[PKMN OPEN] Pokémon Spear [M] [IC]

gimmepie · Jan 6, 2021

Catherine Carlisle and Jasper Grandiflora

Just a Pair of Assholes

She'd completely forgotten about the damn market.

Catherine had found herself surprisingly eager to be out of the large city and rid of its crowds, but had found herself walking directly into even more throngs of people on Route 3 on account of a seasonal Winter market.

What was worse, the weather had very abruptly gotten colder, and what would have been perfectly good rain had instead frozen and coated the ground in a thin layer of snow. That just further added to Catherine's irritation. She supposed though, that she could make the best out of this situation and see if any interesting merch turned up in the market stall. It didn't seem too likely really, but it was worth a shot she supposed.

So it was that Catherine found herself walking through the suffocating market crowds, carrying Stampede while Indra waked a little ahead of her, often stopping to enjoy the smell of a food stall or to roll in a pile of snow that had been unceremoniously shovelled to the side. Her egg was tucked safely in her bag, wrapped up inside clothes and blankets for extra warmth.

It was probably asking for trouble to have the two Pokemon out, but it put something between her and the other people. So she was willing to take that risk. She soon found herself regretting that choice though.

"I was here first, old man, move it!"

"I've had this spot for the last thirty years!"

"So it's about time you let someone else have it then!"

Catherine's attention was drawn by the two voices as they got louder and louder. She turned her head to see a man in his late twenties to early thirties arguing furiously with an older man who couldn't have been younger than seventy. Unsurprisingly, not even a festive atmosphere would put a hold to people's selfishness.

"This is why I hate people," Catherine mumbled to herself. No sooner than the words had left her lips though, did she feel a furious wiggling in her arms. She looked down just in time to see Stampede free himself from her grasp and start hopping determinedly towards the source of trouble like the infuriating goodie-two-shoes he was.

"Shit."

Ding! The sound rang out. It didn't travel far, but any who heard it felt their troubles soothed, pain eased, stress relieved. Pokémon not too busy or reigned in by their trainers found themselves flocking to the sound and following its source: a young man in a jacket thinner than most others wore in this weather, walking along the market's approximation of a thoroughfare and staring curiously at something dangling in his hand. Ding! Again the ringing sounded out, a bit louder this time. It was the object the youth was so focused on. He was flicking a strange little shell on a necklace and each time his finger hit it a mirthful, healing little jingle sounded around him.

So weird, it barely looks any different, why does it jingle like that instead of ringing like a regular one? It still seems to work the same otherwise...but then, how DO shell bells work? How's a sound from this little thing heal wounds?

"I only just barely made it here behind you! This cold is rough on my old bones and my stand requires a lot of prep! Everybody who's been here before knows this is where they come to get my goods!"

"You shoulda thought of that ahead of time then, gramps! Shoulda got someone with a little more life left in them to come over here and hold your place!"

What a headache, get over yourselves. Jasper had no patience for the commotion interrupting his studying but he didn't get far past the disagreement before he felt an insistent pulling on his hair, pushing him back towards them. He thumped Baba in his hood and sighed. "Yeah yeah, I get it. I already said, today's your day, right? Whatever you want."

The two men continued their argument, unaware of the interlopers coming at them from each direction. That was until Stampede spat a torrent of water between them that forced the younger man to step back from his elder.

"Look," Catherine grumbled, "Can you assholes just pretend to be civilised and sort your shit quietly so my Horsea with a messiah complex doesn't feel compelled to sort it for you?"

"Would you people mind giving it a rest?!" Jasper's voice came from the other side of the kerfuffle. "People are trying to enjoy themselves here, where's your festive spirit?" It was then that he noticed the girl already chastizing the stalwart stall runners and squinted in annoyance. Perfect, just perfect. Fuck, I hate the holidays.

Catherine returned the same irritated squint at Jasper. She had been hoping to get through the markets without running into any more of her bothersome classmates, but she certainly recognised the new arrival. Wonderful.

Her attention was quickly turned back to two men though, partly because they resumed yelling and partly because Stampede was very unsubtly indicating the two of them with head bobs.

"This bastard took a spot I've held since probably before he could walk!"
"There wasn't a reserved sign! Stop trying to hog the best place in the damn market every year. Being ancient doesn't mean you get special treatment. First-come, first-fucking-served."

Catherine scowled at the two of them. This was such a stupid and childish dispute and, as far as she could tell, both men were just as undeserving of the prime stall position. "Didn't I tell you two to shut up!?"

So much for being in a better mood. Jasper really must have pissed off someone truly important to constantly have so much crap thrown his way. He sighed and looked to the two angry men without a lick of sympathy. "Why don't you guys just play rock, paper, scissors or somethin'?"

"Play? For something that's been mine for years? Just because some punk ran a little faster than me?!"

"Yeah, fuck that! I was here first, simple as that, I already won it if we're competing!"

"A rude young punk like this would just cheat anyway!"

"What was that, you wanna say that to my fist, grandpa?!"

Before either of the trainers could move, the younger man had the older one's collar in his fist. He only held him for a moment before Jasper smacked his hand away and got between them. Now Catherine could see fear in the old man's eyes and it was clear he was trying not to shake too much. The younger one, however, glared at the interloper with blazing eyes, looking as if he was ready to jump at the hooded trainer now.

Jasper didn't move, didn't even breathe harder. He met the angry stall-runner's eyes with a cool, even stare and when he spoke his words held a chill that could freeze a furnace. "Hey, you wanna act tough, pick on someone your own size. You both suck but if you think I'm just gonna let you bully some old dude over your stupid fucking knicknacks or whatever it is you sell, you better be ready to get your skull caved in. I've got stress I could vent right now."

The younger man opened his mouth to retaliate, but he never got to actually say whatever he was planning to. He was struck in the side by a jet of pressurised water, resulting in an odd combination of a thud and a splashing sound as he was knocked off his feet into the snow.

"Sea!" Stampede exclaimed fiercely.

"Don't say I didn't warn you, dumbass." Catherine sighed.

Jasper felt his blood cool a bit at the sight of the man falling over and let out a sigh of his own. "They always think acting tough is the way to get what you want." He pulled off his hood and grabbed the Hatenna it revealed beneath, setting her on the ground before re-affixing said hood. "I wasn't planning on taking sides, but I ain't got no patience for bullies or needless violence. I think it's time for you to hit the road before you smack the pavement again, buddy. I'm sure there'll be another spot for you to peddle your shit."

The man scrambled to his feat, made to say something, then thought better of it. He looked from one Pokemon to the other and then took off at a run, swearing under his breath.

"Thank you kindly for your assistance," the older man now said.

"Honestly," Catherine said, "You're not really much more deserving of the help than that asshole."

"Seriously, you've done this how many years now? What'cha thinking, picking fights with people over your precious spot?." Jasper jumped in.

"No, I - you see, the spot is…" The old man was at a loss, and looked down at his feet, then over at the little wagon that would become his stall when set up. "Yes, I shouldn't let myself get so worked up over it. It's just...my wife has been a bit sick lately -"

"Oh and here comes the sob story." Jasper rolled his eyes. "Poor old man has to make some money for his sick wife right, nobody to help despite how advanced and cheap the medical tech is here?"

"Don't cheapen your wife's life by using it as an excuse for your own behaviour." Catherine sneered, "What the hell is wrong with you? Can you just pretend to be a decent human being for a moment? I'm starting to think we should have chased your dumb ass off instead."

"I… uh… um…" The man looked from Catherine to Jasper, completely stunned. "I… I should give you something for helping me. Wait here."

The man took one more look at the pair of trainers before scurrying into the market.

Once they were alone, Jasper addressed Catherine for the first time since they'd left school - though they hadn't exactly had a parade of riveting chats when they were fellow students. "Never took you for the type to break up fights."

"I'm not really." Catherine shrugged, "My Horsea fancies himself a hero. Once I got here though… I mean how could you not give a pair of pricks like that theirs? Now this moron is seriously trying to buy us off. Never took you to be the sort either."

His response was to hold up the Jingle Shell Bell and flick it with his finger, closing his eyes to enjoy the sound it made, much the way the pokémon did. "I was starting to feel a little better about all this cold and all this festive bullshit while I tried to decide what to do with this thing. Then all that shouting ruined it, so here I was to vent my annoyance."

"Yeah, that figures," Catherine said. She wasn't foolish enough to expect Jasper's reason for involving himself hadn't been selfish. She started to say something further, but realised she didn't really know what to add. For the moment, the pair lapsed into an awkward silence. A blessedly short silence.

The old man was only gone for a minute or so before he arrived before them with a pair of disks, one chromatic with a pink tinge to the center, and the other almost identical, except with a light blue center. "Here you are, young folks! These should carry my gratitude better than my words can. Young lady, this one is for you, I think your little dragon knight should make good use of it." He handed the blue disk to Catherine, then held out the pink one to Jasper. "I couldn't help noticing your little partner there, she should like this." Baba atop the boy's head let out a happy peep when she saw the pink on the disk matched hers as Jasper took it and immediately slotted it into his pokédex.

"Draining Kiss? Huh, nice, should be useful."

"Icy Wind for me apparently," Catherine said, "Thanks for the bribe, I guess."

"Allow me to be honest with you kids." The old man started to say, clearing his throat at their icy expressions and powering through. "All this is no excuse to act the way I did, of course, but...When I said my wife was sick I didn't mean with anything terminal. But we are both getting on in years, who knows how many more winters we'll have together, and she's the real star of our stand here at the Festive Market. She started it, I joined in when she asked. It's her favorite part of every year, giving kids handmade treats, watching all the people go by and enjoying the lights and the atmosphere. I had to do all the work prepping everything myself this year because our kids are off in Kalos, so I had my heart set on getting the stand set up just the way she likes it so she could join in when my nephews being her over."

"If you don't want a reward or my gratitude for your help, then please just take these Technical Machines because they're one of our special products at the stall anyways, and she'd want you to have them."

Jasper's eyes narrowed, until Baba pressed her arms against his cheeks and pulled him enough to look up at her. Her lip quivered and the little 'bangs' that cover her eyes lifted enough to give him a glimpse. Air whooshed out of the trainer's nose and he shrugged. "Well, my lie detector says your feelings are real, at least. So I guess… I mean I kinda understand, I don't think I'd handle it too much better in your state. At least you're trying to be better." He acquiesced, even if his frown remained.

"Yeah, whatever," Catherine sighed. She put the technical machine in her bag and turned to walk away, signalling for her Pokemon to follow.

gimmepie · Jan 6, 2021

Simon Pearburgh

Spoiler: Inventory

Spoiler: Memories

Ruben Sancho

Spoiler: Inventory

Catherine Carlisle

Indra ♂ Swift Swim Rain Dance, Hypnosis, Bubblebeam, Double Slap, Mud Shot, Refresh

Horsea ♂ Swift Swim Water Gun, Smokescreen, Twister, Focus Energy, Dragon Breath

Spoiler: Inventory

Route 3

Ruben staggered along the route. His lagging ankle dragging along and picking up snow with each step. A text from Pia lingered on his phone, asking if it was better but he refused to respond until he could honestly answer with 'yeah, it's fine'. He lowered his phone to the most peculiar sight.

Simon stood on the route, peering around like he was searching for something. The boy almost looked as though he was patrolling it, tossing what looked like a Pokéball in hand in an almost gangster-like fashion. Ruben tilted his head. Part of him didn't even want cross paths with him in the state he was in.

Any hope for a discreet passage was short-lived as Simon's eyes met with Ruben's from a distance. The young boy stopped and immediately bolted towards him, having called out something Ruben didn't hear as soon as he'd spotted him. As he got closer he realized the object in his hand wasn't a Pokéball, but some strangely-shaped rock- maybe Simon was just planning to assault the first person he saw after all. It figured, though, as the multitude of bug-types clinging to his coat were all out and released, meaning he likely didn't need a ball for them anyway.

The boy slowed down his sprint as he got closer and stopped in front of Ruben, panting. "I cha-" he paused briefly, taking a moment to catch his breath as he shivered. He then stood back straight and posed dramatically with the same thumbs-up as the ceremony. "I challenge you to a battle!" he exclaimed, before his expression changed to surprise. "Oh, hey Mr. Sancho! I didn't recognize you from a distance- you've taken your cast off!"

"Hey uhh...Simon, I thought I told you you can just call me Ruben." The older trainer explained with a raised brow. The peculiar formality being the easiest thing to address among the onslaught of information.

"Ah, sorry!" Simon rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, a little flattered that the sports star still considered them on a first-name basis. "Well, Ruben, get ready to battle! I've been standing out here in the cold for three hours now and I ain't going away empty-handed!"

Ruben looked around the route, unsure what to make of Simon's challenge. Part of him really didn't want to disappoint the kid, but he wasn't super stoked to be thrown into a battle either. "Sorry Simon, I've umm…" he began, the excuse not coming as fast as he'd hoped. "What happened with that girl you were talking to? You never told me about that."

The topic change seemed to actually work, as the boy's expression quickly shifted and the fire in his eyes cooled down a bit. "Oh, it's… been going pretty well actually, heh. We've been texting more, and we hung out in Motostoke- she also took on Kabu's gym challenge and we cheered for each other. I was supposed to meet her at the market and get her something, but some guy in a red suit pulled me away for way longer than I expected and I missed her going through, and now all I've got to show for it is this stupid rock." he said, holding up the object in his hand.

Ruben reeled, surprised at how well his distraction had freed him from the pressure of saying no to the excitable young teen. He internally ticked off one of the tasks on the counsellor's checklist. Simon is decent with girls. Who knew? Part of him thought the youngster could teach Ainsley a thing or two before a guilty smirk crept across his face.

"Wait." Ruben blurted aloud. "She battled Kabu? Was she...was she part of our graduating class?" He internally cursed, regretting the fact he hadn't taken more interest in Kabu's open gym challenge now. He reeled off all the girls he could remember from their class. Pia, Arietty, Aeliana, Valerie, Isla… With no offense to Simon they were all way out of his league. Age wise. They were out of his league, age wise. Right?

"Yeah! Her name's Sachiko, she went after Raph and I did. Probably performed the best out of the three of us, honestly." Simon replied, a bit more comfortable with sharing who she was now. "I don't think she ever went to the extra classes, so you might've not met her, but she's got this long pretty red hair and-" he stopped himself, blushing, "I mean, she was the redhead girl with the Litten at the ceremony, the first one to go up."

Suddenly realizing his own embarrassment at the topic again, the boy decided to bring the discussion back to what he'd actually approached Ruben for. "Anyway, you ready to battle or what? I'll even give you a fair chance and let you pick your Pokemon first." he noted smugly.

"Haha…yeah..." Ruben responded with a sigh of defeat.

Before he could get another word in, he noticed Simon looking behind him, squinting for a second before raising his eyebrows. "Yo, I think I see someone else! It's probably another Wedgehurst grad!" he exclaimed, excitedly grabbing Ruben's arm to show him the newcomer.

Unfortunately, the newcomer in question was Catherine. She continued walking in the direction of Simon and Ruben, oblivious to their presence as she spoke to Indra, who was waddling happily at her feet. Although, his expression was hardly one of understanding. "So, what he does is he starts enlisting the help of local Fighting types and learning martial arts from them. The training is insane because it's not really made for humans bu-"

Catherine froze, noticing the pair of shadows on the ground that indicated other people in front of her. She looked up, seeing before her two more of her classmates: Simon and, of all people, Ruben-fucking-Sancho. It had only been days since meeting Jasper and not much longer since dealing with Melody and Hayleigh. It was beginning to feel like the other graduates were inescapable. "You have got to be kidding me."

"Wait...that's the girl from the train." Ruben committed, glad to see the subject change in his favour. Well, favour is a loose term. The thought of reigniting a conversation with the obnoxious Wyndon girl wasn't particularly enticing, but it beat being pressured into a pokemon battle with Simon right now. "Hey! Remember me!" He called out, dragging Simon into approaching the girl.

At Catherine's feet, Indra called out an enthusiastic greeting to the familiar face. Catherine herself, however, only scowled. The scene was an odd mix of annoyance and bemusement as she could fathom neither why the famous footballer would voluntarily spend time with the Bug geek, or why he'd approach her like that. None of it made a lick of sense.
"Even if I managed to forget you flouncing around Wedgehurst," she said icily, "I'm not about to forget being stuck on that damn train with you for so long. What do you want?"

Simon glanced up at Ruben briefly, reeling back at the hostility Catherine had towards him. He remembered the girl from school, though they'd never interacted much; she seemed more of the introverted type, into J-pop and other things he thought were kind of boring. He tried to lighten the mood a little, answering the question himself instead. "Me and Ruben were going to have a battle, actually! I was wondering if you'd want to watch or referee- oh, or maybe we could have one of those cool triple battles you hear about in Unova!"

So that's what it was. Trying to earn some prestige by beating the famous guy, or something like that. Catherine rolled her eyes. "Why would I want to do that?"

Simon took a moment to respond, almost as if the idea of not wanting to battle was impossible for him to understand. "Because… it'd be fun! And some good experience for our teams- you would be watching the future champion battling, after all." He pointed at himself, hoping a bit of bravado would ignite Catherine's spirit. It had worked with Rosa to some extent, so maybe this girl would respond positively to it too. What he didn't notice was how much the bravado was weakening Ruben's. The football star quietly chuckled, removed from the heart of the standoff.

"You're awfully cocky for someone who's primary strategy seems to be leeching off of this idiot's fame." Catherine pointed her finger sharply at Ruben. "I'm still not interested."

Ruben could see his only shot at dodging the battle slipping away from him. He had to think fast.

"I can vouch for him. The kid's got the right stuff." Ruben sneered confidently. "I can't think of many people with a better chance of challenging me for the role of Champion. You think you can prove me wrong, you'd have to beat Simon first." He shrugged, turning his nose up to the girl.

"Yeah!" Simon added, slightly puffing his chest in pride.

"Don't insult me by pretending you actually give two shits about what happens with him," Catherine responded, "We both know the celebrity wouldn't be hanging out with the weird bug kid unless you're getting something out of it."

Unfazed, Simon gave a sly smile. "Well maybe that's why nobody hangs out with you then. You've got nothing to give- probably not even a challenge."

"Fine," Catherine snapped. She couldn't pinpoint why the comment was so infuriating, she didn't even want people around her. It was irritating nonetheless though, and Simon was begging to be put back in his place. "If you really want me to squish your bugs that badly, I will. One Pokemon. No switches. Then after I beat you, you leave me the hell alone."

A small smirk crept across Ruben's face as he stepped aside, giving the two room to have their non-Ruben battle. He even quietly released Lesca to let the pokemon observe.

Mission accomplished, Simon thought as he grinned and nodded eagerly. "Sounds like a deal! Prepare to get destroyed!" he said, punching into his open hand. He stepped backwards, giving both trainers space to release their Pokemon. There was really only one solid choice for this match, and he could feel her already shaking with anticipation in his coat. "I'll give you an advantage and pick my own Pokemon first- Snom, come on out!" he pointed at Cathrine dramatically as Snom leaped out of his coat Pokemon with an icy hiss, landing on the snow, ice shard in her mouth.

"Alright Indra, you're up." The Poliwag looked from the Snom to his trainer, taking a moment to catch on before hopping forward to greet the Snom. He was met with another aggressive hiss, warning him not to come any closer. Then both combatants waited for their orders.

"Battle start!" Ruben called out, so thrilled his plan had worked, he was even willing to officiate.

"Rain Dance and then Bubble Beam." Catherine gave the first order, Indra jumping up with a twist as droplets of rain began to fall over the battlefield. A moment later, on the descent, he unleashed a torrent of bubbles at the Snom from above.

"That's what I'm talking about! Mirror Coat then Struggle Bug!" Simon called out, feeling his opponent getting fired up already. Snom squeaked as her body shone a bright pink, reflecting the bubblebeam hit at the same time as she fired the struggle bug. Lines of green energy swirled around the beam as it fired straight back at the poliwag, now doubled in power.

Indra landed only to have to jump to the side, narrowly avoiding being blitzed by his own attack getting fired right back at him. The Poliwag hit the ground with a roll, letting the momentum carry him back into an upright position.

"Try reflecting this then, Double Slap." Catherine commanded.

Indra closed the space between himself and the Bug in the blink of an eye, moving twice as fast as usual thanks to his Swift Swim Ability, and attacked with a flurry of tail blows.

Snom winced with each hit that connected, with the final one sending her back a few feet as she slid on the ground. Not giving their opponent any time to turn around, Simon quickly retaliated, "Powder snow on his tail!"

Gripping the empowering Nevermeltice with her little legs, Snom quickly whipped up a flurry of snow with her mouth and blasted it at Indra. The blast caught the surrounding Snow on the ground, creating an even larger attack.

The attack caught Indra from behind as he whipped around to strike again, eliciting a squeak as it smashed him forward with surprising power. It was lucky that Ice attacks weren't particularly effective against Water Pokemon.

Still, Mirror Coat was a problem. Catherine couldn't rely on Indra's best attacks so long as they could just be launched back. So she'd just have to take the option away.

"Bubblebeam on the ground, then get up close!"
Indra looked back at Catherine for a second, confused by the strange command. Obediently though, he did as he was told and fired a stream of Bubble Beam at the ground that sent a wave of bubbles, dirt and snow up into the air, obscuring the Snom's vision.

Indra dashed forward, shooting out of the maelstrom to get right up in the Snom's face.

"Hypnosis." As Catherine gave the instruction, Indra's eyes and the spiral on his stomach both began to glow an eerie blue.

"Sno… mm…?" The bug squeaked, her eyes suddenly fixated on Indra's belly. Simon panicked as he realized what the move was doing. "Quick, lass, fight it! Use, uh- struggle bug, or anything!"

Unfortunately, the imprecise order fell on deaf ears. Snom's body weakly glowed green as she tried to fire an attack, but barely a few rays were conjured before her eyes closed and she fell asleep, dropping her shard.

"Bubble Beam." Indra blasted the Snom with a Rain-enhanced surge of bubbles at close range while the Snom was unable to defend itself.

"No!!" Simon yelled as his Pokemon was sent flying back again, landing near his feet. Despite the attacks she'd endured the Pokemon looked more serene in her sleep than she ever did while awake. "Wake up, Snom! You can't give up yet!" he pleaded, his eyes darting between her and Indra.

Then, almost miraculously, the bug's eyes opened up. She readjusted herself on the ground as she looked around, first at Simon, then at Indra in front of her, getting her bearings. The sound of Simon's voice hit her ears- "Amazing, lassie! Now counter them with Powder Snow, quick!"

The bug blinked a few times as she remembered that she was in a battle, and let out a determined hiss, turning to face Indra again. Then, suddenly, she stopped. A panicked squeak escaped her mouth, followed by another, louder one, as she completely broke focus and started looking around frantically.

"Wha-" Simon stopped, his eyes growing wide. "Your ice shard? What do you mean, you need it?! It's not-"

"Again." Catherine ordered, seizing the opportunity.

"Poli?!" Indra yelped, unsure about the surprise attack.

Catherine nodded the affirmative to the Poliwag and he turned on Simon's Snom, once again striking the distracted Pokemon with a close-range Bubble Beam.

Before Simon could call out a warning the attack hit Snom in the back, blasting her past Simon and in the Snow behind them as she squeaked loudly. This was the final hit needed to take her out, as when the snow and dust cleared, the Pokemon was unconscious on the ground.

The conclusion of the battle froze Ruben. He was certain he'd be raising his hand in favour of his young friend, but instead Catherine had emerged the victor.

"A...and the winner is...her." He finished with a sigh, halfheartedly raising an arm for Catherine.

Simon quickly rushed to pick up his defeated Pokemon, paying no mind to the prized item that had been their demise. A little disappointed but nonetheless fired up by the exciting battle, he walked towards Catherine and extended his hand. "Ah well, great battle anyways."

"A word of advice," Catherine said, ignoring the offered hand, "Stop being a nuisance to people because of the very narrow possibility that you'll manage to become champion. Nobody owes you anything, nobody is obligated to indulge you or your fantasies and if someone like Sancho over there is doing that, it's not because they believe in your abilities, it's because they think they can get something out of you. Now hold up your end of the bargain and don't bother me again."

Catherine called for Indra and started walking down the road beyond her defeated adversary. The little Water type started to follow after her, but stopped as something in the snow caught his eye. He shoved his face into the snow, coming back up with the odd shard of ice in his mouth. The Poliwag dropped the ice at Simon's feet before hurrying after his trainer.

"Si…you just gotta work hard and you'll beat her next time. I'm sure of it." Ruben lied, taking the hand that was offered to Catherine. "A champion's gotta take some knocks man, can't let her drag you down with doubt."

Simon smiled weakly as he let go of Ruben's hand. "Yeah." he responded calmly, recalling Snom into her ball. "Just gotta keep grinding, right." He looked back up at Ruben, but this time, he could tell the boy wasn't going to challenge him in turn to battle. "Don't suppose you're willing to postpone our little match, heh."

"Of course man. Take your time. We'll have our match when you're ready." The sympathetic smile on his face cracking. The relieved smirk was breaking to the surface, but Ruben held his nerve. "You really impressed me there. To be that competitive using bug types…"

Simon sighed and half-heartedly shook his head and raised his arm, as if trying to silence Ruben. "You can… you can stop now, mate. I really don't need it." he huffed. His small smile had now completely faded into a neutral expression as he looked away.

Ruben staggered back as the disappointed expression of Simon hit him like a punch to the gut. He edged closer to the boy.

"You sure you want a hand in...bringing her to the pokemon centre?" The pseudo-celebrity asked, expecting, nigh hoping to see that excitement in his fan… friend's eyes again.

It took a moment, but Simon's smile returned and he nodded. "Yeah, let's go. Heard there's one not too far from here."

Joint post of Shak, Foxrally & gimmepie

Fen-Fen · Jan 7, 2021

Haleigh Windsor and Ruben Sancho

An (Abridged) Galarian Christmas Carol

Haleigh strode down the brush of route 3 with a big dopey grin on her face, only stopping once she arrived at the spooky abandoned publishing house she'd heard so much about. It had been just a few days after Haleigh's run-in with the Pokemon smuggler and frankly, she felt she deserved a little bit of fun after all that had happened. And what better way to blow off a little steam by checking out some abandoned publishing house, maybe yell in it and cause a bit of ruckus? She'd heard some rumors from some local kids loitering near the market that it was haunted (which probably meant some Gastly or other common ghost Pokemon was messing with them specifically just for laughs). Haleigh was psyched to have some fun with that too. It was quite the scene for it too, like something out of a horror movie. The image of it set the foreground for grey clouds and thunder, only offset by the blanket of white that layered along the floor.

Besides, even if the Pokemon inside were on the stronger side of things, Haleigh was confident that her own ghost Pokemon would trump them easily.

Coraline was floating above her trainer's head, looking down on her with an expression that seemed to be silently judging her trainer.

Haleigh looked up at her and scoffed at her expression. "Oh come on, Coraline, it'll be fun. We aren't gonna be in any real danger, I swear."

The coral Pokemon simply rolled her eyes in response. However, just as Haleigh had said that, Coraline was suddenly drawn to a rustling coming from the bushes. She tried to warn her trainer, but the girl was so busy brimming with pride. A teasing smirk started forming on her lips as she told her, "Don't tell me you're scared to go in there, Coraline."

The bushes rustled again and a body burst forth from them!

"Daaaaagh!" The girl jumped like a Buneary, stumbling over backwards and falling on her ass as she looked to see what had come out of the bush. Her eyes were wide and she was breathing heavily from the sudden intrusion. As she looked at who it was, however, her fear turned into surprise. It was...Ruben. Just Ruben Sancho from the Academy.

"Aw! People!" Ruben pulled himself to his feet, using the gate for support. "Shit, are you alright?" He asked, keeling over and shaking his left ankle as though the pain were a loose leaf stuck to his shoe. "I'm kinda trapped in here. Was hoping you could lend a hand."

Haleigh looked at the football player with concern. "Yeah yeah I'm fine mate, the question is are you alright?" She pulled herself back up to her feet and started getting closer to Ruben.

"Yeah, I uummm...long story short, I climbed the wall. It's a lot smoother over this side than it is this." I kinda need an escape option before stepping foot in a place like this. Plus I didn't fancy another fall."

Haleigh looked to the gate that Ruben was leaning on, seeing that it was locked tight. "Right, right. Let me see if I can help you get out of here…" She went through her coat pockets, thinking of what Pokemon would be best to make sure they could both get in and out. Brute force was not an option, as her Pokemon were either non-corporeal or small and physically weak. She examined the lock more closely, noticing that the metal was worn down and rusty. Perhaps…

"Corey, you're up mate." The purple haired trainer let the Scorbunny out of his ball, looking attentively at her trainer for instruction.

"Could you step away from the gate really quick? I don't wanna burn you when Corey melts the lock off." Once Ruben backed off, Haleigh told her Scorbunny, a note of enthusiasm creeping back in, "We're gonna need your hottest flames to melt the lock. So give it all you got!"

Corey gave his trainer a salute as he inhaled deeply before unleashing a rapid fire series of Embers on the door, watching as the metal slowly started warping under the heat until the gate snapped open suddenly.

"Nice! We gotcha covered, Ruben!"

"I really appreciate you helping me out, but you should probably get away from here. It's supposed to be hella dangerous." Ruben warned, looking the building up and down as if to emphasise the scale to the girl.

Haleigh gave a dismissive wave of her hand. "Pssh, it'll be fine. That's what makes it better. Where's your sense of adventure?"

"Huh…" A baffled and speechless Ruben murmured as the girl walked past him.

Ruben stood off to the side as he watched the night's rendition of 'A Christmas Carol'. The roles he and Pia had taken were now reprised by the production with fresh faced actors. The eighteen year old was taken aback to discover he and Pia were in fact supposed to be playing the roles of Little Tim's parents. Try explaining that to the parents who were convincing their pregnant teens that what they did was wrong. No wonder they had to write fresh dialogue on the spot. Part of him thought…I could be a father. He'd done it practically all his life. Memories of changing nappies and doing the school run quickly reminded him how much of an awful thought that actually was. Maybe he'd settle for keeping a Yamper instead. His train of thought was stolen by a lingering old man who just continued to stare at him. "Can I help you?"

"Sorry, so sorry, I couldn't help but recognise you as the young man that chased away that Misdreavus yesterday." The jittery man began, gauging Ruben's response as though he was worried he had made a mistake. "Those Misdreavus cause trouble stealing on this route just about every year. I've never seen anyone get their things back. Did you manage to get anything else back from Mr Simonson?"

"Who?" Ruben asked, slightly more intrigued.

"Ebeneezer Simonson, the man to whom Misdreavus belongs. Every year those Misdreavus cause havoc on this route. I've seen them bring their goodies back to that publishing house many times after."

"Okay...."

"Rumour has it, Mr Simonson has been in that publishing house since they closed it down many Christmases ago."

"So just go down and ask him for the blankie. Worst he can say is no."

"Those Misdreavus are playful yes, but they become hostile once you get nearer the publishing house. I've never seen anyone return from that place. No one's seen Mr Simonson since. Not even his son. I just want my granddaughter's blankie..." As the man bemoaned the sentimental piece of cloth, Ruben's eyes lingered on the publishing house, a scowl of determination weighing in his brow.

"That basically sums it up." Ruben continued to recount the events that brought him here as he and Haleigh strolled through the publishing house unchallenged. The energetic girl found herself wandering around, touching just about everything that caught her eye and gawking at all the little nooks and crannies of the place. It was a worn down facility with plenty of dust flying and rusting printing machines just trying to topple themselves over. Ruben's eye followed the girl; it wasn't even clear how much of his story she was listening to.

Distractedly, Haleigh asked Ruben while laughter started rising in her voice, "So, you're basically here to save Christmas then? I didn't take you as the noble defender of the holiday spirit."

Ruben scowled at that. He was relieved he left out the finer details of him and Pia and their date. Being from the academy there was every chance the two girls were familiar. He was quite fortunate that Haleigh had mentioned it while they were walking and spared him the embarrassment of admitting he forgot that they'd met before. He made a mental note to study the ceremony videos like he was about to sit an exam.

"Oh, you didn't know? I came here with a whole team of Winter Sawsbuck. They're waiting on the roof." The boy scoffed, refusing to bite the bait. Both teens stopped walking as the door behind them closed on it's own. "Th-that was the wind...right?"

Haleigh replied, "I don't know…" She started to run her hands into her coat pocket, ready to draw her Pokemon out at the first sign of danger.

A cloud of dark fog swallowed the room. Ruben looked around just in time to see the top of Haleigh's head disappear amongst the darkness."Haleigh!" A voice echoed through the room, despite Ruben reaching and calling out to her, the voice wasn't his. A man, whose authoritative voice hit with the blunt force of a hammer, called out to her. His Circhester accent curt and to the point.

Haleigh froze as she heard her dad's voice, her heart beating out of her chest. No, that wasn't possible, she hadn't spoken with him in years.

"D-dad? No, I left you behind, I-" The girl tried to get her bearings, but the effect the voice was having on her was making it quite difficult to navigate the now pitch black publishing house. Though she didn't have to for long. Soon the darkness faded, revealing a very familiar setting. Glass dining table with matte silver legs, blue suede couches, a glistening white tree filled to the brim with Christmas presents, two figures looking at her appraisingly.

Home.

Haleigh averted her gaze from the figures to go over to the Christmas tree, feeling as though they were waiting on her for something. She picked up a present - a medium sized box with pink wrapping paper and a silver bow, searching for her name before stumbling upon a tag with a "to" and "from" section. However, neither section was filled out.

A female voice assured her, an airy laugh in her voice. "Go on, open it. It's not gonna bite."

Haleigh started tearing at the wrapping paper, revealing it to be a jack in the box. She looked back at the people in the dining room unsure what to make of any of this.

"Haleigh, what's going on?" Another voice called, this time from inside the box. That sounded like...she forced a few cranks of the handle as fast as she could. After three, the Jack sprung out, its face modelled exactly in the image of Ruben!

Haleigh jumped back, her eyes wide at the bizarre sight. "I-I don't know m-mate, this is really fuckin' trippy…" He stared back at her, a wooden smile smacked across his face, bouncing around on his spring.

"Haleigh, just open it up." It repeated, just like the female figure had said moments ago. The thick smog again began to fill the room, leaking out from the box. Soon the room was full of black.

The coziness of the expensive furniture was replaced by a broken window and a cold breeze. A mattress sat in the corner of the room, two tiny figures on top of it and another cuddling them in a white fluffy blankie with a Cubchoo ornament sticking out of it. At the foot of the bed sat a coffee table, broken glass and white powder smeared across it. Ruben glared at the table, just waiting, leaning against the door.

"W-woah, is this…" If what she had seen earlier had been her home, than that would mean that-

"Mum?" Ruben turned fully to look for the source of the voice. He jumped to his feet and opened the door and once again the fog flooded in.

An exhausted Ruben fell to his knees and gasped for air. He looked around. They were back in the publishing house. Only Haleigh and a pair of menacing red eyes remained. The eyes grew a mouth, which curled into a smirk before disappearing completely, leaving an open door in its wake. The door they came in from was now open again too. They were given options. Ruben looked over to Haleigh, who was looking around the room with wide eyes and stunned silence.

"You okay?" He asked.

After several deep breaths, Haleigh managed to stammer out, "Y-y-yeah, physically anyways. Erm…" She struggled to find the words to figure out what just happened to the both of them. The red eyes that Haleigh had seen, however, gave her a clue as to what was behind it all.

"R-Ruben, you reckon that Misdreavus is behind this whole mess?"

"Yeah. My guess is it wants us to leave." Ruben said with a scowl. The chill from the now open publishing house door told him that much. "You should go. You've seen what kind of 'fun' you can have here. It's only gonna get worse."

Trying to regain her composure, Haleigh replied, "Nah, I'm not about to chicken out now. That little bastard needs to be taught a lesson for tormenting me with the past." Her voice was strained and tense, lacking its usual easygoing tones.

"Didn't think so." Ruben gave a weak chuckle in response. "Well...can't get any scarier than your parents, right?" He added. offering her a smile.

Despite the tension in the air, Haleigh gave a small, dry laugh. "When you put it that way...I guess not, mate. I guess we have that much in common."

After a pregnant beat of tension, Ruben gave a nod and the two headed trepidatiously through the door. They found themselves in an office. It was neat, as though someone had tended to it just yesterday. Not a page or filing cabinet shelf was out of place. There was no sign of the misdreavus and no sign of any passage to progress further.

As she looked around the office, Haleigh spotted something that caught her eye. Standing alone amongst a sea of other Christmas decorations on the wall was a single red stocking labeled "Melody". Something about its loneliness struck a bittersweet tone with Haleigh, but she couldn't really identify what about it bothered her. She reached out a hand and dug in to see what was inside.

Haleigh coughed as another fog filled the room. Once again the door slammed behind them. Ruben stood his ground, expecting the worst.

The duo reappeared together, this time standing in a very comfortable suburban house. The hallway enticed them toward the kitchen.

"Okay...this is my house." Ruben stated plainly. Once he was sure nothing was coming to get them, he smiled. "See, nothing scarier than parents. C'mon I'll show you around." He joked, strolling toward the kitchen.

Once they arrived, they were greeted by a small family. Daija, Ruben's grandmother, his two younger brothers and Ainsley sat at the head of the table. They all sat with knives and forks in their hands, their faces gaunt. Their eyes drifted toward the doorway as the duo stepped through it.

"Yo fam." Ruben said with a proud wave. They said nothing. They looked past him, to Haleigh. "Oh, this is Haleigh. Haleigh, this is Ainsley, that's J, that's T, that's my nan and that's little sis Daija. Everyone, this is Haleigh."

Haleigh looked at Ruben's family, feeling a bit warm inside as she cheerily exclaimed, "Hello! How you all doin' tonight?"

The family reeled at that, surprised to see such energy and enthusiasm from the girl. The group exchanged awkward looks before Daija spoke up.

"We saved you a seat!" The girl exclaimed, patting one of the two spare seats next to her. "Ruben hasn't told us anything about you."

"Cuz, only Ruben could bring a girl home and not show up with her." Ainsley sneered, reaching for the pot of food before having his hand slapped away by Daija.

"Huh? I'm right her-"

"We've been waiting so long to meet you! How did you two meet?" Daija interrupted Ruben, asking her question with a sugar sweet smile on her face.

Haleigh tilted her head and gave Daija a puzzled expression, "What do you mean you've been waiting to meet me. I…" Haleigh scratched her head, nervous at what the imaginary version of Ruben's family was going to be driving at.

"Well where is he?" Ainsley persisted. "How come you didn't come with him?"

"Ainsley, she's part of the family now." Daija whispered through gritted teeth. Any discretion she thought she may have had was lost as the two young boys began to grow restless.

"Is Ruben not coming?" Terrell asked, a bit more indifferent than his oldest brother would've liked.

"Oh well. Can I play my Switch now?" Jared shrugged, hopping out of his seat.

"Sit down!" Daija shouted. Both boys hesitated but followed the instruction.

"Oh…"Ainsley said plainly. "Ruben Sancho works himself into the ground in football training. He's been dead for three years. Who knew?" He shrugged, reading the headline from his phone. There was a moment of silence, the family letting the heavy news sink in.

"I'm right here." Ruben mumbled above the quiet. The whole family looked to Haleigh. Ainsley was first to break the silence.

"So you're single now then?"

"Yeah, where did you say you two met?"

"Can I play my switch now?"

Ruben watched the scene in front of him. Devastated.

"D-dead?! He's right here!" Haleigh gestured emphatically to where Ruben was standing, not even three feet away from both her and his family. She shivered a bit at how they were seeming to blatantly ignore him, and how they stared at her with a mix of pity and confusion, almost as if to say that Haleigh was the delusional one.

"These Hammerlocke girls be moving kinda mad." Ainsley scoffed, only adding to Haleigh's paranoia by giving everyone else the 'check this nut job out' face.

Ruben was frozen in place. Haleigh could only imagine what was going through the other boy's head, having his family reject him so brazenly. She felt as if she was going half-mad herself from the incessant gaslighting that his family had been subjecting her to.

"R-Ruben…Please tell me you're actually there and I'm not hallucinatin' again." Almost as if to convince herself, Haleigh reached out to give him a touch on the shoulder.

Fog shrouded the room once again. Ruben's house was gone, Ruben's family gone. The house that they found themselves in now was a lot more humble and small than Haleigh's childhood home. It was in a bit of a better shape than Ruben's childhood home, but still obviously showing signs of wear. Apart from a small Christmas tree in the living room and some Christmas decorations on the walls, an electric guitar and posters for punk bands also decorated the space, making for an interesting contrast. A coat rack sat in the corner with an expensive looking brown coat with a fur trim that was very familiar to Haleigh, though she couldn't quite figure out why.

Sitting in a couch looking forlornly at the Christmas tree was a shorter girl decked out in a familiar black leather jacket, a Team Yell shirt underneath and lots of piercings. Melody.

Haleigh knew that based on what she saw of Ruben's family, this was meant to represent who she would spend Christmas with. Was...Melody all she really had? If she could only pick one person, she was glad it was her but did it have to be only one person?

The purple haired girl walked up to Melody, trying to hide the sadness in her voice as she called out to her. "H-hey Melody, it's me! How's it going?"

No response. The dark-haired girl stood up from the couch, moving away from Haleigh as she moved to where she kept her electric guitar. She sat down at a stool, put on a pair of headphones and picked up the guitar, slowly strumming a few mournful chords.

"D-do you not hear me? I'm right here…" Her eyes were starting to tear up at being ignored, beginning to understand how Ruben felt in the last part of the vision.

"Is she the only one?"

Haleigh turned around, a few tears streaking down her face.

Ruben watched her for a moment, his eyes solemn. He looked at the scene again. A lone punk teen playing a guitar under a shoddy tree.

"Ummm...it's not much but...If you ever need a place to stay…"

He stuffed his hands in his pockets, not really sure what else to say. He let himself fall into the sofa, the mournful song of Melody's still playing in the background still keeping her from noticing his presence. "Sit." Ruben sighed, patting the seat next to him.

Haleigh obliged and sat on the sofa next to him, sniffling and wiping away the tears that were still coming down. Ruben continued to watch Melody play for a little while longer. He looked to Haleigh and handed the girl a tissue. " I don't know about you, but I'm not really feelin a round three. Call it here and never talk about it again?"

With a ghost of a smile on her lips, Haleigh replied, "Yeah. I think I've had enough of the past haunting me for one day." Looking one more time at Melody, she managed to laugh a little as she said, "It's kinda silly, but me and Melody do the whole pinky swearing thing when we make a promise. Let's pinky swear to not talk about all this again." She held out her pinky, waiting for Ruben to do the same.

Ruben scoffed, but relented once he saw the steel in the girl's eyes. She was serious. However, as they were about to lock pinkies, Haleigh pulled hers away and added, a bigger smile creeping on her face as she sought to lighten the mood a bit, "Aaaaand, there better be a pie of some kind when I come over. Lemon meringue if possible."

"I'll see what I can whip up." Ruben scoffed as he caught the rogue pinky.

In another poof of smoke, the duo again found themselves sitting in the publishing house. Ruben climbed to his feet first before helping the girl to hers. They made for the door, but Ruben stopped Haleigh to share a thought.

"Hey, Haleigh...where do you reckon people buy blankies?"

Haleigh raised her eyebrow, wondering why that was particularly relevant until she remembered that a blankie was the reason why Ruben decided to come here in the first place. "I'd reckon someone at the holiday market might be selling some cozy, homemade ones. But wasn't the whole point to get that special one for the old geezer?"

"Oh you'd love that wouldn't you, me throwing myself in head first and saving Christmas?" Ruben scoffed.

