day, and then finally back to New Pallet. They were never attacked by anything too rough to handle, but there were a few run-ins with the feral pokemon all the same. Kiki slept nearly the entire Sunday, and was extremely relieved that Lola didn't intend to bring her out for another week. The girl never shirked her duties again.
After that, Lola earned a bit of a reputation. Other members of her family would have her whip their kids into shape, and sometimes even people from outside of the family tree started to ask. She even ended up with a few people who weren't kids, as she didn't hesitate to let grown men and women knew what she thought about them if they neglected their responsibilities. The next years would go on with no excitement beyond the variety she'd come to expect on the road, with the most notable thing being her getting together some more money to buy a cart that her pokemon could pull. Just in case. The human population of Mi-aro was growing, after all.
These days, she's still the one braving that road, and still the one who'll shout you into the ground if you don't contribute to society. And she wouldn't have it any other way.
Appearance: Even if it weren't part of her name, there would be no doubt that Lola is part of the Jenny clan. Standing at one hundred and sixty-eight centimetres (just over five feet, six inches), she has an athletic figure and long legs, her skin tone carrying a faint tan from spending time under the sun.
Her hair is a rich turquoise, naturally wavy and often very unruly. She pulls it back in a low ponytail that hangs to her mid-back to keep it out of her face, though a few shorter strands, just barely reaching her chin, hang to either side of her face to frame it. Her eyes are a bright, sharp amber and her facial features, with a smooth jawline, full lips, and small nose, can swap easily from warm and sweet to harsh and unforgiving.
But then, how could you possibly tell her apart from the crowd? Well, if her arms are bare at the moment, you might notice a set of claw marks on her her right, outer forearm, pretty much an even distance between her wrist and elbow. They consist of three slashes, made by fairly thick claws; a heatmor's claws, to be exact, as indicated by the fact that the space between each claw mark and around the general area are also burn scarred.
Everyday Clothes: Lola's outfits tend to be not quite old-world-Jenny styled, but clearly influenced by some of uniform styles that had been popular over the years in different regions. One big thing, however, is that she wears pants, not a skirt. Skirts on the job? What were her ancestors thinking? That they'd take down criminals with the power of sexy? Nope, no skirts on the job for Lola.
Instead, her most common outfit is a set of long, cream-coloured pants, a cream-coloured, short-sleeved collared shirt with a back necktie, a light blue vest overtop of her shirt, a black belt, and simple, black boots. When it gets colder, she throws on a dark blue jacket with red sleeves and pair of white gloves. Usually pinned onto her vest, right over her heart, is a little, gold-coloured badge in the shape of a closed envelope.
Formal Garbs: Lola owns a little black, strapless dress. She looks very good in it, and is very aware of this fact.
Pack: Pack? Singular? Yeah right. Lola herself carries a shoulder-bag-style mailbag and a backpack, her Zebstika has a set of saddlebags, her Samurott has a (water-resistant!) backpack, her Stoutland carries a pair of saddle-bag-like bags, her Snorlax carries a giant shoulder bag and backpack, and her Heatmor carries a (fire-resistant!) backpack. And if that's not enough for the task at hand, she owns a cart too.
Personality: Lola is a woman of the warmest of hearts and the most vicious of furies, driven by a love for the people of Mi-aro and an iron-like will to see her job done, no matter the size of said job or the size of the reward. Jokingly called 'the Scourge of the Winding Path' by some, she's made her way down that long, winding road so many times that she has nearly every feature memorized, or at least as well as she can as the surroundings change from year to year due to the feral pokemon population, a population that she constantly finds herself beating a healthy fear of herself into.
If you met Lola when on the job, you'd be hard-pressed to think she even could smile. Her answers to question tend to be short and to the point, save for when she considers elaboration to be important enough for understanding, and she can be found barking orders at her pokemon in a harsh, demanding tone. No 'please,' no 'thank you.' Just do it and do it now. Don't think her cruel or unfair, however; she never asks anyone who works with her to put themselves into unnecessary danger or push themselves beyond their limits, and you can bet she's pulling her weight at every opportunity. She just doesn't tolerate any foolishness that could interfere with work.
This is contrasted sharply with how she is in her downtime, as she seems to shed at least ten years of age in an instant, acting like a carefree twenty-something, exchanging hugs and fist-bumps with pokemon she was ordering around not long ago. Cheerful, energetic, eager to laugh (as long as it's not at someone else's expense; her humour actually tends to be self-deprecating...or punny), and willing to just sit and chat about just about anything.
