Monster Wrangler

Ah, the ocean. Whenever he and his family visited Crayton, Desmond always made a point of checking it out. Once a couple of years ago he got a photo of some kind of sea monster, but the quality was awful. He hoped to do better if he saw one again.

Now most people would go to the beach to take photos. Those people didn't own a zephid - wind and sand can create... problems if you're not paying attention.

While her master was sitting with camera pointed out to sea, the monster in question was sitting peacefully, large blue bow waving slightly as she blew soft gusts at the nearest boat, causing it to rock a little in the water.

Ashley was walking by. She was apparently looking for something when she came upon Desmond and Lucy.

Of course, Desmond wouldn't have seen it since he was looking out at the sea. Just heard a girlish squeal, "SO CUTE!"

At the sudden loud voice Desmond jumped, fumbling his camera. Turning around, he looked at the girl, then focused on fiddling with his camera. He was more used to people trying to get rid of her.

"Oh, um. Thanks. She's a good girl, well behaved." Lucy turns in place to face the new arrival, bow bouncing. A buzz, and a soft puff of air is sent towards the girl.

"I can see. I love her little bow." Mr. Wiggles slithers up to join them. Ashley looks to him. "I should get you some cute little accessories, Mr. Wiggles." Mr. Wiggles glows a soft orange and green. He is interested.

She looks back to Desmond. "I'm Ashley Elle, a pleasure to meet you." He may recognize her depending on how up he is on his knowledge of pop music.

"My mum gave her that. Says it makes her more approachable. Oh, my name is Desmond."

The name doesn't register with him at all. Finished fiddling with his camera, he looks up, and notices the Kleeth glowing in the evening light. He moves towards her quickly, attention entirely on the monster. "Is that a Kleeth? I've seen photos, but haven't seen one in person before. They're really very rare, you know."

"It works. A cute bow for a cute Zephid." Once he rushes over to the Kleeth. "Yep. My grandpa sent him to me. I never seen one before then either. I didn't know he even had one and he a lot of vermin monsters at his house."

"Oh, your grandfather collects vermin? Good taste." He's barely listening, focusing on the Kleeth, reaching out a little towards it. "I've heard that they can change colour pretty freely. What kind of colours does it usually use? What's it's name? Can I take a photo?" At the last part, the hand not reaching towards the Kleeth goes to the camera around his neck.

Lucy, familiar with her owner's obsessions, move up to rest against his leg before settling down a little for the wait.

"His name is Mr. Wiggles. Grandpa says each Kleeth is different, but Mr. Wiggles usually glows how he's feeling. Blue and yellow means he's happy." Mr. Wiggles clearly enjoyed being the center of attention. "You can take a picture. How would you like him to pose?"

"Ah, ok. Fascinating..." He notes the Mr Wiggles' colours, and is reminded that he's dealing with someone's monster, rather than one in the wild.

He steps back a little, causing Lucy to flop to the side. He absently reaches down and pats her. "Pose?" he looks a little sheepish. "I, uh, usually photograph monsters in the wild, so I don't really... uh... whatever he's comfortable with, I guess? Just let me know when he's ready."

Ashley looks down to Mr. Wiggles. "Well, how do you want your photo taken?"

Mr. Wiggles immediately turns around, hisses something and gets moving.

"He said he wants it taken at the spot we were considering for a photo shoot. He likes how the water reflects his colors there."

Ashley begins following him assuming Desmond will follow.

"Sounds good to me." He follows along. Clearly Mr Wiggles had good taste.

"I don't think I've seen you around here before. Are you here for the tournament?"

That caught Ashley by surprise. She wasn't used to be people not seeing her before. She gives a small laugh, mostly at herself. "Yeah. I am here to start my wrangling career. Our first fight is going to be tomorrow. I'm excited to see how we will do." She probably should have been less excited.