For the first time since coming into the publishing house, Haleigh let out a mirthful and joyous laugh. "Let it go already, it was a joke!"

"A bad one." Ruben grumbled to himself, bitterly hunching himself over and limping back on the path to route route 3 ahead of Haleigh before stopping to let the girl catch up.

The silhouette of a Mismagius, flanked by two Misdreavus watched them leave. The silhouette of a frail man joined them, a Wishiwashi plushie in his hand.

MurkMire · Jan 7, 2021

Name: Clovis Solanine
Age: 20
Gender: ?
Current Party:

Chapter 4-1: Fight and Flight Response
Featuring...

Spoiler:

Clovis sat on a rock, just outside of the path to Route 3. He sat there, writing down new information about his evolved partner. But after a short moment, Clovis called out, "Pariet, stay close, please." Before he started writing in his new page, he had let Pariet out of his Pokeball to take in the scenery and feed. "Shell!" Despite Clovs being cautious about his behavior, Pariet was too excited by the snow all around them. It scooped up snow with it's big tongue, and let it melt while chomping on it with the shell. Looking over, Clovis just sighed at the silliness of his Shellder. Still, he was grateful that the snow had Pariet's full attention.

After a short while, Clovis now had a new page of information. Thinking back to when Clovis' grandfather taught him various methods of Pokemon Watching via recorded studies from Professor Quackenpoker, Clovis decided to try drawing a Dottler onto the empty space he left on the page as practice.

Sure enough, he was able to draw a small Dottler. Pausing, Clovis looked at the page before, to the Blipbug page. He sighed, and started drawing a small Blipbug. A small smile grew on his face, as he looked on at the progress that he has made as a trainer. It wasn't much, but… where he is now is a vast improvement from before. Sunyshore City is now just a memory to him.

Pariet, now having consumed the snow within a ten foot radius around Clovis, was a Shellder with a snowy beard. Hopping, it turned to see Clovis in heavy thought. "Shell-der?" Pariet called. Snapping Clovis out of his contemplation, he turned to look over at the festive looking Shellder.

"PBFT, oh… oh my. Pariet, you… you look so silly. Come here, and let me get that sno-"

"Shell. Der." It hopped from left to right, trying to gesture a 'nuh-uh' response, before his tongue lapped away the snow on his shell. A heavy glug could be heard, as the Shellder finished off it's snowy feast.

Meanwhile….

Soaring over route 3, Tranquill thought about what it's next move would be. This Tranquill was on a mission. It had been taken from its flock to be put in such a perilous position. Frustrated, it glared down at the ground beneath it, intent on meeting its goal.

The Tranquill started soaring a bit closer to the ground, looking for any trainers it may want to join. And sure enough, Tranquill spotted a trainer with a strange, purple Pokemon playing in the snow. The trainer, he observed, had dark green hair, wearing some sort of purple clothing on his torso, and was sitting on a rock holding something.

Curious, Tranquill flew down, and landed on a tree branch just a ways from where the trainer sat. Who, of course, noticed him.

"Well, hi there," a surprised Clovis spoke. Looking at the bird Pokemon, Clovis ran through his mental pokedex, before realizing, "Oh, a Tranquill! What an interesting find…" Clovis stood, and walked slowly towards it, the Tranquill wary. "Would you mind sitting still?" Tranquill simply stared, wondering what Clovis was doing.

He hurriedly grabbed his spare journal from his bag, and began drawing the Tranquill. Intensely, he traced, scribbled and drew. Until finally… he presented Tranquill a somewhat decent drawing. The Wild Pigeon looked on in amused curiosity. "Crr… Crraw?" Seeming pleased, Tranquill flew down and stepped closer to Clovis. "My, what an excellent specimen. Not to mention, you look like a smart one… very rare to find." Clovis made a decision.

"I have decided that you will join my team," Clovis spoke confidently. At that moment, both Tranquill and Clovis looked each other in the eyes. "Crraw!" Hopping back, Tranquill spread his wings wide, and shook his neck to show off the plumage on his neck. Cawing at Clovis, it answered his challenge.

"Pariet, I choose you! Go!" "Shell-derrr!"

Pariet hopped forward, Rising to the air, Tranquill greeted Pariet with an Air Cutter, hitting Pariet with a barrage. "You can take it, Pariet! Now, Withdraw!" Shutting it's trap, Pariet tucked itself within and began to glow a faint, light blue. Seeing this, Tranquill flew in close, blowing the Shellder away with a Gust attack. This sent Pariet flying into a rock with a crying, "Derrr!"

"Well, well, you really are a smart one. You're definitely coming with me," Clovis muttered with a grin. "Pariet, Ice Shard!" Retaliating after that Gust, Four sharp shards of ice formed in an instant, and flew, smacking the Wild Pigeon. "Crr-Crr-CRRAWW," cried Tranquill. It lost it's balance in air, but was able to maintain form. "Crraw!" The Wild Pigeon used Growl, making Pariet shudder in place.

"A valiant effort, but you're coming with me! Use your Water Gun!" After a deep inhale, Pariet shot a stream of water, knocking Tranquill out of the air, into the tree it perched on previously. It made even Clovis cringe, with an, "Ouch… oh my." But, Tranquill clumsily stood up. Spreading his wings again, he cawed proudly. "Fine, then. I'll be sure to heal you once I catch you. Ice Shard!" And once more, shards of ice struck Tranquill. It tried to avoid the final set of shards, but to no avail. Struck again, it hit the tree trunk and slunk to the ground.

"A very strong fighter, very prideful… it's brilliant! Now, then…" He pulled out a pokeball, and clicked it. "Now, pokeball, go!" He threw it, straight through the air….

plunk

"Crr-AUGH!"

The pokeball… activated for a moment, but didn't make it's capture. "Uhh… what?" Clovis rubbed his eyes, before going to retrieve the pokeball. Looking at the ball, then Tranquill. The Tranquill stood up and glared, urging him to try again. Clovis could see determination in its eyes. He pressed the ball against it again. As Clovis tried again, in that moment, Tranquill thought back….

~~~

"Crrrrrrr- AWW!"

Tranquill burst out of the pokeball, and landed on the ground before Ruben. Before anything else, Tranquill stretched his wings and flexed his legs. After being cooped inside his pokeball for so long, Tranquill really needed to shake the rust off. But after doing so… now, Tranquill glared at Ruben, with his sharp, yellow eyes. Almost as if it was accusing him of being a terrible trainer.

"I need your help. Lesca's miss-" He began before realising the two pokemon had never actually met.

"Crr-AWW!" Tranquill cawed angrily at Ruben, leaping into the air with a flap of his wings. With his sharp beak and talons, Tranquill swiped at Ruben before flying off in the opposite direction. Now, aiming to never see his useless trainer again, Tranquill flew off into the open sky.

"Pidgey! Wait!" The trainer called out as he hobbled after the Wild Pigeon pokemon on his still aching ankle.

~~~

plunk

Same thing as before. Activated, but did not make the capture. "Hmm… clearly, you belong to someone el-" "Crraww…." The Wild Pigeon protested, before it slunk again. "Oh dear, let me fix you up. Pariet, you too." With two of his potions, Clovis healed both the Tranquill and his Shellder. "Did you run away from your trainer?" Clovis asked, met with an immediate nod. "Well… I can't quite catch you until whoever your trainer is properly releases you." The Wild Pigeon lowered their head, thinking. Then, both Clovis and Tranquill had an idea.

"Tranquill, how would you like to join me anyway? We'll meet your 'less than worthy' trainer, and make you a proper member of my team. What do you say?" Impressed by how Clovis thought the same thing, Tranquill nodded in agreement. Holding out his wing, he had shown his gesture of acceptance. Clovis took his wing gently, and shook it. "Well… Pariet, I'll need you to return. I think our new friend will be quite cooperative… uh, Pariet?"

"Shell-ll-ll… Shell-DUHR"

From all the snow that Pariet ate, it made him sick after being tossed around. So, Pariet "released" the excess water through their mouth. After that unexpected Water Gun, it fell over, and… fell asleep. "Pariet, what am I going to do with you… augh, return." Clovis sighed once more, and questioned what sort of Shellder he had caught. "Alright then… Tranquill, let's go. We need to find your trainer, and move forward." Clovis walked on, with Tranquill now perched on his shoulder. Now, Clovis caught(?) a Tranquill!

Shak · Jan 7, 2021

Ruben Sancho

18 | Male | Footballer

Chapter 4- 4 | A Place to Stay

Route 3

Ruben watched as the campsite owner examined the charred remains of the roof of his tent. It was 3:30 in the morning and both men had bags under their eyes. Snow had begun to pile at the base of his tent and Ruben glared at it with disdain.

"I think the tent's faulty," Ruben lied, but it was clear his excuse fell on deaf ears. The man discovered a flaming lantern among the mess. "Probably a missing wild pokemon brushed past it or something. Not wild, but y'know." He shrugged in hope that the farmer wouldn't persist with his questions.

"I can see if we've got a spare one up top?"

"Nah, I'm gonna see about getting a ride out. This tent stuff just isn't for me." Ruben sighed, grabbing his phone. He held it to his ear a moment before raising it to the sky. "Damn thing never works when you need it, does it?" He groaned. "Gimme a sec."

As he stepped far enough from the campsite, he regained his signal. His phone had been on silent for so long now, he'd forgotten why.

Bzzt! Bzzt! Bzzt!

A direct message from user named: 'AmyLou' with two butterfly emojis. "Who?" Ruben grumbled, flicking the notification banner away.

He put the phone to his ear again.

"Yes G," Ainsley's voice played through the phone. "you in Motes again? Trynna link up?"

Bzzt! Bzzt! Bzzt!

"Nah, I need a big favour from you though. I'm on route 3, kinda stranded right now. Middle of nowhere. Can you pick me up?

"No can do bro. I at a links house."

"**** off, are you. Put her on the phone."

"She's sleep bro. I'm trynna sneak out before she starts asking questions like 'what are we' and ****. I'm not even in Motes. Besides, I know man's been dodging my calls anyway." Ainsley's accusation shot through Ruben's ear like a bullet. He pulled away from the phone and scrolled through the archive of missed called from Nan, Daija, Ainsley…SK the Artist?

Bzzt! Bzzt! Bzzt!

He put Ainsley on loud speaker as he continued not discover the phone activity he'd missed since he'd been in Motostoke. "…I met the ting on your Chatter feed bro. It's a gold mine for pengies. You've been doing up part time wingman when you've had the role for four years. Apalling stuff blud." While Ainsley continued to ramble on, Ruben found himself watching highlights of Wedgehurst's latest game against Postwick Wanderers. It wasn't a long video. A one nil loss against your noisy baby brother was not going to go down well. He scrolled through thumbnails. Titles such as 'Why Wedgehurst FC need Ruben Sancho back ASAP', 'Not even Max Power can save Wedgehurst now' and 'How Interregional contenders became the worst attacking team in the top 8 divisions' drew ire from the injured young footballer as he tried to escape the negativity that filled his suggestions.

Bzzt! Bzzt! Bzzt!

One video caught his attention though. Five hundred thousand views, eighteen thousand likes, only a couple hundred dislikes. Video title: 'WFTV Fan Cam – Scarfman: 'Are we paying for Lego? If he's fit, play Ruben Sancho!'.

"Yo Ains, let me call you back, I need to-"

"Nah hold on, I need to explain something. I been thinking about those girls from when we went on that double date."

"I bet you have buddy." Ruben grumbled. In truth, he had too. The bandages around his ankle were given to him by Pia. Despite the nuisance there were, with each itch frustrating him to blinding rage, he was able to ease his grief by thinking of what a good time he had on that date. It was Arrietty now though, that lingered on his mind as he stared over at his roofless tent. I'd rather be forgotten than end up as self-centered as you. Those words hurt enough at the time but he couldn't shake them after the visions he'd seen in the factory. Sure he wouldn't be forgotten, but was he really so selfish no one would care if he…he thought to Catherine. What she said. He tried to wipe the stress from his face but it was bothering him. Those words were the reason he ended up in this sub zero wasteland ****. Every sleep he'd had since starting his journey was in a warm cosy bed. Only he'd be stupid enough to sacrifice that to prove a point to two girls that weren't even here. ****ing idiot, he thought to himself as he shivered.

Bzzt! Bzzt! Bzzt!

"Nah, but I'm saying. I reckon they don't like black guys…"

"Mmm." Ruben hummed knowingly, his mouth clammy and his eyes wide with nervous realistion. He'd honestly forgot he was on the phone to Ainsley. He wasn't about to admit how wrong Ainsley was about that. Not yet.

"…always wanna play a guy. That's why we don't give out free meals." While Ainsley ranted, Ruben stared lazily at the phone. The sound of crunching snow cut through the treeline.

Bzzt! Bzzt! Bzzt!

Ruben's eyes drifted up as the footsteps drew closer. "…was a pengie though. The things I would've done if I brought her back. All the way bro, I would've li-" Ruben fumbled his phone as he caught sight of who it was that was approaching. He punched at the screen, doing everything he could to turn the speaker phone of as Ainsley explained in grotesque detail. It was the elderly campsite owner.

"Everything okay? Are you sure you don't want that tent?" He asked with a smile.

Bzzt! Bzzt! Bzzt!

"Go on then. I'll try out this camping thing again." His words earned him a silent cheer from the camper man, who began trundling up the hill to get a replacement tent as he'd promised. As soon as the man turned his back, Ruben pulled the phone to his ear. "Bro, I'll do anything, get me out of this ****hhole." He begged down the phone, before realising his call to Ainsley had ended due to a lack of signal. "****ing ****!" He bellowed, tossing the phone into the snow. The outburst earned more than a couple of shushes from nearby campers.

"I want him gone! The kid's ****ing poison! If he's fit, why's he not playing? He sits at home, earning a million poke a week for what? To look good in his ****ing shoe adverts?" The ranting man on Ruben's phone was swaying side to side. A green and white scarf covered the entirety of his face below his rage filled eyes. A matching bobble hate bounced from side to side on his head. Ruben shivered, his eyes glued to the screen. The crowd behind the man were laughing and hanging on his every word. "I'm sick of it Scott! I've supported this club since he was in nappies! I'm sick of it. We're a big ****ing club!"

"One of the biggest." The dejected interview, Scott, nodded in agreement.

"Why are we in the relegation zone then? We're last in the league Scott. We lost to ****ing Postwick! Is that **** what you pay for? It's not what I pay for. Our hard earned money is going to the wage of this one million poke a week kid, who we have to ****ing 'rebuild' every season. Are we paying for Lego?" An uproarious laughter shook the camera. Only the man in the scarf remained scowling. "If Ruben Sancho's fit, play him or **** him off in February and buy some proper players!"

Bzzt! Bzzt! Bzzt!

A Chatter notification from Honecomb!

Bzzt! Bzzt! Bzzt!

A Chatter notification from PennyPocket!

Frustrated, Ruben opened the app. Thousands of updates hit his phone at once. Direct messages from girls, from guys, strangers, old friends, other celebrities, footballers. He skimmed the first few, the most recent being another from "AmyLou" that read: "Hey Big Head! Need somewhere to stay near Motostoke?" Ruben flicked to the location settings and quickly turned 'show location' to off. He looked up at his surroundings. He was freezing. The overtly sexually implicated message wasn't even words to him anymore. All her could see was the warmth of a bed calling out to him. No.

An image of a Corviknight appeared on his screen as he opened the Corviknight taxi app. He clicked on Turfield. Then tried again…and again. I'm sorry, it appears you card has been declined… He couldn't even bring himself to read the rest. If his main card wasn't working, their were only two people who could block it. He opened his texts. His conversation with Pia lingered at the top, yet to be read by her, it read: "Hey, had a great time at the market…thanks again for helping with the ankle. You up for meeting up on the 15th? We can meet outside Turfield". He sighed but left it. He wasn't about to go begging her for help. Then, he felt the same was about his family. Begging your nan to pick you up at 3:30 in the morning hardly screamed protector of the household, did it?

He looked down at the DM from AmyLou one more time. Scarfman's words played in his mind. 'If Ruben Sancho's fit, play him or **** him off in February and buy some proper players'. Proper players? Ruben scrolled through his phone contacts, stopping on Coach Mills. He stared at the name for a moment, looking around as though anyone could be an informant. He pressed the call button.

It rung.

And rung again…

Nothing. He should've known. He reopened the direct message from AmyLou and began to type back before…a call…from Coach Mills? Ruben fumbled the phone, hands shaking with anticipation as he answered. "Coach? Your awake?"

A gruff, hoarse voice played through the phone.

"How could I not be? We've got bloody Wyndon next lad. May aswell rip up my contract now. You're calling because you reckon you can squeeze your way in then? I've looked at your physio reports. You're fit."

"If you'll have me…"

"Are you out of your mind?" Coach Mills snapped back, causing Ruben to flinch. "You haven't played in seven months lad…" There was a silence as Ruben let that sink in. He hadn't played in over half a year. A full seasons worth of football he'd missed. "Listen, are you fit lad?" Ruben's head raised to the question. He looked down at his bandaged ankle.

"Yeah, yeah of course I'm fit." The young footballer fiercely explained.

"There's a U23 game in Turfield in a couple weeks after the interregional friendlies. I know you've never played at under 23 level lad, but that means you've got to make your own way there. I'm gonna be in Kanto playing against ****ing Pallet Town, but if you can make it, I'll recommend you to the Paddy."

"I can make it." Ruben said, breathless with excitement. He barely even noticed the cold now.

"I can't believe I'm about to say this, but put in a good showing there and I'll bring you back in the first team fold." Coach Mills explained with a grumble. He could hear Ruben's excitement through the phone. "Not saying you'll start, but…well you know our striker situation." There was another silence, Ruben just waiting for the call to end. "Now get some rest lad."

"Yess!" Ruben yelled with little care for the campers in the area. He had his life back. He finally had his ****ing life back. "****! Yes!"

"I found a nice mini tent. It's not quite your old one…"

"I'll stick with the old one. Bit of tape, reckon I could fix it." Ruben said with a smirk, leaving the old man lost for words.

forg · Jan 8, 2021

Nona Rodriguez
◇ Route Three

Spoiler:

Several times she had debated on the prospect of looking for a lost Pokémon. At first Nona had believed it to be the imaginary tale of a worried child, yet due to accidentally eavesdropping on a family visitor's conversation with a nurse near the front station, Nona was convinced that the igglybuff under the nickname Cookie does, in fact, exist.

"Do you like it?"

"Yes! It looks very difficult to be a doctor, but they really do a lot and I kinda know why the waiting times are as long as they are," Nona expressed, now walking out of the small hotel with a replenished small backpack. Once outside she encountered a bigger crowd than usual, kindling in her a sense of worry over Beldum's safety.

Without hesitation she extended her arms towards her floating companion, of which Beldum obliged. And together in an embrace the duo left Motostoke trailing behind and into a much colder Route Three. Nona did not intend to be done with Motostoke just yet, unlike the many trainers she noticed have already embarked out into, but this is a small investigation into the lost igglybuff that must be done.

Continuing the conversation is her father, intrigued yet inspired by his daughter's desire to be a hero for a toddler.

"Yes, it is difficult. Being a doctor requires a lot of responsibility and emotional control."

"Ah! I know! There were times I wanted to cry, and did cry, and then the doctors and nurses managed to stay calm."

"Well yes, haha, they need to stay calm, otherwise they wouldn't be able to do their duties properly."

Route three's rocky path was adorned with snowy hills and plenty of ledges. Trees speckled its landscape and at times settled going up the rockier part of hills. It was a tranquil, gorgeous path that at times was interrupted by the distant sight of factories.

"Do you think I'll find an igglybuff here? In the wilderness when it's used to being at home?"

"It doesn't hurt to try. Remember Ralts? When he got scared he ran into the nearest bushes and we waited a looooong time for him? He never moved from there, remember?"

"Yeah, I remember, paaaaa."

Much to her dismay the conversation was not a long one as Mr. Rodriguez bid farewell, needing to return to his outside chores. Hesitant, Nona veered off the visible path and into the wilderness, releasing Beldum from her arms and free to move as they please.

Chapter 3.5

Wind graced the route, grass blades tickling the thin, exposed ring of skin above Nona's ankles. Trainers dotted the landscape, some disturbing the peace and serenity all the while others explored and gave the wildlife a helping hand. The more she dwelled at the fact the further she distanced herself from any human being, hoping to experience any potential future embarrassment on her own.

Through small hills, bushes, piles of snow, rocky ledges, and bug-infested trees, Nona scavenged for a singing pink balloon. Beldum focused on the areas Nona was unable to reach, just as attentive to detail as Nona, if not, not as absurd as Nona; she checked beneath boulders, between high patches of grass, near ledges, inside rotting trees, and wherever a small critter could find itself hiding in.

Sadly, thirty minutes later and no Cookie emerged. Yet Nona did not lose any hope, on the contrary, she had gained more confidence as her slow pace quickened to a steady, faster one. Instead of ambling from tree to tree she now dashes. Instead of slowly lifting boulders and rocks she now lifts them in quick successions until her fingers began to grow numb.

But no Cookie.

Until they stumbled upon a burrow. At first glance the grass and surrounding mounds of snow concealed the dwelling, but it was Beldum's bird's eye view that caused it to lower itself for a better view, therefore alerting Nona to the small dwelling.

Facing away from the sun's rays, the mouth of the small cave was the only visible portion, the tunnel and contents stashed inside the darkness. Nona shook her head and felt her cowardice make the decision for her, fretting a wild Pokémon encounter, but Beldum's curious gaze guilt-tripped Nona.

"Do you think igglybuff could be there? Cookie?" Nona inquired her companion with a twinge of uneasiness, prompting Beldum to descend into the mouth of the burrow. "Wait waitwait, be careful! Please, be careful!" she muttered, bending her knees and tilting her head a foot away from the dark hole, worried for the safety of her Pokémon.

Alert, the metal Pokémon scanned the visible areas, steadily entering the burrow. Nona's palpable anxiety grew by the second. A mere minute into the exploration and she suddenly calls out to Beldum in a whisper, far too uneasy. "Azúl! Nevermi-"

"SCREEEE!"

Nona released a small shriek, jolting backwards out of shock. But just as quickly as she retreated she lunges forward on to her elbows, eyes scanning as far into the burrow as she could in search of Beldum. Unfortunately he was nowhere to be seen, shrouded in the darkness as his metallic screeches and hums echoed. "AZÚL?!"

In panic Nona thrusted her arm into the burrow, only to retract within the split second window. "Ohmygod. Oh no ohnonono, Azúl?!" The struggle between the screeching mystery Pokémon and Beldum faded the deeper they went, horrifying an already panicking Nona.

W-what do I do?! What should I do?! Go! I need to go and reach in there! she battled her cowardice with bravery, yet the moment her hand was shot towards the burrow's opening she paused, frozen in fear.

She couldn't do it. The anticipation of pain that could suddenly attack her arm kept her bravery at bay.

Tears began to well, frustrated and disappointed in her hesitation and lack of drive.

A random idea then materialized out of the blue; she still has Beldum's pokéball. Immediately acting upon it, she retrieves the ball and, once again, thrusts her arm into the burrow, eyes shut and tears cascading down as she bit her lip to lessen the potential emergence of pain.

Her finger clicks the pokéball, its red lightning darting out of its confines and connecting with Beldum's own red, outlined figure. The sudden change in color and texture startled the mystery Pokémon, releasing its clutch from Beldum as it watched it vanish.

Having given it five seconds, Nona jolts up with the pokéball in hand, dirt speckling its waxed surface. Without a second to waste Nona released a puzzled Beldum, locking him in an embrace once the red form materialized into her companion.

"Oh my god, Azúl, I'm sosososo sorry," Nona whimpered, guilty. "I'm sorry I took so long, I'm a bad person for being so scared!" Beldum returned the embrace, forehead affectionately nudging her cheek, causing her to giggle amidst the few tears.

"Hahaha, okay okay okay, so, u-um, I don't know if igglybuff is there, but I mean, whatever grabbed you did it quickly and what if- maybe Cookie wasn't fast enough or strong enough and- okay. Yeah. We need help," she mumbled to herself, coming to a conclusion as her panic slowly faded away. "It's just…" Hesitant, Nona gave the burrow one last look before continuing with the harsh reality. "I… ah, actually… " Accepting her need for help was as difficult as she expected it to be. "I um, u-uh… haha, I need help. I thought I could do it by myself buuuuuut… I'm scared," she dropped her voice to a whisper, flustered. Her hold on Beldum tightened and wet sleeves begun to gnaw on her delicate skin.

She didn't know what to do.

Jay · Jan 9, 2021

Raphael Allard
> Route 3
> Mood: Cold (?)
> KIARA - PART 1

..

....

Raphael slowly walked through the snow addled pathways of Route 3, it was a frosty freezing day and the young man was trudging along as best as he could through the snow. The mid-day sun seemed like a joke as it sat, pale white in a gap between grey clouds, hardly any warmth to be found there. His pokémon had grown a little fatigued from walking with him, so in their pokéballs they sat. He wished he had some nicely formed capsule he could digitally sink into wherein someone bigger than him could carry him around while he relaxes. Such was the curse of being a human, he supposed. With a hand to his brow he glances upwards once more as that self same sun is swallowed by the clouds aforementioned. At least now there wasn't a glare in his eyes on top of everything else.

He pulled the coat Mustard gave him a little tighter around himself, bristling just a little bit in response to the chill that surrounded him and sighed. He reached into his pockets instinctively, checking the position of his phone, ATC and pokédex for safety, then felt the weight of something else less familiar. He produced a small sack filled with physical poké, a rarity in today's society for sure. He had helped an old lady hoist a garland to the edge of her roof and she had thanked him with a sack of 500. It was a little troublesome to carry it around like this, but it was something. He wasn't about to refuse her generosity when she seemed so sincere.

Lightly tossing the bag in one hand, the sun parted the clouds again and as Raph turned his attention to the road again he noticed a small glint of something reflecting the light. Odd, something shiny as that would surely have been buried deep in the snow, unless it had been dropped there fairly recently. It could easily have been a discarded sweet wrapper, or a dropped coin, or anything really. Since it was directly in his path however, by a small grove of snow covered trees, Raph decided he had might as well give it a gander. He approached the object and awkwardly crouched down, lifting what was a small metal piece attached to an old and discolored blue ribbon. He frowned, by the looks of it, some sort of collar? Or name tag?

The metal piece itself was terrible dull, something that had been passed around a lot he imagined. There was a name engraved on the metal, but it had been worn down to the point where most of the lettering was completely illegible.

"K... a..." Raph mumbled the letters aloud to himself, the first and the last, the only ones that could still be seen. He idly tossed the bag in one hand still and rose up to his feet, the other still holding the name tag aloft, trying to catch a glint of the sun to perhaps make the lettering more legible, to no avail. "...odd." He mumbles, cocking his head a little at the sight. Collars and name tags were not something pokémon really had anymore, unless it was purely for decoration, pokéballs linking to trainer IDs meant tossing a ball at another trainers mon did nothing, so identification was rarely required.

"I wonder wh-..." Raph continued to speak to himself but as he turned his direction back to the road something else caught his attention. Something a little more pressing. A small, blue pokémon stood alone on a rock amidst the snow. It had piercing red eyes and a small scar on its left cheek. Small, hardened white patches sat prominently upon its black and blue furred arms. It was staring daggers at Raphael, who returned its gaze with nothing sans confusion. The glare of the pokémon continued to impose upon him regardless, wordlessly its eyes pierced him and eventually after examining it, he let his gaze settle on its own in turn.

That was when something extraordinary happened.

Raphael felt a surge of something run through him, something he had never felt before. A new sensation that made his spine tingle and his chest burn, he took a step backwards and reached for his head, gasping, assuming he was under some form of psychic attack. "W-What-?!" He stammered, looking back towards the small pokémon on the rock, but as he does so, he sees the tiny interloper is also shivering slightly. The aggressive glare in its eyes is replaced by shock, as if it had just come to a great revelation. A revelation it was not pleased to have discovered. Raph clutched the name tag and small bag of poké tightly in his hands as the sensation continued to blast through him. He slowly grew accustomed to the feeling, thought it left him short of breath and he heard a ringing in his ears that threatened to deafen him.

Something inside of him was acting in a way nothing else ever had before, as he looked back at the small blue pokémon before him it was glaring at him again now. This look was different, less judgmental, more like it was suddenly and very seriously threatened. A blue light seemed to surround it to Raph's vision, like a small flame of azure that encompassed its whole body, yet cast no light and had no physical presence. That light brushed against his psyche, like a passing wind... and he heard nothing, yet he understood a vague meaning and intention. Words formed from feeling and he could piece together a single, broken sentence.

"What... are... you?"

It sounded... frightened.

Before Raph could contemplate the feeling further, the small pokémon leaped at him, crashing into his chest and grabbing his jacket. The sensation he had felt immediately ended, the strange flame he saw had disappeared and all he could see now was the tiny pokémon now manhandling him. With gritted teeth and a sudden fight or flight, he grabbed the blue pokémon that held onto him tightly and thrashed around, trying to pry it loose. "G-Get off me!" He struggled and stumbled as the pokémon refused to let go, one free paw reaching and grabbing about his person, going towards his hands.

As their perpetual back and forth continued, eventually Raph found his heel catching on a stone, covered by the snow, which sent him sprawling backwards with a light crunch into the snow below. The small pokémon yelped as it fell with him and Raph winced as they collided with the ground together. As he was left momentarily defenseless, the pokémon quickly reached outwards, dashing between Raph's hands. She snatched the name tag he had been holding tightly and the small gift pouch containing his cash, then leaped up and ran full force towards the treeline of the nearby grove, hands sprawled out behind it, clutching the items tightly.

"H-Hey!" Raph struggled to pull himself up out of the snow, watching the small pokémon rush away. Quickly he pulls his pokédex from his pocket and shoves his ATC inside, the screen blaring to life and catching a glimpse of the fleeing thief before it could stray too far from him.

DEX said:
RIOLU, THE EMANATION POKÉMON
It has the peculiar power of being able to see emotions such as joy and rage in the form of waves. It uses the shapes of auras, which change according to emotion, to communicate with others. These same waves can also tell this Pokémon about the state of the environment. It's exceedingly energetic, with enough stamina to keep running all through the night.

Raph's eyes widened as he read the entry. Had that been what he had seen? Was that Riolu communicating with him through this... aura? He quickly pulled himself to his feet and watched the grove where Riolu had dashed off through. If the pokédex was to be believed, there was no way he could keep up with it, yet as he glanced downwards he say a sprawling trail of footprints tracing through the snow.

Maybe this cold weather was good for something after all.

Riolu sprinted quickly through the woodlands, grasping its precious ribbon and its victims coins tightly in its paws as it moved. Its mind was racing a mile a minute, a slight panic was heaving in its chest. That human she had met, there was something wrong about him. His heartbeat felt wrong and his emotions were skewed and layered, they went deeper than even she had realized. It didn't make sense to her, how could this random trainer conceal his aura and emotions so well.

Then immediately be so receptive to hers, that he could sense her fear?

She closed her eyes and shook her head, little tears at the corners of her eyes overwhelming her. She had to focus, this was still just another job for her master, the strange human had no bearing on that, she would ignore him and move on. Yet something lingered in her, something she had felt that shook her, that clung to her desperately.

There was a tight, foreboding pain in her chest. That was what she felt more than anything from that human.

She closed her eyes and shook her head again as she ran. She had to shake this feeling away, she had to forget about it and-

Something hard was waiting for her as she ran, colliding with the hide of another pokémon traversing the forest. The small coin pouch and the name tag flew behind her, once more embedded in the snow. With a small wince, the Riolu rubbed her head gently and gazed upwards, before her squinted gaze widened in fear.

With tongue lagging out and an aggressive stare, a black and white striped pokémon stared down at her with hungry, angry eyes. A linoone, of all things to run into, something as stupid and aggressive as this. Still with the type advantage she had, she could defend herself, she knew this pokémon was no match for her. Pulling herself to her feet she took a fighting position, positioning herself at the ready, paws outstretched, posture corrected, but she faltered.

The memory of that searing pain rushed back into her chest. It was horrible, physical, mental, spiritual, it was a pain that had come to define that human who was so sensitive to her powers and now it was affecting her. She nearly buckled and her paw slumped to her side, while the other clutched the fur at her chest.

No, this was... bad. She could barely move, the tension of the situation, these feelings were still too fresh. She still struggled to control her powers and now it would cost her dearly. The Linoone growled and barked warnings and threats, but she could barely move let alone react. Before she gained control of herself the speedy pokémon roared angrily and started to charge forward. It was all she could do to close her eyes and wince.

The attack collided hard and she felt herself being sent back clattering through the snow. It was a critical blow in her weakened state and she felt her body giving out on her even as that humans feelings finally started to fade away. She could only hope that the Linoone would leave her be now, let her recover and leave, but it seemed she had no such luck. With a cruel look in its eyes, the Linoone stalked forward, looking like it planned to make a meal out of her. She struggled to pull herself to her feet, but couldn't quite manage, the combination of her shock and injuries were too much. This... was looking like the end.

"Carmen!" A semi-familiar voice echoed around the clearing and before the Linoone could take another step a flash of orangey red splashed into view. A small, fish-like pokémon shot through the air like a bullet and its body collided with immense force against the side of the Linoone's head. There was a sickening crack sound as the dark type pokémon was sent cartwheeling to the side, stumbling over as the Magikarp that had attacked it now flopped aggressively where it had stood.

A black clothed leg stood gently in the snow in front of Riolu, acting as a wall between her and her aggressor. Her eyes slowly trailed upwards, following the human's body to the top, where she saw the face of the man she had encountered on the road.

He was completely different now, her eyes widened in shock. As she hesitantly and somewhat involuntarily reached out with her emotions she still felt that pain he carried... but it was buried. It sat beneath a burning fire, one that was so rapidly growing from embers. His eyes were as blue as her fur and they burned as he stared into the Linoone that had attacked her.

"I'll not mince words... I don't have the effort to waste on talking to you too much." He addressed the Linoone who was no growling at him angrily. "I don't appreciate those who take things from me... but attacking someone that's defenseless is a new tier of low on my list. I'm giving you the chance to run away, your species is good at that right? If you don't take my offer then I can deal with that too." Raphael's gaze furrowed to fine points. "In that case I'll use you as free experience."

The sheer calm and apathy in the trainer's voice caused the Linoone to shiver slightly, but the fear it felt only became fuel for its anger. With irate fury it charged towards the human, but Raphael simply moved his other leg, revealing another pokémon standing behind him. Riolu looked at it with awe, it resembled a candle with a burning purple flame.

"Lumi!" Raph called his pokémons name and the Litwick released a stream of embers from the flame on its head, surprising the Linoone as it clattered directly into the attack, being critically damaged and left with scathing burns. "Now Carmen!" Before the Linoone could even react to the pain it was currently in, Raphael's Magikarp launched out of the woodwork, splashing into the air and falling down rapidly, Carmen spins and uses her scarred tail like a hammer, smashing the Linoone's head hard into the snow with another echoing CRACK.

The grove went silent as the Linoone sat there with its face buried in the snow, knocked unconscious by the blow. Raph sighed gently as if disappointed by his opponents performance, stepping forward and flipping it over with his foot so that it didn't suffocate in the snow in the meanwhile. The battle was over... and finally Riolu managed to pull herself to her feet.

The glint of the sun once more reflected on the metal of the name tag as Riolu once more saw that it was clutched in the hand of the human before her. She froze, staring at it intently, caught in an odd state of paralysis, somewhere between gratitude and fear. Raph noticed her gaze and looked down at the tag in his hand once more, as well as the small coin pouch now clasped in the other.

"Kiara."

The word echoed across the clearing and the Riolu looked at him with immense confusion. "I'm guessing this is yours. I can't read what your name is, but I see a K and an A." He gives a small, soft smile and Riolu feels a sense of calm and sympathy. "Kiara's a pretty name I think, so I think I'll just fill in the gaps myself for now." Riolu, Kiara apparently according to this man, stared up at Raphael with confusion. He was different to the humans she knew, she couldn't figure out why, but she felt her wariness and trepidation fading in his presence. Pouting a little, letting her guard down by just an inch, she continues to glare at him regardless.

"Here." Raph tosses both the tag and the pouch of coins into the snow at Kiara's feet, before returning his team to their pokéballs. "I don't think I know why you wanted those coins, but... I think I can manage to part with them. Though in future, if we meet again, I'd prefer if you just ask, rather than tackling me you know?" He sighs and rubs the back of his neck awkwardly. "That would have saved me a lot of wasted effort."

Kiara hesitantly steps forward, snatching up the items and leaping back from this man as she does so. Though to her surprise there is no retaliation or trickery. Instead, the man smiles at her. "I'm Raph, by the way. Stay safe, Kiara."

And he walks away, just like that. The Riolu clutches the items desperately, but he doesn't tease her or try to take them away. She steps a little bit away from the tree, still sore and watched the silhouette of the man go. His steps are light and he shivers a little from the cold, but otherwise he acts as if nothing happened.

As if nothing was wrong. Kiara didn't understand why he did that.

After all, even now, she could feel the overwhelming pain in his heart.

Evily · Jan 9, 2021

Sachiko 'Sachi' Akabane

Epoch 4.1: Route 3

Christmas Wreaths? New Additions!

Sachi chuckled as she looked at her chat history with Simon on her flip-phone. About an hour ago, she got a text, and not wanting to leave the male hanging, replied right away. Now, she was on her way to find the christmas market and meet up with Simon… however…

"Sachi! Don't go too far!" The teen sighed, halting in her steps, and looked back. A bit away behind was Seto with Yen, his Mightyena, walking behind him. Tora, from her side, smirked at the male's struggle. "Stay there! I'm coming!"

"Seto… we're not that far from each other…" Sachi assured, mentally measuring the distance between her and Seto, coming up with about a couple feet. He was panicking because she was too far away? She didn't understand the male sometimes… but let him be himself, if that helps keep him calm and sane. She held Gex in her arms with Shippo standing on her other side, Aria was sitting on her shoulder, cooing.

"B-But Sachi! If you get too far away, someone will come and snach you away from me! Big Brother Seto can't have that!" Seto whined as he walked over. Hearing his words, Sachi blushed in embarrassment before lifting the hood of her parka to cover her blushing face. ...why me? "Sachi! Don't think I forgot about that boy!"

Instantly, Sachi turned and started to walk away, preventing Seto from seeing her red face, "W-What b-boy?!" Oh god… Did Grandma tell them about their conversation… they're going to know about her small crush! Lifting a hand to her face, she felt the heat radiating off her cheeks. Maybe she's blushing because of how embarrassed she is from the conversation being shared… that must be it! She can't let Tori or Seto know about that!

"You know who! Tori told me and your Grandma told her!" Seto the gasped, placing his hands on his cheeks as a thought came to mind. "Don't tell me… are you rendezvousing with him?! On this route?!"

Instead of answering, Sachi stayed quiet, her two fire types walking after her as Aria cooed, rubbing her cheek with Sachi's to offer comfort as Gex clicked, confused at the state his caretaker was in. "Big brother says no! Saaaaachiiiii!"

- - - - - - - - - - - -

After an hour of walking, they had reached the Christmas Market where Sachi was meeting up with Simon. There were all kinds of tourists and trainers alike mingling around, festivity music playing as they passed various stalls. Once they arrived, Seto's inner child popped up and he ran off towards the stalls, giving Sachi the chance to go search for Simon, unfortunately, the girl couldn't find the boy, even after searching for about 30 minutes.

Sitting at a picnic table, she looked down at her phone, looking at her recent chat with Simon, and with her other hand, she held an ice cream cone. After a few seconds, she looked back up, looking around. Where was Simon? How are his pokemon? Did he need more poffins for them? These questions and alike roamed in her mind as she tried looking for the bug catcher, but nobody familiar popped up…

"SAAAAACHIIIIII!" Said girl winced, slowly turning to her left, and she felt herself pale, eyes widening in shock. Seto was walking her way, with a ton of stuffed animals in his arms and a large one wrapped around his neck from behind. From what she could see, there was a plushie of: a Glaceon, a Raichu, a Litten, a Zoroark, an Jigglypuff, A Pikachu, a Fennekin, a Bulbasaur, a Chespin, a second Pikachu wearing red and blue overalls, a brown mustache, and a red hat, and a third pikachu wearing green and blue overalls, also a brown mustache, and a green hat. "Look what I got!" Around his neck was a snake-like pokemon, but she couldn't remember which pokemon… it was green with red accents… "I even got a Butterfree, your favorite!" Indeed, on top of the pile, was a Butterfree plush, one of her favorite pokemon.

"A Butterfree…!" Sachi was awestruck at seeing a plushie of her favorite, she noticed the looks Seto was getting. Some were confused by the excited male, others awestruck at how many plushies he had, and the rest just walked by, ignoring him. Seto walked over and dumped the plushies on the picnic table, causing Aria and Gex to move over to Sachi. Aria squawked, flapping her wings and grabbing Gex before the plushies could touch him. She flew over and dropped the gecko on Sachi's lap while she perched on her trainer's shoulder as Shippo cooed from her spot beside Sachi with Tora resting under the bench, keeping an ear out.

"Sachi, I thought you were meeting up with that boy…?" questioned Seto as he brought out a large bag, placing the plushies inside one by one.

At the question, Sachi sighed, taking a lick of her ice cream, "I am, or was…" Lifting up her phone, she sends Simon a quick message asking where he was and if he's ok before closing the flip-phone. "I haven't heard from him or seen him yet…" Seto placed the last plushie in the bag before zipping it close, leaving the Butterfly plushie out and the large one around his neck.

"So he ditched you?!" Seto exclaimed, slamming his hands on the table as he stood up. Usually, that could attract attention, but the loud music and various noises from the market cancelled it out. "If Tori was here, she'd wring his neck-"

"He didn't ditch!" Sachi denied, "Maybe something came up, and he's dealing with it right now."

"Sachi, when a boy sets a time and date, and doesn't show up, it means he ditched you." Seto blurted, sitting back down. "Remember that time Tori ranted to us about boys? She declared that all males, beside me, are wolves and you have to tread carefully when in their territory."

"I-I remember that..." Sachi chuckled, sweat-dropping. She remembered Tori's rant about not liking other males, beside Seto, and especially her father. Declaring that if any wolves made a move on her, she, the lioness, would judge them and decide if they were worthy of her pup.

"Now that you know…" Seto brought out his own flip-phone, "I should inform Tori that a wolf has invaded the nest."

"T-The nest?" Sachi repeated, confused. The wolf? The nest? What was he talking about?

"Don't worry, Sachi! They're codes me and Tori use, no need to worry your pretty little head." Seto assured, closing the phone after messaging Tori about the circumstances. He also told her about how the guy Sachi was supposed to meet up with ditched her; they don't know if he did or not and Sachi did have a point, but Seto didn't care. He didn't care what caused it, he should have at least messaged Sachi if something happened or he was going to be late! So far, the boy was getting negative points in his book, and no doubt after Tori reads the messages, in hers too.

From under the bench, Tora yawned, but smirked when he heard Seto's words. His train of thought came to a halt when a strange smell invaded his nose, causing it to twitch. Opening his eyes, he lifted his head, smelling out the scent.

Before Sachi could say anything, a small figure zoomed past her with something green and red. She blinked, but then she heard Seto yelp and saw him fall backwards, "S-Seto?"

The male groaned, lifting a hand to grab whatever knocked him down. His hand clasped down on something soft and a bit prickly, but not enough to cause harm, lifting it up, he saw a christmas wreath, "What the…"

"There it is!" A voice cried out, catching the attention of the two siblings. They saw a couple people walking over to them, the one in the front was pointing at Seto, or more specifically, the Christmas wreath in his hands. Sachi stared at the people, before taking another like of her ice cream.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

"I see…" Seto handed back the Christmas wreath, then patted the imaginary dust off his outfit. The group of people each had their own christmas wreaths taken and they were currently for the culprit. They explained that the culprit has to be small and fast enough to blend into the crowd. "So you want our help in catching the culprit?"