Especially if you're cute, though she's not a shameless flirt. Well, not that much one. Not all the time. Okay, fine, she's horrible about it, but it's a rare thing that she goes beyond admiring glances and playful banter, since, at the end of it all, she's married to her work. Go back and forth along that route with her a few times, fighting off the local feral pokemon, and maybe she'll take you up on that offer of a dinner date.
Lola, at the end of the day, just plain adores people. And civilized pokemon do count as 'people' to her. If she's met you more than once, chances are she remembers your name, occupation, and anything else she may have learned about you from the interaction. And she genuinely cares about your happiness and well-being. This does result in her being a tiny bit of a gossip, though purely of the 'listens to it' variety, as she sure doesn't spread anything. And she'll actually verify with said person before she goes believing whatever has been said, as she knows what an awful game of telephone can go on in a community, but she still pounces on any opportunity to hear something about someone she knows.
This loving personality does not mean she can't get angry, however. Those who would cause people harm, or who would shirk responsibility with no thought to others' suffering...Well, welcome to Lola's Boot Camp, because she'll tear a strip off of you and shout you into the ground Drill Sergeant style. And quite possibly draft you into her little mail-carrying caravan for as long as she thinks it will take to get the point across. Running the route with her is pretty much the go-to community service for anyone who is fit enough for travel or, better yet, who has pokemon. It's also a nice job for the occasional new mercenary, if they find her abrasiveness on the job to be worth the pay.
Likes: Physical exertion, pretty things (and people), a job well done, sleeping in (on days she doesn't have to work, of course!), fresh peppip berries, dog pokemon, equine pokemon, the colour blue
Dislikes: Work not getting done, people being needlessly difficult or obstructive, liars, bland food, cold weather
Backstory:
Lola was born in Unova, to Racquel and Marcel Jenny. It was a world where desperation let to cutthroat crime, and with both her mother and father working as police officers, while they never pressured their daughter to follow in their footsteps, little Lola saw no other path ahead her but helping others. This initially manifested in a desire to be a superhero--which came with a rather unhealthy, and mercifully shortly-lived, habit of trying to get joltik to bite her so she could get joltik powers--which matured into a desire to join law enforcement. While she soon realized that she could not make the problems of the world go away with sheer force of will, she was an empathetic and stubborn enough child that planned to try.
However, at ten years old, that's when it all changed. Arceus appeared, and created the portal. Before Lola knew it, the Jenny clan was leaving for it in spades, ready to help the migration in any way they could. On the other side, she was immersed in aunts, uncles, cousins, and various distant relatives as they pitched in together to help with the building efforts. Being a ten-year-old girl, she couldn't do much, but regarding what she could do, there was no stopping her.
Really. People tried. It took a lot of work to make her go to sleep before she reached the point where she was practically passing out on her feet.
Then, of course, after Port City, there was New Pallet. No one was stopping her from helping there, too, even if the soon-to-be-route through the burrow-ridden territory to get to the fertile land it was going to founded on was dangerous. She hauled a heavy-for-her load all the way there and worked herself to the bone right beside the rest of her clan.
From there, she ended up living in a large home in Port City, packed together inside of it with her parents, along with two of her aunts, their husbands, children, and a whole menagerie of domestic pokemon. Her cousins quickly became the siblings she never had, and their entire chunk of the clan squeezed into that home became extremely tight-knit.
When Lola was sixteen, her mother's Zebstrika and Samurrott ended up with a clutch of pokemon eggs, raising the number of pokemon in the family higher. Two of the eggs hatched into an adorable, but headstrong, Blitzle, and a cheerful little Oshawott, and they became Lola's first pokemon. Archie and Blade, respectfully, followed their headstrong trainer everywhere, getting into rumbles with the feral pokemon that lived on the outskirts of town and getting stronger for it. The two brothers were downright synchronized as they took on the local pokemon two-on-one, and Blade quickly reached the Dewott stage; boy, was Archie surprised when he suddenly wasn't taller than Blade anymore!
Their winning streak came to a screeching halt within a couple of months, however, when they met another two-pokemon team. One day of training led them to, of all things, a Lillipup and Munchlax working as a team to gather up food and protect their small territory. The two feral pokemon had formed a friendship somehow, and even though Archie and Blade got the jump on them, those feral pokemon fought with all their might, backing each other up and fighting the two trained pokemon to a standstill.
Seeing this, Lola made a decision. She called off her pokemon--though given that all involved were exhausted, it was likely that all four of them would have collapsed even if she hadn't--and offered to let the two feral pokemon come with her. Archie and Blade, while surprised, dutifully translated this information for the Lillipup, who was justifiably wary given that they'd just been ambushed, but an offering of tasty food to sweeten the deal (pun intended) made the Munchlax immediately believe that Lola was the best person even and toddle over to hug her leg. To him, food-sharers were wonderful, and worth trusting.