They arrived at the dock. Mr. Wiggles makes his way over to the center so he can be seen surrounded by water on 3 sides. "Show me something fierce.," Ashley calls out. Mr. Wiggles rears up with mouth open and fangs ready to strike and begins to glows a multitude of different colors.

"I'm guessing you are a local. Are you going to be in the tournament as well?"

Des brings his camera to bear on the monster's display, taking photos of each of the different colour variations, surprised by just how many. Books and phots couldn't quite do it justice, but he'd do his best.

Without looking away from Mr Wiggles, he answered "Ah, kind of. We live a little bit away, but we have relatives here so we visit often."

He looked up at her, a little embarrassed "The tournament... yeah my mum kind of... signed me up." His attention returned to Mr Wiggles. "We'll see how it goes." It was pretty clear from his tone that he wasn't expecting much.

"Oh. Your mom is your manager too? That's nice." Since Ashley has spent her whole life (except a few summers) of her parents deciding everything for her, it seemed natural to her. "The record company signed me up." She looks over at Lucy. "Oh. I know. You should get a picture of them together. I got a top hat for Mr. Wiggles from the endorsement deal."

Manager? His face looked a little confused. He'd never thought of it in those terms. "I guess...? My main focus is research and study, although I guess I do some jobs in the area on occasion?"

"That sounds like it should be ok." Lucy rocked lazily to one side and looked up at them, realising she'd been included in something.

Record company... Endorsement... wow, she must be someone of note, and she looked about his age too... "So you're a singer then? I don't listen to a lot of music, but is there a song of yours I might know?"

"Well, the three songs that broke the Top 10 were 'Nappen Time,' 'Wrangle This,' and 'Mesmot My Heart.' I was really proud how 'Mesmot My Heart' turned out, but the highest it got Number 4." Clearly Ashley thought it should have been higher. She signaled for Mr. Wiggles to come over.

When he did, she crouched down to put his top hat on and continued, "I asked them to write me some songs about Vermin, but they said they weren't that marketable." She gestures to Mr. Wiggles and Lucy. "But look at them. They are so cute. I hope taking Mr. Wiggles on tour with will show how awesome vermin are."

"I think I've heard them before. I recognise that names at least. Getting a bunch of songs into the top 10... that's pretty impressive." It clearly wasn't his thing, but he could respect the effort.

He sighed. "Not marketable. Most people only think of them as annoyances. They don't realise the important role they play in their ecosystems. Even ones that people think are useful like Lucy are usually shooed away as soon as they've done their job." This last bit was said with some bitterness.

"I'll see if I can give you a good photo to use." He took some time with Lucy and Mr Wiggles to try get a good shot set up. This kind of photography wasn't something he normally did, but she seemed like a good person. He thought it would turn out ok once he developed it, but it wasn't amazing - 2 successes

"Not that impressive. As my managers say, if it's not number one, it's not a real a success." Desmond wasn't the only one with an overbearing parent or two.

"I know. My grandpa has to keep his ranch pretty from away from the closest town. They even changed tried to change the zoning permits to keep him from having his carnoid barn, but he was able to prove he built well enough that the carnoids can't get out and he needs it for his research. They still did make it a law that he has to keep so much of the spore medicine on hand." Not like he wasn't going to.

"They look so adorable together." That's why Ashley needed to get Mr. Wiggles a friend. So, they can be adorable together.

That seems a bit harsh, but I guess that's show biz...

"Carnoid research? Interesting... they do have a number of very interesting properties that are worth studying... Has he published anything? I'll check it out."

"yeah, I guess so." He sounded vaguely pleasantly surprised. He didn't really 'get' cute, but he was pretty sure that it was. "I'll give you a copy of the photo if you like. I should be able to get it developed before the tournament finishes."

"Eh. You probably never heard of him. He's mainly known in Rosalia and monster wrangling wasn't popular there until recently, so he's not even that well known. But he wrote a few books. "Carnoids: Pest, Danger, or Miracle" and "Wigglepede and Me" are his most popular." Which were moderately popular among the Vermin specialists in Rosalia.