"Yes please! A trainer would definitely help a lot!" Sachi wanted to help, but she also wanted to stay and wait for Simon to show up. Maybe he was late and on his way? She didn't want to risk it…

"We'll help!" Seto assured, placing an arm around Sachi, causing the girl to tense, registering the male's words. "Her pokemon will be very helpful, guys!"

"S-Seto!" Sachi cried, why did he put her on the spot?! She didn't want to help, she wanted to wait for Simon before-!

"Really? You'll help us miss?" One of the women called out, looking at Sachi with puppy eyes, causing the girl to stiffen.

She opened her mouth to say no, but her conscious fought itself, debating whether helping them would be worth it or not. After a few seconds, she sighed in defeat, nodding, "I'll help…" She then narrowed her eyes at Seto, "If I miss Simon while I'm gone, I'm blaming you…"

"Pssh! He won't come, don't worry Sachi!" Seto waved away, grabbing the girl's arm and pulling her to the group, "Now let's find the culprit!" Unknown to him, he caused Sachi's ice cream to fall from her hand onto the snow.

Sachiko stared before falling to her knees and hands on the snow-covered ground, grieving, "My ice cream… It was innocent…"

One of the people from the group, a young child, walked over, "Miss?"

Sachi lifted a hand to the male in a 'halting' motion, "Hold on. I must grieve for my fallen ice cream…"

It left the child confused but then Seto suddenly appeared at her side, kneeling down with his hands in a prayer motion, "Forgive me for the sin I have committed, Sachiko! I didn't mean to kill your ice cream!"

"It was innocent…"

"I'm sorry!"

The child just stared at the two with a sweatdrop, holding a hand out, "Miss? Mister?"

- - - - - - - - - - - -

"****, this is harder than I thought…" Seto grumbled as he walked around the market, looking for the figure or anything like the mysterious figure. All he knew was that it was small and fast, and from what the other people told him: basically the same thing! And Sachi still didn't forgive him for the ice cream, double ****!

Seto turned, only to see the boy from before watching as Sachi looked around the latest house, victim to the Christmas wreath snatcher. At first, he thought nothing of it, however…

"I'm going to look around the market." The vermillion-haired girl told the raven-haired man before walking towards the market, not noticing the boy following in her steps.

Seto stared after the teens for a while before blinking, "Did she always have freckles…?" Somehow, he just noticed the freckles across her nose. He opened his phone to text Tori about the matter, but seconds later, he was on his hands and knees, phone on the snow beside him. His mood turned sour with just one text from Tori: 'Of course she has freckles, idiot! Did you really forget, oh brother of hers?' He was her pseudo-brother and he forgot she had freckles! Unacceptable!

He then blinked, realizing that the child followed Sach. Turning to the other adults, he pointed over to where Sachi went, "Did any of you bring a child that tends to vanish?" They all stared at him for a while before looking back at Seto.

"No…"

"...what the ****?"

- - - - - - - - - - - -

"Miss?" Sachi turned around to see a young girl with dark plum-colored hair, green eyes, wearing a floral white dress down to her knees, a light pink open-sweater, black leggings, brown dress shoes, and a red scarf around her neck; a Butterfree was perched on her head with a Sizzlipede peeking out of her scarf. "Can you help us?"

Sachi was confused, but kneeled down, "Yes? What happened?" Tora appeared beside her, looking over the child as Aria landed on her left shoulder, she kept Shippo and Gex in their pokeballs, the latter because of the cold weather.

"Um… I know who took the decorations, but promise not to get mad?"

"I won't, don't worry." Sachi assured with a smile.

"This way, miss!" The child grabbed Sachi's left hand, pulling her towards the woods, away from the market. At first, Sachi followed the child while looking around, but then she noticed how the child was eye-level with her, even though she had to kneel down a bit to be eye level with the child before. "How are you…?"

"Kitty helps me fly, miss!" Kitty? Sachi was confused until she saw wings appear from her back, and the pattern looked familiar too…

"A Butterfree?"

"Yep!"

So Butterfree can carry children… that's something you don't see everyday...

- - - - - - - - - - - -

"This is the place, miss!" The child landed and Kitty moved to perch on his head, the two turning towards Sachi. Sachi looked around, only for her eyes to feast on all the Christmas wreaths all over the lone tree; on the branches, taking up almost every inch of the tree! In the clearing, there was the medium sized tree with snow on the branches and the christmas wreaths, and underneath the tree was a lone bench, semi-covered in snow.

"Holy…" She didn't expect there to be so many! "How did you know…?"

"My name's Emilia! Kitty is my partner!" The child, Emilia, introduced before waving a hand towards the tree, "I found this place a while back, but I was scared to show the adults since I thought they would hurt the pokemon…" At the thought, Emilia's expression turned sad. The Sizzlipede nudged his head on her cheek to get her attention, then motioned towards the tree. The girl turned towards the tree, eyes widening, before turning back to Sachi. "Miss! The pokemon's-"

Looking in the direction Emilia pointed, Sachi took notice of a small figure flying over to the tree with a Christmas Wreath. As the figure stopped to put the decoration on the tree, the teen's eyes widened once she got a good look. That's a-!

"-Comfey!" Sachi uttered her thought out loud, surprised to see a familiar pokemon in Galar, and during the cold weather of all places. The posy picker pokemon turned, only to see Sachi and Emilia. It squealed before flying into the sea of branches and christmas wreaths, but the bright colors contrast with the white and green.

"I think she's lonely, miss." Emilia spoke up, earning Sachi's attention, "I don't think she's taking the wreaths for a bad reason…"

"Lonely?" Sachi glanced back at where Comfey supposedly was, looking at all the wreaths. Lonely? It makes sense… I haven't seen any other Comfey here and they are native to Alola… Although the Christmas Wreaths do look similar to Comfey, like cousins… "Cousins… look-alike…" Could it be? Does Comfey believe that the Christmas Wreaths are their cousins?

Sachi took a step forward, then one more, and more until she was beside the tree. Looking up, she saw the Comfey through the sea of green, glancing at her curiously and with fear.

"...you're lonely, huh?" Sachi began, causing the Comfey to blink, "I think I understand…" With her back facing the tree, she allowed her knees to buckle and fall to the snow on said appendages, looking up at the sky. "I can't say much… but I also was lonely… In that house… I wasn't allowed any company since my father feared something I can't see." Looking down, she saw Tora laying down on her lap, looking up at Sachi. "Even though I found two people who took me in as their siblings, I still couldn't hang out with them as much as I wanted… Once a day… only for a few hours I was allowed… Go to trainer school, then come home immediately. No detours or shortcuts, walk the route given. Father never told me why we left Alola, and I miss my friends and relatives there..." Slowly, Comfey floated away from the Christmas Wreaths and down to Sachi's eye level. "It sucks being lonely and away from Alola… But maybe having a second home isn't so bad…" Sachi glanced towards Comfey, who was staring at Sachi with melancholy, the same emotion she felt back then. "Sorry for all that, must have been boring…" Sachi chuckled, gently pushing Tora from her lap before standing. As she walked over to Emilia, she felt something wrap around her neck.

Once she stood across from the child, Emilia lifted a hand, pointing at her neck, "Miss, is that pokemon yours now?"

"Mine? What do you-" Sachi lifted a hand towards her neck, only to feel flowers, but moving her hand to the left, she felt something small and fluffy. "Comfey?" She earned a small chirp of confirmation, causing the girl to smile. "Y-yeah, if they want to join…"

- - - - - - - - - - - -

"...What the ****?" Seto stared at the tree full of Christmas Wreaths, before looking over to Sachi and Emilia, then zones in on the Comfey around her neck. "Where did-"

"We found the culprit, and she's joining my team. Her name is Pualani, but Pua for short." Sachi replied before turning to the child, "Where do you live sweetie?"

"I don't have a home…" Sachi and Seto stared at the child for a few seconds before exchanging looks, nodding at once. "Take her to grandma's?"

"I'll take her to your Grandmothers." Sachi turned towards the lights and noise from the Christmas Market, pulling Emilia behind her. Kitty stayed on Emilia's head with the Sizzlipede still wrapped up in her scarf and Tora walking behind the two with Aria landing on her right shoulder. "W-Wait! What do I do about the Wreaths?"

"I leave them to you."

"W-What?! Is this because of your ice cream I murdured?!"

"I'm taking Emilia to play some stalls before sending her to Grandma's, but I forgave you for the ice cream already. I don't like holding grudges."

- - - - - - - - - - - -

"Miss, here." Sachi glanced down at Emilia, who lifted a closed hand towards Sachi. Confused, Sachi lifted her hand under, watching as the hand opened, dropping what felt like string and something cold. Once Emilia's hand moved, she saw a red threat with a small silver bell attached: a Soothe Bell.

"Where did you…" Sachi trailed off when Emilia smiled, shaking her head.

"Somewhere. It's a present for helping with the pokemon."

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Pualani joins the team!

Name: Pualani 'Pua' the Comfey
Gender: Female
Ability: Triage
Move Set: Wrap, Vine Whip, Draining Kiss, Flower Shield, Magical Leaf, Synthesis

- - - - - - - - - - - -

At Home:

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Inventory:

Spoiler:

Jay · Jan 10, 2021

Raphael Allard &
Arrietty Maverick
> Route 3
> Past and Presents - Part 1

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The cold was settling into Raphael's bones as he quickly fastened his jacket a little tighter. The sun had set and he was pushing himself through shin high snow in the darkness of Route 3. Motostoke was a warm city, the fire, the industry, it kept that place at a light chill while the world outside was freezing. He had forgotten it was the middle of Winter, let alone late December. As he had been leaving the city, the amount of Christmas decorations being displayed in every window of every store was becoming more and more apparent. The young man was tired of it, he didn't do well with the frosty surroundings, but…

Well at least someone seemed happy.

As the two of them kept trudging through the snow, Vito rolled around with the biggest of smiles on his face. "Sphee!" He cried. "Sphee! Sphee!" With every little hop and bounce out of the wicked white and into view. Once again Raphael was reminded that this pokémon was an ice type. He wondered how Vito would act when Summer rolled (ha) around, maybe with a more chilled out attitude? Raph could only hope. Still, it wasn't so bad, it was nice to see his partner pokémon in higher spirits.

His breath hovering in the air in front of his caught a little in mild surprise as something other than Vito caught his eye however, in the far distance he saw sparkling, shimmering lights. Set up around small tents and stalls, around makeshift wooden lodges that the maps didn't show and strung high on pine trees stretching up to the sky, that weren't supposed to be growing on this route. From his very light research he was sure the only thing on this trail was an abandoned mining facility, so why was this here?

"Why question it, I guess..?" Raph mumbles, pulling his scarf down just enough to catch the attention of his partner pokémon. "C'mon, Vito, might be I can warm up a bit over there."

As the pair arrived at the snow covered stalls and the snow cleared pathways, they were accosted by a festive flurry of fragrance and fun. Raph had almost forgotten about Christmas, how close and looming it was, but this place had no trouble reminding him. His thoughts sought to trace back to his mother, but he tucked those away for now, the guilt and sting of their last encounter was still fresh for him.

Vito on the other hand, was loving every second of this. With glee the ball pokémon bounced around the pathways, giving excited cries at passers by who waved and smiled politely, gestures Raph had to awkwardly return. It was definitely warmer, but Raph already got the feeling that this colourful cacophony of camaraderie and creativity was a little too much for his lackadaisical attitude. He wanted to rest, not celebrate, but alas here he was.

Again, the fact that Vito was enjoying himself certainly kept him going.

The pair continued to parade around the place, Raph swore he started to see some familiar faces here and there… though after Motostoke he still wasn't really ready to engage with his classmates again. The encounter with Melody had been an especially exhausting one as was. So to avoid too much confrontation he steered himself to the far edges of the crowds and gatherings, to where the warmth was there but the people were not. Out of sight, out of mind, that's where he'd stay on this festive day.

Yet this too proved a mistake, as he heard the unfortunately familiar sound of a child sobbing and crying.

Slowly turning his head, like a stone statue being forced to turn, Raph looked towards the sound hoping it was just some kid being bratty to his parents. It was, to his misfortune, not.

A young boy, no older than four or five, stood alone beside a small wooden hut. He was sobbing into his blue wool jacket, with his matching hat drooping in the cold. There was nobody nearby, legitimately nobody at all bar the two of them and Vito. Even as Raph desperately looked around for the adult responsible for this kid, he saw not a soul. Why did these things always happen to him?

"W-What am I- sniff g-goin' to d-do…" He sobbed to himself and Raph sighed, waiting a second to see if anyone else showed up, but before even that second could pass, Vito was rolling in the child's direction. "W-wait, Vito..!" Raph hissed under his breath, but as he moved to follow the Spheal it was already too late. The small boy had noticed him.

"W-who…?" He mumbles, looking up with red puffy eyes at the now slightly cringing and awkward Raphael standing a few feet away. Coughing into his hand to subtly rever this facial expression, Raph stands up straight and looks down to address the kid. "...Yo." He managed to squeeze out, Raphael had no idea how to talk to children.

An awkward silence followed as the boy just looked curiously up at the young man.

"Um… well…" Raphael began rubbing the back of his neck gently, his eyes scrolling downwards to see Vito giving him an encouraging look. Lovely. "What's up kiddo..? Why are you so upset?"

The child seems full of trepidation at first, unsure if he should respond to this mysterious stranger, but eventually his upset comes back and his eyes start to leak. "M-my present for Mommy… it's- it's- gone…." He squeals the last word out with a sob causing Raph to tense up. "H-hey, hold on a sec, it's alright, um… why don't you tell me more yeah?"

It takes a few moments to break through the sobs, but eventually an understanding is reached, Raphael piecing the small words and breaks for crying together until he gets a fair picture of what happened. "So… your sister knocked something out of your hands, a gift and some pokémon snatched it up and ran away?" His expression sank a little in resignation. He could already see where this was going. "Y-yeah…" The little boy mumbled, looking a little embarrassed now, clearly he wanted to ask, but was too shy to do so. A single splinter of sympathy formed in the trainer and he sighed. "C'mon, show me where then… I'll get it back for you."

The small boy lit up like the Christmas trees over yonder and his surprise and glee almost stopped his crying. Almost. "Y-you mean it? Thank you so much mister!" He shuffles a little forward to the snow and manages a smile, a gesture Raph half-heartedly returns.

"But but… we should find my sister first though…" He fidgets a little, pushing his hands together. "She'll be real worried otherwise… She looks a lot like me so, should be easy to find her I hope…"

"Right…" Raph sighs, wondering more by the second where this kids parents are, if he even has them. "If we're doing this… I'm Raphael, er, Raph if it's easier. What's your name kiddo?"

In response to the question the little boy looks up in awe as he leads Raphael away and puts a hand on Vito who is already rolling protectively beside him. "Raff…" The 'f' sound is a little too hard but Raph will take it. "I-I'm Cecil..!"

Elsewhere on the christmas market, a jongleur street performer was drawing a crowd. He made funny faces, twirled batons and juggled balls, all in sync with his partner Ambipom. All around him, his small audience gasped at his coordinated stumbles, and laughed when the Ambipom seemed to pick up his slack with the hands on its tails.

A young girl by the name of Arrietty stood and watched from a little further away. She was barely able to keep both juggler and Pokémon in view, but it was enough to be enjoyable. The show, this place, everything was so nicely decorated for the season. It was bittersweet. Arrietty had always had a fondness for Christmas, but this was her first spent away from her family, since she'd always been allowed to go home for winter break in the years spent at Trainer's School. It was a little lonely, but if nothing else, it made her more thankful for the companions she'd gathered along the way.

Wren, her trusty Torchic, was stood beside her, thoroughly absorbed by the performance of the juggler. He busily shifted from one leg to the other, and even flapped his tiny wings whenever they pulled a particularly impressive stunt, as if it'd make him see better. Even the scorched end of his red scarf bounced up and down with his excitement, and Arrietty stifled a chuckle at the sight.

The pair quietly watched the show this way for a little while. That is, until Arrietty's attention was pulled away. A little girl seemed to be making her way towards them - but not because of the show. She stomped around and pouted angrily, but every now and then, she'd stop and look behind a stall or under a tent flap, only to move along when she didn't find what she was looking for.

Arrietty watched her search around, until the girl suddenly looked up and they locked eyes. Wren, too, noticed the little human, and warily eyed her. That is, until seemed to realise she was in trouble, and took off towards her in a hurry. Arrietty hastily followed behind.

"Are you lost?" The trainer leaned forward and started hesitantly, as Torchic curiously stood beside her. The girl looked over the Pokémon, but her angry expression made Wren raise its guard and scowl back in turn.

"No! Am not!" The girl retorted, as if she'd been crazy to suggest it. "But my brother is!"

"Your brother? You got separated?" Arrietty instinctively looked around, but of course if he'd be that easy to find, she would have already. "What does he look like?"

"His name is Cecil! And he's— he's about this tall," she held up her arm up barely below her own head level, "and… he looks dumb! Cuz he is!"

Arrietty was surprised by the girl's… demeanor, but didn't let that deter her from helping. "And what's your name?"

The girl looked momentarily confused. Her expression relaxed just long enough for Arrietty to see her eyes were a bit red and puffy underneath her little scowl, but she put it back on to respond: "I'm Petal!"

"Then, nice to meet you, Petal. I'm Arrietty." She smiled gently before standing back up straight. "Let's go find your brother, okay?"

"So um… your sister, what's she look like?" Raph asks, a little half-assedly as he marches along the beaten path into more populated areas of the markets behind the small boy. He sighs gently at that, this was exactly where he hadn't wanted to be. Simon, Ruben, Melody, god forbid, Valerie… any one of these excessively tiring people could be meandering these makeshift streets right now. Why could he never find any peace?

Cecil on the other other hand looked back at Raphael momentarily with great confusion, before slowly raising a finger to point at himself in turn. "Well… she looks kinda like me…" He mumbles a bit, considering whether or not the girl in question would approve of that. "But like… a girl, yaknow..?" Raph could only furrow his brow at the approximation. They were twins then? Was that what Cecil was getting at?

"Wi..cku…" Raph heard a tiny raspy voice from his shoulder, his eyes drifted over a little to the source. The waxy body of Lumi the Litwick was haphazardly globbed to his shoulder. The little pokémon body left a residue that was a pain to clean off his coat, but considering how cold it was, having a candle glued to his shoulder wasn't exactly a bad thing. The litwick in question looked deep in thought, as Raph had gotten to know him, he realized that Lumi was a quiet and contemplative thing. More often than not the small pokémon would mumble to itself… and to Raph… presumably thinking its trainer could make sense of its words and understand their profound meanings. It wasn't that bad considering how shy the pokémon was normally, after the incident in Motostoke it seemed that Lumi had come to trust Raph more than the average human. "Mhm, yeah, probably…" Raph mumbled back, humouring the little Litwick's nonsense.

"Wicku! Wicku!" The action was met by excited shouting in his ear and Raph cringed a little at the noise as he noticed a tiny waxy arm pointing outwards into the crowds. The gaze of both Cecil and Raphael, along with Vito who had been rolling alongside the child, turned in the prompted direction.

Sure enough, there was a child matching the description. She looked somewhat like Cecil did, apart from the clearly feminine features… and a rather displeased pout as she stormed about. Immediately Cecil lit up and his little plods through the snow increased in pace and excitement. His little voice bounced about around him, raising just barely over the crowds as little tears of joy formed in his eyes. "Petal! Petaaalll!" He bumbles and Raph slowly follows. How had Lumi done that? Some sort of spiritual ghost stuff? He didn't feel it was prudent to question.

The little girl finally notices the approaching boy and turns to him. Her eyes are shut in a show of frustration as she waves her arms around in the air, before exclaiming and moving towards him in turn. "There you are, you dummy!" She shuffles through the snow quickly and bonks the little boy on the head fiercely, causing Raph to cringe and Cecil himself to whine and rub the sore spot.

"Hey now, I don't think that's nec-"

Raphael takes a few more steps forward, about to scold the little girl for her harsh treatment of her brother, but as he does so he notices that she too is not alone. A few paces behind her and now also arriving at this scene, was someone Raph (of course) recognized. He didn't know why he was surprised at this point. Yet the girl he was confronted with brought him significantly less trepidation than others that may have appeared. Arrietty Maverick, the first classmate he had properly run into on this journey of his. The girl with the relaxed, how could he describe it, energy about her? He remembered her vividly from their ill begotten fishing trip.

"...oh, um." He starts, unsure of how to address the latest in a string of fate twisted coincidences. "...hi, Arrietty, right?"

Arrietty was about to give out to Petal herself, when she noticed Cecil was accompanied as well. Another of her classmates, but one she'd seen before. He called her name, but— she couldn't remember his. Slight panic slid across her face momentarily as she realised her brain hadn't registered the name, even though she remembered exactly when he told her...

"Oh, hello… and er, yeah," she responded quietly, still frantically racking her brain for his name - and worried just how obvious she was making it by now - to eventually settle on an "Um, nice to see you again." Yet obvious it was, as Raphael had already raised an eyebrow at her behavior. He pondered the situation for a few moments, before a sort of realization dawned on him as to the situation he found himself in.

She didn't remember his name. So this was what that felt like.

He rubbed his chin a little and sighed. He supposed it wasn't too big a deal and he could tell Arrietty was flustered about it. It wasn't a purposeful choice to forget, as was often the case with him, the poor girl just couldn't remember. He could rectify that though. Kneeling down in the snow, his lazy gaze turned to the small girl who he definitely hadn't met before.

Cecil and Petal had already found some shared understanding after the girl's needless strike on her brother. Cecil himself was now sporting a small goofy grin, while his sister pouted and looked away from him. Both were holding each other's hands tightly all the same. "You're Petal, aren't you? My name's Raphael. Your brother tells me you had something taken from you?"

Raphael. Right. Arrietty repeated the name in her head in a furious attempt to commit it to memory properly this time, but as a result had to do a double take for what followed. "Wait, what?"

Petal crossed her little arms and looked angrily between her and Raphael. "Well, yah! We lost the present for our parents…" Her voice slowly trailed off towards the end, before she continued in full force. "Cuz a stupid Pokémon took it away outta nowhere!"

"A stupid pokémon huh..?" Raph sighs, rubbing the back of his neck. Another search and rescue, but this time for a Christmas present? He really was developing a bad habit of getting himself into danger for stupid reasons. Still… As he looked at these kids, talking about getting a gift for their parents, it sent his thoughts back to his own Mother. A pang of guilt hung in his gut and he furrowed his brow. "...where did this happen, can you remember?"

"Pfft, I 'unno…" Petal mumbled, her gaze turning to Raphael as her pout only grew stronger. "Cecil was the one who dropped it!" She whined, shaking her brother's hand roughly, causing him to look a little downcast, tears returning to his eyes. Raph distinctly remembered Cecil saying Petal had knocked it from his hands, but it wasn't his place to mediate their sibling disagreements. Instead, he turned to look at Cecil expectantly, until the little boy spoke up. "It was… near that old spooky buildin'..." He rubbed his eyes and sniffled. "The one nobody goes ta any- anymore…"

Old spooky building? Raphael's expression turned to one of confusion, he didn't know the lay of the land here well enough to be sure of what they meant. With a small mote of hesitation, he turned to Arrietty. She had followed Petal after all, she was stuck in this mess just the same as he was. With a lazy tone of voice and a tired look in his eyes, as if already accepting this was his day plan now, he asked. "Any idea where these two are going on about?"

Arrietty tapped her cheek in contemplation, listening carefully this time. An old, spooky building? What would these children consider spooky, even? Oh, wait a second… "Er, there is that old mining facility nearby, I think. I passed it on the way here…"

"Thassit!" Petal exclaimed, pointing her finger directly at Arrietty. "That's where that stupid bird flew off to! But it went past the fence and Cecil didn't wanna go underneath, so we couldn't go after it!"

"Underneath the fence…?" So it was off-limits, abandoned, and likely about to fall apart? This was starting to sound more dangerous by the second. Arrietty began thinking it might be easier to just replace the present instead. Raphael's mind was on the same wavelength. This whole thing was quickly becoming more trouble than it was worth, it seemed both trainers were on board with that. What could two kids have gotten anyway? Surely between Raph and Arri they could pool together enough Poké to purchase a replacement?

"Alright kids, this sounds like trouble, dangerous trouble, so-" As he mumbled out those words he saw Cecil's face drop even more and even Petal started to look down in the dumps. If that wasn't enough, Vito too was looking up at him pleadingly.

His mind went back to his mother one more time, then to the events of Motostoke. This lackadaisical attitude he had, always taking the easy way out. Looking at the situation in front of him, was that attitude going to hurt these kids? That wasn't what Christmas was about in the end, was it? Getting a replacement wasn't what these two wanted. They wanted to give their parents something they worked together to obtain. If they took a replacement gotten by someone else, that really wasn't the same, was it? Raph furrowed his brow and closed his eyes, only to open them again with his lazy, vapid expression forced out, replaced by a smoldering gaze of determination.

"...so, you two should stay here, where it's safe." He states plainly, but the tone of his voice is clearly changed. The two children light up with hope, though Petal quickly catches herself and returns to pouting. "Arrietty." Raph turns his gaze to the other trainer and gives a small, awkward smile. "I um, I know it's a lot to ask… but could you show me the way to that factory?" He put the request out there, before his expression became serious again. "...I'm going to get that present back, but I don't know the way myself."

The look on his face was enough to tell Arrietty he'd relented, and while it scared her a little, the children lighting back up tugged at her heartstrings as well. She'd lost count of the amount of times she'd bailed her own little sister out of sticky situations like this, and for a season like this… if she couldn't see her own family, perhaps she and Raph could bring joy to theirs.

A small, but determined nod. "I only know where the path branches off from the main road, but we should be able to find it. Follow me."

LinearAxel · Jan 10, 2021

There's something really satisfying about walking in snow. The gentle crunch that echoes through the quieted route makes every step towards the trainer's destination feel somehow very powerful. It's also somehow peaceful: The stillness that comes from the blanket of snow absorbing sound waves and the number of wild pokemon hunkered down in their dens to hide away from bitter chill create an almost eerily calm atmosphere. Normally, Melody would pop in her earbuds; though, considering everything that went down in Motostoke, she's kind of grateful for the chance to quietly refle--

"LAST CHANCE TO SIGN UP FOR THE FESTIVAL FUN-TIME FLURRY!"

Well… so much for that. Melody glances over towards the hillside that she had every intention of walking around.

"LAST CHANCE TO GET YOUR HANDS ON THE GRAND PRIZE!"

… Free stuff though.

Melody darts her eyes between the flat path she had been walking and the young man waving papers around in the air.

Eh… won't hurt to look into. She turns and half-heartedly jogs towards the excitable young man. "What kind of prize are we talking about?" Melody asks.

"Friendship!" He beams. "They say those who run across the finish line together will be bound together by the red pinky string of fate! A true unbreakable bond!"

"Uh… huh." Melody slowly begins to back away.

"Also 500 poke." The male adds as an after-thought.

… She could use the extra cash. Supplies for this journey aren't paying for themselves. "... Registration is up the hill?"

"Yes ma'am!"

She's pretty fast. This could be some pretty easy money. "Cool. Thanks." She waves dismissively before trudging her way up the hill. However, the sight she stumbled upon there was a less pleasant one to say the least. Her classmate, Pia, also seemed to have been attracted by the Poké. Of course she was…

Pia turned around to meet Melody's eyes, while she kept her neutral face on, her actual mood became a bit more sour. The loud classmates she mentioned earlier? Yeah, this happened to be one of them. "Melody…" She mumbled a bit bitterly. "I had not expected you here."

Something about the way Pia talked had always brought forth an almost instinctual desire for Melody to roll her eyes. Her tone has always shouted I'm trying so hard to be important and I'm so much better than you. "Let me guess… you're here for this flurry festival thing?" Melody asks as she stuffs her hands in her jacket pocket. She decides against making any comments about the money. They'll… probably disqualify her if this comes to blows before the race even starts. She'll try to be civil.

Pia crossed her arms and looked away from Melody for a second. "He said there would be a reward… And Milla was really excited about taking part." the girl answered her question, introducing the Pichu that was on her shoulder as well. Milla was much more friendly than Pia currently was. Pia knew Melody didn't like her so it was a waste of energy to play pretend. Milla was different. She held her paw up in an attempt to greet the other girl. "They told us we couldn't join unless we have a partner though." Pia added, waving her hand in annoyance.

Melody quickly takes her left hand from her pocket to cover one of the Pokeballs hanging on her belt. Annabelle hasn't attempted Pikacide since she was caught-- though that might only be because they hadn't come within ten feet of anything related to the Pikachu family. She's not sure what the ragdoll Pokemon will do with one so close. She's in her Pokeball, sure, but she's proven that she can pop right out of that if she feels so inclined.

Her right hand reaches out and gives the Pichu's raised hand a tiny shake. What? It's not Milla's fault she's Pia's Pokemon. "Wait… it's a tag team race?" Melody asks before having an annoyed sigh. When that guy talked about forging a friendship, she figured he meant with their Pokemon. Would have been real nice for him to tell her about this. "Guess we're ****ed the--" A thought crosses Melody's mind. A thought that makes her want to slam her head into a door for thinking.

Red eyes slowly go from the registration table to Pia and then back again. Everyone else seems to be in pairs already. "... I'll team up with you. If you want."

Pia's heart sunk right into her stomach for a moment, hearing Melody willingly team up with her. She didn't even want to team up with her in class. What was this now? The girl glanced back at Melody, then towards the registration desk. She had already checked her surroundings and knew there were no other people available. She sighed. She had a heavy urge to make a remark on this but this was not the time to pick a fight. She was still suspicious of Melody wanting to team up with her but she yielded. For now…

"... that would be nice." Pia was able to get out of her mouth with a lot of effort. She really needed the Poké from this reward. She was literally broke.

It's pretty obvious that neither one of them is thrilled about this. Still, if Melody can say one positive thing about Pia, it's that (at least when it comes to money) she is incredibly driven. Of all the people she could be paired up with for this… it could be worse. "Did they tell you the rules to this thing?" Melody asks as she starts walking towards the table, motioning with her head for Pia to come along.

"Pretty much anything goes except that we're obviously not allowed to damage the obstacles and our Pokémon are not allowed to get too far ahead of us." Pia explained. In her eye corners she noticed a pair of whom a young man was wearing an awfully stuffed backpack. It stroke the girl as odd. Why would you wear something so heavy for this flurry?

"That's fair I guess." Melody thinks aloud. It levels the playing field for people who don't have a flying type. She could easily send Bishop right over the obstacles and straight for the prize if that kind of rule wasn't in place (same with Nightshot, though she's reluctant to call him out in the cold since he has no fur nor feathers to shield him.)

Melody raises her hand in a half-hearted wave towards the woman manning the sign-in table.

"Good morning! Are you here to sign up for the--"

"Would I walk all the way over here if the answer was a no?" Melody cuts her off to the amusement of Pia who tried not to snicker.

"I… guess not." The woman says after an uncertain pause. "Do you have a partner?"

"Yeah, she's right there." Melody motions to Pia. She notes that her reluctant race pair is looking somewhat intensely at someone, though she doesn't take the time to look herself. "Do we have to sign that we won't come after you if we break a leg or anything?"

"Just… sign here with your name and your Pokemon's names." The woman says, not caring to spend any more time with this hostile young girl than necessary.

Pia took the pen first and wrote down her name and signed Milla up to be her Pokémon partner. She thought that would be for the best. Prim was too curious to actually be able to stay focussed on the race. There was a significant chance something else would attract her attention. Soma had no arms. All things considered, and yes that also meant the chance that Melody would ditch her or something, Milla was the best choice. She gave the pen to Melody after she was done. "Who is going to be your Pokémon partner?"

Nightshot would be the best choice by far: He's gotten super fast over the course of their journey together… however, she doesn't want her partner Pokemon to freeze and be completely miserable for the chance at a little bit of money. Annabelle doesn't have very long legs (she's assuming she has legs under that disguise) and there's a good chance she would interrupt the race to throw Milla into the frozen lake or bury her in the snow. With that in mind, Melody taps the switch on one of her Pokeballs. A burst of energy leaps forward and then up towards her shoulder, gaining shape as it does. The small bird latches onto Melody's shoulder and ruffles his feathers, his little bishop charm chiming softly as he does so. "I think Bishop is my best bet."

"What a good choice!" The lady behind the desk cheers upon seeing the Pokémon, still trying to stay kind despite the obvious tension that was brought to her table when those two arrived. Pia wrote down Melody's name and put down Bishop as her partner. With that, their registration was taken care of.

"Where do we gather?" Pia asked the woman, who almost seemed to sigh in relief as the less hostile girl of the two spoke to her instead.

"You see the group of people over there? That's where you start. Good luck!" The woman pointed in the direction Pia had already glanced towards earlier, all too eager to have them leave and let her be. Pia no longer saw the couple with the heavy backpack but she did see now where the starting point was. Two pillars with a banner in the middle saying "Funtime Flurry" indicated the starting point.

"Thanks." Melody gives one of her trademark almost-waves before making her way towards the group. She can feel Bishop bouncing against her shoulder in anticipation. His gleaming red eyes are focused intently on the hilltop. With his excellent eye-sight, he can probably see the little red ribbon even from here. "Someone's eager." Melody says. The Rookidee lets out a determined chirp in response, his feathers ruffling to make himself look bigger.

"Alright! Gather around! We will start in five minutes! Get in your starting positions!" A loud and manly voice shouted through a megaphone for everyone to hear. It seemed Pia and Melody were just on time for the actual Flurry.

Melody folds her arms over her chest as they make their way to the starting position, fully prepared to elbow someone sharply if they tried to bump into her.

"Greetings, everyone!" The man calls into his megaphone once everyone is in position. "Welcome to the fourth annual Festival Funtime Flurry! For our newcomers, allow me to quickly explain the rules! In front of you is a football. When the bell rings, you and your partner will need to kick the football back and forth to one another until you get to the second obstacle. If you abandon your ball before you get to the second obstacle, you will be disqualified. If you attempt to go around any obstacles put in your path rather than going through them, you will be disqualified. If you get too far ahead of your human partner or your Pokemon gets too far ahead of you, you will be disqualified. Does everyone understand?"

Around the duo erupts a cheer of excitement-- while Melody rolls her eyes.

"Wonderful! Now! Get your last minute stretches in, the race will start in three minutes!"

Melody heaves a sigh while stretching her arms over her head. "Have you ever played football before?" She asks her less than thrilled partner. Her grandmother insisted she play when she was younger, something about her needing an outlet for all her pent up energy.

"I've done it when I was younger, yeah." Pia shrugged. It wasn't her strongest suit but how hard could it be? "I'll have Milla as backup in case I miss it. Don't worry." the girl mentioned, throwing her Pichu a nod who in response threw the girls a thumbs up.

"Works for me." Melody nods, giving the electric Pokemon a thumb's up.

Melody spends the last minute or so looking at their competition. There's everything from an old couple dressed as Mr. and Mrs. Claus to a pair of toddlers. A confident looking backpacker catches her eye. She understands wanting to keep to a brand, but shouldn't he leave the massive backpack behind? Is he going for the 'take off the weights' trope in anime where he has to wear the backpack to make it fair for everyone else?

Those questions will remain unanswered. Mere seconds after seeing the backpacker, the bell that signals the start of the race chimes, signalling for the race to begin.

Immediately Pia started running for their ball, as did everyone else. The weird part is that looking at the others, the ball seemed… odd? Pia kicked it and almost fell over, not expecting it to be this… heavy.

"What the heck is this ball?! It's super heavy!" Pia complained.

Melody reaches out and grabs the back of Pia's hood to keep her from falling back. What the hell? Pia always came across as a little frail, but there's no way she's frail enough to find a football heavy. Melody rares her foot back and gives the ball a light kick; nothing impressive, but enough to send a regular ball rolling a good foot. This one; however, didn't budge.

"Hey, judges!" The punk teen shouts. "What the hell?!"

A youngster comes rushing over with a second ball in hand. Taking a look around the starting line, two other pairs seem to be having the same issue. Did these people really get medicine balls confused with footballs?

"S-sorry. Take this one, hurry!" The youngster says as he sets the ball down.

Melody glares ahead. While some of the challengers had stopped upon realizing their competition was delayed, others took the chance to get a head start and continued on. The race just started and they've already got a lot of ground to make up for.

A very annoyed Melody forcefully kicks the new ball ahead. "We can still make it if we haul ass."

A half-cursing Pia shot the ball away from them, shooting slightly off. It wasn't that bad for someone who hadn't played football that often, mainly because she had no one to play with, but Milla was quick to smash the ball back towards Melody with her tail, fixing the angle Pia had shot in. Surprised by her own "skills" she and Melody kicked back and forth until they arrived at the new obstacle.

"Looks like we have to climb this." Pia said, examining and judging from how everyone else was approaching it. The only weird thing was that… they couldn't really climb it either.

"Easy enough." Melody says as they run closer to the rock wall. As they grew closer, however, Melody became less sure of her words. She sees one man get about three feet off the ground before falling-- and a girl who is running along the bottom, clutching at each rock before moving on to the next ,as if she can't get a good grip on any of them.

Melody kicks the football into the goal at the first checkpoint and runs towards the rock wall. Instead of lunging onto one of the rocks and crashing back into the snow, as she sees a Hiker do from the corner of her eye, she runs one of her hands along a rock and scoffs. "They're covered in some kind a… wax?"

"What?" Pia raised an eyebrow and with one finger she touched the rocks on the wall and felt the substance between her fingers. "What the heck, you're right." The girl searched around and it seemed everyone was having issues because of that. "Why would they do this though? Why make it so unnecessarily difficult?" The girl complained again. It was at that moment that she saw one of the walls was in fact, not covered in wax. The couple getting over it had an easier time than the rest at least. Pia nudged Melody's shoulder and pointed towards the wall. "Let's use that one." She said before running off, expecting the other girl to follow her.

Hold the **** on, Melody thinks to herself. If the entire wall was coated in wax, that would be (stupid and dangerous) fair… but why would that one not be? No time to think about it, they need to get up there before more people catch on and a fight breaks out for who can get to it first. Melody darts along behind Pia while Bishop hovers over the green-eyes girl's head. As she starts to climb, he hooks his talons into her backpack's handle and begins to flap his wings upward in an attempt to keep her from fumbling back down. This wall was indeed not as slippery as the rest of them. How strange.

Pia held out her hand to pull Melody up once she was at the top, together they darted forward. She could already see the hill they needed to be at and the closer they came, the more people they were passing. A lot of them were having trouble with the assignments like they were but there was one obstacle that kept being either not slippery or… tainted with. Pia remembered the couple with a huge backpack for a moment until they arrived at one of their last obstacles. They had to crawl underneath a net but the moment Milla ducked underneath it, she got stuck in something…

"Not again?!" Pia called out, trying to pull her Pichu partner out of the mess.

Melody lets out a loud groan of annoyance as Bishop flaps his wings angrily at the… glue? Tar? "How the hell are we supposed to crawl through this?" Melody asks. They can't go around it, that must go against the rules-- although her patience for said rules is draining very quickly. "Do you have a water type or something we could use so spray this junk away?"

Pia shook her head. Soma was a grass type and didn't have any moves that could clean this mess up. Prim was a flying type and Milla an electric type. None of her Pokémon had anything that could clean this up.

"Do you have a fire type? We could just… you know, burn it dry…" Pia suggested but the moment the words left her mouth, she realized how stupid that sounded. "... Yo Mel… I think someone is sabotaging this thing." Pia dropped her suspicions out of nowhere. "Think about it. There's constantly one obstacle out of many that is completely decent compared with the rest."

"No fire power he--" Melody's eyes narrow. Pia's absolutely right. The few normal footballs, the one strip of rock wall that was void of wax. Someone's screwed with the course, and they're probably so far ahead by now that they can take their sweet time to **** it up even more. Who, though? Who cares that much? Who would come prepared enough to--

Melody's mind flashed back to the starting line. The backpacker. He was one of the ones that went on ahead when some of them were stalled… and she hasn't seen him since. Because he's charged so far ahead.

"The ****in' backpacker!"

"Indeed. I thought he seemed odd. Like, why would you join a race while dragging along something that looked so heavy." Pia nodded. "Do you think what I'm thinking?" She asked the other girl.

"That he was hauling around a bunch of junk he could use to screw us over? And that the only way to win this thing is to catch up to him and kick his ass?" Melody asks, forcefully punching her right fist into her left palm. "Yeah, I'm thinkin' it."

"Let's go teach someone some manners." Pia said with an ominous smirk straight from hell. This dude was in for a threat.

"Now you're speaking my language." Melody says with a matching smirk. She takes one step forward before freezing. Wait, right, they need to get around this thing. If they try to go around it and people cry foul, they'll likely be sent down the hill before they can get to their target.

Melody studies the other challengers and sees a Hiker calling out a Numel. The camel Pokemon opens its mouth and releases a steady stream of embers that dance across the sticky gel, slowly burning it away before being snuffed out by the snow below.

Melody doesn't have a fire Type… but she might have the next best thing. She adjusts her footing to be slightly in front of Pia (in the hopes of blocking Milla from view) and grabs one of the Pokeballs from her belt. "Annabelle, give us a hand."

The Mimikyu bursts out of her Pokeball and tilts her head curiously towards her trainer.

"See that Nummel? I need you to use Copycat and do what it's doing."

"Mimi!" Annabelle leaps up and does a small spin. After only a few seconds of studying the Numel, she faces the netting and releases her own ember. Unfortunately, it makes the snow a bit more like slush that they're going to have to crawl through, but a way across is a way across. "'At a girl." Melody grins before returning Annabelle to her ball and quickly hoisting herself down underneath the net. "Let's go kick some ass-- I mean… teach him some manners."

"Heh, yeah let's go." Pia agreed, returning with her own smirk. Together they overcame the obstacle net that was previously blocking their way. Them working together was quite a sight, if only they had done this in the trainer school too, what kind of obstacles would they have overcome then? The thought lingered within Pia. Melody didn't seem to be only loud and annoying. She could be surprisingly cooperative too. With her and Melody exchanging glances as they ran ahead, the victi- I mean the culprit came in sight.

"Over there, Mel!" Pia yelled out and pointed. The ominous smirk on both girls' faces returned and both ran alongside each other towards the man that was the cause of all this. Where was his partner anyway?

"Hey, asshole!" Melody shouts. The backpacker turns around with a look of surprise. How did they catch up to him?! Before he can even think to play naive, the punk teen charges towards him and rams into his chest with her shoulder. The heavy backpack makes it impossible to maintain balance, and he crashes into the snow-- sort of like a turtle rolled onto his back."What the hell's the matter with you?!"

"That's what we want to ask. Mind to tell us what is inside that backback of yours and why all the obstacles except the ones you took were sabotaged?" Pia immediately went in for the attack. She crossed her arms and stood in front of him. Pia was rather short so this was one of those few moments where her stance really was intimidating. It showed, because the guy grabbed for his Pokéball and summoned a Beedrill. "Wow wow!" Pia stumbled back upon having the huge Wasp Pokémon be summoned in her face.

"You can choose here! Either let me go or I'll have Beedrill blast some holes in your pretty faces." The smirk of the guy after he said that was enough to piss both Melody and Pia up simultaneously.

"Bishop, Pluck!"

At Melody's words, the bird Pokemon swoops down from the sky and crashes into the Beedrill beak first, forceful enough to send the over-sized insect away from Pia. His wings flap angrily and he lets out a rather annoyed squawk in the Backpacker's direction.