And so, Little Scamp the Lillipup and Ox the Munchlax joined the team. For two years, Lola trained them alongside her two starters, until she had a Zebstrika (Archie took very well to being taller than Blade again, but took less well to being trained be ridden; if anyone other than Lola sat in his specially-made saddle, he'd misbehave something horrible), Samurott (Blade took very quickly to the 'samurai' concept, and upon his final evolution started speaking with particularly formal speech, which Archie mocked him mercilessly for), and a Stoutland (The 'Little' part of Scamp's name was dropped pretty soon after they realized that he was well over a hundred pounds and it didn't quite fit anymore).
Ox, however, remained a Munchlax, not because he wasn't happy enough, but simply because he liked himself the way he was, and Lola didn't push him. Part of the reason she didn't push was because she wasn't sure she could afford to feed a Snorlax, but respecting his wishes was a factor, too.
As Lola celebrated the fact that she was eighteen, which was awesome, she became aware of something. Things getting from Point A to Point B on Mi-aro, those two points being, in either order, Port City and New Pallet, took two forms, which was by foot, and by air. And 'by air' just mostly meant that the person in question was lucky enough to have a large flying pokemon. And such things were generally being delivered by the person who was sending them, or a third party that someone was able to pay and/or beg for assistance from. This occurred to her when some of her distant relatives who had taken up residence in New Pallet showed up to wish her a happy eighteenth birthday and give her her present, and one of her second-cousins needed to be treated for injuries that feral pokemon had inflicted on her. Nothing serious, luckily, but definitely an eye-opening moment.
That was when she decided what she was going to do. She'd lived in the old world. She knew of the concept of mail and mailing things. Mi-aro needed a mail carrier! She was an adult now, and she had enough strong pokemon to make it on the route. Lola quickly started spreading the word around Port City, that if anyone had letters and/or packages that they wanted sent to New Pallet, she was their girl!
Lola may have...overestimated her capabilities that first day. A little. After filling her new mailbag, Archie's saddlebags, an old backpack that she gave Blade, some bags that she gave Scamp to carry, and a small bag for Ox to haul around (all of this was thanks to one of her cousins, Kaitlin, who was a wizard with a needle and thread), there was still way too much. Ox saw Lola starting to panic over how she was going to handle this, and suddenly took off his tiny bag with a look of determination on his face. Suddenly, he started glowing white, and promptly grew to about five times his original size. One hastily-made Snorlax-sized bag later, and they were on the road.
That first day was tough. Lola went on foot, since, with Ox hauling so much of the mail, they'd be forced into a slow pace even if she had ridden Archie, which would just unfairly tire out of the Zebstrika for no reason. They fought off a number of territorial pokemon, including a veritable horde of Durant who took offense to them getting too close to their newest anthill. And when they reached New Pallet, they still had to find all of these people and deliver their letters and packages to them. They weren't terribly organized, and ended up running from one side of the settlement to the other more than once. When it was all over, they all gratefully crashed at one of the local inns and were all pretty much in a coma until sunrise.
The next day was much like the first, gathering letters and packages from everyone. New Pallet had less to send than Port City did that particular day, so she was able to recall Ox and get on Archie's back to make the trip much faster with just them, Blade, and Scamp. Port City was a much larger place to run across to find the destinations of the mail, however, and they still ended the day exhausted.
Exhausted, but happy. Lola felt useful. She was helping people and, in a way, protecting them, by taking that route instead of them. Just like the Jenny clan had done in the old world.
In the years that followed, Lola got herself better organized, and her pokemon got even stronger from the frequent battles. She was slowly saving money--and it was indeed slowly, despite what she made from her heavy workload, since it really did cost a lot to feed this much larger Ox--with her eye on the future. After four years, and very proud Lola managed to scrape together enough money to buy a chunk of land in Port City for Mi-aro's first ever post office.
It took a year to put the building together and hire the help, but soon people had a place to drop off their letters and packages, and there were people who would pass out the ones Lola brought back from New Pallet. She still had to do the distributing and gathering herself in New Pallet, but that was all right. She started saving money again, hoping to build another post office there as well.
It was when she was twenty-six that she finally found a fifth member for her little squad of pokemon. It was a light day, traveling from New Pallet, with just her, Archie, and Scamp out. Blade had suffered an injury the previous day that made her wary of pushing him too much and keep him in his pokeball for the day, and Ox's strength wasn't needed for the moment. It was about half-way down the path that the trio were jumped by about five, very angry and territorial Heatmor.
