It was kind of unbelievable the kind of walking embodiment of sunshine itself that Kate was. Was she even capable of negative emotion? Lee was pretty certain that if nothing else, her positivity was almost like some kind of disease - well, whatever the good version of a disease was - that was incapable of not being contagious. It left him wanting to give her some kind of appreciation hug in return, but he held himself to just giving her a thankful pat on the shoulder, lest he accidentally spark any of the wrong ideas in Jasper's head.
For all he knew, Jasper was well past used to this kind of thing by now, but still better to play it safe until they'd had ample opportunity for some kind of true group dynamic to develop and he no longer really felt like a guest outsider tagalong.
In retrospect, Kate's success in the game was kind of obvious. She may have been a bit of a walking disaster waiting to happen, but it was already becoming clear she had social skills out the wazoo.
While pleased by Crunchbite's success continuing to hone his Sand Attack into an increasingly useful utility skill, it came with some minor dampening with the arrival of the Cacnea. Their situation being what it was, he wanted to conserve his Pokemon as much as he was able for the time being, and adding one of the cactus Pokemon to his lineup didn't immediately spark any of the right kind of interest necessary for him to justify trying to catch one.
He settled for making the most of the entertainment value to be had from watching Kate's ever-positive attitude interact with the Pokemon.
Which did leave him to wonder - she'd successfully acquired valuable information from oversnuggling the Vulpix at the Mirage ruins.
Perhaps if she successfully make friends with these Cacnea, perhaps they might offer up some kind of useful discovery as well.
[X][cacnea] Observe the cacnea
-[X] And also Kate's interactions with them. Possibly any interaction Crunchbite might have with them as well.
--[X] And see if maybe there might be some kind of benefit to be had from Kate making friends.
"You're not," the admin growled. "New recruits aren't sent here. Arrest them!"
Lee Hinsu went wide-eyed as certain words passed through his head that were neither proper for polite company and he knew full well his mother would have given him a solid scolding about if she'd ever heard them coming out of his mouth.
"Crunchbite, Cover! Sand Attack!" Lee ordered, doing the first thing that came to his mind.
While he certainly wouldn't have hoped that Crunchbite's training would have proven so useful so soon, he wasn't going to question the fortuitous turn of events, even if it meant the plan he'd thought was going so splendidly had instead fallen apart so spectacularly.
[X][Team Magma] Escape!
-[X] Use Crunchbite's Sand Attack to provide cover