"Does that answer your question?" Melody asks with a sneer.

The backpacker could only grit his teeth at her supposed answer. "Beedrill! Teach these girls a lesson with Pursuit!"

The Beedril leaped in towards Melody's Rookidee according to its trainer's commands.

"Fury Attack!"

Bishop's beak begins to glow as it flies right into the pursuit to deliver a vicious peck-- then another-- and another.

Melody breaks focus from the battle for several seconds in order to glance at Pia. "You okay?" That Beedrill got awful close.

"Yeah, don't worry about me." Pia replied super annoyed at the backpacker. Having gotten the time to readjust to the situation, she shifted her gaze towards the Pichu beside her. "Hit him with the best Thunder punch you can give this asshole." Pia and Milla shared a thumbs up with each other. The mouse Pokémon got into the battle as well and was all too ready to punch this outgrown bee in the face… and so she did. She ran towards the Beedril at full speed and punched it in the face. The reaction from trainer and Pokémon both was telling that they didn't like that.

"Gangin' up on us, are ya?" The backpacker asks with a sneer.

"Oh, sod off! Now you're worried about what's fair?" Melody shouts back. "Bishop, Hone Claws!"

"You little-- Beedrill, Poison Jab!"

As Bishop's claws begin to glow a dangerous red, Beedrill flies back towards Milla at full-speed and returns the little mouse's punch with one of its own, the horror on Pia's face being visible as she saw her baby-Pokémon getting hurt. Milla assured her she was okay though. "Thundershock that bastard!"

Although Pia commanded her to do an electric-type move against the Beedrill, Milla hesitated for a moment before following them. Instead of frying the Beedrill, the thundershock that emerged from her hit herself instead. It seems Milla was confused from that last attack. "Milla?!" Pia cried out.

The beedrill seemed to enjoy the suffering of this mouse Pokémon, much like the backpacker enjoyed messing up these nuisances. With a smirk he commanded his Beedrill again. "Hit that lil' birdie with all ya've got. Pin Missile." He sounded pleased. The huge wasp now went for Melody's rookidee instead, shooting missiles at the thing as he closed in on the flying-type Pokémon.

"What happened to Milla?" Melody asks, her eyes darting between the gigantic bee zooming towards her Pokemon and the tiny mouse. Beedrill didn't use a move that could confuse her, did it? "Bishop, rise and Pluck!"

Bishop's wings flap quickly as he flies over the majority of the missiles (though a few smash into his chest) his beak begins to glow as he delivers a powered-up Pluck straight into the gigantic bee's chest. The Beedrill dodged and and zoomed around it like an annoying fly to tire it out. The moment Milla seemed to have returned to her senses and was ready to get back into the fight, the backpacker called out again. "Finis' off that Pichu!"

Beedrill made a 180° turn straight back to Milla to finish her off with another Pursuit. "No! Milla, Dodge! Dodgeee!!" Pia called out, but Milla seemed to have lost her ability to move.

"Bishop!" Melody shouts with a hint of urgency that wasn't there prior. "Don't let him get to Milla!"

Bishop flies after the Beedrill, flapping his wings as frantically as he can, and yet, with every flap, the Beedrill seems to get further and further away. The small bird cries out in aggravation. If only he was faster! If only he was stronger. He's fought in so many battles since he started traveling with Melody. The smart boy's bug, the ghosts of the foggy tower, that big, fat Greedent. He was stronger. He was stronger because of all the crazy adventures he had gone on with Melody.

And now… Melody asked him to do something, and he can't let her down! The squawks of aggravation turn to a cry of determination as the little, flapping body begins to glow. Suddenly, Bishop's body is overtaken by a blinding light. His wings expand, then his body. His beak and talons grow longer.

Bishop has evolved into Corvesquire!

Larger wings flap powerfully and force the flying type ahead of the bug type. He scoops Milla off the ground with his talons before tossing her up just enough for her to land on his back.

Milla blinked a few times as she had to take in what just happened. "Pi?" She looked around her, now up in the air. The worried look on her trainer's face said enough about what an awful time she had given her and so she quickly assured Pia she was fine. Pia noticeably seemed less tense. Though, she still didn't like the thought of her baby-Pokémon getting in battles, she called out her next command.

"Use Bishop to get closer to the Beedrill and punch it in the face!" Pia jumped with her fist held high, pumped to finish this sudden battle. The backpacker wasn't looking so good after witnessing the evolution of Melody's Rookidee.

"Use Fury Attack with Milla's thunder punch!" Melody called out as well. Together, the two Pokémon made incredible speed towards the defenseless Beedrill. Milla jumped off Bishop's back and punched the Wasp Pokémon with a full blown Thunder Punch.

As Bishop's beak bombarded the Beedrill's chest with a number of quick, angry pecks. The double-assault is too much for the large bee to handle, and as soon as the attacks end, it falls heavily into the snow.

Corvesquire lets out an excited cry of victory as Melody locks eyes with the concerned looking backpacker. "Now what, jackass?"

"I-I…" The backpacker looked stunned, not expecting these girls to set up such a fight… But he was also angry that he got beat by ****in' girls. "I-I'll make you pay for this!!" He yelled, getting up and running off like a child that just had his football stolen. He forgot Beedrill though and ran back for a brief moment to call his Pokémon back… The sight was quite silly to be honest but it made both the girls chuckle.

"Let's go! We can still make it!" Pia called and started running again. She was surprised that no one had caught up to them yet.

Melody finds herself torn. She wants to charge after that guy and kick in his face-- but Pia can't cross the finish line without her. She flashes a determined grin. "Yeah!" She says as she charges after the other trainer. Bishop flies along between the pair, keeping Milla on his back.

The girls and their Pokémon ran to the finish as fast as they could, both of them laughing and occasionally looking back. With the ribbon in sight and the finish in their reach, people started catching up. The group wasn't nearly as big as what they started with and the sabotaged obstacles was most likely the reason for this. A lot of couples will probably have given up by now and abandoned the flurry. It was good to see they weren't the only ones still heading for the prize.

"WE HAVE A WINNER!!"

"Score!" Melody shouts as the duo cross the finish line together. Thrusting her arm upward victoriously, she shows the small ribbon that awaited them at the top of the hill. The small crowd that had gathered (as well as a few contestants that gave up after the second obstacle) politely applauded for the team.

"Pia McGuire! Milla! Melody Argent! Bishop! Congratulations!" The announcer calls out before walking over to the pair with two small, open boxes in his hands. "On behalf of the Festival Funtime Flurry, allow me to present you both with these Destiny Knots." With a grand smile he holds the boxes out. Inside both are what appear to be small balls of red yarn and two 500 Poké bills. "May the bonds you formed today live on in your hearts forever."

Pia was absolutely exhausted but the prize made it all worth it. 500 Poké and an item she could use for later! Though she hated it to admit it, she couldn't had done it hadn't Melody offered to team up with her.

"… Thanks for today. I… I guess." Pia spoke quietly to Melody, looking away from her to hide her embarrassment. She only hoped Melody wasn't going to demand something for teaming up with her. Milla was a lot more receptive of the help and jumped up and down in excitement and happiness. She just won her first ever battle and contest! What a day!

"Oh, yeah, no problem." Melody truly expected to have to carry Pia through that race. She was shocked to see how willing the other girl was to get her hands dirty: Crawling through slush, chasing down a cheater, hell, she even climbed over that wall like a champ. Melody folds her arms over her chest and glances awkwardly off to the side. "... You're not so bad, McGuire."

Milla's happiness breaks Melody's uncertain expression and she cracks a tiny smile. "You're one tough cookie, li'l dudette." She gives the small mouse a thumb's up, her outstretched arm serving as a sudden perch for Bishop to land on.

The bird gives Melody's hand a small nudge, causing the punk teen to raise an eyebrow. "Uh?"

He gives another nudge.

"... You want the ribbon?"

"Squire!" He calls with an eager nod.

"You do you, buddy." Melody says before handing the red ribbon to the Corvesquire.

Bishop takes the ribbon in his beak and flutters down beside Milla, placing the ribbon atop her head. The gesture from the bird Pokémon surprised both Pia and Milla as they watched Milla squirm and blush at the other Pokémon's kindness. Milla bowed in gratitude several times and gave him a warm smile spreading to her cute sparkly eyes. She was going to treasure this ribbon for sure.

"Bishop and Milla have made fast friends I see." Pia spoke a bit surprised.

Bishop coos happily before returning the bow with one of her own. Melody doesn't try to hide the look of surprise on her face. This is the first time Bishop's done so much as glance at another trainer's Pokemon outside of battle. Did evolution change him, or is he just that impressed with the little mouse? "Huh. What d'you know?" She says with a small snicker. "They did make a pretty *****in' team together."

"They really did." Pia chuckled and rubbed a bit of her hair out of her face. "So do we." She added to it quickly after with a smirk.

Once again Melody finds herself caught off-guard-- though it only lasts for a split second. After that, the punk teen returns the smirk and holds her fist out to her fellow trainer. "Let's kick ass together again sometime, yeah?"

Fen-Fen · Jan 10, 2021

Haleigh Windsor
17 | Female | From Circhester and Spikemuth

Corey (Male, Blaze) - Flame Charge, Double Kick, Headbutt, Agility

Coraline (Female, Weak Armor) - Tackle, Harden, Astonish, Spite

Cornelius (Male, Synchronize) - Disarming Voice, Confusion, Draining Kiss, Hypnosis

Orion (Male, Snow Cloak) - Powder Snow, Tail Whip

Letting it Go

A few more days had passed since Haleigh's run-in with Ruben at the abandoned publishing house. The punk trainer had found herself camped out in a clearing surrounded by some trees, probably about a day or two outside of the Galar Mine. Her Pokemon were out of their Pokeballs, with Coraline hovering above doing her own thing, Cornelius meditating on a tree stump and Corey and her newest companion - Orion - cuddled up next to her in the tent, already getting ready to sleep.

The baby Vulpix was on the precipice of falling asleep as the warm food in his tummy and the affectionate pets Haleigh was giving him were lulling him there. It made his trainer happy that his appearance was already dramatically better from when she first met him, his snow white fur clean and groomed, his movements lively and his body starting to put on the extra weight it needed.

However, despite the contentment of her Pokemon, Haleigh herself was not in any real position to rest. It wasn't because of the weather or the accommodations; she was already accustomed to sleeping in a tent and both her Pokemon and her clothes kept her plenty warm. No, the source of restlessness was in something more internal.

It all came back to what those ghost Pokemon had shown her and Ruben.

She dug through her coat pocket, frantically pulling out the phone that had served her loyally for years. The most recent number - Ruben's - had been added after their encounter in Route 3. Before then, there was Achille's number that she got after the run in with the smuggler. Then there were some miscellaneous people's numbers she had gotten, maybe some local kids in Wedgehurst or something? Scrolling further down the list, she found Simon's and Valerie's numbers.

She smirked. See, not so lonely after all, right?

"Is she the only one?"

Her smirk faltered, the look on his face when he said that etched in her mind.

Damn it, she was not going to cry again. That would be weak. She couldn't afford to be weak again. It was bad enough Ruben and Achille saw that out of her.

"All you're doing is trying to bury your own insecurities under bravado at everyone else's expense."

The punk teen started to sit up slowly, trying not to not stir Orion or Corey from their cozy slumber. She managed to wriggle away from them, put them next to each other and bundled them up in her blanket. After crawling out of the tent, Haleigh quickly got up and started walking. Where was she going to go at this time of night? Arceus knew, but she didn't really care where.

She exhaled loudly, her breath leaving a smoky wisp in the air. Her fists were clenched tightly in her jacket pocket, trying to hold on to the roiling, simmering emotions that lay underneath. Any other sane creature had long since fallen asleep and huddled up for warmth.

"You're damn lucky we had someone notice you walk towards here, Arceus knows what could have happened if I hadn't been here!"

Her breathing started to hitch and the tears were welling up in her eyes again.

Just as Haleigh thought she was all alone, however, the small crunching of feet stepping over snow caught her attention.

"R-Ralts?" Cornelius looked up at his trainer, a note of concern evident in his cry.

"I-I'm fine Cornelius. I just need to be alone for a little bit."

"Ralts!" The white and green Pokemon frantically followed after her trainer, ignoring her trainer's command.

"I'll be fine, r-really. Stop following me." Even she knew how stupid it was to lie to a Pokemon that was well known for being empathic, but she just needed to get away from it all.

The Ralts managed to keep pace, panting as her trainer's walk grew into a light jog. He wasn't going to leave her trainer out all alone in the cold, especially feeling the way she was right then and there.

"Cornelius, stop it…" The straining in her voice grew stronger as the first tear started rolling down her cheek. "I'm f-fine."

The Ralts wouldn't relent and managed to just barely keep pace. He had known her trainer to be quite sensitive, but he knew she tried to hold back. It was like a dam that she had set up to prevent it all coming out at once, always keeping some of it buried inside of her.

"I-I'm fine…" Her voice was barely above a whisper at that point. Her walking had slowed down as she headed towards an oak tree, leaning up against it.

Cornelius caught up with her as he grimaced, preparing for the inevitable.

The tears started coming down, her breaths stuttering and her whole body was feeling as though a simmering fire had started to come alive and consume her.

She pounded a fist against the bark of the tree, crying out suddenly, "Fuck it all, it's so goddamn hard!"

The fact she was in the forest -the ambience broken by her anguished cries- wasn't registering in her head. All she could think about was the challenges the last three months of her journey, all before her first gym battle. Hell, the last several years had been hard on her. Running away from home, leaving behind the only family (for better or worse) you had, putting it all on the line just for that slim chance that maybe she can be the champion of Galar.

Maybe they were right.

She gave the tree another punch, accentuated with another sob. No! They weren't right, they had to be wrong.

But if they were right? Maybe...they'd take her back. They could be family.

From her stew of emotions, Haleigh was brought back to reality a bit by something clinging to her leg as if it were a piece of driftwood during a violent storm at sea.

He could feel everything that Haleigh could, feeling as though at any moment he too could be lost in the torrent of emotion. But he'd be there for his trainer. He had to be there for her.

She stayed there, crying for what seemed like an eternity. There weren't any appearances to upkeep, no one to impress or apologize for making a scene. Just her, Cornelius and the woods.

Stinging Bea · Jan 10, 2021

Winter Wonders Never Cease

[h2][/h2]

"Welcome one and all, to the premiere annual tradition of Galar's Winter Festive Market: The Snowmon Building Contest!" Jasper stood beside Aeliana as sign ups came to a close, now wondering if she was being clever and thinking ahead to mess with him or if he was just unlucky. When he agreed to let her help he was just thinking of them both signing up for the contest, but while he was frazzled from having his hands grabbed, she'd signed them up as a pair! His head already ached a bit at just how unprepared he was.

"So… any particular pokémon you want to make?" He asked, voice for once warmer than the snow surrounding him without being an eruption of fury.

Aeliana beamed. "So get this… We could build something totally predictable like a Piplup or a Swinlub. But that's boring, right? We're gonna really put the effort in this holiday! We're gonna build… Stantler!"

Jasper stared dead into her eyes for a moment and squinted slightly. "I don't know if I'd call making Santa's favorite pokémon all that unpredictable." It was that moment Aeliana was witness to a holiday miracle: Jasper smiled, closed his eyes and tilted his head slightly in agreement. "But it fits the reason for the season, it'll be big and impressive and even intricate, a real winner if we can pull it off. Let's do it!"

"I knew you'd be on board!" Aeliana cheered. Her smile only grew as she watched the smile appear on Jasper's own lips. Yes, she could tell things were going to work out great. Of course, there was still one problem the duo needed to work out. "So, uh… how do you make a Stantler out of snow, anyway?"

"Huh...well most of it shouldn't be too hard." Jasper said thoughtfully. "The body will be pretty easy but the legs present a serious structural problem with how thin they are, it's already a miracle real Stantler have such strong legs...Then there's the antlers...not that big a part of the structural integrity, but they'll have the most odds, ends, and branches as well as being relatively thin and delicate...intricate too…"

Aeliana raised an eyebrow. She had never imagined during her introductions with Jasper that the boy would say anything like that. For a moment she thought about bringing it up, but then quickly decided against it. For now, they had a contest to win. She glanced over in the direction of their main source of competition, Alexi. The man had a proud smile gracing his lips. His hand was busy smoothing out the snow he had used to craft the snow Piplup's head, the man was clearly in the final stages of his work.

Aeliana leaned in closer to Jasper, speaking in a whisper so that the man would not be able to hear them. "Any thoughts on what we do about him…?"

Jasper followed her gaze and smirked, then spit on the ground in Alexi's direction. "We can worry about that when we're about to beat him. I'm sure between all our pokemon we can ruin his bullshit plans without getting ourselves disqualified. We gotta focus on winning legit first. Even if he's out there will be some stiff competition and I wanna win." Baba coo'd her approval and jumped onto the head of Faust, who bumped his own chest with a tiny fist and stood at attention.

"That's the right attitude, we'll make a better snowmon within the rules than that chowderhead fuckwit can by cheating!"

"Well, he's passionate about this if nothing else…" Aeliana thought as she gave Jasper a smile as he cheered on his team. Turning her focus down to her own, she looked them over. Tampa, Fiesta, and Mahina looked capable enough to start gathering and forming some mounds of snowballs and other things. Clara, not so much. She doubted the tiny arms of the Ralts would let her do much gathering regard to snow. "Alright, Tampa! Take Fiesta to start gathering up some snowballs. Make sure you get them nice and sturdy! Mahina, you and Clara go gather some sticks. We'll need them for Stantler's antlers!"

"Toto!" the blue gator gurgles with glee. Tampa nods with excitement, performing a gleeful dance before pushing Fiesta off in the direction she wished to go.

Mahina smiles softly, turning to face Clara with a curious look. Clara smiles up at the Clefairy, before taking her hand into her own. She points to a nearby tree, the duo making haste towards it to gather their supplies.

"Faust, you join in on the snow gathering. Baba, you help with finding sticks, a couple of Psychics should do well finding'em." Stantler's a big pokémon, gonna need a lot of snow. She's on the right track. The world's most professional Munchlax was released to let out a big yawn before he snapped to attention at being addressed by his trainer. "Dispo, as snow gets brought to our little base, split some of it off to pack it down tighter so we can get more solid pieces. If there are any particularly stubborn bits, flop on'em, your weight and flab should do the trick. Regina!"

Jasper's haughty little Salandit crawled out of his jacket and into the snow in a blur, sticking her tongue out to taste the air before settling on staring down everyone around her. "If anyone starts to get too cold, warm'em up a bit without any fire. No bitching, a queen has to look after her subjects, right?" Regina squinted and glared at him for a solid ten seconds, then finally relented and shot over to the stick team, spending a moment wrapping herself around each one and sharing her high body heat with them in turn.

"Are you sure about her…?" Aeliana questions as she watches the Salandit. The lizard Pokémon is rubbing her the wrong way, and the last thing she wants is Mahina or Clara getting burned or something of the sort. "I mean, no offense but she seems kind of… you know, hard to gauge."

"She's an arrogant, selfish little bitch of a firebug." Jasper admitted. "But she submitted to me when I beat her and stopped all her little goons from trying to burn down the stadium. She chose to be here and she follows orders… not perfectly, but she wouldn't go attacking anybody without my permission." He rubbed his head where Baba had been sitting and sighed. "Besides, she's really quick and precise, good for stuff like this. Just wish she'd stay in the ball more and stop crawling all over me, warms me up and gives me chills at the same time."

"I see…" Aeliana mused, turning her attention to her Pokémon as they moved off upon their tasks.

Tampa, Fiesta, and Faust made their way along the area, gathering up as much snow as their little arms could carry. The Totodile had a spring in her step as she traveled. Her tail wagged happily as she was getting to not just spend time with her friend, but was getting the chance to help him with this task as well. All the while the Totodile continued to gurgle and burble with glee, her arms waving and wailing about as she recounted her adventures with Aeliana up to this point. Occasionally, Tampa would stop in her tracks, taking the time to get a good arm load of snow which she would then promptly dump onto Fiesta's lilypad.

The Lotad grunted in frustration. The weight of the snow was threatening to send Fiesta toppling over. However he somehow managed to keep himself moving despite the heavy load being placed upon him. An angry wail echoed out from the Lotad's bill. Fiesta glared in the direction of his teammate. Tampa seemed to shrug it off though, as if telling Fiesta not to sweat the small details… which in turn only gave the Totodile more angry wails and squawks. When they were almost back to the main pile, none other than Dispo scooped some of the snow off of Fiesta's pad and smiled at him, before dropping it all near the main pile and flopping down on top of it to compact it.

Jasper circled around the main pile bit by bit, picking spots to kneel down and look closer, picking out four spots to start trying to shape the feet, attempting to get them solid enough to stay up without making them thick enough to look too fake. Progress was slow, especially with Regina occasionally shooting up his back and headbutting his neck to make him jump, but he'd expected the legs to be the hardest part anyways. "Huh...this is even harder than I thought...the legs are just too skinny....D'ya think Clara and Baba might be able to use their psychic powers to help smooth out and compact finer details like the legs better than we can by touching them? Baba's still a baby but I've been putting her through more training than anyone else since she can't battle as much yet, she's getting stronger."

"That could probably work," Aeliana replied, remembering the way her Ralts had helped handle that wild Greedant back in the Wild Area. "Clara's got a pretty good grasp on her powers, so I think she could help pick up any slack that Baba might not be able to handle."

As if on cue, the two Psychic-types and Mahina come walking forward towards the group. Clara carrying two twigs in her little, nub-like hands, with Baba carrying one in her mouth. Mahina seems to be doing the bulk of the lifting, her sticks looking closer to actual branches as opposed to the twigs of the other two.

"Just in time, Clara," Aeliana says. "Do you think you can give us a hand? We need a different approach to getting the legs shaped right. I think our hands might be putting too much pressure on them. Think you can use your powers to give us a hand?"

"You too, Baba." Jasper added, standing up and dusting off his hands. "You're both empaths and I think telepaths too, so you should male a pretty good team. Try to sync up, one leg at a time." He slowly approached Clara and bent down towards her, now focused and calm enough not to make her uncomfortable and gently lifted her to one side of one of the mounds he hoped would be a leg, then moved Baba to the opposite side. "If you come at it like this,should make it easier to balance out the pressure, keep it rounded and even. Just take it easy and slow, keep it stable. I promise whatever you do will be faster than we could do by hand, don't feel pressured, okay? It doesn't need to be perfect, just do your best."

Feeling so many eyes on her, Clara blushed profusely. She quickly turned her focus onto the snow pile that Jasper had placed her in front of, trying to focus more on it and not so much on those watching her. Slowly, the snow that Jasper had pointed out to Clara began to smooth out, becoming a very sturdy base for the trainers to start building from. Baba's share of the snow began to rise, slowly and wobbly at first, but grew faster and steadier until it caught up to Clara's Once the two halves met at equal height, they combined and grew as one. The little fairy and psychic types could feel each other's emotions and even sync up their thoughts as they grew more used to their work and it led to a near perfect spindly Stantler leg when all was said and done.

Jasper couldn't resist an impressed whistle at the accomplishment. "Sugoi! Real homerun there, three more of those and we'll be cooking with fire! Or snow, I guess...Whatever, great job, kids!" Baba beamed at her trainer's praise and wasted no time dancing around the leg - coming dangerously close to bumping it - to wrap her flaps around Clara and lift her up with a cheer.

Clara's eyes went wide in surprise, but the Ralts giggled despite her face now being as red as a cherry. Aeliana smirked as she glanced over at Jasper, quickly taking notice of the boy's rather cheer-filled comment. "Heh… You look like you're enjoying yourself."

"Wh - Of course I am! Rubbing that asshat's ugly nose in his stupid snowmon as I reign supreme over him fills me with...the holiday spirit of victory!" His face reddened, though not nearly as much as Clara's, and he looked down into his scarf. "Mind your own business...You're the one having fun, Sunshine." His voice got quieter the more he tried to bite back, until she could only just barely hear the nickname he grumbled out at the end.

"Okay, you two! Let's get to work on those other legs!" Aeliana replied. She glanced back over in Jasper's direction one more time, offering the boy a quick wink before watching the two Psychic-types go to work on the rest of the legs. The more the duo worked, the more they seemed to get in sync with each other. Each crafting of the snow Stantler's leg became easier than the last, until before long four sturdy legs stood perfectly upright in the snow.

Jasper nodded appraisingly at the completed legs and didn't even complain when Baba hugged his leg, acquiescing to pat her head. "That's what I call a good start. Now for the body, you guys can leave most of the work here to us trainers. All we need from Baba and Clara this time is to help keep any bits on the bottom of the body between the legs from getting too loose and falling until we can actually make it a proper solid piece. Once the middle has a proper foundation we can rest easier with the rest, and the other pokémon can help from there...Except you, Faust. Sorry, you're too heavy. If this was just for fun you could help out with a bit of sand but...then we'd be cheating too. You keep gathering snow for us and I'll make it up to you later, kay?"

The Larvitar's eyes saddened, but he recovered quickly and got back to marching around their spot and scooping up as much snow as possible, not needing to be warmed up thanks to his naturally cool body. Jasper raised an eyebrow at the top of one of the Stantler legs and hefted a bit of snow towards it. Patting in the first bit of the body from there managed not to mess anything up, but the second blob made it shake a bit until Baba and Clara held everything together and allowed him to finish compacting it into a solid chunk. "Shit...this is hard, I'm glad we can use our pokémon, this'd be impossible without'em. Even with that I'm not sure we could do it if we didn't happen to have psychic types."

"Yeah, and to think I almost didn't catch her," Aeliana mused. She noticed Clara give her a questioning glance. "Not that I didn't want to, you know that silly. If I wouldn't have stayed in the Wild Area for an extra day, we would've missed each other." Tampa reached up to Aeliana, handing the pinkette a bit of snow. She began to pat the snow onto the body, before glancing over towards their main competition. "He's… built a second one this whole time we've been making Stantler."

This time when Jasper's attention was called back to Alexi, he saw the smug jerk looking right back at them and smirking before he returned to his work. Jasper's eyes widened when he saw what he could swear was a strange shimmer in the air behind Alexi. "Th'fuck…" He squinted but his gawking didn't divulge anything else. "Baba...Clara...you see anything over there?" The two psychic types followed the gaze of their trainers quickly enough, but besides obviously not liking what they saw or felt, shook their heads at him. "......" Jasper continued to stare until he worried about wasting time and shook his own head.

The bottom layer of the Stantler's body came together pretty nicely, though the trainers still needed the psychics' help keeping the middle from falling out until it was completely solid. Once they had a foundation for the body, it was time to start letting the other pokémon pitch in on the sculpting, except for Faust, who was too heavy to lift repeatedly and Regina, who was too warm to properly hold chunks of snow. The trainers lifted their pokémon in pairs, raising them high enough to add snow to the body and then holding them up to pat it in and smooth it down until their frosted ivory Stantler torso was complete, even if it wasn't as precise as the legs.

"Put a bit more in the middle, Tampa," Aeliana points out. Tampa gurgles with glee, the blue gator dumping an arm full of snow in the desired spot. Aeliana then turns her around, allowing the Totodile to use her tail to help smooth out the snow where needed so it didn't look like an oddly placed clump. "Yeah, that looks pretty good. How about your end, Jasper?"

Jasper hefted Mahina on the other side, being as slow and steady as possible since she'd been so nervous when he first offered to pick her up. Whenever she jumped or started to shake too much, Baba reached over from her perch on Jasper's head to pat the Clefairy soothingly and babble encouraging noises. Depositing the last bit of snow on their half of the Stantler's torso calmed Mahina's nerves a bit and when she smoothed it out the powdery puff that hit her brought out a cute little sneeze. Jasper's lips turned up at the ends just so and he raised Mahina over his head to show Aeliana. "Good over here! I think we can start on the head next."

"How do we do the head? Are we supposed to build it first and then attach it?" Aeliana questions as she gently lowers Tampa back to the ground.

"I don't think we could start it out separately and attach it without breaking it…not unless we froze the head into place, and I think that would count as cheating, it's gotta be JUST snow. Maybe we can build it up the same way we did the body?" He looked closely at one side of the Stantler and then the other, finally patting one end. "I think this side's a bit higher than the other, maybe from here? Make'im look a bit proud like he's thrusting his chest forward? And we can do a bushy little tail at the other end."

"No problem," Aeliana replied with a nod.

She bent down, placing Tampa on the ground before scooping up her Ralts instead. The pinkette then moved towards her Lotad, allowing Clara to scoop a small armload of snow from his lilypad, before gently lifting her to where the creature's backside would have been. Clara gently placed the snow in the spot that Aeliana pointed out, before slowly using her psychic powers to try and shape the tail as best she could.

While the blob on the aft of the Stantler began to form a cute little snowy cotton puff, Jasper took some snow from Faust's hands and began to form a mound to start the neck from on the other side, bit by bit. Once he thought there was enough, he pat the spot smooth and Baba began to raise it up higher, bit by bit. Each time a bit was compacted, he added a bit more snow, helping Baba keep the angle consistent for the neck until it was high enough to start thinking about the head. "Now things get harder…"

"Do you know how we'd even do this?" Aeliana questioned. She looked over at Jasper, Clara dangling in her arms. "I've been just taking stabs in the dark at this."

"Well...hmph...this bit is kinda like the legs but with a much more awkward angle and less ability to rely on a solid foundation." He squinted. "I feel like we'll have to rely on the psykids again to even attempt shaping the head, especially the nose and chin." Jasper pulled out his pokédex and pulled up a 3D model of Stantler so he could observe the shape of its head. "Aaaagh...I'm getting less and less confident...maybe we can get the basic shape with the psykids...and have Regina cut in the final details with her claws while they hold everything together? If there's one thing she's good for, its precision."

"Better than nothing," Aeliana replied. She smiled down at Clara in her arms. "Do you think you can lend a hand?" Clara gave a small nod and smile. "Good, we're counting on you!"

"You heard the lady, little girl." Jasper assured Baba-Hana in his own arms, before shifting her to his left and showing both her and Clara the pokédex with his right. "Take in as much of the head as you can, except the antlers."

Both of the psychic fairies got to their final task with aplomb and the assembly line continued, perfected down to a smooth routine now. Every Pokémon gathered snow, adding excess bits to Fiesta's lily bowl and all carrying their loads back to the trainers and their psy-sculptors while the head was formed. Once there could be no doubt that Stantler's neck did indeed have a head - if a slightly blobby one - it was Regina's time to shine. The scrappy Salandit clung to Jasper's arm and carved the finer details of the face: the mouth, the eyes, the snoot, with empty places here or there for a special addition. She even traded off to Aeliana's arm for a bit, behaving to focus on her task and making the girl realize how warm and smooth her scales were.

By the time the head was cut up just like they wanted, Faust stepped up to the trainers, offering each one his own unique contribution: colored stones he'd found while feeling left out of the sculpting and polished himself. Jasper was given a pair of identical ovular black pebbles that fit just right to become Stantler's pupils and Aeliana received an extra shiny blue stone, a bit squarish and with just the right size and rounded edges to be Stantler's nose. Jasper allowed himself another sideways glance at Alexi's progress only to blanch at what he saw.

"That bottle of vodka piss is going for an entire 'March of the Penguin-Pokémon thing now? Motherfucker…" Sure enough there were now three Piplups in Alexi's space, all following a nearly complete Empoleon in a neat line as if journeying to some far off sanctuary. As deeply as the realization furrowed Jasper's brow, he shook it off and dug through the pile of sticks they ahd nearby until he found what he thought to be the two most impressive specimens - decently thick with plenty of little branches - to give their Stantler a kingly rack and held them out to Aeliana. "Alright, he's not important, Stantler is. This was your idea, so why don't you do the finishing touches? We'll rock this contest so hard Santa himself will come and ask our sculpture to pull his sleigh."

"No problem," Aeliana said with a smile.

She bent down, taking the two branches that were being held by Tampa and Faust. Both of the Pokémon grinned at each other with excitement as the pink-haired trainer made her way towards the Stantler's head. Gentle and steady, the girl carefully began to place the branches that would serve as Stantlers antlers into the top of its head. The left one was easy enough to insert. However, when it came to put in the right antler, the pinkette had to stretch just a bit on account of the snowmon's pose. She carefully reached out, slow and steady… when a sudden, shift in the snow and ground below caused the dancer to start to lose her balance. Aeliana began to flail and fidget, trying her best to regain her posture. Tampa and Faust both stared in shock and horror, the duo trying their best to try and help the trainer regain her balance… But it was too late. The next thing Aeliana knew, she was crashing face first into the snow Stantler, sending it and herself crashing into the snow ground below.

Silence. In complete spite of all the people and celebration around them, for that moment, their entire world was silent. All the pokémon stared on in horror, Jasper's fists clenched so tightly that his arms shook. "No...no...come on, all that hard work…" His face reddened, teeth grit, eyes boiling. Even when Faust and Dispo approached, he shook them off and stared at the pile of snow that had been seconds away from becoming a Stantler. "You've gotta be fucking kidding me!"

Aeliana slowly sat up in the snow, her eyes wide as she looked around at the crumpled remains of the Stantler. "I… I don't know what happened! I was just reaching up to put the other antler on and… The ground, it shifted or something!"

After spouting a few more expletives, Jasper covered his face with his right hand and slowly pulled it down. He looked down at the spot where Aeliana had been standing when she tried to crown the stag and squinted at a patch of uneven ground. He didn't remember it looking like that before, it could easily just be something he hadn't noticed except…"It's like a path." He stepped away from his examination after a moment and leaned down to grab Aeliana's hand without even offering first. "Come on, this isn't over yet." He pulled her up quickly, not hard enough to hurt her wrist but fast enough that he pulled her into himself to steady her before stepping back.

Jasper pointed to the spot the pinkette fell from, then dropped to his knees to start wiping away the snow. "That pencil-dick's not gonna get away with this shit. Look!" With the snow cleared, they could both clearly see a little mound that had come up behind where Aeliana was, rose a bit higher just under where her feet had been, then snaked away and vanished. It had been practically invisible under the snow. Jasper might have been willing to just think Aeliana had fallen, but - "Figures. A good dancer like you wouldn't just fall like nothing, not at a moment like that."

"Alexi used Pokémon to trip me up…?" Aeliana questioned. "But… Is he that insecure? Even with… you know, the cheating on his sculptures?"

"The idea doesn't surprise me, most cheaters and other kinds'a douchebags are pretty insecure. Besides, we're the ones who met him before entering. " He took a deep breath and cracked his back. "But maybe it's less personal than that, maybe our Stantler was just that good." He looked around at the other contestants and back at the judge and growled with annoyance. "We don't have time to try anything else on the scale of Stantler...Oh!" Jasper tapped and swiped his pokédex's screen a few times and held it in front of Aeliana. "What about this. Tell me, did you watch Kabu's matches after the ceremony?"

Aeliana shook her head. "I only heard Raph's match on the radio. Why?"

----

"My, my, this may be the most astounding array of snowmon I've seen yet, and I've been MCing this little tradition of the Festive Market for nearly a decade!" The announcer for the Snowmon Contest happened to be the same gal who'd been manning the stall for registration, now bedecked in a frilly red and green dress with little white pom poms all over it. Her blonde hair cascaded down from under a mini Santa hat, and the arms holding her microphone were sleeved in slim, sleek black gloves as she swayed and twirled about the various snow sculptures. "Where to first? So many options!" The timbre of her voice awoke the festive spirit in most who heard it while she tried to choose a snowmon to assess first.

"Here's a wonderful place to start! Would'ya just look at this Golurk! So statuesque, so powerful!" Her appraisal was met with a fair bit of applause until the contestant, a young man whispered something into her ear and forced a slightly embarrassed gasp from her. "Haha, I mean this lovely Ursaring! So strong, and - and fluffy too! I'm sure Jackson Crane himself would be jealous!" The audience resumed their applause, a bit more halfhearted this time as the guy tried not to flush too much at the misunderstanding caused by his sculpture's lack of detail.

The MC continued down the path, highlighting several snowmon a bit more impressive than the Ursaring, including a Ludicolo, a Growlithe and even an Alcremie until there was only one more contestant preceding our heroes. "And next we have a! - a!" She cut herself off twice as no name came to mind for the shapeless blob of snow she was looking at, with only a few sticks spread throughout it and a pebble or two.

"It's a Muk!" The contestant, a bronzed female Blackbelt assured everyone. "An Alolan one! They're my favorites, so colorful!" She laughed with the confidence of someone who couldn't possibly fail...as the crowd and MC were already moving on with only one man clapping - one praising her form instead of her sculpture.

"Alright, we're halfway there, folks! Now it's time for a rarity here at the Snowmon contest! A two person team, and not siblings or a parent and children but a young man and lady~ Here we have two of the young champions-in-the-making who debuted at the recent Opening Ceremony!" The crowd's applause was half polite and half genuine, apparently a few people recognized them. Or at least, they recognized Aeliana, Jasper got stares and a few grumbles about having a stick where the sun don't shine. The blue half of the pair grit his teeth but held in his venom for the negativity and both trainers held their hands out towards Baba and Clara, who were on either side of a little dome of snow.

Everyone continued to stare for a moment in confusion, before that familiar aura coated the psychic types, and then the dome. All the loose snow making up the dome floated away all at once, leaving a perfect little Snom, not a single detail out of place, with the stones they'd used for Stantler repurposed for Snom's eyes and to look like a berry being held in its little round mandibles.

"We made a Snom," Aeliana began as she scooped Mahina up into her arms. She was stating the obvious, something made even more apparent by the faces the crowd was giving the team. She resumed, adjusting the hold on her Clefairy. "We were gonna go for something a bit more complex, but it didn't quite work out. Then we started thinking… what if we went for something more simple?"

"Snom are tough for their size, and I recently saw one with a lot of heart so…" Jasper began. "Whatever, snow Stantler didn't work out. So here's something pure and uncomplicated." He hefted Clara and Baba, one on each shoulder. "These two are the champs of our sculpting."

The MC got over her surprise at the mild unveiling quickly enough and swept her arms over the audience in a cheery display. "Who doesn't love a good Snom, everyone?! So sweet, pure and fitting for the season! It's even got a little berry like it wants to give us all something for the holidays!" Her hype actually infected the crowd well enough to get some real applause going, a few people leaned close to the Snom to especially smile at the little 'berry' it held.

"Ok, folks, time to keep this train chugging! Next on our list is a regular contest who's been climbing in the ranks the past couple of years! Mister Alexi Stukov from the snowy reaches beyond the sea!" The golden-haired man bowed for his audience, clearly glad he was being recognized after his previous attempts at the contest. "Whoah whoah whoah, Alexi, mate, how can you improve this much in a year? You already made it to third place last year but now…" She stopped and pivoted in front of the marching penguin-pokémon, flourishing her arms dramatically to draw the audience's attention to them. "This year it looks like our determined contestant has given us a 'March of the Pe-"

Everyone gasped as the mic flew out of the MC's hands, flying straight to Jasper to be caught by Baba, who handed it to her trainer with a smile. "Listen up! Our MC lady has done a great job so far, love the outfit, but she's missing a few of the pieces to really be judging this entry." He stomped straight over to the Piplups with all of his pokémon following behind him and gave a half-hearted imitation of the girl's previous flourish. "What we have here really is an amazing example of how to make snow sculptures! Hell, I've never seen snowman so perfectly sturdy...and detailed...so well made it almost seems impossible!" He gave his best attempt at a warm smile and snapped his fingers.

First Faust ran up to the 'stage' such as it was and began to glow, channeling his Ancient Power into the stones he felt nearest by, which seconds later came flying out of the Piplups' heads and bodies. A big one even exploded out of the Empoleon's core, destroying the sculptures to the shocked gasps of the onlookers. "Wow! No wonder they were so solid!" Jasper announced in faux amazement. "How does someone even get rocks in there like that without anyone noticing?" Next Jasper stomped the ground as if frustrated with his lack of understanding and Baba and Clara both began to glow and the ground rumbled slightly.

After a few seconds of shaking, a mound of dirt rose up and erupted with the head of a Diglet, dizzy and reeling from being yanked out of hiding. "Hey, he looks like he knows how to move a rock or two!" Jasper said, his smile twisting into a rather dark smirk. "But how would snow stay solid and shapely long enough for anyone to fit rocks in like that, and then form such amazingly detailed, smooth features around it?" Regina took that as her cue to blast an Ember right over Alexi's shoulder, which made the air around him shimmer violently and bring into sight a Froslass, looking with surprise and fear back and forth between all the people.

"Would you just look at that, folks? Alexi really is an amazing man, isn't he? Must be a genius to do all this right under our noses!" Now the mirth in Jasper's voice was genuine, he was having all too much fun revealing the treachery.

Aeliana took a step forward, shooting Alexi a glare. "Why did you feel the need to cheat like that? Didn't anyone ever teach you that it takes hard work and determination to be the best you can possibly be?"

Alexi was speechless, he had watched his schemes be unveiled in horror, and now he stared at his opponents, then the audience. "N-no, I…"

"And!" Jasper interjected. "I'd be willin' to bet ya he's the one who made my partner fall on our poor Stantler." By way of explanation he kicked the fresh snow off the spot he'd uncovered earlier and pointed to it. "Looks like something a Diglet'd do, yeah?" The audience began to mutter, some in disbelief and some in agreement.

"I saw just before that, they were almost done with a full body Stantler, looked pretty damn good too." One contestant said.

"That's low, one of the best parts of the competition is leaving the sculptures around afterwards till they melt. Would someone really do that?"

"He already cheated, why not?"

Before the crowd could get too antsy, the MC took her microphone back from Jasper and tapped it to get everyone's attention. "Alright everyone, alright, that's enough. In light of what we've seen here I'm left with no choice but to disqualify Alexi Stukov from the annual Snowmon Building Contest! Now, let's move on to something more pleasant and get through the last of our contestants!" Then on she and her entourage went, now followed by most of the contestants who'd already been shown off.

Jasper sighed once they moved on, tired from trying not to look too bad in front of a crowd. He easily ignored Alexi's death glares and returned to his and Aeliana's spot to look down at their snow-Snom one more time. "No king of Stantler's...but he'll do just fine. Thank god bug boy's not here. If his dumbass knew I'd got the idea from him I'd never hear the end of it. That prat's attention is the last thing I need." He looked to Aeliana and his tone wasn't exactly warm, but it was glad. "Thanks for the help, Sunshine. I couldn't have done it without you. Stantler was your idea, Baba was only able to do so much by following Clara's lead, and if I'd been alone I wouldn't have had time to see the signs of that Muk-breath's cheating. Now that he's out, I'm not worried about winning either. It's freeing."

Aeliana shook her head. "I only helped because it's what we should do for each other… I mean, sure we're all rivals in a sense. A lot of us are after the same thing. But… what good is it gonna do anyone if all we do is push out aggression and animosity? Bad vibes make a bad rhythm. Can't dance to all that."

"Huh, that what you think? Can't say I agree. Looks like I was right, being around you really isn't good for me." Jasper spoke with an air of neutrality, but a touch of disappointment colored his voice.

Aeliana flinched slightly. "What…? I thought we were having fun with the snowmon building… You didn't seem to mind then."

That put pause to him for a moment, realizing only then how vague he'd been. "It…was fun. Pushing towards a concrete goal right in front of me feels good, and you…" It wasn't often Jasper felt hard pressed to speak his mind clearly, but trying to put all this into words was harder than he could have foreseen. "Listen. You're right about the animosity and bad vibes stuff, and I know that's something I'm guilty of. But the rest? Shared goals…should do? I don't buy all that."