The resulting battle was fierce and very, very close, since Lola's member of her team with a type advantage was the one injured, and even with Ox taking on two at once, it was terrifying. One managed to get past Scamp and attack Lola herself. Lola sure wasn't giving up without a fight, though, and beat the feral pokemon with anything she could get her hands on, including her bare fists. She managed to beat the Heatmor back long enough for Scamp to race back in and finish it off for her.
Eventually, they were triumphant, and even managed to keep their precious mail unburned! The same couldn't be said for Lola, who was left with a set of severe slash and burn marks on her arm, the scars of which she still has to this day. They hurried to get back to the city to get her medical attention, but not before the in-pain Lola fished out one of precious few pokeballs she had to her name and captured the Heatmor that had attacked her and left her with those injuries in the first place.
This turned out to be...Well, in hindsight, years later, she wouldn't necessarily call it a mistake, but at the time? Hoo boy. The only two feral pokemon she had tamed had both been used to humans due to living in close proximity to them and had been willing to give her a chance. This Heatmor had never laid eyes on a human before and clearly hated her with every fibre of his being. She named him Mars, and boy did he live up to it.
The only reason he never got the chance to finish what he started was due to Blade, both because of the fact that, being a water type, he could better protect his trainer from an angry fire type, and also because Mars grew to rather like Blade. The feeling was less than mutual initially, due to Blade being furious over the harm to his trainer, but the more Mars relaxed and warmed up to Lola, the more Blade warmed to him in turn.
The last member of her team would walk into her life a year later, when she finally got the money to build a post office in New Pallet as well, along with having managed to convince one of her cousins to run it. During construction, a particularly bold feral Budew wandered into the area and simply refused to be shooed away. Lola finally let out Mars, figuring the imposing fire type would scare it off. Instead, the Budew responded with a Water Sport attack, and the battle was on. The scrappy little thing managed to dodge a few of Mars' attacks, and even hit him with a Stun Spore, before he finally roasted it. Lola, once again impressed by the tenacity of a feral pokemon, didn't hesitate to capture the little plant.
Thus, Venus joined the team. While she was tiny, and thus not overly useful for carrying loads, Lola brought her on every trip between cities once she was sure she could trust Venus not to run away. A year later, in a particularly rough fight with a feral Drilbur, Venus evolved into a graceful Roselia, and was clearly downright giddy at the moves now at her disposal. She quickly became the first to launch into a fight with the feral pokemon, taking advantage of the fact that she, unlike the others, was unencumbered, as she danced around her opponents' blows.
Life was good for Lola. Post offices up and running, a full team of six pokemon, and a feeling of accomplishment when she ended every day. And, of course, Saturday nights and Sundays to have to herself. Barely a few months after a particularly cheerful celebration of her thirtieth birthday, however, she became aware of trouble brewing in the family. Namely, a distant relative of hers was having trouble with her teenage daughter. Her name was Kiki, sixteen years old and pretty hot-headed from all descriptions she'd gotten of the kid; she wasn't exactly a typical Jenny-clan girl--her last name wasn't even Jenny--but she was family, and it turned out she was shirking her duties on her mother's ranch and sneaking off to laze about and waste time.
Lola was nothing short of furious, and she offered to set the girl straight. Kiki's parents, perhaps a bit hesitantly, agreed. So, when Lola caught Kiki one Monday, having snuck off for a nap when she was supposed to be minding the pidgey, the poor teenager quickly learned the meaning of 'Boot Camp.' Lola tore a strip off of her and drafted the girl, who had never been out of New Pallet in her life--Lola knew this because she had the audacity to complain about such and use it as an excuse for her behaviour--onto the Winding Path, carrying a heavy load of letters and parcels. She then let Kiki crash in her living room, and took her back to New Pallet with another load the next day.
And then took her back to Port City the next day, then back to New Pallet the next day, then back again to Port City the next day, and then finally back to New Pallet. They were never attacked by anything too rough to handle, but there were a few run-ins with the feral pokemon all the same. Kiki slept nearly the entire Sunday, and was extremely relieved that Lola didn't intend to bring her out for another week. The girl never shirked her duties again.
After that, Lola earned a bit of a reputation. Other members of her family would have her whip their kids into shape, and sometimes even people from outside of the family tree started to ask. She even ended up with a few people who weren't kids, as she didn't hesitate to let grown men and women knew what she thought about them if they neglected their responsibilities. The next years would go on with no excitement beyond the variety she'd come to expect on the road, with the most notable thing being her getting together some more money to buy a cart that her pokemon could pull. Just in case. The human population of Mi-aro was growing, after all.
These days, she's still the one braving that road, and still the one who'll shout you into the ground if you don't contribute to society. And she wouldn't have it any other way.