[PKMN FULL] Cornered On The Market! [T](OOC)

At Spirited Away, the employees entered through the hatch in the alley behind the store, walked through a short underground tunnel, and climbed the ladder to enter the Supply Room where store owner Castiel the Mismagius was, waiting in the dark. He greeted Gabriel the Weavile, Blair the Braixen, Kazè the Lucario (defunct), and Silver the Absol. At Forget-Me-Not, employees entered through the front door to meet owner Amaryllis the Florges, situated in a corner of the store made to be a lounge of bean bag seats. She tiredly greeted Varien the purple Kecleon, Rina the Chimecho, and Samuel the Bidoof. Both owners in their respective stores tiraded about the other owner, claiming the other steals ideas and that this year, they will not have their customers stolen away on an important business day. They both asked for volunteers for an important Mission, though they did not elaborate. To Castiel, Gabriel and Blair volunteered on their own accord and Silver offered a general assistance while Kazè (defunct) offered to keep to ordinary work. To Amaryllis, Samuel actively volunteered, Varien's confident appearance suggested availability, and Rina tried instead to present Amaryllis a basket of small, miscellaneous and colorful supplies for a gift, as Rina's priority was a good impression, though it was ignored.

Both owners decided to fully reveal the Mission, being to infiltrate the other store, eavesdrop to find out what big attraction they planned to open with, and then return with the information. Castiel chose Gabriel on account of the Weavile's enthusiasm, and Amaryllis chose Varien because of his natural camouflaging ability. The remaining employees were ordered to work on their store's big opening project and general clean up until the stores open at 8 AM.

Spirited Away's Gabriel and Forget-Me-Not's Varien disembark, both utilizing the alleyways as shrouded cover as they take precautions before acting. Varien uses his unique camouflaging ability and changes colors to look nearly invisible, save the blue pattern on his belly that his species cannot change. He crosses the street first and hangs around Spirited Away's storefront, unsuccessfully eavesdropping. When Gabriel and Varien both hear the faint sound of approaching footsteps in the distance, Gabriel decides to hang back in the shadows of the back alley while Varien carries on, peeking through gaps in covered windows, trying to keep his colors from changing with his emotions, knocking on Spirited Away's door to bait it open, and hiding around the corner to slip in when it does.

The sound of footsteps turn out to be Goro the Pangoro, a volunteer Festival Guard patrolling the boulevard as his assigned zone. When he hears knocking and scuttling sounds and glimpses a blue stripe and a faint shadow slip around Spirited Away's corner, he becomes suspicious and approaches the store.

At Forget-Me-Not, Amaryllis attempts to take a quick nap on her bean bag, and Samuel the Bidoof nervously attempts to make friends with Rina the Chimecho, the latter of whom is upset and dejected that Amaryllis ignored her gift. Spora the Paresect enters the shop without notice and immediately busies herself with work. An outburst from Rina to Samuel wakes up Amaryllis, who scolds everyone before noticing the basket of colorful materials Rina brought in, and asking who had brought it in for her. Rina hesitates to claim her own gift, but when she does, Amaryllis is pleased, and Rina begins to feel appreciated. Amaryllis also notices Spora is present, and though she doesn't recall that Spora wasn't in on time, praises her for being a hard worker, which leaves Rina envious. Revitalized, Amaryllis then commands Spora to hang store decorations and Rina to sort out paper lanterns to be hung, and to throw away lanterns of a certain green color outside in the trash. Amaryllis, also feeling pity for Samuel who felt hurt from being scolded, gave him the project task of picking out centerpiece for the project to be themed around, and leads him into the Supply Room to do it on his own.

At Spirited Away, Castiel, Silver the Absol, and Blair the Braixen discuss their store project in the Supply Room. Blair gets a collapsible table for their project foundation, and Silver muses about using a box of faux silk scarves and red candles, of which Castiel gets for her before leaving the storage room and entering out onto the store floor. He then hears knocking on his front door and goes to the window to peek out and see who would do so at such an early hour. When he catches a glimpse of Goro walking toward them, Castiel orders Silver and Blair to come out of the back, onto the floor, and to put up a convincing front of productivity while he deals with the Pangoro. They do, and when Castiel opens the door for Goro to talk, they tend to general store clean up instead of the project.

Goro asks Castiel if he has any employees on the premises, to which he answers there are no more than two present--referring to Silver and Blair (Kazè the Lucario is defunct), and intentionally leaving out Gabriel the Weavile for fear that he had been caught and was the reason behind the question. Goro leads Castiel out around to the side of the store to look into the alley. As they round the corner, a panicked, invisible Varien uses Shadow Sneak to quickly slide himself under and past the two Pokemon just as they do, before they begin to inspect the alleyway and happen upon him. In the clear and unnoticed, Varien dashes into Spirited Away just before the door closes, having infiltrated. From the back alley, Gabriel takes his time to climb up the wall of the store in shadow, climb onto the flat roof, and walk his way over to the front of the store where he slides down off the awning and onto the street below.

When Goro and Castiel scan the alley for a few minutes and nothing turns up, Goro dismisses the Mismagius, who then suggests to the Festival Guard that maybe the blue stripe that he saw was a blown-away decoration. Spying Rina the Chimecho from across the street taking out the trash, Castiel suggests that Goro talk to her instead, as maybe she would know something or other. Goro takes the deflection and approaches Rina.​

- Incomplete -​