He didn't want to sound scolding or contrarian but he figured he did anyways. "You're a good girl, kind and cheery as you are bright and beautiful. Anyone with eyes, ears and good taste could fall for you like that." He snapped his fingers, glad for anything other than words to use. "But that attitude of helping people because it's something you should do? Something like that's not as kind as you think, to yourself or anyone else. Sorry, the real problem is me, I shouldn't be dumping all this on you but when I'm around you I just can't -"

"Tell me folks, have you ever seen such a nice collection of Snowmon before?! Come on, give our challengers some love!" Whatever words were coming next were cut off by the return of the hype entourage, who practically stampeded back to the empty space in the middle of the contest area that one could see all the Snowmon from and served as the centerstage for the event. The applause raged for a minute, then faded away in anticipation of the next step. "Gather round, everyone! Our secret panel of anonymous judges has spoken!" She smiled and swept her eyes around the crowd before continuing. "Third place this year is Juggler Jerry for his wonderful Mr. Mime!"

Applause erupted anew as the man stepped beside the MC and took a small bow to the crowd, validating his namesake by juggling snowballs the entire time. "Third Place's prize is a rare Premiere Ball! Ready and rarin' to show you're somebody with whatever pokémon you want!" She slipped the ball right into Jerry's act and he strode away, happy as could be.

"Second place goes to Arctic Swimmer Dale and his fierce Walrein!" So she called, and so in fact did appear a man who was in nothing more than swim trunks despite the weather...and the fact that he wasn't swimming. "For his hard work Dale will be going home with five Super Potions! Keep those Pokémon of yours in tip top shape!" Dale grabbed the bag with his prizes and gave the audience an Atlas pose to remember him by before trotting off to now much less comfortable applause.

"And now last, but about as far from least as you can get, the winner of the Festive Market's annual Snowmon Building Contest is...Aeliana and Jasper with their sweet little Snom! A bit of simplicity never hurt anyone, and who doesn't love a good Snom? Besides, our judges are big on 'the integrity of the sport' and 'honor among champions' and all that, so they gave you big bonus points for unmasking our cheater! Come on up and let everyone show their appreciation!"

Aeliana's eyes went wide at the announcement. Clara followed behind the trainer as she carried Mahina towards the woman. Aeliana had never won anything before, something that was evident by the broad smile on the pink-haired girl's face.

"No fooling? We really won?!" Aeliana questioned.

"That's right!" The MC assured the pinkette, slipping something around her neck before gesturing to Jasper. "Come on, Sourpuss, we've got a prize for each of you!" Jasper grimaced, unable to decide which was worse, the nickname, her tone, or getting paraded in front of people again, but in the end he slumped and walked beside Aeliana. The MC slipped something onto his shoulders as well, then turned both of them towards the audience, letting everyone see the trainers were now wearing necklaces with tropical-looking shells hanging from them. "Our winners this year will be taking home a very special prize: Jingle Shell Bells! A special kind of Shell Bell that not only heals your pokémon slightly when it rings, it also makes pokémon happy when they hear it! Make tons of friends and keep'em healthy! It even sounds more festive and cheery than the normal ones!" To emphasize her point, she just barely tugged on the back of each trainer's necklace and left a moment of silence to let everyone here the soft, happy and festive tinkling of the bells that captivated human and pokémon alike.

"Come on folks!" The MC called once the sound of the bells had peeled away. "Show our winners their appreciation!" The audience really went wild this time, thundering as if there were a lot more people cheering and clapping than were actually present, "And don't forget our winners are League hopefuls, so let's wish our Champs-in-the-making luck on their journey!" Then the applause redoubled and really showed Aeliana and Jasper what the audience was made of.

The blue-haired grump had about all he could take and stepped 'offstage' abruptly, waving his hand by his ear as if he could swat away the noise and walking away from the rabble with his team in tow.

"Jasper, wait!" Aeliana called out, chasing after the boy as fast as she could. The applause broke into a confused murmuring at the sudden exit of their champions, leaving the MC with no more hype to feed. With her job done, she watched the trainers go clearly as curious as the rest.

Jasper didn't heed Aeliana's pleas until he was sure he was out of earshot of the peanut gallery, after which he whirled to face her. "What?"

"I just… wanted to say thanks. Despite the hiccups with the Stantler, I had a lot of fun," Aeliana said. "I hope we can hangout like this again sometime."

"There are much better ways to spend your time." He replied bluntly. "But...I had fun too. The holidays and I don't mix so...thanks for the good memories. Take care of yourself." He left her with those words and turned away to resume walking, Baba waving happily with and from atop Faust's head, like a totem pole saying goodbye, before they joined Dispo in following after him.

Jay · Jan 11, 2021

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STAGE 5 - GALAR MINE 1 / ROUTE 4

Spoiler:

With the festive season left in their wake, our heroes approach the next obstacle on their journey!

The first Galar Mine was once far more prosperous than it is now, under the ownership of Macro Cosmos the place was busy and bustling always with activity and foot traffic. With Rose's crimes and the companies dissolution, the mine has come to see better days. While Blackspear Industries purchased the more profitable Galar Mine 2, this location was left abandoned until different resources and sub-sectors were picked off and claimed by independent mining companies across the region. With no real owner, accidents without liability are prone to happen and entire sections of the mine are left dark and abandoned.

Whether exploring this location, fast approaching the status of relic, our heroes think of what lies beyond and eventually will reach the fresh air again, stepping onto the open and expansive route 4.

A road dotted with wheat fields, long dirt paths and rolling hills, Route 4 is where most of the crop focused farms of Galar find a home, as opposed to the livestock trade of Wedgehurst and surrounding regions. Route 4 is the heart of this cultivation, the source of food, hard work and life across Galar. A bright and happy place to contrast the gloomy overcast of the mine before it, the hopeful atmosphere is known to attract some species of rarer, popular pokémon, making this place popular for trainers as well.

Delve into the Galar mine for dark and mysterious adventure? Traverse the fields of Route 4 in search of rare pokémon? Or will you focus on the goal ahead, the stadium visible from the hills of Route 4, the rapidly approaching Turfield, where the next step of the gym challenge and the first step on the road to the grand festival both await?

Whatever our heroes decide, it's sure to be another memorable chapter as Pokémon Spear continues!

WILD POKÉMON AVAILABLE THIS STAGE

Pokémon Available to those on Mission 2:

Pokémon Available to those on Mission 4:

.

MISSIONS:

What is a [GUEST BATTLE] Mission?

A returning concept from Z: A Kalos Journey, Guest Battles involve canonical characters from the pokémon series appearing in Z-verse as an optional battle opponent for your character. Often times these battles are ★ missions and are usually [OPEN] as well.

These battles serve as an opportunity to have your character interact with canon pokémon character's Z-verse counterparts and can serve as an excellent way to tie your character in closer to the main story, or to the Z-verse world as a whole. If you see one of these, feel free to have your character engage with the battle, but pay attention to the characters listed team and special conditions for the battle if there are any!

[GUEST BATTLE][OPEN] ★ Mission:

Spoiler:

Mission 1:
Deep within the mine, locked in an abandoned section, long since abandoned and full of danger and darkness, a lone pokémon is crying out for help. The way ahead is claustrophobic, quiet and full of shadows nigh impenetrable. Still, something, somewhere needs your help. Will you brave the darkness?
Reward: 1 x TM Flash

[CATCH CHANCE!] Mission 2:
It has to be here, it must be! So cries Rune Maniac Wilhelm, an older gentleman labeled mad by his peers. He claimed years ago to discover a secret Unown text in the ruins of Alph, one that pointed to a similar, connected structure in a distant land. He's certain it's here, he just needs to break inside, he just needs some help digging! Someone has to help him access this mysterious ruin!
Reward: 1 x Hard Stone

[OPEN] Mission 3:
The legendary, the extraordinary, the slightly grimy pair known across Galar (by select niche circles)! The Digging Duo! A pair of brothers who dig for a living, one digs fast and risky, the other digs slow and measured, but both can get you what you need! Well, hopefully, they don't decide what they find after all. Usually they'd charge for their service, but for today only, beat one of the brothers in a battle and the other will dig you up a prize!
Reward: A Random Reward dug up by the brothers! (Use a Random Number Generator to receive a number between 1 and 52, then inform Jay of the result.)

[CATCH CHANCE!] Mission 4:
Disaster of the highest order! A group of Diglett have been moving en masse between some of the less frequented tunnels and are threatening to collapse the whole system! If that were to happen not only could people be hurt but a large section of the mine could be cut off entirely, ruining quite a few livelihoods for several months, best case scenario. Please trainers, stop them! Rumor has it they've been rallied together by a new leader in the tunnels... a dugtrio with... stunning golden hair?!
Reward: 1 x TR Dig

Mission 5:
A unionized nightmare, the two larger competing freelance mining companies in the mine have been at each others throats for months, but now its broken into a stand off at the center of the mine. A miner of each group was there when a large supply of gold nuggets were dug up from the ground and now both companies are crying out claims. Someone needs to step in, preferably before things get violent.
Reward: 1 x Gold Nugget

Mission 6:
The fields of golden wheat spreading throughout Route 4 are the pride and joy of the local farmers, most hailing from family homes in Turfield. Even the nearby cities own leader, Milo, started out his life under the instruction of his father, tending these fields. So the chance that something is stinking up the place and poisoning the crops is a matter taken most seriously. That's right, a troublemaker is afoot, find the stinking poison type prankster and maybe you'll benefit from the harvest as well.
Reward: 1 x Cheri Berry, 1 x Pecha Berry and 1 x Rawst Berry

Mission 7:
Who are the faces of the Pokémon League? Who are the most popular pokémon? A difficult question to be sure, but what's not hard to see is that two pokémon on Route 4 are both very close to the title. Pikachu and Eevee are beloved by most and hated by contrarians the globe over, but two rather devout fans are near coming to blows. Schoolkid Benji insists that Pikachu is superior, but Lass Kina would actually die for the sake of Eevee. These kids might just be missing the point, maybe a trainer could set them straight?
Reward: 1 x Poké Doll (Pikachu or Eevee)

[MULTI] Mission 8:
Pokémon on the Rampage! Powered up variations of pokémon native to Route 4 and Galar Mine 1 have been sweeping across the farm lands and causing mass panic and serious havoc. The pokémon in question are surrounded by mysterious red and black smoke and have a rage in their eyes... and disturbingly enough, when defeated they dissolve vanish into clouds of red sparking smog. Still, they must be defeated all the same. Stand up for those in need and they're sure to reward you.
Reward:
1 x TR Leaf Blade
1 x TR Burning Jealousy
1 x TR Flip Turn

[JP] Mission 9:
Sometimes a good battle is all you need! The local farmers agree and so do the passing by trainers. A local field has been cleared out and the mowers have been brought in to cut the grass in the pattern of a league sanctioned arena! The beautiful shining sun, the open fields around you, the gym challenge and grand festival just on the horizon... perhaps it's time for a battle with an old classmate in this makeshift arena. Be they old friend or new rival?
Reward: 1 x Revival Herb Each

Mission 10:
Even if livestock isn't common here, a good barn and a good Miltank aren't exactly uncommon here on the open expanse of Route 4. Betsy is a Miltank with a single desire, to roll. She uses Rollout all day every day, just like her favourite superstar, another Miltank used by one Whitney of the Johto League. Still rolling has, quite literally, its ups and downs. This Miltank has smacked a honey tree rather suddenly, in the middle of a visiting Vespiquen's feast! This strong and rather angry Queen Bee is looking to exact some revenge! Maybe you should lend a hand? Vespiquen is strong, but KOing it mightn't be the only way forward.
Reward: 3 x Bottles of Moomoo Milk

gimmepie · Jan 11, 2021

Catherine Carlisle
18 | Female | From Wyndon

Indra (Male, Swift Swim) - Rain Dance, Hypnosis, Bubblebeam, Double Slap, Mud Shot, Refresh

Stampede (Male, Swift Swim) - Water Gun, Smokescreen, Twister, Focus Energy, Dragon Breath, Icy Wind

New Beginnings

Catherine found herself setting up camp just outside the first Galar Mine, in a space that was blessedly not occupied by a single other person. She had felt the tension immediately drain from her shoulders when she found herself alone and had set up a campfire and her tent on a flat bit of dirt near a small grassy field. Now she was sitting under an old oak tree with her egg cradled in her lap. Indra was staring quizzically at the flickering campfire in front of her while Stampede hung from a branch above, doing something resembling upside down sit ups. She didn't question it at that point.

It was pleasant. The snow had dissipated and the cool breeze on the air was offset by the warmth of the fire. It was quiet bar the crackling of the kindling and the occasional sounds made by her team or a wild Pokemon in the distance. No Haleigh or Melody getting into dumb fights. No Ruben sucking up anyone's ass. No Simon being obnoxious. No people. Peace.

"Well maybe that's why nobody hangs out with you then. You've got nothing to give- probably not even a challenge."

Catherine felt her brow furrow and her eyes twitch. This was not the first time that Simon's words had popped into her head in the days since. It wasn't even the second. Each and every time it had happened had left her with a similar expression on her face. It was frustrating. Frustrating that the irritating kid's words had actually gotten to her and even more so because she didn't understand why.

She didn't want people to hang around with her. That was literally the opposite of what she wanted. All she wanted out of life was everyone else to leave her the hell alone so she could hide in her room and escape reality in the realms of fiction. Maybe draw the odd commission for a bit of income. She didn't want to make a bunch of false friends to be a victim to, she didn't even want to be in the gym challenge… although she had to admit some good had come out of that.

One look at Indra, now giving her a concerned glance past the flames, was a reminder that she had gained something in her team. She got to experience companionship without having to experience people. It wasn't something she thought of a lot, but they had been a blessing. She wouldn't admit it outloud, especially to her parents, but it was the one positive to her current situation.

"I'm fine Indra," she said, "I was just remembering something stupid."

"Poli." If he had shoulders, he probably would have shrugged. The Poliwag went back to staring blankly into the flames.

Catherine found a faint smile forming on her face as she watched her empty-headed companion. She closed her eyes and leaned back against the tree behind her. Fuck Simon. This was the life. She didn't need or want people around ruining her happiness. There was honestly something to be said for the idea of just never going home and just continuing to travel around indefinitely. Maybe she'd do just that.

A sudden movement in her lap forced Catherine out of her contemplation. Her eyes flew open to see the egg between her legs wiggling and shaking. "What timing."

Stampede was the first of her Pokemon to notice, dropping from the tree and landing easily on his tail in front of Catherine. A few moments later, Indra noticed what was happening and rushed over, nearly running straight through the campfire and only narrowly avoiding a faintly crispy fate.

Catherine moved into a better position as they watched the eggs shuddering and shaking increasing in tempo. Seconds later the first crack appeared. Then the next. In rapid succession several more cracks developed in the shell. Then, to the shock of all assembled, the egg basically detonated.

Fragments of shell and globs of something viscous flew in all directions with a crackle of electricity, revealing a small green canid Pokemon with yellow, lightning like accents across its fur. As expected, an Electrike had been born.

The baby looked around at those around it, its gaze eventually settling on Catherine.

"Trike!" It barked, then barrelled toward Catherine and tackled her to the ground, aggressively nuzzling into her.

Electrike (Lightning Rod) - Tackle, Thunder Wave, Spark, Howl, Flame Burst

Spoiler: Inventory

Dragon · Jan 11, 2021

Sidequest Start!
The Mystery of Mew!
Players: Valerie Amity, Aeliana Kekoa, Pia McGuire, & Rosa Valdés

Press START to begin!

"Lookout, Galar! Make way For Val!"

The serene area of Route 3 was encased by a white blanket of snow that dropped to the ground like a solemn dance. Flame at her shoulder, reached outwards as some of the tiny snowflakes fell on top of his nose. He was intrigued and delighted, letting out a cheerful cry. Valerie was equipped by her pink winter coat, along with matching mittens and boots. "Well, well! Weather for Snovers hype!" Valerie cried, allowing some snowflakes to be caught with her mittens. She turned to her Cyndaquil with an equally delighted look. "A winter wonderland, wouldn't you say, Flame-bro?Just know that today's goooonna be epic!"

"Excuse me…" came a sudden voice from behind. Valerie was quite surprised to see that someone had been standing just behind her. She was a seemingly gorgeous looking woman, who's long jet black hair was complemented by her glistening blue dress. An odd way to dress in this weather, but she didn't seem to mind it, as she greeted Valerie with a polite tone.

"Blimey, where'd you come from? You surprised me!" Valerie said in shock. But she gave a small smile back at her.

"Pardon me. I didn't mean to startle you," the woman apologized. "I'm searching for an old castle that's around here. Would you happen to know the way?"

"Huh?" Valerie questioned. "Castle? Here?"

"Have you not known of that?" the woman asked. "The castle of what I speak of sits in this route. From what I have heard, it's supposedly haunted... "

"Haunted?"

"Do you not believe in superstition, like actual ghosts and spirits?"

"Super… oh! You mean like, cult stuff!" Valerie grasped. "Gosh, I never really chat about that stuff buuuuuut it sounds really cool!" But then Valerie with Flame turned away from her, suddenly deep in thought. "But like, hm… aren't ghosts like just, Ghost-type Pokemon? Wait, you mean ACTUAL ghosts! Maaaaaan I wish I can see all this haunted stuff; sounds like something to stream!"

"Oh, you will."

"Oooh, do you really think---huh?" Valerie and Flame turned back to respond to the woman, but… she was suddenly nowhere in sight, even after Valerie and Flame both turned left and right to survey their surroundings. Nothing. "Where'd she go off to? And…. how did she know that…"

"Artie the Abomasnow… knew the sun was hot that daaaaaaay~

So he waved good-bye, sayin' don'cha cry, I'll be back again some daaaaaaaay~"

Aeliana beamed as she finished the chorus of the song, earning a standing ovation from both her Totodile and Clefairy. The Lotad who was riding on her head sent out a cheerful wail, wiggling his little body as if asking for an encore. The pinkette giggled lightly, rubbing the back of her head as a faint blush worked its way to her cheeks.

"Aw, thanks guys… You're all awesome!" the dancer exclaimed. Her eyes drifted further ahead, spotting the familiar sight of Valerie standing in the middle of the road. An expression that the pink-haired trainer couldn't figure out, looking somewhat of a mix between confused and excited graced the energetic friendship magnet. Curious, Aeliana waved as she approached her friend "Alola, Val! What's up?"

Rosa watched from a safe distance, glancing at her notebook and going over her notes. It was more or less impossible to forget someone like Valerie, so she was easy enough to keep track of. But Aeliana? She didn't really know what to make of her, but hopefully she'd be able to hold enough of a conversation with Val that she wouldn't have to interact with the other. After all, with how energetic and friendly that Val was, she'd surely be a good study subject for bettering her abilities with the styler.

She cleared her throat and put her notebook away. She walked slowly, not trying to make the interjection too jarring. "H-hey y'all. How have the two of you been?"

Valerie turned her attention to the approaching girls. "Allllllola, Aeliana!" Valerie beamed with a wave. "And o-m-g! Roseeyyyyy! How's it hanging, cutie?! You were SLAYING it on stage, girl!"

Rosa blushed slightly and smiled at the callout. It had been hard for her to get up on stage in that getup initially, but she'd gotten a few compliments on it since then. Looking back, it didn't seem so bad now. "Hey, thanks. You both looked pretty good in your uniforms too." Already it felt that Valerie's extrovertedness was going to be hard to deal with for her, but she knew it was something she had to go through if she wanted to get better.

"You really think so…? Ah, geeze… Thanks Rosa!" Aeliana replied with a broad smile and faint blush. "I was a bundle of nerves before that ceremony, but now that it's over, I feel like the hard part's over. Introducing yourself is always the tough part, ya know? At least, that's what I've heard."

A bit further away from them was Pia who was walking the road towards them by pure coincidence. Seemingly deep in thought about something, she paid no mind to the ruckus in front of her… at least, not until Milla pinched her cheek to gain her attention. In front of her were Valerie, the… small girl from class and… oh no.

"A-Aeliana…?!" Pia whispered to herself holding her hands in front of her mouth as soon as she noticed the sounds she was making. Hoping that they hadn't noticed her presence yet, she turned around. She remembered Aeliana from the train ride to the wild area. That time when… she… put up a very ashamed display of her acting abilities. She knew she had blown her chances on "friendship" already. She also still had to pay her prize money. She absolutely should not get involved with her right now.

"AHHHH! Lookie who is iiiis!" Unfortunately, Valerie has her friend-dar running. And flashing. She jolted her way towards her with her big, innocent grin. "What's goooood, Lady 'Ia!"

Pia lowered her shoulders in defeat and turned around with a defeated smile. If only she had paid more attention on the road. Curse Ruben. He had been on her mind all day and had been the reason for her distraction.

"H-Hey Val…" she greeted her innocently, still pretending she hadn't seen the others yet. Milla was less pretentious than her trainer and kindly greeted everyone with her cute laugh.

"Pi pi!"

Rosa's heart sank as she turned, her eyes following Val as she ran over to the newcomer to the group. She hadn't done any recent research into Pia - how was she supposed to remember how to act around her? She'd barely interacted with any of the girls in school, and now, here she was stuck in a group of them that just kept growing. Looking on the bright side though, maybe by adding in more people, it'd make it easier to just sink into the background and observe Val's personality. She looked back on her earlier interaction with Simon, and wondered if maybe-

"Bud!" The Pokemon had inched its way out of Rosa's bag and was using the vines on its head to wave at the Pichu. "Budew!" The Pokemon's cries broke Rosa from her concentration, and now that the cat was out of the bag about him, it didn't make sense to keep him tucked away anymore. She opened the hole a little wider and pulled the baby Pokemon out, wrapping it in the extra fabric of the arms of her sweater so that it could see what everyone else was doing.

"Pia! Alola!" Aeliana exclaimed. The pink-haired trainer made her way over towards the shorter girl with haste. Fiesta nearly toppled off of the top of her head, but managed to hold his balance. "I haven't seen you since you ran off after our little battle on the train, you know? Well, outside of the opening ceremony… but you know what I mean."

Meanwhile, Tampa had made herself busy. The blue gator waddled over towards Rosa, looking up curiously at the Budew in her arms. A toothy grin stretched across her face as Tampa waved up at her, before starting to hop back and forth in an attempt to give a little dance to him.

Pia felt the "oof" when Aeliana ran up to her and immediately began about their last battle. Of all people she could meet here, it just had to be her. Seeing how much luck she had been having lately, she knew misfortune was just around the corner ready to get her in an unexpected moment… This was probably that moment.

"O-Oh! Aeliana! H-Hi~ What a coincidence to be meeting you here!" Pia greeted her, still pretending to only just now have noticed her. "It has indeed been a while~ I didn't stay long after the ceremony, you know~ It felt a bit awkward being on stage." the girl kept rambling. The girl was in a hurry to change the topic, and quick. Luckily she saw Milla jump over towards the other girl of the group with a grass Pokémon in her arms to join Aeliana's Totodile. Genius. Good job Milla! "I see someone whom I haven't met yet since we graduated! Aren't you… Rosa?" Pia shot a smile at the girl.

Rosa nodded slowly as she placed the squirming Budew on the ground to join the new Pokemon. Zorro did his best to dance about with the Totodile, but in the end it amounted to clumsily tipping between its stubby legs and inevitably falling on its face as it was still young and inexperienced with walking about. Luckily Milla was quick to help Zorro back on his feet. Rosa felt anxious, finding that she was suddenly called out once more and made to be the center of attention.

"Yes, and you're Pia? It's been a while since we've all been grouped up like this again." Rosa did her best to put on a smile, but she was uncertain of how well the group would mesh together. It seemed that they'd all been somewhat acquainted since school let out, and she was once again the new kid in town. It seemed so far that more people had remembered Simon than had remembered her, so it was possible that she'd be able to start out this group with a fresh slate. Her mind raced as she tried to recall what she knew about Pia but came up with a blank. She'd have to form this persona solely off of Val and Aeliana, and just hope that it didn't rub Pia the wrong way. "I remember you looking cute at the opening ceremony as well. Are you on your way to the festival?"

"Ah yes, I actually visited yesterday as well. I wanted to go today as well. Milla quite liked it too." Pia pointed at her Pichu, half-introducing her to the group. The fact that Rosa gave her a compliment on her cute appearance during the ceremony earned the girl plus points in her book. What a delightful girl!

"Ding, ding! Here's an idea!" Valerie called out. "We all should tooooottally go to the festival together. Total. Winter. Fun fest."

Rosa smiled and nodded. This was exactly what she'd hoped for when she'd spotted the two girls before. Adding in someone who had already been there might make it easier to navigate through to the stalls she'd want to visit as well - so the initial surprise of Pia appearing might actually turn into a blessing. "That sounds great!"

"Yeah, I could get behind that," Aeliana replied with a smile. She turned and glanced down to Pia. "So, what do you think? You in?"

"S-Sure!" Pia agreed. This was absolutely not according to plan but she also couldn't avoid it now. She also couldn't read Aeliana very clearly either. At first glance she seemed friendly in her approach and she couldn't sense a hidden agenda… That made her behaviour even more suspicious. She had to keep a close eye and be very careful in her actions. This was going to be an exhausting day…

"Well, looks like we're all on board then," Aeliana confirmed with a smile. She gave Val a small wink before continuing. "Where to?"

"Should be just a few shakes up here!" Valerie explained. "Allllrighty! The-Have-Fun-At-Festival main quest has officially begun! Let's GET IT, gang!"

The party of four walked along the snowy path of Route 3, on their way to the festival. Still chatting among themselves, a good time was to await them. Or at least, that was the plan. Eventually, the path through the Route became harder to see. A fog had started to settle in. The fog became more dense, making the path harder and harder to see.

"Geez, hope we don't get lost…" Valerie said. She got out her Pokedex to access the town map. Sure enough, they were still on the route, but it showed to no where specifically upon the route. Still, the route was supposed to be a simple path for anyone to pass through safely, so it shouldn't be any problem to proceed on ahead.

All they had to do was go through some trees, and weave through some branches, and…

"Huh…?"

The fog had startled to dissipate. Once it was almost completely clear, the group found themselves face to face with a marvelous sight… a gigantic, white-bricked castle stood right in front of their path. It seemed old-fashioned, but sturdy. Valerie herself went through Route 3 with her grandmother a few times, but this is the first time she saw a castle like this, out in the open. It was odd… why didn't she see something like this before, and what was it doing here?

"Whaaaa…" she said, her and Flame's mouths opened in a mixture of bewilderment and amazement. "You… you guys are seeing this, right?"

"Yeah… But I don't remember anything like this being on this route," Aeliana answered, checking the map on her own dex. "There's an old factory a ways up the road, but nothing like this."

Rosa walked slowly towards the building, running her hand along the brick exterior as she looked up towards the sky. "Wow…" she whispered, doing her best to restrain the shivering Budew escape artist with her off-hand. She looked down at Zorro who was trying to wriggle free from her grasp and smiled. "Nothing to be afraid about, it's just a castle. And it's so pretty, too."

The whole exterior of the castle gave off the feeling of something that would most definitely be haunted. Pia hated the thought of running into a ghost pokémon again and this time Ruben wasn't around to save her day. She sighed and thought. Even though Rosa said there was nothing to be afraid of, the girl dared to believe differently. Maybe if she brought it up… Everyone else would refuse to go in as well.

"This place looks like it's haunted." She said, trying to make it seem like she was the tough girl of the bunch.

"Might be… Ghost-types love places like this," Aeliana replied with a calm smile. "Maybe they think castles like this are 'boo-tiful', ya know?"

Pia snorted at Aeliana's joke. She had to admit. That one was pretty good.

Rosa looked at the two girls and shrugged. Maybe it was because she'd already dealt with possessed Pokemon and that fledgling cult, but the idea of a place being haunted didn't really bother her anymore. "So… are we going in, or not? Not exactly in the season anymore, but I think it might be fun."

Aeliana nodded. "I think we should. With this cold and the like, maybe stepping into someplace a little less frigid might be nice?" The Lotad riding on Aeliana's head suddenly stirred at the remark. He glanced down at the trainer, panic and dread evident in his eyes as he glanced back up towards the castle that his trainer was suggesting that they go into. Aeliana reached up to pat Fiesta on his head. "Relax, it'll all be fine!"

No it's not fine. This was not the direction this was supposed to go. At least, in Pia's mind it wasn't. For a split second she thought just running off would suffice but that'd be no different from the first time she and Aeliana met. She wouldn't be able to justify it a second time. While she thought that, her body was already turning around and slowly walking off.

"Is the castle that woman talked about…" Valerie realized to herself, following up with a big wide grin. "Oh well! YOLO! New sidequest: Storm the castle! Let's DO THIS, Pia!" she, without turning to look back at her, instinctively grabbed Pia's arm as she dragged her to go inside.

Pia had fictive tears streaming down her face. She should've known she wouldn't be able to escape Val's clutches.

Inside the castle, it felt as big as it was from outdoors.The walls might have had a royal feel to it, but now, they were all virtually ragged and worn out. The floor creaked a sad tune as they walked inside. A couple of doors were also in place, most likely connected to different rooms to the castle. It was decorated by countless paintings of various people and pokemon - perhaps they were the previous habitants of the place?

Valerie looked around the front, deserted entrance. Everything seemed quiet. "Yoohooo!" She called out, trying to alert some kind of presence. "Any ghosties in here? Spirits? Zombies? Sexy Vampires? Gimme something to work hereeeee!" But, there was no reply. "Hmm. Bummer."

Rosa looked around, turning on her heels as she took in the once glorious image of the castle's interior. "Wow," she muttered. She took a few seconds to look at each of the paintings as they came into the main room. "This place is huge," she whispered loudly, letting her voice carry through the still air. "How long do you think it'd take to get through it all?"

"I dunno, maybe an hour? Two tops depending on how thoroughly we look," Aeliana replied. She walked up to a nearby painting of a woman, dressed in a fancy, emerald green dress that seemed to cascade and billow out as it descended to the floor. Resting in her lap was Skitty, who seemed to have a rather snooty expression on her face as opposed to the cheerful one the Pokémon was known for. The woman may have been pretty, but the picture being torn as if slashed through by someone or something with some rather sharp claws or cutlery made it difficult to tell. "Someone must not have been a big fan of her, am I right?"

"It's hard to tell what went on here." Pia replied to her, taking a look around as well. She felt goosebumps just from being here but she had to admit that the place was indeed beautiful. It looked like the inside of some medieval castle. If it wasn't for the dirt it would've looked kind of like they had entered the home of a royal.

"Hmmm…" Valerie turned to look at her surroundings some more. All the portraits were dusty, yet still neatly lined up. She had a closer look at the picture Aeliana walked up towards, giving it a sort of sideways look. She then noticed - it had a bit of writing at the near bottom edge of the frame. "Hold up, there's something written on here… for my wonderful friend?"

"Gigigi…"

"Huh?" Valerie was suddenly alerted by something… but she couldn't point out what that was. "Did you all hear that just now?"

"Gii… Gigigigi…" the noise became louder and sharper. It wasn't something she ever heard before, but it was definitely ominous. "Gi... Gigigig...GIGIGIGIGIGIGI!" All of a sudden, the front entrance doors sealed shut all on their own, and next a malevolent gust wind that scattered throughout the room, causing some of the pictures to be dropped and smashed from the walls.

"Heeeeeey…!" Valerie shouted, holding on to her visor as the wind picked up, and Flame holding on tightly onto her. "What's the deal---"

Fiesta froze in place on Aeliana's head. The little Lotad somehow managed to grip onto her hair rather tightly, an impressive feat for a Pokémon that didn't seem to have any actual claws or finger-like ligaments. By her side, Tampa let out a low, feral growl. The Totodile's spikes began to stand on edge as she stomped forward, puffing out her chest in an attempt to look intimidating to… whoever or whatever it was that was laughing at them just now.

Rosa turned her back quickly to the center of the room, balling herself up and crouching down as she smuggled Zorro back into her bag to protect him from the harsh winds. She fell backwards as one of the pictures nearby fell to the ground in front of her and startled her as it broke apart. She glanced around quickly as she shakily rose back to her feet, looking immediately for an escape. "The doors!"

Pia screamed with Milla hugging her trainer in an attempt to calm her down. Another ghost. Again. It was getting exhausting at this point but Pia was able to gather her thoughts and as she heard Rosa yell for the doors, she ran up towards them. If they opened up, at least she would be able to escape first. That's what she thought at least but they didn't budge.

"The doors won't open!" She screamed into the room at the others.

Aeliana looked around the room. The pink-haired girl sighed, realizing that things were quickly getting out of hand. "Alright now, everyone just take it easy!" the pinkette called out. "I know things are getting a little 'ghoulish' right now, but the last thing we need is to lose our heads! Everyone take a deep breath… and keep calm, yeah?"

Rosa quickly walked up to join Pia at the main entrance, tugging on the door with all their might to no avail. She sighed in defeat after a few attempts and then turned to face Val and Aeliana, wondering what they should do now. Aeliana was right at least, panicking now would only make things that much worse. The main doors didn't work, sure, but a castle should have more than one exit. Regardless of how scary it may or may not be, all they had to do was stay together and move through the building until they found it.

"Maybe there's another exit? It is a castle, it'd be pretty silly to only have one way in and out." Rosa tried her best to sound calm, only allowing her voice to waver once or twice.

Pia stopped tugging at the doors as they were obviously not opening up. She searched around for another one and found one hidden away near the staircase. Milla helped her opening up the door as it was pretty stuck, but eventually it did open. "I… I think we can move through here? Seems like a hallway to me." She shrugged, trying to hide away her panic as much as she could. Truthfully, she was also just really tired of being subjected to ghost Pokémon the whole time. At least she had three others around her that could be potential food to them.

Rosa had moved in the opposite direction, mirroring Pia's search around the main hall as they looked for another door on the ground floor. Eventually, she was called to attention as Pia and her Pichu began to struggle with opening up the door hidden at the furthest point of the room from the entrance. "Hey, great job!" Rosa nodded, poking her head through the opening before stepping through herself. "Definitely prefer a hallway to a stairway. Staying on the ground is probably going to be our best bet to getting out of here."

"H-Hey, wait up a minute you two!" Aeliana called out as the two girls opened the doors and stepped into the hallway. "I don't think we need to be getting all split up either!"

The pinkette's suggestion seemed to fall on deaf ears, however. Pia and Rosa both moved through the hidden door, stepping into the hallway that waited on the other side. Aelaina cursed under her breath, motioning for Tampa and Valerie to follow her as she began to chase after the two shorter girls. Before the pink-haired trainer got too far however, another sharp gust of wind blew through the room and slammed the doors shut.

"Gii… Gigigigi… GIGIGIGIGIGIGIGI!"

Aeliana looked around for a moment, as if trying to locate the source of the strange and unsettling laugh. The dancer couldn't spot anyone else in the room with them, however. Pushing the thought aside, the pinkette moved towards the door and began to pull. Being heavy and quite a bit rusty to say the least, they did not move easily. It was only when Tampa and Mahina also put their weight behind the trainer's attempts did the door begin to squeak and creak as it opened slowly.

Inside, there was a small room that was filled with shelves of books, all seemingly different in genre. Right near the middle of the room was a wooden table that had a lone book and an old-fashioned looking pen with a feather - as if someone was writing on it.

"Lady 'Ia?! Rosieeee?!" Valerie shouted. The two girls that seemed to have entered the room first were nowhere in sight. "Where are youuuuu?! What the heck…"

Aeliana stepped into the room first, looking around slowly before looking back to Valerie. "I don't remember.... Wasn't there a hallway on the other side of this door just a minute ago?"

"Geez, this is freaky…" Valerie remarked, looking around the room. "...What is this place, anyway? Looks like, some sort of mini-library?" Valerie stepped inside following Aeliana, carefully eyeing the backs of the covers of some of the books that were shelved. She wasn't really too big on reading, so these books were all unfamiliar to her. That was until she had her eyes upon the solo book that was opened, and laid down on the table there. She had a look at the contents - it was more than a book, it seemed like it was some sort of journal.

She read out the contents.
It was my first summer with my beloved, and one of the happiest times of my life. When he took my hand, knelt down and proposed to me right on the spot, my heart truly soared....

Even my eternal friend Mew, felt happy for me.

"M-M-Mew?!" Valerie shrieked, clutching on to the journal even more. She recklessly flipped through each page of the journal - with good reason - whoever wrote in this journal had once met and befriended Mew, the goal that Valerie had her sights on ever since she started this journey.

She finally found a previous entry of the journal that was written about Mew specifically.

Today I have made friends with a peculiar creature: one that introduced itself as Mew. Mew seems friendly, and got along with the other Pokemon who lived around here, especially with dear Skitty and Yamask.

Looking back, it was quite peculiar… it appeared before me one day, when it saved my Yamask from being swept away from the powerful currents of the nearby river in the forest. Perhaps it's able to sense my feelings, and my heart?

Even so, I can tell it is a magnificent Pokemon that holds many powers. I wonder where Mew came from…

Valerie rested the journal back on the table. "Oh man… Wonder how long ago was this," she said to herself. Flame cried a little, in the same curious tone.

"Hard to say…" Aeliana chimed in. She was busy looking at the bookshelves herself, trying to see if there was anything else of interest to take note of. "That book mentioned a forest, right? There's not anything of the sort in this area… At least, not anymore if there was one. The only major forest I can think of is around Ballonlea and that town down south… What was it, Postwick?"

"Hmmm..." Valerie replied in a deep thought, or at least, as much of a thought she could muster up. "Dunno… but this proves that Mew existed and made good friends! Ohhhh maaaan, super mega hyped on meeting it now!" But Valerie's enthusiasm was quickly interrupted.

"Giii… Giiiive back…"

There was another, strange voice that alerted the trainers and pokemon. "Eh?" Valerie questioned, looking around the place on reaction.

"Gigigigi… Ggiii… give… back… friend… gigi.. Giiiive… back FRIEND!"

"Whoa!" Valerie let out a soft yelp as all of a sudden the bookcases started to rumble, and the books on the shelves poured right out from each of them. Some of the books even started floating, and flying straight off to different random directions. Flame let loose his Ember attack, showering some of the books that flew right in their direction, incinerating them in flame. "The heck is wrong with this place?!"

"Whatever is here doesn't really want us here," Aeliana replied. She paused for a moment, thinking back to what Valerie had read just a few moments ago. Her Totodile looked around the room, eyes narrowed with fangs barred in the event that something jumped out to attack them. "That… whatever it is, said something about giving back a friend right? Do you think it might be the girl that wrote the journal?"

The bookshelves stopped shaking, and everything eventually went quiet. "I dunno sis..." Valerie admitted. "I'm totally worried about Lady 'Ia and Rosie though, we gotta find them."

"Sounds like a plan to me. Neither one seemed to be fairing all that well when we were together, so I don't think them being on their own is such a hot idea either," Aeliana concluded. She glanced down at Tampa and gave the Totodile a quick nod. "Take the front, Tampa. We'll be counting on you to keep us safe!"

Game Paused
Press START to continue!
Players: Valerie Amity, Aeliana Kekoa, Pia McGuire, & Rosa Valdés

Dragon · Jan 11, 2021

Sidequest Start!
The Mystery of Mew!
Players: Valerie Amity, Aeliana Kekoa, Pia McGuire, & Rosa Valdés

Game Paused!
Press START to continue!

As Rosa and Pia walked through into the hallway beyond the door, a powerful gust of wind blew past them and slammed the door shut. "Oh!" She whispered loudly, turning on her heels and stumbling backwards a few steps in surprise. "Guess we should have held it open so that wouldn't happen again." She walked quickly back up to the door and pushed it open, revealing a completely different room from the one they'd just been in. "Uh…" she quickly closed the door, wondering if maybe she was just confused. She turned her head to look at the rest of the hallway as she considered the possibility of having just gotten turned around. "No, no. This should be the right door," she whispered as she pressed the door back open, revealing the same room she'd just peered into.

The sight of Rosa and her whispering worried Pia even more upon noticing Aeliana and Valerie had not followed them. Meaning that from the three decoys, only one was left. She walked towards the door that Rosa had opened and peeked into it, blinked a few times, then closed it. She then opened it again, closed it, opened again and that went on for a few times before she let out a "uuughhh" from being annoyed with the situation. Even Milla looked like she had no idea what to do and just looked at Rosa's Pokémon and shrugged.

"At least this bedroom doesn't look as… terrifying as the rest of the place. I suppose…" Pia let out, completely done with the situation. She hated ghosts and everything… absolutely everything screamed ghosts in this place. She entered the bedroom, letting Rosa enter first so they didn't lose each other too and looked around. It was a spacious bedroom, almost like it belonged to royalty so big. The bed was most definitely queen size. It was huge. The dust that laid upon the sheets told her it hadn't been used in a very long time though. What a strange home this was.

"Yeah, it doesn't look too bad…" Rosa walked around the room, running her fingertips across some of the furniture. She rubbed her hands together, trying to get off the layers of dust that had clumped up onto her fingers from the act. "At least whoever was here before had good taste." She looked up at the portrait which had been torn slightly from its broken frame. "If not a little vain. That is, if these portraits are of the homeowners. I couldn't imagine walking around and seeing myself every time I looked up."

"Oh? It was actually quite common in the old age." Pia looked up surprised and went over to the portrait as well. "See, they're like family pictures. They didn't have camera's back in the day like we do now so they made portraits with their family instead." The girl explained, quite intrigued with the painting itself. It looked torn but overall… not really bad? It showed a couple that appeared to be from Royal heritage. If not royals, then probably extremely rich nobles. Pia was caught up in the details that went into painting the dress of the woman. It was quite stunning. On their laps was a Skitty and a…. What was the other Pokémon again?

Pia held out her Pokédesk to the part that seemed the least torn to identify the Pokémon.

"YAMASK. THE SPIRIT POKÉMON.

THE SPIRIT OF A PERSON FROM A BYGONE AGE BECAME THIS POKÉMON. IT RAMBLES THROUGH RUINS, SEARCHING SOMEONE WHO KNOWS ITS FACE."

The entry itself was enough reason for Pia to immediately put her Pokédesk back in her pocket. She should not have searched that up. It walks around hoping someone recognizes it's face? Uhhh…..

She wasn't knowledgeable enough on the matter to add anything to Pia's speculation, so Rosa walked slowly over to the queen sized bed and pressed down on it before looking at the covers. Getting into the bed of what could easily be assumed to be dead people at this point never really sounded much like a great idea, but it was still more comfortable than anything she'd ever been able to afford. Passing by this opportunity now could end up becoming a regret if she never ended up making it big. The girl slowly pulled back the sheets, and in doing so accidentally caught one of the pillows between the layers and dragged it down.

"That pillow…." She whispered, turning her attention towards it. "It weighs way too much." She picked the pillow up and stood it upright, peering into the case before a look of confusion took over her face. "Is that… what?" She reached in, fumbling around at the bottom of the pillow before finding what she'd thought she'd seen and pulled it free. "Is this… a golden nugget?" She dropped the pillow and turned slowly to find Pia and show off her find. "Do you think this is real?" She questioned, never having been in possession of such a luxury.

"What? Give that here for a second." Pia took the nugget off Rosa's hands and held it in all sorts of ways to determine it's real. Once she found her answer, sparkles appeared in her eyes. This thing was not good for anything else but money! "Yep! This is totally real!" Pia happily announced. It was very tempting to keep the nugget but since Rosa was the one who found it… she looked up towards Rosa, then back to the nugget and sighed. "Here, I suppose that's now yours. Finder's keepers after all." Pia reluctantly held out the item towards the girl who was not much shorter than she was.

Rosa reluctantly took the item back and looked it over slowly. Pia'd shown so much excitement over the find, but at the same time, Rosa was absolutely broke. If it was a genuine golden nugget, it would help to get her through the next couple of routes without having to do much worrying. That being said, Pia could be just as bad off, if not worse. As she considered whether or not to actually keep it for herself, she began to wonder about something else.

"But why was it in the pillowcase to begin with?" she questioned, walking slowly to the other side of the bed. "Some kind of old age neck massager for rich people or something?" She asked, somewhat jokingly as she lifted up the main pillow on the other side of the bed. "Uh, Pia?" She asked almost immediately, looking over at the girl as she lifted the pillow up slightly and then let it drop with a soft thunk back against the bed.

Once the golden colour visualized in Pia's eyes, she immediately eagerly grabbed it and the sparkles in her eyes had returned. "Another one?! This is our lucky day!" The nuggets made Pia forget they were in a terrifying mansion with probably ghost Pokémon or actual ghosts. With this nugget, she'd finally have some money again. "Rosa, do you mind if I…" Pia asked the girl. "... do you?" She looked at her, pointing at the nugget. Each of them having one was fair, right??

Rosa nodded her head. Honestly, she could have really used the second nugget herself. Imagining all the food she could buy for Ezra with that extra Poke was incredibly tempting. However, if she just took both items for herself, how would it impact Pia's view of her? Who knows when she'd meet up with this girl again; but in the end, it was best to just let her have this one. "It's only fair, isn't it?" She smiled, tilting her head slightly. "You've been trapped in here just like me after all."

Pia smiled and hid away the nugget in her backpack, placing it underneath some stuff so that she wouldn't lose it. Honestly, this was the best thing that could happen to her today. "You're a good girl, Rosa." Pia suddenly complimented, being very happy with her findings and patting the girl on her head.

Rosa flinched very slightly as Pia raised her hand towards the girl's face. But as the girl placed it atop Rosa's head, she lowered her shoulders and smiled gently back at her. She wasn't really sure how to respond to Pia, as it was literally the least that she could do to give the girl the nugget. She hadn't had time to do any digging into her personality since they all grouped up together and came into the mansion, so she settled with offering up a little shrug. "Thanks." Her mind began to run through a few scenarios as the word came out of her mouth, wondering if maybe she should have said something different, or nothing at all. Or perhaps… she went to open her mouth once more, as something caught her attention from the corner of her eye and stopped her in her tracks.

"It is all yours to keep."

A woman appeared behind them. She greeted the two girls who grabbed the Nuggets with subtle curtsey. "You need not worry," she continued. "The owner of this room has no more need for them."

Rosa let her gaze linger on the woman for a moment, wondering how she got into the room without them noticing. "It's... all ours to keep?" What right did she have to give anything here away to begin with? Although, having someone else there to reinforce their actions made her feel a little bit better. "Guess you must have found something even better then, huh? Where'd you come from anyways? I could have swore I closed the door behind us and I never did hear it open."

Pia was still recovering from the inner heart attack that she experienced with that sudden appearance behind them. Rosa was already asking the real questions but somewhere inside, Pia knew this wasn't coincidence. The first thing that came to mind was that she was a ghost from the past. Despite her beautiful appearance and soft voice, the girl had a hard time staying sane and thus stayed quiet overall..

The woman didn't answer the girl's question. Instead she went over to the bed's night table, and picked up a small frame that was there. It was a painting of another woman, a regal looking man, a Skitty, a Yamask, and what appears to be an egg that the lady was holding. The strange woman gave a solemn sigh as she sat it back upright.

"Try going through that door towards the end here," she said, pointing towards what it seems like a wooden door, that was the opposite end of the entrance. "Most likely, you'll find your other friends there."

Rosa furrowed her brow as the woman spoke and looked at the picture. She'd been caught up in enough of other people's business lately that she just decided to take her statement at face value and leave the matter alone. This place clearly wasn't normal, so when she said to walk through what appeared to be a closet in order to find their friends, she didn't question or interject. "You ready to go, Pia?"

"Ready to go? I just want to get out of here." Pia responded, shivering in her spot but following the girl towards the door that the woman had told them to go through. It was questionable to say the least but an exit is an exit.

Rosa pulled the door open, revealing a large dining hall. The girl peeked her head through and quickly noticed the other two girls they'd lost. Rosa turned her head to check on the mysterious woman and thank her, but she'd already disappeared. With how Pia was shaking, it was probably best not to bring her back up until later.

"Hey, look who it is," Rosa called out, waving at the other two girls as the door slowly closed behind her and Pia.

"Ayyyy!" yelled a cheery familiar voice - it was Valerie, with Aeliana who came in through the opposite side room, that also had a door through there, apparently from the reading lounge where they were coming from. "Lady Ia' and Rosie! Not a scratch on ya both! Poggers!"

"You gave us a pretty big scare the way you both disappeared like that," Aeliana said to the two formerly missing girls. "What in Tapu Lele happened to you two? As soon as you stepped through that door, we lost track of you. Even the room you stepped into was gone!"

Rosa shook her head slowly, shooting a glance at Pia as she let the nugget drop softly into her pocket. "Same here! We walked into that hallway and then after the door slammed behind us, we couldn't get back to the entry room. We went right back through the same door and wound up in a dusty old bedroom somehow! Then this lady came out of nowhere and told us to go through the closet… and now," she motioned out towards the room they'd all met up in.

"The lady disappeared. Just like a… ghost." The word itself made Pia shiver. "This place is quite interesting if it wasn't so abandoned and…" the girl cut herself off. She needed to stop thinking about the potential ghost types that could be crawling here. She had to get it together. With a deep breath she conjured a smile back on her face, almost like nothing was wrong at all. "At least we're back together. Found anything interesting when you were alone?" The girl asked both Aeliana and Valerie.

"Oh! Oh, oh, ohhhh!" started Valerie. "You're. Gonna. Be. Gobsmacked. When I tell you what we found out! The dudes who lived here, made friends with Mew!! Like, that is sooo epic! But still, I wonder what happened to it… and another thing—"

"Gigi…"

A familiar sound encroached Valerie's ears, interrupting her talk. Then suddenly, the large room they were at, became shrouded in a black, visible mist. The plates scattered around the dining tables started to rumble and clatter, some of them even started seemingly floating upwards by themselves. The ominous, dark feeling ramped up. The paintings around the room came off their walls, floating as well.

"Gi.. GIgigigi… Giiiive…" the sound was louder than what the trainers have heard before. The ominous presence felt seeped closer and closer. The paintings were moving on their own, now connected by what it looked like black tendrils… they all clumped together, like they were forming a single entity. One more painting, one of a yamask, floated on top. The fragments from the tendrils extended to form arms, fingers, and a head that connected to the base of the yamask painting, which then warped into a more sinister figure - a head of a red-eyed beast. One it was complete, it shrouded itself in a pitch black aura, letting out a fierce wail.

"Giiiigiiii… giiiiive… baaaaack… FRRRRIIIIIIIIEEEERND!"

"It… Is that a…" Valerie shrieked, trying to comprehend what's happening. "What the hell…?!" Valerie's Pokédex started to vibrate. Dexter? Is it a Pokémon? she opened her Pokédex up. "Rune...rigus… Runerigus? A powerful curse was woven into an ancient painting, and after absorbing the spirit of a Yamask, the painting began to move...." The Runerigus continued to roar and wail. Everything around it spun out of control, resulting in ongoing chaos. Plates were flying, and breaking all over the place, and its tendrils flailed about, forming itself as an intimidating presence.

"Something tells me we're not getting out of here without taking care of that," Aeliana pointed out, her eyes widening as a plate went sailing overhead. A nervous wail came from her side, the pinkette noticing that her Lotad was quivering by her feet. "You girls think we can handle this?"

Rosa shook her head as she fumbled for a pokeball in her pocket. "I don't think we really have a choice." She grumbled, finding the Pokemon she'd been blindly searching for before releasing it onto the ground beside her. The Whismur immediately took shelter between her legs, frightened by the supernatural goings-on.

Pia seemed ready to faint at any moment, but also angry. She liked to have one of those "Oh no big deal" cool moments like the others were having but that was not going to happen. At this point she had ceased to care about her reputation and thought only of surviving. If she had remembered correctly about type advantages then Soma should be the perfect opponent for this…. Thing. Milla stood right beside her with a ready-to-battle expression written all over her face but her electric type wouldn't do any damage. She grabbed Soma's pokéball and threw it up to reveal the small grass-type Pokémon.

"Let's go, girls." Pia spoke for the first time in a while.

Flame and Valerie nodded to each other. Without any words, Flame readied himself for battle by igniting his flame. "Right then," Valerie announced. "Iiiiiit's whoop-ass time!"

"Buuuuurn on, Flame-bro! Use Ember!" Valerie followed up, having her Cyndaquil spray countless spitfire flames towards the ghost pokemon. It didn't flinch however, as it absorbed the flames without much effort. Flame revved himself even more, spewing even more flames. When the attacks still didn't work, he stomped on the table he landed on.

"Easy there, Flamey!" Valerie tried to comfort it, but Flame did not listen. He continued using his fire-type attack, in exhausting itself. 'Flame-bro, you gotta slow down! Heeeeey--"

"Wyatt, you can't let yourself get shown up out there!" Rosa whispered at the Pokemon hiding beneath her as she shifted her dress. "I know it's scary, but we've got to get stronger and this is the perfect opportunity! Your ability was made for this moment."

"Whis." The Pokemon cried softly as its whole body shook. "Whiiis." He moaned, coming out from beneath the dress. Whismur started bouncing back and forth, psyching itself up as its fear of the whole situation evolved slightly into a manic state of aggression, causing it to move more quickly than it normally would have. Using its new somewhat fearless state, the Pokemon dove in at the Runerigus, striking with a glancing Astonishing bite which caused the spirit to flinch and recoil at having been caught off guard by the surprisingly agile ball.

"Alright, Fiesta! Back up the little guy and spray him with a Water Gun!" Aeliana chimed in. Fiesta gave his trainer a nervous glance, but waddled forward nonetheless. While the Runerigus was recovering from the sudden bite from Rosa's Whismur, the Lotad took aim and shot a quick stream of water from his bill at the ghost Pokémon. The Runerigus let out an angry howl as the water sprayed against his stoney body, before flailing and swinging its body around at the two Pokémon wildly with a Brutal Swing.

"Chase him off with Razor Leaf, Soma!" Pia shouted out her command to her tsundere Cottonee, pretending he didn't like that he was called but actually being really excited to be in a battle. The grass-type Pokémon shot batches of leaves at the Runerigus, chasing him off from both Aeliana's Lotad and Rosa's Whismur before his Brutal Swing impacted. "Follow-up with a fairy wind just like we did in training!" Pia shouted again, showing a bit more bravery than she did before. It was a confidence boost that she was able to take on something that looked really strong and still hold her own.

Soma did as Pia asked and followed his Razor Leaf up with a Fairy Wind. The follow-up brought along a beautiful sparkling effect together with the earlier leaves. It was a combination she had been training with Soma for the upcoming contest in Turfield and showing it to her rival, Aeliana was probably not the greatest strategic move but it was better than getting impaled by a ghost Pokémon. Runerigus was not all too pleased, however, and made his way towards Pia and her Cottonee. Milla stood in front of her trainer, ready to take a possible blow.

Wyatt had instinctively rolled backwards in an attempt to dodge the incoming swing, not realizing that Soma had intercepted the attack before it had a chance to land. The Pokemon struggled on its back for a few seconds, giving them time to throw out their followup attack before he could jump back in. "Whiiis!"

The pokemon cried out, opening up its ears as it inhaled deeply and then let out a deafening cry with its Disarming Voice, hitting not only the Runerigus, but also its allies. Fortunately, the baby Budew had managed to peek its head out of Rosa's bag and was there immediately after to serve up some quick healing by spreading the dew of his leaves around to the allied Pokemon.

"Sorry!" Rosa called out, recognizing that Wyatt probably wasn't the best option to use in such an enclosed and echo friendly space.

Aeliana's Lotad let out a grunt, his small body shuddering from the loud noise as he tried to regain his composure. The same was for Pia's Pichu and Cottonee as they Milla used her tiny paws to hold down her huge ears and Soma shivered in his place. The pink-haired girl was much in the same boat, but she too managed to recover quickly. "Fiesta, go in for an Astonish!"

The Runerigus let out an angry roar, echoing throughout the room in a terrifying pitch similar to that of Wyatt's Disarming Voice. Its ghostly tendrils began to glow with a dark, purple aura as the Pokémon took aim at Pia's Cottonee and prepared to slash down with a powerful Shadow Claw. However as the ghost was about to strike, Fiesta launched himself and surprised the Runerigus with a quick bite to his "claws". The ghost howled in anger, unleashing another Brutal Swing as he sent Fiesta sailing through the air and slamming into an unsuspecting Wyatt.

Rosa gritted her teeth, wondering if she should reveal another of her party to the group of girls. "Wyatt!" She called out, hoping that the Pokemon could get itself back up. Yzma had the most experience with fighting ghost types out of the rest of her party, but at the same time-

"Bud!" Zorro cried out and wiggled angrily within the bag as Wyatt was sent tumbling away. The baby Pokemon cried out harshly and let out a cute little grunt as a number of plates and silverware began to lift up off of the table and were subsequently thrown at the Runerigus. The Extrasensory attack forced the tableware through one of the paintings that the Pokemon instinctively lifted to protect itself. "Bud-ewww!" He cried out triumphantly before falling back into the bag.

The Runerigus wasn't pleased by the surprise attack to say the least and now attempted to get rid of these thorns in his side. He focused another Brutal Swing towards Rosa.

"Soma! Fairy wind again! Now!" Pia felt her anxiety grow as it got closer to Rosa. It wasn't even intending on attacking her Pokémon anymore but the girl herself. Soma jumped up and attempted to use his Fairy wind again, only to be met by a sharp light coming from the Runerigus. Soma suddenly found himself unable to call upon his attack. Was this a "Disable"….?

"Loooooo!"

The sudden and familiar wailing of Fiesta reaches the ears of the trainers. The Lotad sails through the air, propelling himself forward via his Water Gun. Fiesta manages to latch himself onto the wild Runerigus, the ghost letting out a wild roar as it tries to shake off the lilypad-sporting creature.

"Fiesta, be careful!" Aeliana calls out.

The Lotad remains determined, however. He begins to focus his mind, Fiesta trying to Absorb some of the energy from his foe. Surprisingly, the Lotad's lilypad begins to grow brightly. A massive ball of energy surges from the Runeigrus, before being drawn into Fiesta.

"Mega Drain?!" Aeliana exclaims.

Fiesta hops off of the ghost. A determined expression graces his face as he stares down the Runeigrus. All the while, his legs quiver beneath him.

"Let's finish this! Forget Fairy Wind, Soma! Use Razor Leaf instead!" Pia said with a smirk and with the confidence of a proper trainer. The trust she had in Soma in this particular battle was immense. It was quite different from her battles with Milla.

"Fiesta, join in with Water Gun!" Aeliana called out. She glanced over in Pia's direction, smiling at the shorter girl. "Looks like someone's been getting some practice in since our train ride."

Pia flinched at what seemed to her like a snarky comment, giving her no reply but just a sheepish chuckle in return.

The Lotad took aim and fired a chilling blast of water. At that exact moment, Soma released a series of sharp, swirling leaves. The razor-edged foliage shot out and encircled Fiesta's Water Gun, both attacks colliding with the Runeigrus. The ghost released a wailing howl, eyes glowing with anger as its movements slowed to a stagger. The Runeigrus then lowered its arms, seemingly slumped over.

"Is it over?!" Valerie asked, looking over at the Pokemon. It made no response… it was seemingly defeated. Flame looked down, feeling blue. He wasn't very much useful in this battle, nor did he damage the pokemon as much as he wished for. However, Valerie smiled. "Brilliant! Now that it's over, maybe we can be friends with--"

Though her celebration was cut short by the Runeigrus rising once again, showing itself in an even harsher pitch-black aura. "That's mad!" Valerie remarked. "All those attacks and it's STILL up and about?!" The roaring pokemon failed about its arms, causing the items around the area to be flowed in and about in a frenzy. It then collected a massive mass of dark energy, and formed it to a ball. Whatever it was planning next, it's going to be on a more massive scale than what it formed before. The black ball grew bigger and bigger… as the Runeigrus roared and wailed once more, preparing for its attack. The tension however, was interrupted.

"That is enough!"

The voice came from behind the trainers. It was the same woman that Pia and Rosa had seen before. "It's you!" Valerie said, also recognizing the woman. The woman approached the ghost pokemon, with the same calm expression as she always did. The woman gave it a gentle smile.

"It's enough now, my friend. I'm here now," she said softly to it. She approached it once more, gently stroking its body.

The Runeigrus this time let out a soft, meek cry. All the items such as the plates, and faintings that were floating overhead gently made their way to the tables and floor, and it ceased its shadowy attack. The Runeigrus was then enveloped in a soft, gentle light. Before everyone's eyes, it started to shrink more and more. Eventually, it shrunk down to a similar size to the woman. With its shadowy arms, it gave her a gentle hug, with the woman giving one in return.

"I've left you alone for far too long…. I'm sorry." they both hugged each other for a brief moment. After which, the woman turned to the four girls. "I'm deeply sorry for what has happened."

Valerie blinked. "What the heck is this place, anyway?" she asked. "And…mate, just who are you?"

The woman clasped her hands together and lowered her arms. "Yes, I should explain…" she started. "And to that effect, would you humor me for a tale?" The room got quiet as the woman took a deep breath. "Long ago, probably now lost in history, there existed a kingdom. One day, they met a particular creature… a being known as 'Mew'."

"Blimey... Mew…!" Valerie repeated. "I saw something about Mew in a diary around here! What does this place have to do with Mew?! I wanna meet Mew myself! And to do that, I'll make 100 friends!"

"Mew was a creature who could perform many miracles…" the woman continued. "It could practically do anything any other pokemon can do. But more importantly, it was a friend to all. Especially towards the princess who once lived here." The woman's face grew more sullen. "Perhaps it was on a whim, or not - Mew once saved the girl's Yamask from a raging river, and since then, they've played together and shared cherished moments together. She and her pokemon were truly… one of Mew's cherished friends."

"Then!" Valerie responded, suddenly oddly starry-eyed. "Mew really diiiiiid make 100 brilliant friends! Brilliant! Massive hype!"

"What the ****?" Rosa whispered harshly under her breath, glancing quickly at the other girls around her to gauge their reactions to the new information. Things were… starting to make sense now, but also not really? Val seemed to have lost any semblance of fear, but what about the others? This was now very clearly not a living person, and the mansion did indeed seem to be haunted. They had also just been in a life or death battle, during which Rosa herself had been the target of a Pokemon's attack once again. But now, everyone was just taking things in stride? "What the ****," she reiterated to herself quietly as she sank over to Wyatt to check on the beaten Pokemon.

Pia had much similar thoughts. She was trying to get a grasp on the situation happening. Although Pia wasn't one to get quickly confused, it was a tiny bit hard to accept this as a reality.

The woman continued. "One of Mew's cherished memories was when she and the princess discovered a pokemon egg, laying in a small cave in a deep forest. This egg wasn't anything special, but, we can tell it was going to hatch into a happy pokemon. At the same time.. The princess had met him. The man she once loved." The woman glanced to the Runeigrus, then back at the group. "He seemed like a smart, kind man. For the time they were together, the princess was truly happy. The man even proposed to her, making the day one of the happiest of the princess's life. But… that was until he was introduced to Mew."

The woman's voice grew more stern. "Mew had made friends with the man as well, happy that he planned to wed its cherished friend. The man had witnessed Mew's power as it played around as well… and grew more intrigued by it. But with his fascination with Mew grew jealousy, the more Mew and the princess interacted with each other. Soon… something snapped. And the man… stabbed his fiancée."

"Whaaaaaa?" Valerie shrieked. "Why.. why would he--"

It made sense to Rosa, at least. It was a familiar story that she'd not expected to be recounted in a place like this. The girl turned her nose up at the woman's tale and recalled her Pokemon, not at all enjoying where the conversation had gone. It most likely wasn't just that the two were just playing together. If that's all that it was, then what had happened to her would have been- the girl shook her head with a soft sigh and a heave of her shoulders. It'd be best for her to not overanalyze that right now; not around other people.

The woman sighed once more. "He did so, in front of the princess's Yamask," she continued. "Ever since then, the Yamask had become fueled with hatred for what the man did to his friend. With its dark powers, he rid the man out of the face of this world, but grew too powerful - it became blinded in its rage, causing the kingdom itself to be lost, and shrouded in darkness. As for Mew… well, it lost its friends that day, and disappeared with an anguished heart. I don't know what happened to it after that. Perhaps it tried to make new friends, or perhaps we were the last friends it made? It's a mystery."

The woman directed her gaze at Valerie. "Even making one true friend to last a lifetime is a miracle itself. To have the desire to make 100 cherished friends is a beautiful mindset. But, are you ready for the responsibility and pain that it will cause you?"

Valerie gave the woman a perplexed look. "...Pain?"

Pia shot a quick glance and Valerie to whom was being spoken. She remembered she had thought before that the way Valerie was acting seemed more like she was just faking being kind to everyone. Their school years taught her how gullible the girl actually was. She indeed made an easy target for betrayal.

"To lose one friend is a heavy burden on your heart by itself. But to lose so many and all at once? That's far too much to bear," the woman explained. "Have you ever wondered why it went into disappearance? Maybe it wasn't because it feared humans or pokemon but the opposite: it feared itself. It thinks its entire existence… is a curse for everyone."

"A curse, huh..." Valerie pondered.

We don't wanna play with you anymore, Valerie!
Oh, there's that child again…
You're no longer welcomed in this family ever again, Valerie. Leave.

"Well, you know what?" Valerie flashed the woman with a sincere grin. "I don't think it's a curse at all. Even if they get one, everyone deserves a chance to be happy."

"Tch." Rosa scoffed quietly from her corner of the room. At the least, this little adventure had confirmed that her previous description of Valerie had been on the mark. "Nobody really deserves anything," she muttered to herself, wrinkling her nose in disgust at the naivety of Val's mindset.

Pia caught the words Rosa had muttered to herself and, without moving her head, gazed at the girls with her eyes. Those were some odd words coming from someone who had been only kind before… how interesting.

The woman gazed at Valerie, eventually giving her a soft smile. "You're a pure hearted girl. I admire that," she said solemnly. "If my friend was here right now, I'd tell it how happy it has made me. The memories, the joys, the sorrows we shared… they're all within my heart."

She then opened up her palms, as if she was prepared to hold something. All of a sudden, particles of light started to form, to shape an oval looking object… It was an egg, one that had red and blue shapes. She stepped towards Valerie, handing the egg over to her. "Please make this one a friend," she said to Valerie, as Valerie puzzingly accepted it. "We took care of it, but it never hatched… I wonder why, but, something tells me it will be in better care with you."

Valerie glanced at the egg she received, then flashed the woman with a wide smile. "I will!"

The woman nodded, turning to Aeliana. "As for you, please take this," she took off the necklace she was holding, having Aeliana wear it in her stead. "This was a necklace that my ex-lover once gave me. According to him, it has the power to magnify the power of Water-type attacks. Watching your Lotad, I think it suits a trainer such as yourself more."

Aeliana took the necklace from the ghostly woman carefully. She stared at the jewelry for a moment, before glancing back at the woman with a curious look. "Are… you sure that you want me to have something like this? It's still important to you, right?"

"No…" the woman replied sternly. "It lost all value for me the moment he betrayed me. So, it's all yours. But, if you wish, maybe someday… you can give it to someone you like."

"B-Betrayed you…?" Pia repeated quietly. This all confirmed that she was indeed a ghost from the past. Although she didn't seem particularly unfriendly, she wasn't all that thrilled about meeting ghosts either. The woman, however, continued to ignore Pia and Rosa where they stood.

"Someone I like…?" Aeliana questioned. She tightened her grip on the chain of the jewelry, a small blush working its way to her cheeks as a result of the woman's words. "A-Alright then…"

She then stepped back, turning to the Runeigrus, then back at the trainers. "Now, I believe it's time for you all to depart from this world."

"This… world? Where exactly--" Valerie questioned. On cue, the room began surrounded by a white fog. The fog grew thicker and thicker, until the trainers' sights were all clouded. Soon, all they could see was white.

"Hey, Miss Nice Ghost Lady?", Valerie called out for her. "I'll be sure to tell Mew how much it meant to you, okay?"

...
…
Thank you.

****

The trainers all then found themselves back at Route 3, with the castle no longer in sight. Still processing what just happened, Valerie looked around.

"Whoooooaaaa… we're back?" she pondered. "Were we just dreaming?" her question was immediately answered, as she noticed that she was still holding the egg she had received. She took a deep breath, then exhaled.

"Right… if making one true friend is a miracle, then… I'll make 100 miracles! Till then, cya soon Mew!"

Victory!
Party gains 867 exp!
Valerie lvl up! Aeliana lvl up! Pia lvl up! Rosa lvl up!

Dragon · Jan 11, 2021

Sidequest Start!
Silent Night
Players: Valerie Amity, Aeliana Kekoa, Pia McGuire, & Rosa Valdés

Press START to begin!

"Sweetness!" We're totes here!" Valerie proclaimed. The four trainers had finally arrived at the Christmas Festive Market at Route 3. There were various stalls around the place where people around bought food, played games, and there were even more sections where people could go caroling, and grow closer to their pokemon in general. There was even a nice, makeshift Christmas Lodge where anyone can stay for a while. The festival was busy and lively, filled with people and pokemon who just wanted to have a good, festive time.

"A small and definitely interesting detour, but I think I can say for us all it's nice to finally be here," Aeliana mused. She earned a nod of agreement from the Lotad who was once more situated on her head. "So, do you girls have any plan of action, or are we just gonna take a casual stroll?"

Rosa nodded in agreement. "That haunted mansion was definitely out of season," she joked, rubbing the head of the Budew that had crawled up on her shoulder. "I don't know about you, but I'm interested in seeing what kinds of sweet treats a Galar festival has to offer myself."

"Brilliant, Rosie, you go girl! Oh! Oh, oh oh oh… I wanna make new buddies, eat super yummy food, play loads of games, and… ahhh, y'know, YOLO everything! Oh! But before that…'' Valerie almost forgot about her egg. She took off her bag and sat it infront of her on the ground. "Knock, knock, sis!"

Valerie's Morpeko popped up from her bag, fortunately awake. "Do me a solid and hold on to this, sis?" Morpeko crept closer to the egg, and sniffed it. "Sorry sis, it's not for chowing down." Disappointment crept up quickly to Peko's face. Still, she accepted it, when Valerie stuffed her egg right next to Peko. Luckily both happened to fit in.

"A carry-on babysitter? Pretty cool," Aeliana said with a grin. "Rosie's gotta point though. All that haunting mess really worked up an appetite for me. Maybe a small snack to start things off?"

"I-I don't really snack…" Pia tried to bounce off but the look on all three faces of the girls when she said that were so terrifying that Pia eventually ceded trying and held her hands up. "One snack probably can't hurt…"

Milla on the other note was so distracted by everything else at the market and the new Pokémon friends that she just kept running between the Pokémon to play and interact with all of them. She stopped at the Morpeko and the egg, being very curious at what was inside it.

Rosa looked at Pia, wide eyed and bewildered as she stated that she didn't snack. Eventually the girl caved in to the peer pressure, and Rosa smiled as sweetly as she could manage in the moment. Pia had given them an inch, but Rosa was going to take her a mile. She felt in her pocket for the nugget and then nodded. She needed the money, but anyone that didn't know the joy of snacking needed it much more than she did. She was going to gorge this girl on all the festival had to offer.

"So," she started, looking at Val and Aeliana since they both were clearly down for the festivities. "What do we want to get started with?" Rosa glanced around at the various food stalls at the start of the festival. Some of the things available she could get anywhere else, but others were regional or seasonally exclusive. But, it never hurt to stick to the classics especially when you're travelling with a new snacker. "Crepes?"

"Daaaaaang, there's a lotta things to have, ain't it?" Valerie said, observant. "Ohohoho, I'm all charged up like a Sky Attack! Crepes sound pretty hype!" Though Flame was less enthusiastic, looking the other way.

"Sounds like a good idea to me," Aeliana chimed in. A rustling in the girl's bag alerted her. Suddenly, a blinding white light shot out of it, quickly taking the familiar shape and size of her Totodile. Tampa looked around eagerly, her mouth drooling at the sounds of getting a snack mixed in with the scents hanging in the air of delicious treats. Aeliana giggled at the blue gator. "Looks like Tampa's in too."

Rosa considered bringing out Ezra for a second but quickly decided against it. The Pokemon would bankrupt her of her newfound fortune before she ever got the chance to buy a snack for herself. Instead, she quickly held out her hand towards Pia and smiled cheerfully. "Lets go," she said softly.

Pia, who had been very quiet since their encounter in the mansion, blinked a few times. She was lost in thought for a second but was surprised by the held out hand. Pia hesitated for a second but eventually took her hand and sighed in defeat. These girls were planning on going on a food trip and Pia couldn't bring herself to say no with Aeliana still around.

Milla following the girls close behind and enjoying the view. She tucked the Ribbon she had gotten earlier today, blushing at the thought of the bird Pokémon who gave it to her.

"I've haven't had a crepe in a while… But you know one thing that would make tonight so great? A malasada! I haven't had one since moving here to Galar…" Aeliana mused.

"Oh yeaaaah, you were from Alola!" Valerie realized, not really taking hints from the constant 'Alola!' greetings from Aeliana. "I guess things around here are quite different compared to Alola, huh?"

Aeliana nodded in response. "There's no gyms there, for example. Alola still has a league, but it takes place after the yearly participants finish these things called trials."

"Trials? Oooh, that sounds pretty lit!" Valerie remarked, even more intrigued. "What are those like?"

"Well… They're kind of like…" Aeliana thought. "Remember that whole thing that Raph had to do before battling Kabu? They're like that! Followed by fighting something called a totem Pokemon. Those are like… Well, remember the Runeigrus we battled? They're like those, but at least twice the size! Maybe even a bit bigger!"

"Totems?" Valerie repeated, grasping the concept. "Talk about being a boss! Welp, I know what I wanna do after our Galar journey! Off to Alola! You tooootes should come with, sis. We should like, pwn all those trials! And malasadas, if you think they're great, they must be like, 1000x combo great!"

Aeliana felt a sudden rush of heat creep up to her face. "I-I mean… Sure, if you don't have anything else you'd rather do."

"Hell yeah! Don't sweat it, sis," Valerie replied with a wide smile. "It's gonna be fun, 100% Vale-nteed!"

***
"Gather round buddies, the food's on me!" Valerie declared, then turning to the food stall that they have just arrived to. It was a simple, humble crepe and dessert stand, but there's nothing like soothing a heart like a warm, delicious crepe. "A couple of crepes for me and my friends here? Thaaaaanks, you're the man!"

After Valerie purchased the goods, she handed them out to the other three. "Thank goodness Struggle got me my pay before the festival!"

"Struggle?" Aeliana questioned as she took her crepe from Valerie.

"It's the site I stream on!" Valerie explained. "And your girl Val is a partner with them! I get pretty good views, and some donations from fans sometimes! Sweet gig, right?! I hope you'll check it out sometime, it's @WillUBMyValentine!"

The sound of money perked Pia's ears. She knew Valerie was a streamer, but she was one with views and patrons? She earned a lot of money from this? Plus Val was overly friendly with everyone. Maybe she actually was getting something good out of this… Pia took the crepe that was given to her and took tiny bites of it while trying to hide her mischievous grin. She was already thinking up schemes as they were eating. Once in a while she gave Milla a piece of the crepe to eat until she finished it and Pia could give her another piece. In a way, she was still being able to keep to her diet like that.

Rosa smiled and bowed her head slightly as she took the crepe from Val. "Thank you so much." This was an even better scenario than she could have hoped for. Twice now rich kids had saved her from having to put herself out to get into the good grades of others. All that planning and practicing on how she should act around her peers had paid off nicely.

That being said, she couldn't help but recall the conversation that Val and Aeliana had shared on the way there. Rosa and Pia had done some quick catching up on the short walk, but for the moment at least, Aeliana's story interested her far more.

"I've always really wanted to go to Alola," she remarked, sliding herself into Val and Aeliana's conversation, finding a small break in it and leaving Pia to her crepe. "My dad had a couple of missions that took him out that way when he was a Ranger." She took a bite off of the chocolate covered crepe and then covered her mouth as she chewed. "One time he brought back this little dancing doll that I played with all the time- until she broke. Even though it was a toy, the way it moved was so pretty!"

"Dancing is pretty big there. Maybe it was a hula dancing doll? Those were pretty big there when I was little," Aeliana replied. She felt a small tug on her pant leg. The pink-haired girl looked down to see Tampa staring up at her hungry eyes. She giggled at the sight, breaking off a piece of the crepe and tossing it down to the Totodile. "I learned a bit myself, but that was a while ago."

Rosa shook her head, looking somewhat sad now. "Oh, I don't really know. Because of his work, he never stayed around too long to explain his gifts. And my mom wasn't really interested in other regions, so I can't really tell what it was," she laughed uneasily, filling her mouth with another bite of crepe. "I wouldn't really know how to explain it either. The dances of Alola are so much different than anything I was used to back then, I just kind of got mesmerized by it, I suppose."

"Well, maybe I can show you a few sometime, how about that?" Aeliana suggested.

A rain check. How disappointing. Valerie hadn't been the inspiration she was searching for, just as the training with Simon hadn't really yielded the expected results either. Pia seemed too reserved to be of any immediate help, so her hopes had recently fallen to Aeliana and now- sometime. It was frustrating. She'd hoped to have the styler figured out before the next town, but it seemed to be getting further and further away from her. Perhaps, for now, it was best to just let it go and enjoy the events of the day.

Rosa's eyes lit up as she opened her mouth, letting her jaw drop theatrically before she replied. "Oh really? You'd do that? It sounds wonderful!" She stated ecstatically.

"Sure thing," Aeliana replied with a smile. "I can tell you'd like it. You got a good rhythm inside, I can feel it."

Rosa nodded as she took another bite. "Growing up, I was trained to be a shrine maiden in Johto, so I've been around performing dances my whole life. That's also probably the reason that the dances of Alola were so interesting to me, because the feeling of their movements were so much different from what I'd been made used to."

Aeliana nodded. She has heard about the famous dances of Johto, but never gotten the chance to see them in person. She made a mental note in the back of her mind to ask Rosa about them later. Maybe there was a chance the shorter girl would show one to her.

As the girls chatted about various things, a flyer hanging on the crepe stand caught Aeliana's attention. The pink-haired trainer's eyes went wide as she read, the girl quickly scrambling over to Valerie.

"A tree lighting! Val, we have to go see it!" the Alolan exclaimed.

"What is a tree lighting?" Pia asked curiously. She had been to this festival quite a lot the past few days. Almost a week ago the date with Ruben and a few days ago the flurry with Melody. She hadn't seen anything that sounded like "a tree lighting" at all nor heard of it.

"It's a tree! Made… out of lightning!" Valerie smiled. "Blimey, that sounds mega-hype actually--"

"No, no… A tree lighting," Aeliana clarified for Valerie. "There's a big, huge tree that they decorate for the holiday. Once it's all fixed up and pretty, they turn the lights on that they hung on it to show it off!"

"Oh I see!" Pia exclaimed like she had some Eureka moment going on, acting with the same persona Aeliana had met on the train to the wild Area. "Oh it would be super fun to watch them together!"

Rosa shook her head slowly and subtly moved her hand to cover her heart as a sharp twang shot through her. Something about the activity resonated within her, recalling a vague and foggy memory. What they'd described sounded so bittersweet, but familiar. She didn't really know what it was, but she could feel that she wouldn't want to be there once the tree lit up. "Sorry," she interjected softly, finishing off the crepe. "As much as I'd like to, I don't think I'll be able to go with you to that."

"Well, I'm going with ya for sure!" Valerie beamed. "Sounds like fun!"

As Rosa claimed to not be going, Pia was silent once again. This girl had been quite off for a while now. She was kind but… something was off. Something felt similar at the same time. "Actually… I might have to hold off after all." Pia suddenly spoke up. "I forgot I was supposed to meet Ruben later." She rubbed the back of her head and playfully stuck a tongue out. She felt bad for using Ruben as an excuse but she had to ask Rosa about something.

"I guess it's just us then," Aeliana said to Valerie.

A short time later, the two girls soon found themselves at the base of a mighty pine tree which served as the center for the festival market. Quite a large crowd had gathered for the display, which was scheduled to begin at any second. A woman that Aeliana quickly recognized as the MC from the snowmon building contest that she and Jasper had taken part in was standing at the base of the tree, microphone in hand. To her right, several men and women entertained the gathering crowd by singing various holiday songs.

Tampa rode along on Aeliana's shoulders as the two trainers came a stop. The pinkette offered Valerie a small smile. "Sorry for asking you to come with me. I know this sort of thing may not exactly be your style, but… When I saw this was a thing here, I just had to come."

"Oh rubbish, this is totes my kind of thing," Valerie said, giving Aeliana a sincere grin. "Buuuuut… question, why did ya wanna see it so much anyway?"

Aeliana opened her mouth to speak, but the moment she did the familiar MC's voice suddenly boomed out through the area. "Thank you all for coming to our annual tree lighting ceremony! We know you all look forward to this moment every year, and I can tell you that all of our decorators worked very hard to make this the best looking tree I think we've ever had at our little festival! Even though we're all here to have fun and partake in various holiday activities, let's all remember that this is a time to celebrate with both family and friends! Make sure you tell your loved ones just how much they mean to you this holiday season! And without further ado…"

A flash of light sparks forth from the tree. Now illuminated by hundreds of bulbs, each one shimmering in various colors of red and green. Large orbs, stars, and candy-cane shaped ornaments dangle from the branches of the tree, all of which seem to shine and sparkle from the lights. Golden tinsel is wrapped around the tree from the top to the bottom, with a bright, vibrant, golden star twinkling at the top of the tree. Aeliana stares at the tree in complete and total silence. The pinkette brings a single hand to her mouth, as if the very sight of the festively decorated tree is enough to move her to her very core.

Valerie stared at the sparkles and the lights of the tree that shined through the night sky. But then, her leg seemed to have hit something - something had bumped into her, what looked like a smaller pokemon that then looked up at her with a saddened look. Valerie gave it a soft smile and knelt down to it. "Aww, are you okay, lil'girl?" she said to the pokemon. The pokemon gave a weakened cry. She didn't seem like she belonged to any trainer that was looking for her… she must have been a wild pokemon who felt cold and hungry. Valerie scooped her right up to her arms, and opened up her Pokedex. "A Cherubi, huh? Well, let's watch the tree together, buddy!"

Valerie held the Cherubi upwards to view the lit tree. After a few moments of a breathtaking silence, she smiled even more, turning to Aeliana. "It's bloody brilliant."

"Yeah… It is, isn't it…" Aeliana whispered, her voice on the brink of breaking up. Tears welling up in her eyes as she stared at the tree. "It's… It's just like the ones back home were."

"Sis…" Valerie, still holding the Cherubi with one arm, extended her other hand to meet with Aeliana's shoulder. "What's up? Are you ok?"

"I'm… fine, really…" Aeliana replied, her voice quiet as she peeled her eyes away from the tree to look at Valerie. "...I wanted to see this tree because… the trees were always the favorite part of the holiday for my dadd- my dad." She paused for a moment, taking a deep breath to try and calm herself enough before continuing. "...Back in Alola, we would always celebrate Christmas together - me, him, and my mom. Of course, pine trees aren't really... native in Alola, so… we had to make do with the artificial ones… Well, except for one time."

Valerie's eyes widened. "What happened that time?"

"We… came here," Aeliana explained. She seemed almost hesitant to continue. Part of the girl wasn't even sure why she was telling Valerie this, but… she had already started, so figured she might as well see the story through. "We… did pretty well for ourselves, back then. My dad in particular. He was a researcher for Aether Foundation back in Alola. Normally, we always just stared in Alola, but… we came here once to my grandparents, his mom and dad, to visit them over in Circhester. My grandpa is a bit of a um… traditionalist, to say the least. He would never settle for anything like an artificial tree. So, that year me and dad… we went to go hunt ourselves down a real tree."

She paused, a smile of familiarity coming to her lips. "My dad wasn't gonna do this one halfway. He wanted to find the best tree he could. It had to be big and full, with branches strong enough to hold me from them… at least, that's what he said. I bet we spent two hours out there around Circhester looking for just the right one… but we finally did. I'll never forget it either. The tree was so big, it could hardly fit through Gramps' front door!"

She returned her focus to the tree again, staring up at the star on the top. "My dad was normally the one who put the star on the top, but… that year, he let me do it. When we got it all decorated, sparkling white lights, with red and green balls… silver tinsel… he told me, that his favorite part of the tree was always decorating it… with me. He told me that he loved to see the look on my face as I watched it every night… that he loved to see me fall asleep in front of it on Christmas Eve while waiting for the big guy…"

"Hehe," Valerie gave a light-hearted chuckle. "Your papa must really love you then. That sounds like a really great time, sis. So, where's he at now?"

"..He died," Aeliana replied, her eyes drifting down to the snow-covered ground as she spoke. "...Earlier, that year he was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer and after our trip, he just… took that turn. Straight to the hospital… he never left. Mom… wasn't the same. She was never really a… public woman, but… she became a complete recluse. She'd never leave the house and then um… well, Christmas was just never big on the to-do list after that."

Valerie's eyes saddened. "Oh… gosh sis, I'm sorry," she apologized. "That must have been a tough time for ya."

"Yeah… So I guess I just… put Christmas on the backburner… Until I came here, to Galar." Aeliana explained. "For some reason, the market and stuff… just made me start thinking about all those times back then… and when I saw the tree lighting, I just… I just wanted to feel like I did back then. I know it sounds weird, but… I was scared to go see it on my own, so… I wanted you to come with me. I guess… What I mean is, thanks for coming… and listening, Val."

"Hey, no worries!" Valerie said, giving her back a wide grin. "You know what? I think it's super awesome that I got to know you a bit better too! And, I'm super-specially happy that I got to spend this time with you! This memory is gonna be tucked away in the Val-ult, forever." Valerie turned back at the tree.

She then said, with a quieter, more subtle tone: "If you ever need someone to listen, I'm here for ya." Valerie then had an idea.

"Hey, sis?"

"Yeah?"

"Will you dance for us?" Valerie gave Aeliana a wide smile, while Aeliana was taken a bit back.

"But…" Aeliana hesitated, looking around at the crowd. "Right now?"

"Yeah! It'll be great!" Valerie reassured. "I dunno much about dancing mind you, but, the way you're feeling right now, I think it's gonna be a pretty dance! Annnnd I think you'll enjoy it too; I'll back you up with some super special 100% Valen-teed brilliant singing! What do you say?"

Aeliana glanced around, the eyes of the crowd now resting on her. A weak smile came to her lips with a faint blush on her cheeks. "Well, I guess I can't back down with the Valerie promise attached as well."

The pinkette leans down, letting her Totodile slide off her shoulders. Tampa watches the trainer curiously as she steps a bit away from her. Her tail thumps left and right in the snow as she watches. Aeliana closes her eyes. She takes a deep breath as she takes in the song of the carolers despite knowing that with Valerie planning on singing too, that there would be a good chance the song could change at any moment.

The pink-haired trainer suddenly stands straight. Her left arm wraps around the air, the right arm goes up in a curve. Her right hand folds slightly, as if she's holding someone's hand.

The crowd started turning their attention to the performance that was about to begin. A ballroom dance. She's performing a ballroom dance. Aeliana spins to the music. She takes one step… then another. Her hips move gently to the music, her ears perking up as she hears Valerie's voice mix in with the carolers.

Silent night… holy night!
All is calm, all is bright.
Round yon Virgin, Mother and Child.
Holy infant so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace,
Sleep in heavenly peace.

Valerie's voice ran soothingly throughout the festival, as more and more people gathered. Flame watched with Tempa in silence, with Cherubi and Peko watching just from behind.

Silent night, holy night!
Shepherds quake at the sight.
Glories stream from heaven afar
Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia,
Christ the Saviour is born!
Christ the Saviour is born...

Soon, the Cherubi felt a slight tickle on her head. She looked up to see what it was, only to see… sparkles in the sky? The rest of the Pokémon noticed the sparkles from the sky as well, looking straight upwards. Soon, the majority of the crowd did as well. Up above, they saw something small… flying throughout the sky. It sparkled and twinkled, exuding vibrant colours that contrasted with the starry night sky. Then the Pokémon heard vibrating nearby. It was… Valerie's Pokédex, that she left nearby her bag? Curious, Flame cautiously poked at it, opening it up to the process, unbeknownst to him. A picture came on the screen.

The Cherubi looked at it in shock. That Pokemon is... could it be the same one...

Round yon virgin, mother and child
Holy infant, so tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace,
Sleep in heavenly peace...

Valerie had finished singing, and Aeliana finished with a small bow, to end her dance. The crowd gave them an applause, as the two smiled at each other. Then, Valerie noticed the sparkles that were coming from the sky.

"Whoa.. what's this?" she asked, turning her gaze up above. She could faintly see it, but something was drifting through the sky. It was like… giving the festival its full blessing. Then Valerie, with the corner of her eye, noticed the pokemon that were watching the pokedex.

"What's up you guys?" Valerie then said, approaching over to pick up her device. Her face lit up in surprise of the pokemon that showed up. She then turned up back at the sky, then back at the dex.

"Jir...achi?" she read. It was a small pokemon, but according to the dex, a mythical pokemon. "It's a wishmaker? Then!"

Valerie turned back to the sky. She clasped her hands together, seemingly in a prayer directed towards it. "Hope you can grant my wish," Valerie said. "As much as I want to wish that I can see Mew right now because I reaaaaally want to… I wish that I can have many more memories with Aeliana, Flame, and the rest of my friends… forever."

Aeliana peered her eyes away from the wish Pokémon, turning to look over towards her friend. "I think that's a wish that's definitely gonna come true, Val."

Quest Complete!
Valerie caught a Cherubi!
Jirachi registered in the Pokédex!
Merry Christmas!!

Sapphire Rose · Jan 11, 2021

Pia McGuire ft. Rosa Valdés
Poké:

5550 ♦ Pokémon: 3

A Two headed reflection

Rosa had said her goodbyes to the girls and quickly apologized for having to leave so soon after getting to the festivities. She'd really wanted to take Pia around and get her to open her mind, but also her mouth to all of the wonderful fried and sugary sweet foods that they surely had to offer. However, the tree lighting… it brought back a very early memory that she could barely see. It felt warm, but at the same time, caused her to feel sick in her stomach. There was a low drone of sound in her head, like the muddled talking of several people piping up at once, and what she saw within her mind was like a film, riddled with holes and played behind a foggy pane of glass.

As she walked through the bustling festival, she could feel her heartbeat rising. Her chest sank into her stomach, and she could feel her cheeks flush as the sweat began to form at her forehead no matter how much she wiped away at it. "No, no, no. Not here. Please don't do this now." She whispered to herself, doing her best to weave her way through the wall of pedestrians that were moving in both directions. It quickly became harder to breath as she came closer and closer to the edge of the gathering, until finally, coming out to an open area for the first time in several minutes, she threw herself to the ground and scurried around a pop-up as she attempted to gather herself.

The tears were stinging her eyes as she pulled her knees up into her chest and began to rock back and forth, repeatedly bunching, clutching, and releasing the excess fabric of her sweater as her whole body shook. She vigorously threw her head from side-to-side, trying her best to get rid of the intrusive thoughts. "Go away, go away, go away. **** you, just go away." she whispered angrily as the tears began to stream down her face. She gasped for breath and grit her teeth, unclenching her jaw only for a second to take another sharp gasp before struggling against the oncoming breakdown.

"Now now, today surely wasn't something to cry about, was it?" She heard a voice a little bit behind her and footsteps coming closer. Damn, she'd been played completely. And of all the people it could have been to find her like this, it was Pia? Wasn't she saying she had to go meet someone? But no, here she was, waiting patiently it seemed for the opportune moment to strike, when Rosa was at her most vulnerable… but why?

For Pia it was clear to see that Rosa was not going okay for one reason or another. She sat down next to her and offered her a piece of cloth that she got out of her bag to dry her tears.

Rosa looked up at the girl, struggling with what strength she had in her to regain control of her emotions. Her makeup was a complete mess, and she was still in the middle of gasping for breath as she tried to force out a few words in between the sobbing chokes. "I-" Gasp. "Why-" Wheezy gasp. "You-" she coughed, forcing some snot to run down her face. This was the absolute worst case scenario. The last time she'd had an attack this bad, Simon had been there to console her. But now, she was left with Pia. Someone who she didn't even have the time to figure out how to act around, was now witnessing her in a full blown meltdown for what probably seemed like no reason at all.

Rosa shakily took the cloth from her and shakily dabbed it at her eyes, rubbing her nose against the inside of her sweater as she took in rapid breaths through her nose, inhaling the smell of cologne as best she could as she attempted to imagine that her childhood friend was there with her. After a few moments, she'd finally composed herself enough to get out a coherent sentence.

"Thank you," she whispered hoarsely, dabbing the cloth at her puffy and bloodshot eyes once more before placing it in her lap. She glanced up at the girl, meeting her gaze for a few seconds before dropping her head back into her knees. "I'm sorry…"

"Don't be sorry. We all have our weak moments." Pia assured her with a friendly smile. Surely this wasn't the reason why this girl had been striking her as odd up till now? No, it wasn't. This happened as soon as they had left Aeliana and Valerie to their own devices. Pia would've loved to interact with Valerie a bit more now that she knew it had some benefits to it but she also couldn't ignore the girl that was holding… a mask in front of her face?

"Your makeup is a mess. Let me fix that." the girl said to Rosa. Without waiting for a reply, she grabbed her cheeks and began rubbing some of the mascara she was wearing away with a tissue. Rosa had been looking like a Pancham and with no mirror in front of her she probably couldn't see she was making an even bigger mess on her face. Every girl had to remain some sort of dignity. Pia couldn't let her wander off without at least fixing her face. "Now, what was that about?"

Rosa shook her head slowly, feeling the warmth of Pia's warm hand against the cold of her face as she rubbed away what remained of her makeup was oddly comforting. Was it… was there any point in pretending around her anymore? They'd only just met earlier that day, but already any chances she'd had of maintaining some sort of persona around her had slipped through her fingers just like the tears she'd been stifling just moments before. It seemed that this relationship was beyond salvaging, but, what could she really tell her about herself? They'd never really talked in the academy, so spilling everything to her now just seemed completely off. Even if she didn't believe her fully, she could still make use of the fact that they didn't talk much before to try and stifle the truth a little.

"I'm not sure, really. Just a memory, I suppose." she smiled weakly, wondering just how much Pia had seen and already considering how she might use it against her or the gossip it might create. "Nothing worth burdening you with when you've got to go and see your boyfriend."

"B-Boyfriend?!" Pia retaliated. Ruben and her had been dating yes but it wasn't anything beyond that point yet. Calling him her boyfriend would be one step ahead on a pedestal that was not yet created. It was her fault for outright saying she was going to meet up with a boy. "I assure you that our relationship has not yet reached that point yet." She said, coughing in her hand as her face flushed red. What a cheeky little brat. "Nor can I ignore someone who was having such a breakdown over "just a memory". I get you don't want to tell a stranger like me the details but consider how it looks like to others. You had me worried there." Pia lectured her. As Rosa stayed silent, she sighed. "Look, we all have our little secrets. Things we absolutely don't want to tell others. Keep your secrets but talk when you need to lighten the burden on your heart." Was all Pia could muster saying as she shook her head. Now… to change the subject entirely.

"But this is quite the different persona you were showing us at the mansion and festival today, isn't it, Rosa?"

Rosa immediately tensed up upon being called out. It was expected, given that she'd been unknowingly followed, but it was still jarring having someone other than Simon blatantly calling her on it. She didn't really know what good it was to try, but she had to at least attempt to smooth it over as a misunderstanding. "Everybody gets sad sometimes, it doesn't mean they're putting on a persona, right? It just means that we're humans… we can't all be happy and excited all the time like Val, can we?"

"Oh I completely agree." Pia gave off a smirk. Was she still going to keep that up? She had to commend her for that. "Well, it's none of my concern in any case. It just struck me as odd that whenever we asked you something about yourself, you deflected the subject onto someone else." She shrugged, not entirely in defeat but hopefully the warning was enough to let the girl at least think.

Rosa stared at her knees, taking Pia's words into consideration. It wasn't untrue. It was easier to push things off onto other people, especially when she didn't have all the information she needed to confidently move forward. Val and Aeliana had been one thing since one was unmistakable and the other had struck her as relatively average, despite her Alolan heritage. Pia however, as she was now proving, was a different beast entirely from the other two. She'd made a mistake in going along with them without being prepared, and now she was paying the price for it.

"Was I-" She started, trying to deflect once again before she met the girl's eyes. It was a gaze similar to Simon's, although not nearly as welcoming. "I guess there's no use in it now, huh?" she laughed uneasily, shifting her weight as she scooted closer to the pop-up behind her. "It's not like I want to be this way," she whispered.

Pia now smiled as she had defeated the girl and her persona. Somewhere behind that mask there was unmistakingly a sweet girl, so the question that remained was why? "Then don't be that way." Pia stood up and held her hand out towards the girl to help her get back to her feet. Maybe she'd feel less attacked if Pia was no longer in a higher position than her.

"You don't seem like a bad person, Rosa. You don't have to go and try to please people. Be yourself. People will like you well enough if you do just that." Pia threw her a wink. It was actually very hypocritical coming from her since her entire bubbly persona was based around pleasing people and getting benefits. For her it was necessary though. She needed to since she was a bad person. She was the villainess born to let heroines like Rosa shine brightest. Nothing worth much attention… so she had to go out and make people like her so as to not end up in a bad place like the villainesses from the stories she always read. Perhaps… that's why Rosa's behaviour triggered her and piqued her interest so much. Rosa didn't need to be like that.

"The lights are pretty. It's a shame we didn't go watch them." Pia gestured behind Rosa, making her aware of the festival lights that were getting more visible as it got darker and changing the subject in consideration for the girl.

"Tch," Rosa scoffed, mulling over what Pia had said before as she started trailing off about the lights, unmistakably trying to change the subject. The girl looked up at the extended hand and shook her head. "What do you know? It's not as easy as just not-" she put her hands out in front of her, motioning at the air, physically grasping at it as she tried to find the right words to explain what she meant. It wasn't something that she'd tried talking about before, but lately, everyone kept harping on the same idea… Be yourself. Be true to you. "How do you expect me to just be myself? Every time I-"

"I don't expect you to." Pia interjected. "I never said it was going to be easy. Some people hide behind a persona for so long, coming to believe it so much that it becomes their true face. For others, it's just a means to hide the rot beneath the mask." the girl spoke, smiling at Rosa as the rot she was talking about hinted towards herself. Yet… that smile didn't reach her eyes.

Rosa stared up at Pia, her cheeks flushed with the rage she could feel building up inside of her. But when Pia spoke and forced that smile upon her face, it seemed sadly familiar to the girl. She'd seen something like the look in those eyes before; it was her. She was looking into a mirror, albeit one that you'd find at a circus. They were not the same, but there was definitely a familiarity between them. The anger slowly left Rosa as she sighed and pushed herself off of the ground. She didn't really know what else to say at this point.

Everything that had been building up over the past several minutes was fading away now, but at the same time, a loud cheering echoed from the direction of the lights. "It was supposed to be me… I wish it had been me, instead. Then everything else would have…" Rosa turned her head lethargically as she mumbled, momentarily breaking the silence between the two girls. A small beep chimed from the girl's pocket as a glittering light travelled over the tents and off into the woods. "My pokedex?" She whispered, pulling the device from her shirt.

"Huh?" Pia broke out of her focus from the beeping sounds of her Pokédex. She grabbed it from her pocket and opened it.

"JIRACHI. THE WISH POKÉMON.

JIRACHI WILL AWAKEN FROM ITS SLEEP OF A THOUSAND YEARS IF YOU SING TO IT IN A VOICE OF PURITY. IT IS SAID TO MAKE TRUE ANY WISH THAT PEOPLE DESIRE."

Rosa scoffed once more, feeling the familiar sting of tears in her eyes as she read the pokedex entry. "What a joke." She laughed half-heartedly, choking on the words as they came out. "Why is it that these things are always prerequisites for change?" She shook her head as she wiped at her eyes. "Even in the presence of a mythical Pokemon, I can't make myself useful. The meeting of a lifetime… ruined, by what you forced me to become..." She whispered before looking at Pia one last time as she bit her lip. She swallowed hard, thinking about how to break off from the girl so that she could be alone with her thoughts. "Well. See ya." She muttered, stepping slowly away from Pia.

Pia watched as Rosa walked off, not planning to interfere with her leave. The girl had enough for one day. Once Rosa was getting further out of sight, the girl looked at her Pokédex entry again. Any wish you desire… huh? Pia closed her eyes...

"I wish I was enough... for someone."

Pia's Party

Memories

STAGE 1: Wedgehurst -> Wild Area -> Motostoke

Wedgehurts
I choose you part 1
I choose you part 2
I choose you Final

Wild Area
Train to Wild Area ft. Raphael & Aeliana
Two birds with one stone
Two birds with one stone part 2 + Bird Brain
Wild Area with Arrietty

Motostoke
Double Trouble part 1
Double Trouble part 2

STAGE 2: Route 3 -> ????
Route 3
It's the most wine-derful time of the year | Part 1
It's the most wine-derful time of the year | Part 2
A Festive Fight to the Finish

Pia's journal

Arrietty Maverick
Pia and Arrietty met in the Wild Area although the two have shared classes before. It struck Pia as odd that the girl seemed to have no ambitions or goals at all. Although disappointed upon finding out this girl had no fire burning that would light her path, Pia made it her mission to help this girl get a goal and become a bit more social. Arrietty is the closest Pia can consider a "friend".

Ruben Sancho
Pia met Ruben during Motostoke while on a double date with him, Arrietty and Ainsley. The date went disastrous with both Arrietty and Ainsley running off but Ruben and Pia were able to grow just a tiny bit closer during their search for Arrietty. They have been texting since and are on good terms with each other. They both seem to be interested in just a little bit more...

Ruben and Pia are officially dating since the end of the year festival on Route 3 following their "official second date" that went well. Pia knows about Ruben's ankle and that it's still hurting.

Raphael Allard
Pia met Raphael during her train ride to the wild Area together with Aeliana. Thinking that he had a lot of potential in becoming a chamption which would benefit her, Pia approached him thinking they could become friends. Their interactions didn't go as smoothly as Pia had hoped. After their argument at the end of her battle with Aeliana, the girl ran off thinking she had blown her chances. Raphael doesn't harbour any ill intend towards the girl and only hoped to give her some advice.

Aeliana Kekoa
Pia met Aeliana during the train ride to the wild Area together with Raphael. Although her interactions with Aeliana went a little bit more smoothly than with Raphael, Pia still ran off at the end of their battle in an attempt to distract her since Pia owed her money for losing. Although Pia has declared Aeliana her rival, they haven't spoken since and Pia attempts to keep it that way.

Ainsley
Ainsley was Pia's date partner during the double date in Motostoke and is Ruben's best friend. Ainsley pretended to be rich and paid for the date with Ruben's money. Pia saw through the charade and called him out on it after Ainsley suggested they'd book a hotel together and make love. He ran off afterwards, angry that the feelings of lust he harboured towards Pia were not returned. Pia doesn't think highly of Ainsley and told Ruben that he needs "better friends".

Melody
Although Pia and Melody attended the same Trainer school and were in the same class, they never once teamed up for an assignment. Both didn't have a very good impression of the other and avoided them like the plague. It's not until the Festival Fun-time Flurry that they have tried teaming up to win a competition as both of them were interested in the prize. They chased down a cheater together and have a better opinion of each other since their teamwork. They figured out that they're a pretty good team actually. Both of them thinks "the other is not so bad after all".

Kit
Pia met Kit in the Wild Area. Kit had been trying to catch a Pokémon for days but had yet to catch one. He begged the girl to help him in exchange for money and a strange rock that he found. Pia taught him how to catch a Pokémon but after hearing that Kit is in search for his father, she decided to only take the strange rock as her reward and left the pouch with Poké behind for the boy to keep. Kit seems to have developed a crush for her because of that.

Trainer ID

Pia McGuire:

Pia was born in the town of Hammerlocke in the Galar region and is part of the first graduating class of the Wedgehurt trainer's academy. Despite having lived in poverty, her mother has been able to pay for her tuition in alternative ways. She's quick witted and rather clever but is sometimes a bit "too" honest. Pia dreams of becoming an actress and does almost anything to get more money. When it comes down to it, what she really wants is to no longer live in poverty and live a bit more happily.

Inventory:

4x Pokéball
Galarian Pokédex
Xtransceiver
Broken Flashlight
King's Rock

Outfits:

Daily Outfit:

Spoiler:

Ribbons:

Badges:

Stinging Bea · Jan 11, 2021

Aeliana and Melody
Granny's Gambit

The sky was beginning to darken as stars began to appear overhead. The snow, still falling from the sky, combined with the soft glow of the strings of lights to present the most picturesque scene that Aeliana had ever witnessed since she had moved to the Galar region. As much as she would have loved to stay and take part in the further festivities of the market, the pinkette knew that she had strayed from the course long enough and it was finally time to get back on with her journey towards Turfield. For once, she was quiet. Her Pokémon had all been tuckered out from the constant hustle and bustle that the route had provided, and were all nestled and resting quietly in their poké balls. Oddly enough, the only exception to this was Fiesta. The Lotad had once again made himself cozy on top of the trainer's head, apparently with no intention of letting the sights and sounds of the season escape him.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd swear you were a bigger holiday fanatic than I am," Aeliana said with a grin as she reached up to pet the lilypad Pokémon with her gloved hand. The Lotad in question let out a small whine, one that earned a small giggle from the dancer. "Now, now… I know how you feel, Fiesta… But we can't stay here forever. We gotta get a move on if we're gonna reach Turfiield. We've got a long way to go still, too."

Fiesta seemed a bit unsatisfied by the trainer's remarks. However, he seemed to settle into a more relaxed state. He knew that there wasn't much he could do to change her mind. Besides, at the very least he was getting a nice seat to watch the scenery go by. It brought the Lotad a sense of peace, one that he rarely got to experience since he joined up with this trainer. It wasn't that Fiesta disliked Aeliana or her other Pokémon. But the girl seemed to have a knack for getting herself (and by association, himself) into rather hectic and tiring situations. It was nice to finally have a chance to just… sit back and take it all in. No sounds of feral Pokémon or dangerous humans. He closed his eyes, a small humming-like noise escaping his bill as he relaxed to the crunching noise of Aeliana's boots trudging through the snow-covered fields of Route 3.

"Hmm…? What's that?" Aeliana questioned, her voice causing Fiesta's eyes to lazily open.

The Lotad glanced up ahead, taking in quite the curious sight. Slowly shuffling through the snow up ahead, was a Pokémon. Its skin was purplish-gray in hue, with what appeared to be bandage-like wraps around its wrists. The creature looked to be wearing brown shoes and shorts, giving off a perception that it was vastly underdressed for this kind of weather. Then again, Fiesta wasn't exactly dressed for a starlit stroll through the snowy banks himself. What alerted both the Pokémon and the trainer the most however, was the way the Pokémon was carrying itself. It seemed to be walking with a limp of sorts, its left hand holding onto its right arm as if even barely moving it caused the Pokémon a great deal of pain. Curious, Aeliana reached into her bag and pulled out her Pokédex, giving the wild, shuffling Pokémon a quick scan.

"Tyrogue, the Scuffle Pokémon. It is always bursting with energy. To make itself stronger, it keeps on fighting even if it loses."

"He looks hurt more than bursting with energy… Look at the poor thing, he can hardly stand up on his own two feet!" Aeliana mused aloud. A very brief moment of silence passed. "We need to help him!"

Lotad's eyes widened with horror. His mouth was agape in shock as he stared down at his trainer in disbelief. Had she forgotten what sort of trouble they had gotten in the last time they found a Pokémon in this condition? They were almost killed themselves! Now here she was about to repeat that very incident? Fiesta began to wonder if he was in fact traveling with a bunch of crazies.

Before he had time to try and persuade his trainer otherwise, the girl took off running towards the injured Tyrogue. Much like before with Mahina, she reached into her bag and pulled out a poké ball, readying it to catch the wild Pokémon in before his injuries would end up getting the better of him. The rushing sound of crunching snow soon caught the attention of the Tyrogue. The small, Fighting-type turned and narrowed his eyes in the darkness as the pink-haired trainer approached, before clenching his fists tightly. He dropped himself into a combat stance, his feet hopping back and forth in the snow in anticipation of this next challenge. The very sight of the battle-ready Pokémon caused Aeliana's pace to slow, if only just a bit. Just a moment ago, he looked as if he was ready to collapse at any moment. Now, the Tyrogue looked as if he was ready to fight ten Pangoros at once. She was starting to think that her Pokédex was vastly underselling this Pokémon's battle prowess.

Deciding a more tactful approach was needed. Aeliana walked a in a much more relaxed stride to the Tyrogue. She raised her hands up in defense, as if trying to tell the small brawler that she had no intention of hurting it. All the while, the Lotad on her head fidgeted and quivered in fear.

"Easy there, little fella… we're not gonna hurt ya," Aeliana announced. She felt her stomach churn slightly as she got a better look at the Tyrogue. His body was covered in bruises and scrapes. One of his eyes had a decently-sized shiner around it. While she couldn't get a good look inside of his mouth, Aeliana was fairly certain that the Tyrogue was missing a tooth or two. "You… look like you've seen some better days, yeah? Here, why not hop in the ball and we'll take you someplace where you get patched up. We're not too far from Motosoke, so the Pokémon Center is pr-"

Before she had a chance to get another syllable out of her mouth, the Tyrogue leaned back before quickly kicking forward and sent the ball flying from her hand into the snow behind her. Aeliana's head whipped around, eyes squinting in the darkness as she tried to locate where the ball went flying to. A quick sigh of relief could be heard as she spotted the red half of the ball in the blanket of snow. The pinkette quickly bent down to pick it up before returning her attention to the injured Tyrogue… only to find him nowhere to be seen.

"...Where did he go…?" the trainer questioned. In his current state, wandering around was definitely not a good idea. However, Aeliana also knew that she couldn't exactly force him into capture. Battling against him would also likely not be a good idea. "...Keep an eye out, Fiesta. If you spot him, let me know."

It was a real pain in the ass how short the days had gotten. Melody felt like she had only gotten a little bit of ground beneath her and the sun had already set. She should probably set up camp, but it felt far too early for that. After this route, they had to get through a mine and another route before they could get to the first gym challenge. It's a long way to go… if they only travel in the sunlight, it could take months. "Let's give it another few hours." She says to the Mimikyu (now dressed in a festive white disguise with puffy cotton balls on her head and tail to give the illusion of an Alolan Vulpix. Melody could only assume she snuck out of her ball the night before they left Motostoke and swiped some decorations in order to make this new disguise. She… should probably make her stop doing that.

Mimikyu lets out a hum of approval and a short sway as she skirts along the snow. The duo walk together in comfortable silence, Melody's eyes on the road ahead while Annabelle looks up to the beautiful, starry sky. Soon, though, a sight appears along the path that gives Melody pause. Another table? She thought she had seen the last of the festivities. Sitting at the table was an older woman. Many of her features were obscured by hoods and scarves, but Melody could see grey hair peeking out of the hood. Her smaller stature and kind of slouched back made Melody think of her own grandmother. She… really should call her and wish her a happy holiday.

For now, though, this woman's captured her interest. She quickly recognizes the three cups on the table as well as a deck of cards and a few dice. It's a gambler's table! That brings a smirk to Melody's face as she quickens her pace to fill the gap between herself and the old woman. "Making good business?"

"'Fraid not." The old woman says as she looks Melody up and down. "Ah, I think I remember you. You're one of the new gym challengers, yes?"

"That's me." Melody nods.

"Well then, challenger Melody. How about a game?" The old woman asks with a small smirk of her own.

It's a little offputting that the woman knows her name without her saying it, though, since it was announced on the television, and the old lady did just admit to watching it, she pays it little mind. "Sure, I'm game."

"There are many Pokemon living along this route. If you can bring me the one I'm describing, I'll give you a TR."

"... That's it?" Melody asks. That sounds too easy.

"That's it." Shawnie says with a wry grin.

Before the punk girl could even take a step, the form of Aeliana and her Lotad came from over the hill. The pink-haired trainer looked a little disheartened, but still trudged along the path as per usual with Fiesta riding along on her head. The lilypad Pokémon noticed Melody and her Mimikyu, and gently prodded Aeliana with one of his stubby little paws.

"Hmm…? Oh, Melody! Alola! I guess I didn't notice you and Annabelle in this darkness… What's up?" the dancer greeted.

"'Oh, heya-lola." Melody raises her hand to give her typical almost-wave to the pink haired trainer.

"Mimi!" Annabelle calls out, bouncing happily in the snow before raising one of her shadowy hands out of her disguise to wave.

Melody leans down and scoops the ragdoll into her arms. "We're gonna go find a Pokemon, I guess."

"Ah, this one's a challenger too, isn't she?" The old woman asks. "Would you like to take part in the challenge as well? There's a TR in it for you."

"A challenge?" Aeliana questions. Her eyes light up in curiosity. If anything, this route has definitely been much more fun than the rest of her journey had been thus far. "Sure, I don't see why not!"

"Yes, good. As I told your friend, all you need to do is bring me the Pokemon I'm about to describe." Shawnie says before leaning back in her chair and closing her eyes.

"Two in one, I'm lots of fun.
You might find me here, you might find me there, you'll find my footprints everywhere.
I left something behind when I crossed the sea.
If I was in a book, would you be able to recognize me?"

Melody stares at the old woman. Of course she would spin it into a riddle. She knew it wouldn't be as easy as find the orange dog Pokemon. "So we just… go out, find the 'mon, and show it to you?"

"Indeed. Easy enough, right?"

"Heh… this is pretty cool, all cryptic like…" Aeliana wiggled her fingers as she spoke, as if trying to add some extra flair to her speech. She turned to face her fellow trainer, offering the punk a reassuring grin. "We should be able to figure this out easy, right Mel?"

"Yeah." Melody says with a very small grin. She's never been great with riddles. They require a lot of thought and a lot of effort, and she has a tendency to say something along the lines of 'this is stupid' and walk away whenever they're said. Still... how hard can it really be? This route doesn't have that many Pokemon on it. The punk teen takes out her phone and begins to type the riddle out onto the screen so they can reference back to it. "Have you seen any of the 'mons on this route?"

A thoughtful look makes its way to Aeliana's face. "Well… I saw a couple of Rookidee this morning.... Oh, and there was a Growlithe chasing a Stunky earlier!" A pause, followed by a giggle. "That didn't probably work out too good for the little guy… Oh, and we saw a Tyrogue earlier too, but… he ran off not too long after..." Another pause, followed by the trainer looking over her shoulder carefully. "You um… haven't seen one, have ya?"

Rookidee. Rookidee… they're certainly in a lot of places, though Melody can't think of anything about a Rookidee that's 'two in one.' Nor does she recall hearing any instances of Rookidee crossing the sea. They're native to Galar and they pretty much stay here. So… maybe not that one. Tyrogue… is a split evolution, but it can be three different Pokemon, not two. She can't think of anything it's 'lost' either. Melody blinks slowly and looks up to Aeliana when she realizes there was a question attached to those helpful hints. "No. Not around here anyway."

"Miii?" Annabelle tilts her head. Her ghostly hand slides out from under her disguise and she points into the distance. "Kyu!"

Melody quirks a brow as she looks to the little fairy in her arms. "Um… Annabelle might have seen something?"

"Mi-u!" Annabelle nods excitedly.

"Hmm…? What is it?" Aeliana questions.

The Lotad on her head also gives the Mimikyu a curious glance. He wiggles his way forward, slowly sliding down into his trainers hands as he begins to squawk and whine in response to Annabelle's excitement. No sooner had the Lotad started to speak with the Mimikyu however, did he seem to droop in the trainer's arms. A look of absolute dismay graced his facial features as he wiggled around in Aeliana's arms, before reluctantly looking into the girl's eyes.

"Is… everything alright, Fiesta? What did she say?" the pinkette asks.

The lilypad Pokémon seemed to actually sigh, before wiggling out of the girl's grasp. He tumbled over into the snow, landing on his side in the process, which was followed by the Lotad slowly turning over onto his feet. The Lotad sniffed the ground, reminding both of the girls of a tracking Pokémon, almost like a Poochyena or a Herdier, as he began to trudge in the snow in the direction that Annabelle had mentioned.

"Uh… I guess we follow him?" Melody asks. It would be nice to know what exactly those two were discussing or what exactly Aeliana's Lotad wants them to see, but unless one N Harmonia suddenly steps out of the woodwork, they're pretty screwed in that regard. At least they run the chance of seeing more of the route's Pokemon as they follow Lotad. Annabelle shimmies in Melody's arms before hopping out of the light hold and scurrying along behind Fiesta.

The two Pokémon led the trainers away from the main road of the route, over towards a small overlook that was located past a winding trail. It was quiet, uncomfortably so as the only sound that echoed out into the night sky was the sound of the two trainers' boots shuffling through the snow. As Aeliana, Melody, and their Pokémon came close to the ledge of the overlook, the pitch black of the night sky found itself being broken by a nearby, small, dimly lit campfire. Fiesta looked down at the sight below, the Lotad shifting nervously from three feet to the others, before glancing up at the approaching trainers.

"What's up, Fiesta?" Aeliana asked as she approached both the Lotad and Annabelle.

She soon got her answer. Standing below them was a young man, a trainer no older than Aeliana if he wasn't Melody's age. He had shaggy, blond hair that he wore in a rather spiky style, with piercing amber eyes that seemed to somehow glow in the moonlight. His face revealed a tan skin complexion. A blue jacket was worn on the young trainer's chest, over what looked to be a white shirt. A pair of baggy, black denim pants covered his legs, with a chain dangling from the pocket. His feet were covered by a pair of blue and white sneakers, despite the snow covering the ground. A cocky sneer was worn on the trainer's face as he stared down at a Tyrogue… the Pokémon that Aeliana and Fiesta had happened to encounter to be exact.

"You really are stupid, aren't you? Didn't I tell you to get lost? I don't want you around here!" the boy snapped. The Tyrogue stared up at the trainer, his legs shaking as if they were going to give out from underneath him. The Pokémon didn't respond, merely flinching as the boy suddenly stomped forward and kicked him right in the gut. "You stupid piece of garbage… You really are an idiot! Get out of my face already!"

Snap.

A thick cracking sound destroys the silence of their hiding place when Melody reaches for the branch, weighted down by the great deal of snow, of a nearby tree and leaps up to grab it. It takes the full force of her weight to break it, but it snaps off cleanly.

"Mi-mi-ky!" Annabelle shouts as she hops up and down in front of her trainer, but Melody won't be stopped. Fiesta stared up at the punk girl with horror in his eyes. That fire sparked to life in her eyes and she quickly sidestepped the leaping ghost and panicking Lotad to reveal herself from their clearing. "The fuck's the matter with you?!" The punk teen yells loudly enough that several Rookidee from a distant tree take to the skies.

The young man jumps, turning to look up towards the source of the cry. Somehow, his scowl seems to grow deeper upon spotting the punk girl, her Mimikyu, and Fiesta. "What business is it of yours? This isn't some show, so get lost!"

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Melody snaps as she rushes down the ravine towards the bronzed son-of-a-bitch. "You think you can beat on someone because he doesn't have the voice to call you out on your shit? Because he can't-- won't defend himself from you?"

"Mi? Mi!" Annabelle calls out as she looks from Aeliana to Melody to the Tyrogue. The Tyrogue that just wants his trainer to love him and who is doing everything in his power to prove he's worthy of that love. If they don't do something… he'll die trying to earn that love… just like she did. Tears gather in tiny eyes, but they're soon replaced with a determined, angry sheen. "Mi mi!" She calls with a determined bounce, encouraging Aeliana to follow before she begins to skitter after her trainer.

Aeliana didn't move, however. The pink-haired trainer stared at the scene playing out before her, her own legs starting to shake and buckle from underneath her before she fell down into the snow. A distant look came to the trainer's eyes. Her whole body began to shake and tremble as she looked down at the Tyrogue.

"I told you to bring home the diet brand. I gave you a list and you can't even follow that right?!"

Aeliana blinked. The snowy fields and starlit sky of Route 3 vanished, being replaced by the dirty kitchen floor of a place she hadn't been to in years.

"They… They didn't have any, mommy… I'm sorry, I really am! B-But, I got almost everything else! So… So maybe I can have dinner tonight?"

The sound of the trembling voice made Aeliana's heart skip a beat. Slowly, she turned to see a small, black-haired girl staring up at a much taller woman. The child was dressed poorly, clad in a very baggy t-shirt that was likely two sizes too big for her. A pair of dirty, very worn sneakers covered her feet, with her hair looking like it hadn't been brushed, much less cleaned in days.

"You're not getting shit, you useless bitch!" the older voice snapped.

The child jumped, recoiling onto the floor as without warning the older woman descended upon her. A belt in hand, the woman began to pummel the child mercilessly, her tears ringing out into the kitchen as she curled in on herself, desperately trying to somehow protect herself.

"No… No, no, no…" Aeliana whispered, curling herself into the snow as she suddenly found herself back on Route 3. "No, no, no, no! I'm… I'm sorry… I'm sorry, I'll be good…"

"Ael! Ael! " A voice calls as a tall figure runs towards the collapsed Pinkette, pushing through the illusion as it begins to fade away. Despite the figure's facial features being somewhat obscured behind a pulled taut, black hood, the voice itself was familiar. He kneels beside the fallen Alolan and reaches out, stopping just short of grabbing her wrists with his gloved hands. "Woah, hey, hey. I need you to come back now."

"NO! I didn't mean to break it, I swear to Arceus I didn't mean to! I'll fix it, please don't!" the pink-haired trainer practically screamed at the top of her lungs.

Tears began welling up in her eyes as she buried her face into her gloved hands at this point. Fiesta stared at his trainer in utter confusion. The Lotad wasn't sure what to make of how his trainer was acting. This was so unlike anything he had ever seen. He slowly nudged his way towards the girl, before glancing at the black hooded man carefully.

"Ael…" Now he reaches out and touches her shoulder to give her a gentle shake. "I know you didn't. You didn't do anything wrong." His shake intensifies the smallest tad as the sound of combat echoes from below. "Those three down there need your help." Two brown eyes, the only part of his face that are truly visible, glance down at the concerned Fiesta that's staring up at him. "It's alright, little man." He encourages before trying to ease Aeliana out of the snow and into the sitting position. "Ael? Ael, please. Come back."

"They… They need my help…?" Aeliana questioned, her voice shaky and her breathing uneven.

"Yeah. That Tyrogue's in bad shape." He looks over the ravine and points to the collapsed fighting type with Melody's jacket placed over him. "He won't last long like that."

"The Tyrogue…?" Aeliana questioned. She glanced over at the scene, her eyes widening at the realization of just where she was and what the situation was. She quickly scrambled to her feet and began running forward. "Melody! I'm coming!"

"Did you get help?" Melody calls out. It wasn't until the bronzed jackass called out another Pokemon, keeping her from getting close enough to pummel him, that she noticed Aeliana wasn't behind her. She assumed the pink-haired Alolan had gone back to the walking trail to find a ranger or a Pokemon nurse. The idea that she might be having an exestintial crisis never occurred to the teen punk wielding a stick.

"I don't know who you're talking to… All I can assume is it that stupid thing wearing the ugly sheet over its head," the boy spat. "Since you seem to not be taking the hint though, I guess I'll have force the lesson into your head."
The young man tossed out a single poké ball, the capsule-like device snapping open to reveal a long, brown, furry Pokémon. A Linoone from Hoenn to be exact. The boy smirked, taking a cocky stance as he eyed the punk girl.

"LInoone will be more than enough to handle this," he sneered. "Linoone, take that Mimikyu out with a Shadow Claw!"

Shit. Their Use Shadow Sneak to dodge tactic isn't going to work out as well against a normal type. "Double Team!"

Annabelle's body shakes rapidly before seemingly splitting into three Annabelles, then six, then nine. By the time Linoone's claw collides with one of the clones, there are dozens of white-clothed ragdolls spinning in a rotating circle around him. "Now Fairy Wind!"

The real Annabelle sways back and forth behind Linoone, summoning forth a pink, twinkling wind. The Linoone recoiled as the wind sprayed against him, but the Pokémon's trainer did not seem to be too concerned despite the fact the Linoone was surrounded.

"Linoone, Pin Missile!" the male trainer called out.

A feral growl emanated from the Linoone as he lunged back, his back arching up and fur bristling up all the while. With a sudden bark, the rough and scratchy fur began to launch off the Pokémon's back. They began to crash down in the surrounding area, as if a rain shower of sorts was starting to sprinkle down.

As the sharp needles rain down and make contact with the clones, each one vanishes. The needles that make contact with the real Annabelle pierce into her plush head, causing it to roll back and an unsettling snapping sound to echo through the area. The ragdoll lets out a sharp hissing sound as she glares at her opponent.

"Annabelle, use--"

But the ghostly fairy doesn't wait for instruction. She vanishes into the shadows and reappears beside the Linoone. Shadow Sneak won't hurt, but it got her a lot closer a lot faster. Her ghostly hand reaches out from under her disguise and she delivers a harsh Scratch to the rodent's face.

The Linoone flinches from the scratch. A heated, icy glare is suddenly directed at Melody's Mimikyu.

"Linoone! Headbutt!" the young man cries out. Linoone charges forward, lowering his head down as he approaches his target. As expected, the attack does nothing to hurt Annabelle. That said, the man was quick to have his Pokémon follow up. "Now, Snarl!"

Suddenly, the Linoone lets out a beastly, might yell. Its pitch is ear piercing, so much so that even the Normal-type's trainer flinches and has to cover his ears from the noise.

"Up and Fairy Wind!"

Annabelle hops into the air and summons the wind against the cold ground below, causing her to be gracefully hoisted into the air and out of the dark wave's path, just as she had in the battle against Team Yell back in Motostoke.

"Now Copycat!"

The angry flash reappears in Annabelle's tiny eyes as she spins around to face the normal type and releases her own black sound waves. The ear-piercing sound doesn't seem to bother Melody at all. Growing up in the city of screams and shouts does have its advantages.

The young trainer smirks as Linoone shudders, the furry creature now face to face with Melody's Mimikyu. "Thunder Bolt, now!"

The fur on the Linoone's back begins to spark with static. A fierce glare is sent in the direction of Annabelle, before it lets out a mighty howl. The electric energy flies from the creature straight towards its target at point-blank range.

Annabelle squeezes her eyes shut as the impact of the bolt courses through her body; however, it seems to make her… happy? Little eyes spark with excitement as electricity courses through her disguise.

Melody smirks at the excited reaction. She knows exactly what Annabelle wants to do. "Copycat!"

The ragdoll releases an elated cry as the electricity that zaps through her small body strengthens and is sent right back to their furry opponent. It's easy to see that Annabelle put a lot of strength into this attack, as, if only for an instant, the surrounding area is lit up. A Pokemon that wants nothing more than to be like Pikachu getting to use a move that makes it appear more like Pikachu seems to be cause for great excitement.

The Linoone howled in pain. It gritted its teeth in pain, digging his heels into the snow in an attempt to stay on the ground. Slowly, Annabelle's electricity came to an end. The Linoone, staggering and struggling to stay standing, let out a small whimper. He took a few steps forward, before suddenly collapsing into the snow.

"Nice shot!" Melody calls out. Annabelle hops excitedly while humming out a musical tune. She seems exceedingly pleased with herself.

"You… you…" the boy stammered, staring down at his defeated Linoone. He stared up at the punk girl, a fiery hate burning in his eyes. "I'll show you, you stupid b-"

"T-Tyrogue!"

The boy stops in his tracks just as soon as he started towards Melody. The shaking and battered form of the Tyrogue now stood between them. The little Fighting-type was standing between his trainer and Annabelle, lowering itself into a combat stance.

It was at this point that Aeliana and Fiesta finally arrived. The pinkette stared at the wounded Tyrogue in horror, her legs starting to tremble at the very sight.

"T'ch… just forget it… Worthless garbage!" the boy snaps.

Without another word, he shoves the Tyrogue into the snow. A pained cry is heard as the little creature falls face down into the snow. The trainer then recalls his fainted Linoone, before disappearing into the night.

Melody takes a single step forward before stopping in her tracks. As much as she wants to chase that guy down and splatter his brains in the snow… Tyrogue needs help, and they don't have time for her to chase him down. "Annabelle, grab my jacket?"

The ragdoll nods before sinking into the shadows. She reappears under Melody's jacket and quickly hops back to her trainer.

"Thanks for the backup, little dude." Melody says with a small smile as she eases the Tyrogue out of the snow and wraps the jacket around his slender shoulders. Red eyes finally fall to Aeliana and lighten-- only to dim when she sees no one behind her. Looks like she couldn't find anyone after all. "Think that old lady might have a potion or something?"

"I dunno… But… W-We have to find something…" Aeliana replied, her usually calm voice shaking as she spoke.

Melody raises her eyebrow as she hoists the Tyrogue into her arms. "You ok--" The punk teen freezes. Just over Aeliana's shoulder, peering over a small snow bank, is a Galarian Zigzagoon with a small tear in its ear. It's standing on its hind legs and curiously swishing its tail-- and holding a hyper potion between its front paws.

"Don't. Make. Any. Sudden. Moves." Melody whispers.

Aeliana glances over in the direction Melody is looking, her mouth dropping open. "Is that holding…?" She trails off, turning to face Melody. "We have to get it!"

"Anna--"

Before Melody can say a command, the Zigzagoon, spurred on by Aeliana's excitement, places the potion in its mouth and charges towards the group. It zigs to the left and zags to the right before crashing his head into an innocent Fiesta.

Fiesta let out a surprised wail, almost falling onto his backside from the shock of the sudden attack. The Lotad managed to regain his balance, a look of annoyance taking over his facial features before being replaced by one of hesitation. Aeliana glanced between the two Pokémon, before taking a step forward and nodding towards Fiesta.

"Come on, Fiesta… We have to do this! Tyrogue is counting on us, yeah?" she encouraged. The lilypad Pokémon glanced over to the injured Tyrogue. Fiesta honestly didn't have a high opinion of the Fighting-type. That said, he also knew that he just couldn't leave him like that. The Lotad made an audible moan, before turning to face the wild Zigzagoon in front of him. "That's right… Now, use Water Gun!"

The attack hits dead on and Zigzagoon is sent tumbling back. Once the torrent of water stops, the excitable Pokemon leaps right back up. Its eyes land on Fiesta and it gives a playful grin, motioning with its tail as if to say bring it on! Spiky fur stands on end and the playful Pokemon lunges forward, releasing its own Pin Missile.

"Fiesta, use Mist!" Aeliana called out.

The lilypad Pokémon quickly lowered its head, a deep and dense fog starting to form from the condensation of the pad on his head. Fiesta let out a small squawk as he faded into the mist, leaving the Zigzagoon seemingly alone. However, only a few moments passed before suddenly zipping out of the fog and slamming into the wild Pokémon with an Astonish attack.

The wild Pokemon lets out a surprised yelp at the sudden appearance of Fiesta, the Hyper Potion dropping into the snow in the process. Wriggling with excitement, Zigzagoon leaps next to Fiesta and licks him across the face.

Fiesta shudders in response, his body suddenly starting to feel very stiff and rigid. Aeliana blanks as she quickly opens her trainer's bag. She rustles around through the various medicines she bought back in Motosoke, but she groans when she quickly notices that she managed to forget all about buying any Paralyze Heals! A thought occurs that maybe she should have bought one or two instead of that box of protein bars.

Returning her focus back to the battle at hand, the pink-haired trainer decides that she needs to somehow wrap this battle up sooner instead of later. "Fiesta, go for another Water Gun!"

Zigzagoon hops back and forth happily as Fiesta shudders. His fur stands on end to prepare another Pin Missile, though he stops short when he realizes he dropped his little treasure. Despite having plenty of time to dodge the poor, paralyzed Pokemon's attack, the dark type chooses instead to dig in the snow for the Hyper Potion. The Water Gun hits dead on again, sending the spiky Pokemon rolling back.

"Ael! There!" Melody says, pointing to the small hole in the snow. "He dropped it!"

Aeliana sighs in relief. Finally, things were starting to look up. The pink-haired girl made a sprint for the bottle to pick it up out of the snow. She quickly dug it out of the powdery substance, smiling happily as she lifted it off of the frigid ground and into her gloved hands.

"I… I got it!" she exclaimed happily, holding the bottle up for Melody to see.

"Excell-- watch your back!" Melody shouts as the Zigzagoon shakes the water from its fur and begins to bound its way back towards them, this time aiming its head towards Aeliana.

Aeliana turned to see the wild Zigzagoon, the black and white creature charging towards the trainer with its head lowered. The girl clutched the bottle tightly, bracing herself for the impact that was sure to come. Fiesta stared in wide-eyed horror. His trainer was in danger, and there was nothing he could do about it. Every step he took was a struggle and time was running out. If only he was stronger… If only…

Suddenly, the lilypad Pokémon lets loose a loud, angry wail. The Lotad begins to glow, before a bright light explodes forth and surrounds him. The commotion is enough to stop the Zigzagoon in its tracks, with Aeliana looking on in absolute shock. She watched as Fiesta began to grow larger. His little nubs suddenly growing into a pair of actual legs, with arms slowly growing out of the upper half of his body. HIs lilypad grew wider as he soon went from standing on six legs to only standing on two…

Fiesta had evolved into a Lombre!

The Water-type looked down at his new body in surprise, his mind racing to process just what had happened, before he suddenly turned his attention back to the wild Zigzagoon. Without further hesitation, the newly evolved Pokémon leaned back and shot forth a much more powerful Water Gun, one that slammed into the black and white Pokémon and sent him reeling back and into a nearby tree.

The wild Pokemon collides into the tree with a heavy thud before crashing into the snow. He seems stunned for a couple of seconds before slowly rising back up. His tail swishes and he locks eyes with the Lombre… and gives a respectful nod. There's still some fight left in the little guy, but he knows he's been beaten.ev

"Holy shit…" Melody breathes before flashing a grin towards the newly evolved Pokemon. "You rock, Fiesta!" The punk teen jogs towards the pinkette, Tyrogue still clutched tightly in her arms.

"Hangin' in there, little dude?" She asks as she pulls her jacket away from the fighting type's head.

The Tyrogue's breathing was rough. His body was hardly moving, as if the wounds and constant wandering about in the cold were finally beginning to take their toll on the small Pokémon. The Tyrogue slowly shifted his head toward the voice, every movement proving to be a strain on his body.

"T-Ty…"

Aeliana scrambled to her feet. She scurried her way towards the Tyrogue in Melody's arms, the Hyper Potion clutched tightly in her grasp like it was the most important thing she had ever obtained in the world. "Hang on, buddy… this is gonna sting like hell…" she whispered in a soothing tone before pulling on the trigger.

As expected, a pained whine escaped the Tyrogue's mouth. His body flinched uncomfortably, to the point where he almost tumbled out of Melody's arms. Aeliana took her free hand and began to gently rub the top of the Tyrogue's noggin. All the while, she began to hum softly the same song she did all those nights ago when she met Mahina in an attempt to soothe the Pokémon.

"Woah-- hey…" Melody eases the young Pokemon back against her chest when his body tries to fidget away. "I know, this is a bitch… but it's gonna feel a lot better really quick."

The punk teen blinks slowly as the delicate tune Aeliana hums reaches her ears. It strikes a familiar chord with her, and after listening for a brief few seconds, she begins to hum along.

Annabelle tilts her head towards the harmony and slowly begins to sway along, the wayward Zigzagoon padding his way across the snow to listen.

Eventually, the Tyrogue's rustling comes to an end. The medicine, as it seems to do for Pokémon, works its miracles and the bruises and gashes on the Fighting-type seemingly vanish as if they were never there to begin with. Tyrogue's eyes go wide, and within seconds he's thrashing in Melody's arms enough to the point where he seems to effortlessly roll out of her grasp and land in the snow with a solid thud. The Tyrogue takes a defensive stance, eyeing both the trainers as well as Annabelle and Fiesta carefully.

"Easy there, little guy… You don't have to be all wild and ready to suplex the world," Aeliana said, kneeling down to the Tyrogue's eye level. She gives the little Pokémon a smile, going as far as to even raise her fist for a solid fistbump with him. "See? You're all healthy and ready to go now! Easy, right?"

Tyrogue raises an eyebrow. The Pokémon remains silent for a moment, before suddenly letting out a sharp cry. Without warning, he suddenly turns tail and runs, disappearing into the snowy night just as quickly as he did when the pink-haired trainer first encountered him.

"Wait--!" Melody calls, but it's too late. The young Pokemon is already darting through the greenery. There's no way they could shove their way through the bushes and branches quickly enough to keep up with him. The punk teen sighs. "... You don't think he's going to go after Douche Canoe, do you?"

"I'm… not sure. At least, I don't think he is…" Aeliana replied. To be honest, she wouldn't put it past him. It took her a long time of constantly going back before she finally just… She shook her head, turning her attention back to Melody. "Even if he wanted to, that jerk is gone now right? He took off a good bit before we were able to fix up the Tyrogue. While I don't really feel good about him wandering around in the wild like this, there should have hopefully been enough distance between them that following that guy isn't an option at this point."

"I guess…" Melody sighs. That guy did take off in a different direction. Between the snow and the darkness, it's unlikely that Tyrogue would be able to find the jackass… especially at the speed that guy was hauling it out of here after getting his ass handed to him by Annabelle.

A soft growl pulls Melody's attention from the greenery Tyrogue had rushed off to. The Zigzagoon had made his way between the two trainers and was sitting on his hind legs, swaying slowly.

"Hey, fighty man." Melody says with a small grin. "You like our tunes?" Close up, Melody can finally get a good look at the wild Pokemon: He has three small white dots over his right eye and a tiny tear in his right ear.

The dark type replies with an eager bark.

"Ya know, you really helped us out of a jam back there, even if you didn't mean to." Melody motions to the makeshift arena where she had battled Linoone and Aeliana had battled this eager little guy. It's very obvious there was a scuffle or two considering the amount of zigzag footprints over nearly every inch of the snow.

Wait.

IYou might find me here, you might find me there, you'll find my footprints everywhere.

Melody blinks slowly. "... Hey, Ael?" She asks. "... Hoennian Linoone can't evolve into Obstagoon, can they?"

"I don't think so, no…" Aeliana replied. Evolutionary studies had always been a subject back in the academy she slept through. So, she was basically guessing. She remembered there being something that Sonia said in relation to Pokémon from different regions having different evolutionary paths, but… her memory was kinda fuzzy past that point. "Why do you ask?"

"Would you say that's like… leaving something behind?" Melody asks. She's staring intently at the Zigzagoon, who is returning the stare with a head-tilt and a curious tail swish. While Hoennian Zigzagoon was of little interest to Melody, the Galarian Zigzagoon was basically the mascot of Spikemuth. They are capable of learning Surf. It could cross the sea.

"Leaving something behind…? Like, what the potion or footprints…?" Aeliana questioned, confusion evident in the pinkette's voice.

"No, like, how it can't evolve a third time anymore." Is she barking up the wrong tree here? Zigzagoon tilts his head even more. He doesn't know what's going on, but the way the punk teen is staring at him causes him to bark again.

Aeliana's eyes widen. Suddenly what Melody is saying makes a lot of sense. "...I think you're onto something."

Two in one. Two variants of a single species. It makes sense-- at least, she thinks it does. A small smile begins to form on Melody's face. "... Hey, fighty man, wanna come with us? There's a cookie in it for you."

Zigzagoon's ears perk up. He looks between the two girls and lets out a soft, guttural trill.

"Is that a yes?" Melody asks as she takes a step towards the clearing. Zigzagoon doesn't move; however. His eyes flicker back and forth between Melody and Aeliana before giving another insistent, musical growl.

"That's definitely a yes," Aeliana replied. She glanced over to the punk trainer, as if motioning for her to make the catch. In a sense, it was reminiscent of the way Aeliana's catch of Clara went back in the Wild Area. She glances back down at the Zigzagoon, noticing the creature looking between the two girls. As if wanting something. Her cheeks heat up faintly as she realizes just what it wants. An encore. "I think… it wants us to sing again."

"... Seriously?" Melody looks from Aeliana to Zigzagoon. The creature seems to smile as it swishes its tail expectantly. This better be a really good TR that old lady is giving out. "... I mean… I will if you will… I guess."

Aeliana glanced down at the ground and kicked the snow. "Yeah… S-Sure… We'll just… do that song again from earlier?"

"I guess… we know we both know it." Good thing she didn't promise Piers she wouldn't do any encores… this is a special case anyway, right?

Melody breathes in and out slowly before giving a soft hum to set the proper… melody. Aeliana waited for her lead, before joining in.

"Shine… bright morning light
Now in the air the spring is coming
Sweet blowing wind
Singing down the hills and valleys
Keep your eyes on me
Now we're on the edge abound
Dear my love, sweet morning light
Wait for me, we'll go much farther
...Side by side."

Zigzagoon once again sways to the slow, gentle tune. Once their song comes to an end, the Pokemon pads its way over and gently presses its nose to Melody's pant leg. Okay, he'll go with them now.

"I think he liked it," Aeliana says, giving her fellow trainer a smile. "Ready to do the deed, then?"

Melody hesitates as she looks at the expectant eyes of the Zigzagoon. Those three little spots above his eye bring a feeling of nostalgia and make her crack a small smile. She said she didn't want to catch a Zigzagoon because she didn't want to seem stereotypical… she left her guitar behind for that same reason, and yet, when she realized her grandmother had snuck the guitar back into her satchel, she was glad to see it. She was glad to play it. She was glad to sing along with it. Is that… so bad?

She reaches into one of the pockets of the satchel and retrieves a Pokeball. She then crouches down and holds the red and white ball to the furry Pokemon. "Guess you're hanging with me for awhile… Lyric." The button on the ball is tapped to the Zigzagoon's nose and the ball pops open. The monochrome Pokemon is instantly, eagerly taken in by the bright light. There's a single shake before the Pokeball stills in Melody's hand. The punk teen attaches the newly filled ball to her belt before standing up. "Next stop, Granny?"

Aeliana nods in agreement. She takes Fiesta's poké ball, recalling the newly evolved Lombre before the duo set off. She offers a quick word of thanks to the Pokémon, before placing the ball into her bag so he can get a good rest.

There's a moment of silence between the two trainers as they trudge back through the snow towards the old lady's stand. Despite the situation winding down towards its conclusion, the pink-haired girl finds herself with a question burning through her mind.

"Melody…?" she calls out, a small bit of what sounds like reluctance in her voice. She abruptly stops in her tracks. Her hand slowly trails up to rest on her left shoulder blade, despite the fact that it's covered by her coat. "Where… did you learn that song?"

She raises her eyebrow in a questioning manner at the hesitation in Aeliana's voice when she asks the question. "Well… my old man travels a lot for business, and he leaves stuff behind too." This is way more information than Aeliana asked for, though Melody doesn't feel like her explanation will make as much sense without that information. "I have a half-brother in Alola. He played it for me once."

"Half-brother…?"

The explanation raises more questions. Aeliana wants to press further. This song… it was the same one she used to sing for her whenever the incidents happened. Not many knew it. Only those who happened to be within the team did. Aeliana's eyes widen.

"Was Melody's half-brother a member…?"

"Yeah. Same dads. Different moms." Melody says with a small shrug. Her parents weren't married, so it wasn't that big of a deal. Though, considering both she and said brother were products of one hit wonders she had to wonder how many other siblings she might have out there. "Uh… Ael?" Melody asks with a small raise of her eyebrow. Why are her eyes so wide all of a sudden?

As if she had been in a trance, the girl sudden blinks and turns her attention back on Melody. "Hmm? What's up?"

"You okay in there? You kinda went… somewhere. -- Did I say something weird?"

A quick shake of the head, followed by a grin. "No, everything's fine," she lies. Her mind scrambles, trying to figure a follow-up. "A little tired, I guess. It's been a busy day, you know?"

Aeliana inwardly kicks herself. She doesn't like lying. She did it for so long back then, lying to herself and others constantly, that the first thing she did when coming to Galar was swear it off. Now she's doing it again. For good reason, mind. Melody didn't need her dirty laundry weighing her down so to speak.

"Yeah." There's absolutely something going on here… not that it's any of her business-- is it? Aeliana seemed so uncomfortable asking how Melody learned that song. The punk teen reaches up and slowly grips the silver skull around her neck. "Is that song like… a code for something?"

Lavender eyes cast down towards the snow once more. Was it okay to tell her? Maybe a vague explanation would serve for the time being.

"I'm from Alola," the pinkette finally answers as the duo start walking again. A wry smile at her lips. "I guess you probably knew that with my skin complexion and last name though, right?" She doesn't let Melody respond. Probably for the best, as chances are it would make her lock up again. "My cousin… she used to sing that same song to me whenever I was upset. Not many knew it, so… I guess it just surprised me when I started humming it that you knew the words."

"Huh. Small world I guess." It sounded ridiculous to jump to the conclusion of two people knowing each other just because they come from the same region, though, in this case, it might be okay to consider that. Still… Aeliana's acting a little off, so maybe it's best not to ask. "He didn't tell me where he heard it, just that it got stuck in his head a lot." Maybe she'll ask him. She… probably should give him a call, what with it being the holidays and all.

"Probably," Aeliana replies simply. She gazes up ahead. The old lady's stall is just up ahead. "Looks like we're here."

"Oh." Melody looks up ahead. That went by faster than Melody thought. Once they get closer, Melody raises her hand in greeting to the old woman.

"Ah, welcome back." The old woman calls to the trainer duo. "Did you find what you were looking for?"

"Yeah." Melody answers, looking over her shoulder to Aeliana with a small, semi-certain nod. "I think we did."

Aeliana glances curiously over towards Melody. She's curious about what all the punk teenager meant, but decides not to ask further right now. Instead, she offers a smile towards the old woman. "It was a heck of an evening, but I think we got what you were looking for."

"Come say hi, Lyric." Melody says as she taps the button on the Zigzagoon's Pokeball. The eager dark type quickly forms on the old woman's table and lets out a small bark in greeting.

"You thought correctly." The woman says with a hint of pride. "Hello, little goon. Did you have fun playing with these two?" She asks while reaching out to give the young Pokemon a gentle pat on the head.

Lyric responds with a slightly louder bark and a wiggle of his lower end.

The old woman digs in her purse and pulls out a poffin to give the tanuki Pokemon. While Lyric happily munches, Shawnie opens a large container and begins to rifle through it. "Let's see now… for miss Aeliana… this one." There's a knowing gleam in the old woman's eyes as she hands over an icy blue TR.

Aeliana takes the TR from the old woman, reading the label in the middle of the record. "Triple Axel…? I appreciate it, ma'am… But I don't have a Pokémon that can learn this… At least, not yet."

"You will." Shawnie replies. Melody gives her a quizzical look. Does every journey need an old lady that knows way more than she should? Is that required?

"And for Melody… this one." She takes out another disk and hands it to the punk teen. Melody glances at the name before flashing a small smile and tucking it into a CD case.

"Thanks-- um?"

"Call me Shawnie." The old woman says while giving Lyric another pat on the head. "The three of us will meet again. I'm certain."

Aeliana stares at the old woman curiously. To some degree, it almost feels as if Shawnie is reading right through them. The pinkette would be lying if she said she didn't feel a bit of an odd air from her. "O...Okay then. I guess we better get going if we wanna reach Turfield in time. Thanks again, ma'am."

"Ah, yes yes. Might I suggest a shortcut? Up ahead is a path blocked by a fallen tree. If you climb over and take the path beyond it, you'll save yourselves a few hours."

"Works for me." Melody says with a small shrug. "Ready for an adventure, Lyric?"

The tanuki Pokemon lets out a soft bark before hopping off the table and padding back to the punk teen. Ready!

Aeliana smiled down at Lyric and the two trainers began to make their way away from the old woman. A comfortable silence fell between the two as they traveled. All the while, Lyric continued to run circles around the two girls. At times it became difficult for the pinkette and the punk to not accidentally trip over the Zigzagoon, but somehow the black and white Pokémon managed to not get stepped on. The small group followed the path, climbing over the tree (or in Lyric's case being lifted over it), before eventually coming to a small clearing. Aeliana's lavender eyes widened as they walked, the dancer stopping dead in her tracks as she spotted something… or rather, someone standing in the center of the path staring right at her with an expression as if they were waiting for her.

"Tyrogue…" Aeliana whispered.

"Tyrogue?" Melody repeats, albeit significantly louder and almost indignantly. Did that old lady know he would be here? How?! Is that why she sent them this way? Is that why she gave Aeliana the Triple Axel TR? … Maybe she should double back and ask her for lottery number suggestions. "Were you… waiting here?" Red eyes shift between the pink haired trainer and the intense looking fighting type. "... For Aeliana?"

"Ty!" Tyrogue declares, stomping his feet in the snow. The little Fighting-type puffs his chest out before pointing at Aeliana and stomping again. "Ty! Ty! Rogue Ty!"

Aeliana takes a step back, a look of uncertainty taking her features. "I don't… I don't understand. Is he mad at me?"
Melody shakes her head and flashes a very discrete, knowing smile. "No, he wants to fight you." She recognized that stance and that accusatory-looking point anywhere. She looks down to Lyric, who hoists himself onto his back paws and swishes his tail curiously. "Right?"

Lyric replies with an excited bark. This is going to be good!

"Fight me?" Aeliana questions. The pinkette shakes her head slowly. "But… I don't want to get him hurt again…"

Tyrogue gives the girl a heated look. Once more, he stomps his foot into the snow before clenching his hands into fists and holding them up towards the girl. It was quickly looking like she wasn't going to be getting out of this without giving into the Tyrogue's demands.

Though still hesitant, Aeliana finally gives the Pokémon a nod. "Alright… we'll battle."

The Tyrogue seems pleased with the response. For one brief moment, Aeliana swears she can the faint trace of a smile take to the Pokémon's lips. However just as soon as it's there, it's gone. Instead, it finds itself replaced by a look of determination. Aeliana reaches into her bag and rummages through it. At first, she debates calling out her newly evolved Lombre. However, Fiesta had been through a good deal that night. She figured that it would probably be best to let the Lombre rest a bit more. Instead, she pulled out Tampa's poké ball. Holding it forward, the trainer pressed the ball in the middle which in turn expanded the ball's size before it snapped open. Tampa hopped out of the ball, dancing with glee as she eyed the Tyrogue standing across from her. Tyrogue raised an eyebrow, as if analyzing the Totodile before him.

"Alright, little guy… Let's do this!" Aeliana cheered. "Tampa, start off with a Water Gun!"

Tampa leaned back, her mouth snapping open as she took aim at the Tyrogue. The scrappy Pokémon quickly charged forward, zigzagging until he suddenly jumped up close to the Totodile. Before Tampa could react, the Tyrogue slammed his fists into the side of the blue gator's head, causing her to flinch and stagger backwards. The Tyrogue followed this up by slamming his body into Tampa, sending her falling back into the snow.

"Shake it off, Tampa! Attack him with an Aqua Jet!" Aeliana ordered. A burst of water shot out from behind the Totodile as she zipped her way towards the Tyrogue. Before the Fighting-Type could brace himself, Tampa slammed her body into him, causing the Tyrogue wince in pain. "Now, use Bite!"

Tampa snapped her jaws open, clenching her sharp fangs into the Tyrogue's forearm. The Tyrogue let out a pained-wail, repeatedly slamming his hand into the Totodile's noggin in an attempt to shake her off. Eventually, Tampa relented, again taking aim to unleash a Water Gun attack again. However the Tyrogue was ready to counter once again. Tyrogue unleashed a quick, spinning kick, slamming the gator's mouth up and the Water Gun to go sailing overhead in an arc.

"He knows Rolling Kick…?" Aeliana questioned. "I thought Tyrogue's only had like… four moves..."

"Maybe Douche Canoe gave him a TR?" Melody questions/calls from the sidelines. Is Rolling Kick even a TR? A TM? What else could it possibly be? Egg move maybe? Melody shakes her head as Lyric hops from side to side, excitedly following the battle with the quick turns of his head. "Don't worry about it! Focus!"

Aeliana snapped back to the battle at hand, just in time to see her Totodile get slammed with another Tackle. The gator grunted, barely keeping her balance as she glared at her opponent in annoyance.

"Keep your cool, Tampa! Use Dragon Dance!" Aeliana called out.

Aeliana began to hop back and forth, a surge of energy running through her body. The Tyrogue dashed forward once more, preparing to slam another Rolling Kick into the bopping Totodile. However, the increase in speed allowed Tampa to easily dodge the oncoming attack. Aeliana then quickly called out for Tampa to attack with a Scratch attack. With glee, she swiped her claws at the Tyrogue, sending him flailing back in surprise. With his balance lost, Tampa finally shot off a Water Gun which hit its intended target. The blast of water sent an icy chill into the Tyrogue, sending him falling into the snow on his backside.

Aeliana cheered in victory, quickly rummaging into her bag for a poké ball. However, as she pulled it out the pinkette suddenly remembered one key thing. Technically… this Pokémon was already caught by another trainer. She glanced over towards Melody, giving the girl a look as if asking if it was really okay to make this catch.

Melody tilts her head just slight and gives her brow a subtle raise. Why the hesitation? It's not like that jackass is coming back for him. Even if he did, she would beat him off with her stick. Although… if he's registered, the Pokeball won't work.

That guy wouldn't want a half beaten to death Pokemon that's registered to him wandering around for people to find. That's a quick way to get your ass arrested. Melody gives an encouraging nod and holds her arm out to show a thumbs up.

Aeliana nodded, preparing to toss the ball at the Tyrogue to catch him. She quickly found herself stopping short again, though. The pinkette glanced down at the ball in her hand and then slowly made her way over towards the Pokémon. The Tyrogue had since sat up properly in the snow, a dejected look on his face as he looked up to see the trainer approach him. Tampa watched her trainer curiously, before scurrying behind her.

"You know, you are one tough little dude…" Aeliana said as she knelt down beside him. "After everything you went through, you still kept on standing. Then to top it all off, you went on and had a battle with me too? It takes a lot of grit to do that kinda stuff."

A moment of silence passes. Tyrogue says nothing in response. He merely stares at the trainer's face, as if analyzing everything she has to say.

"I dunno what you're planning on doing. I mean, I hope you don't plan on trying to track down that jerk who treated you like that. But as for us… We're gonna be going on to take on the league challenge. There's gonna be a lot of tough Pokémon and trainers out there to battle… and well… if you're up for it? We'd love to have you with us! What do you say?"

The Tyrogue watched as Aeliana held out the poké ball towards it. His red eyes narrowed, the Pokémon staring silently at the ball for a moment or two before turning his focus back towards Aeliana. Tampa smiled broadly at him, her tail wagging in the snow with anticipation of his choice. A small sigh slips past the Pokémon's lips as he then offers the girl a single nod.

"Heh… great to have you on board, then!" the pinkette exclaims. Tampa gurgles with glee, the blue gator holding out her hand for the Tyrogue to shake. The fighter merely scoffs in her direction, before pressing the button on the poké ball itself and allowing himself to be pulled inside of it and leaving a thoroughly befuddled Totodile in his wake. The ball shakes only once, before glowing to signify that the catch was official. Aeliana smiles softly at the ball in her hand."Welcome to the team, Jet."

"Nice one!" Melody calls before trudging her way through the snow to get to Aeliana while Lyric bounds along at her feet. Melody flashes a very small yet pleased smile at the Pokeball in Aeliana's hand before folding her arms over her chest. "Ya know… I'm glad you're taking him. Means I don't have to worry that some other jackass will come along."

"I'll do my best," she replies, gently placing the Tyrogue's ball down into her bag.. "I just hope I'm able to give him the kind of environment he really needs."

Melody glances back towards the path they had been walking. This night had been a lot longer than she intended for it to be; lots of twists and turns. Back at the academy, she didn't think much of Aeliana. The girl seemed so ditzy and sheltered. Yet, since their journey started, she's come to see just how competent the Alolan is. She still gives off that super friendly vibe, though it's not nearly as aggressive as Melody thought. She's nice, but she can handle herself… and… maybe she's not quite as sheltered as Melody thought. The way Aeliana looks at Tyrogue shows a lot of understanding.

"... I think you're exactly what he needs."

Stinging Bea · Jan 11, 2021

Aeliana Kekoa

Route 3

Chapter 4-2 | The Rival

Aeliana's Current Party:

After what felt like an eternity, Aeliana had finally began to make some headway in making her way up Route 3. The sights and sounds of the Festive Market were far behind her now. The road ahead was lit only with the faint glow of the stars and moon overhead and the only sounds reaching her ears came in the form of the loud thumping of the beats from her phone in the form of her Lil Boober playlist.

After all the hustle and bustle had finally ended, Aeliana had a lot on her mind. The escapades with that trainer and what had at the time been his Tyrogue had taken the trainer back to places she'd have rather not gone, bringing back more memories she really didn't want to think about. However, seeing Jet in such a state was enough to trigger her back to those places. She could feel the punches and kicks… hear her voice constantly ringing in her ears, letting her know how much of a failure she was… how worthless she was.

"Distraction… I need a distraction…"

Reaching into her coat pocket, Aeliana grabbed her phone and began to turn the volume up louder. Music now blaring in her ears, she began to walk at an increased pace, as if someone was stalking her from the shadows of the route and she was desperate to somehow try and manage to escape them. She drowned out everything around her, closing her eyes as she began to mouth the words from Lil' Boober's chart topper, "The Meowth Next Door". Thoughts emptied from her head, taking away the visions of those days with them and instead replacing them with the image of Lil' Boober himself. Aeliana could picture herself standing in the front row of a concert. His beats bouncing and echoing throughout the arena. The cheers of the mixing in with his lyrics as they hopped up and down, dancing to his rhymes. A smile tugged at the pinkette's lips, as Lil' Boober dropped another rhyme before kneeling down with his hand extended. The crowd surrounding her went wild as Aeliana glanced around, quickly realizing that he was asking her to come up onto the stage. At first, she refuses. Her nerves start to get the better of her, and she can't bring herself to take that hand. The cheering of the concert-goers around her grows louder. They're practically demanding that she do this. Aeliana glances up at Lil' Boober, a smile on his lips as he gives her that look which is enough to give her courage. The pinkette nods, finally taking the rapper's hand...

THUD!

Before she knows it, the trainer is colliding into the backside of a traveler, practically sending the man stumbling forward in the snow while she herself almost topples over backwards. The pink-haired trainer winced, glancing up to see a middle-aged man looking down with an annoyed glare.

"Watch where you're goin', kid!" the man snapped, can't ya see I'm tryin' to see Simone?"

"Simone…?" Aeliana questioned. "Who's Simone?"

"Who's Simone…? Who's Simone?!" A boisterous laugh erupted from the man's mouth. He jabs the person next to him, a slightly shorter, rounder man. "Get a load of this, Jerry! This kid says she doesn't know who Simone is!"

Various gasps and mutterings are heard. Aeliana glances around, quickly realizing that she's stumbled into a full on crowd. She's honestly a bit taken back. After all, she's basically out in the middle of nowhere at this point. Forget Motosoke, the Festive Market that inhabited the early part of the route was a good two hours or so behind her. The man who she bumped into can see that the pink-haired trainer is serious. He quickly leads her to the front of the crowd.

"There. This is Simone McAllister," the man explains. "But she prefers just Simone!"

Standing up ahead is a young woman, most likely only a year or so younger than Aeliana if she's not the same age. She stands at a height of about 5'7", gracing a dark skin complexion and dark, chocolate-brown eyes. Her black hair is styled into dreadlocks, which she then keeps pulled up into a rather messy bun style, complete with a couple of silver hair rings decorating the braids. A yellow headband is wrapped around the girl's forehead, most likely to help keep the long dreads from getting in her face. She is dressed in a baggy, green, hooded sweatshirt with a black track jacket over top of it. A pair of baggy camo pants covers her legs, with a pair of white sneakers adorning her feet. Her hands are covered by a pair of black, leather, fingerless gloves. Riding on the girl's shoulder is a cheerful and mischievous looking Grookey.

"An up and coming star, she's recently made a name for herself in the underground music scene in Motosoke," the man continues. "She's lookin' to finally make that big break into the mainstream scene, so she decided to take on the league challenge this year to finally get her name circulating in the public. Once more people get around to checking her out, it's only gonna be a matter of time before she's up there with the greats like Piers and Marnie! Just you watch!"

Aeliana raises a curious eyebrow, before turning to look at the trainer closely. A confident smirk graces Simone's lips. "Yo, I appreciate ya'll comin' out here to see me off! Ya really are doin' me a solid, supportin' me like this, and I ain't gonna forget none of ya when I'm the one wearin' that fool's cape, ya better believe it!" As if to make her statement have more of an impact, Simone pumps a single fist into the air. The Grookey on her shoulder mimicking her gesture. "You guys have been with me since the start! It shows ya really got a lot of heart! I don't plan to let ya down, so watch as I grab that crown!"

The crowd erupts into a roar. Cheers and applause echoes out into the night sky of Route 3, with many of the spectators starting to shout the young woman's name. Aeliana looks around, seemingly taken back by just how much support Simone seems to have here.

"I mean… She's okay," Aeliana muses. "No Lil' Boober or anything."

The crowd suddenly goes quiet. Aeliana flinches, eyes wide with horror as she realizes that she just said that outloud. She looks around her, the weight of what feels like fifty pairs of eyes now all solely focused on her. Simone's hand has dropped, Her gaze slowly drifting to the pinkette as she takes a step forward.

"Lil' Boober? You mean that sell-out chump? I've heard better lyrics at the garbage dump!" Simone snaps. She walks forward, her face mere inches away from the dancer's. "What's your deal? What's your game? Did you come out here just to shame? You ain't got no skills, that's for sure! The only hit you'll ever make is when ya hit the floor!"

"Now… I think it's just a misunderstanding," the pinkette tries to defend. She raises her hands up, as if trying to show that she meant no harm. "I just think… Lil' Boober has a bit more polish, I mean, he does do this to make a living and he's been doing it for a few years. You'll get there too, but…"

"Man, this is straight up whack! Are all of ya'll listenin' to this quack?" Simone reaches to her belt. Aeliana quickly takes note that three poké balls are resting at the young rapper's hip. "Back up, spread out, gimme space! I'm about to wreck this chump's face!"

The crowd begins to hoop and holler at this. The pink-haired trainer again notices that this is getting out of hand rather quickly. Perhaps it's time to try and diffuse this situation before it gets even further out of hand? "Look, I think we should all just take a deep breath and…"

Simone busts out into a laugh. "Now you tryin' to run away? Ya think ya can just walk out of this today?" She points the poké ball forward, to the point where she's almost shoving it Aeliana's face at this point. "Grow a pair, buckle up. We ain't leavin' this place until ya throwdown, butter cup!"

Aeliana sighs. She's getting tired, but she more or less put herself into this situation. "...If that's really what you think you need to do, fine. I'll battle you."

The intense cheering of the crowd manages to grow even louder. They all begin to back up and make space for the two trainers. Simone makes her way away from Aeliana, stopping a few feet away. The said pink-haired girl looks into her bag, pulling out three poké balls of her own. She knows that her Pokémon are starting to likely get tuckered out, but… one more battle won't hurt, right?

"Here's the rules, we go three vs three! The first one out ain't gonna be me! Ya better get ready, ya better prepare. By the time I'm done with ya, you're gonna need medical care!" Simone taunts. The rapper wastes no time in tossing out her first poké ball. It hits the snow with a dull thud, before snapping open to reveal a Galarian Zigzagoon. A knowing smile comes to Aeliana's lips, the furry creature quickly reminding her of Melody and Lyric. Aeliana takes her own poké ball and tosses it out as well. The capsule snaps open, releasing Tampa out into the open. The Totodile looks around eagerly, spotting the Zigzagoon staring back at her with delight. "Yo, Razor, let's get movin' quick! Give that Totodile a Lick!"

"Tampa, Aqua Jet!" Aeliana commands. The Zigzagoon darts off towards Tampa. Her long, slobbering tongue trailing out of her muzzle as she trudged through the snow. Meanwhile Tampa blasts forward, a jet of cold water propelling her forward as she takes aim at the Galarian variant. Tampa's body slams into Razor, sending her toppling off to the side. "Now, Bite!"

Tampa quickly spun around, her jaw snapping open in an attempt to clamp onto Razor's tail. Simone smirked, however. The rapper turned trainer clearly not concerned for her Pokémon. She called out for her Zigzagoon to use Pin Missile. Aeliana's eyes widened as the fur on the Zigzagoon's back grew rigid and bristly. The fur suddenly shot out from Razor's back, three sets of spiky, pins spraying into the Totodile's face. Tampa staggered back, the blue gator flailing her hands on her face in an attempt to dislodge the bristles.

"Headbutt that fool!" Simone called out. "Show her she ain't cool!"

"Tampa, Aqua Jet!" Aeliana ordered.

The two Pokémon take off. Tampa once more propelled by a blast of water, as Razor charges forward with head lowered. The two Pokémon slam into each other, both slamming their heads into each other in a manner that leads several of the spectators and Aeliana herself wincing in response. Both the Totodile and the ZIgzagoon collapse into the snow, neither one moving for a moment. It's only when a small gurgle echoes out into the air does a victor come into sight, as Tampa slowly pulls herself up to her feet. Aeliana beams at this.

"Way to go, Tampa! I knew you could do it!" the pinkette cheers.

Simone curses under her breath, taking her poké ball and recalling the Zigzagoon back inside. The crowd murmurs amongst themselves, obviously taken aback by the fact that the rapper had lost the first part of the match to some random girl.

"You got lucky and that's it! You're about to learn that I don't quit!" Simone shouted.

The pink-haired trainer watched as she tossed out another poké ball, this one unleashing a stoic and steely Bronzor. The coin-like Pokémon hovered in an eerie silence, staring with a vacant expression in the direction of Tampa.

"Alright Copper, let's give it our all! Start this off with Gyro Ball!" SImone ordered.

"Water Gun, Tampa!" Aeliana called out.

The gator Pokémon's mouth snapped open, a chilling blast of water being aimed at the Bronzor. Meanwhile, Simone's Bronzor began to spin at a rapid pace. The water splashed up against the Steel-type, the Pokémon not even flinching as it picked up speed before suddenly zooming down and slamming right into Tampa. The Totodile let out a pain-filled wail as she flew back and landed in the snow by Aeliana's feet. Her body shook, trying to pick herself up out of the snow with her wobbly arms. Unfortunately, she didn't have the strength to pick herself back up and the poor Totodile fainted right on the spot.

The crowd went wild, shouts of Simone's name echoing out into the clearing. Aeliana bit her bottom lip, the pinkette taking the poké ball that belonged to Tampa and recalling her back into it. She apologized to the blue gator, thanking her for a good battle fought, before returning her ball into the bag.

"Let's go, Clara! You're up!" Aeliana called out as she threw out the Ralts' poké ball. The Ralts looked around, her eyes looking up to see the Bronzor floating silently overhead. "Clara, use Confusion!"

"Confusion, Copper!" Simone shouted.

Both Pokémon stared at each other, eyes glowing intently as a small blast of energy seemed to rock through the area. Both of the Pokémon staggered back, before Simone ordered the Bronzor to attack with a Gyro Ball. The Bronzor began to spin around again, taking aim as it quickly charged downward towards Clara.

"Clara, Double Team!" Aeliana called out. The Ralts began to focus her mind, several copies of her suddenly appearing and circling around the Bronzor. Copper quickly came to a screeching halt, the Steel-type floating in confusion as she tried to figure out which one of the copies was the real one. Aeliana smiled, the girl quickly taking advantage of the situation at hand. "Hypnosis, now!"

Clara's eyes began to glow, a dreamy, melodic voice coming from the real Ralts. The Broznor looked over, its eyes locking with those of Clara. Suddenly, the coin-like Pokémon began to feel very sluggish. Eyelids growing heavy, the Bronzor began to struggle to stay afloat until suddenly it crashed down into the snow, the Pokémon now on a trip to dreamland.

Simone growls in frustration. The crowd is completely silent now. She recalls her Bronzor, placing the ball back on her hip, before glancing over to the Grookey on her shoulder. The rapper gives the Pokémon a quick nod, which the chimp gladly returns. He scurries off her shoulder and hops down to face the Ralts without further delay.

"Bongo, I've had enough of this trainer and her sass. Use Branch Poke on that sorry ass!"

"Clara, Hypnosis again!"

The Grookey takes off running towards Aeliana's Ralts. A cheerful smile graces his lips as he suddenly looks down towards the ground, refusing to even glance in Clara's direction or the glowing eyes of said Pokémon. With a loud screech, Bongo leaps high into the air before jabbing his branch into the Psychic Pokémon. Clara staggers back, but before she even has a chance to recover, Simone has ordered her Grookey to use Razor Leaf. A barrage of leaves suddenly fire out from Bongo's lime-green fur. Razor sharp, they sail straight towards Clara and pelt the poor Ralts with extreme precision.

Clara staggers back up, her whole body shaking in pain as she tries to adjust her focus back towards the Grookey. "Clara, use Double Team!"

"Bongo, it's Taunt time! Show that Ralts you got skills to flaunt!" Simone shouts.

Clara begins to focus, preparing to use Double Team to give the Grookey the slip when it comes to his eventual next attack. However, Bongo merely gives Clara a cheeky grin. The Grookey sticks his tongue out at the Ralts, before bending over and in a rather… unique display begins to smack his rump before wiggling at her. Aeliana is speechless, but more than anything Clara is flustered. The Ralts forgets all about her oncoming attack and instead goes to try and use Confusion to quickly put this battle to an end… and that's when the Grookey makes his move. Bongo charges forward, the chimp Pokémon leaping high into the air before slamming it's branch into Clara twice. The Ralts let out a whine of pain, toppling over into the cold, icy snow.

"Looks like we're down to the wire! Take it from me though, you're the only one whose circumstances are dire!" Simone taunted.

Aeliana shot the rapper a rather frustrated glare. Simone's attitude was starting to grate on her last nerve just a bit. She was sure that the dark-haired trainer was just trying to put on a show for her fans, but it was starting to get to be a bit much at this point. Taking hold of the final ball, Aeliana narrowed her eyes and tossed it forward.

"It's all on you! Let's go, Jet!" the dancer called out.

"TYYYYY!" a loud shout echoes out through the night sky as Tyrogue erupts from his poké ball. The small fighter glances around, a look of excitement filling his eyes as he spots the Grookey standing across from him. Jet begins to jog in place, balling his small hands into fists before jabbing the air. "Rogue! Ty!"

"Bongo, Branch Poke this chump!" SImone called out. "Show him why he belongs in the dump!"

"Jet, Fake Out into Rolling Kick!" Aeliana called out.

Bongo took off running towards the Tyrogue, his branch held tightly in his hand as he went to slam it into the small fighter. Jet smirked in response, the red-eyed Pokémon nimbly rolling off to the side before slapping both of his hands into the Grookey's face. Bongo let out a loud cry of surprise, before Jet spun his leg around and shoved his foot right into the Grookey's stomach. Bongo stumbled back in surprise, tightening grip on his branch.

"Jet, Focus Energy!"

"Razor Leaf, now! Show these fools we don't bow!"

Jet closed his eyes, a burning power surging within as he let out a howling battle cry. The Grookey unleashed another flurry of razor-sharp leaves in the direction of the Tyrogue. Before the fighter's trainer could even utter another sentence however, Jet suddenly dashed off towards the Grookey. He charged through the foliage barrage, slamming his body right into Bongo with a powerful Tackle attack. Aeliana's eyes widened.

"Jet… Jet, I think that's enough!" the pinkette called out.

Jet didn't listen however. He charged straight to the staggering Grookey, delivering a sharp, Rolling Kick into the chimp Pokémon's face.

"Hey… Yo! Yo! Call this thing off!" Simone called out.

"I'm trying!" Aeliana replied, eyes darting to the rapper before going back towards her Tyrogue. "Jet, stop! Enough!"

Jet continued to ignore the pink-haired trainer, however. Just as Simone's Grookey had slowly began to pick itself off the ground from where he had been kicked in the face, Jet appeared before him and kicked him back over. The crowd began to jeer and boo. Aeliana shrinking underneath their sharp glares and hateful murmurs.

"Jet… JET!"

Aeliana grabbed the fighter's poké ball and ran towards the commotion. She held the ball forward and recalled her Tyrogue back inside, right as the red-eyed Pokémon was about to shove another kick into Grookey's stomach. Aeliana fell to her knees, clutching Jet's poké ball tightly into her hand.

"What the actual shit is wrong with you?" Simone called out, running towards her Grookey. All sense of showmanship was gone as she scooped her Grookey up into her arms before sending a hate-filled glare towards Aeliana. "Haven't you been even trainin' your Pokémon? What kinda whack shit was that asshat doin'?!"

"I… I didn't… I didn't mean to… I didn't know he would…" Aeliana stammered out.

The jeering only intensified.

"What a bunch of shit…" Simone huffed. "You better watch your back, pinkie. Next time I see ya, you're gonna wish that that was you gettin' your stomach kicked in by the time I get through!"

The rapped wasted no further words. She tightened her grip on Bongo, trudging off into the snow while muttering something to the crowd about the show being over. The crowd all grumbled and groaned, some of them shouting off insults to the trainer as they all walked off… A very confused Aeliana left in the snow all alone.

TM Case:

Spoiler:

Inventory:

Spoiler:

[PKMN OPEN] Pokémon Spear [M] [IC]

Just a Pair of Assholes

Me but more fabulous

An (Abridged) Galarian Christmas Carol​

[font=special elite][color=#FF3399]Toxic Terror[/c

ba-dum tssss. [icon]coffee-pot[/icon]

Chapter 3.5

[font=Brawler][color=#91a8d4][i]Here comes the boi

Always follow your Dreams ~

Sachiko 'Sachi' Akabane

Epoch 4.1: Route 3 Christmas Wreaths? New Additions! ​​

[font=Brawler][color=#91a8d4][i]Here comes the boi

That Dream...Make it Come True!

Me but more fabulous

Letting it Go

Winter Wonders Never Cease

[font=Brawler][color=#91a8d4][i]Here comes the boi

New Beginnings

lover of milotics

lover of milotics

lover of milotics

[I]Only thorns left on this rose.[/I]

An (Abridged) Galarian Christmas Carol

Epoch 4.1: Route 3

Christmas Wreaths? New Additions!