@PlatinumSkink

---

The bug garden was beautiful. For a desert town, this place had a lot of vegetation, didn't it? Claire briefly glanced at the sign. No fighting? Well, she could understand but that put a damper on her plans of trying to catch a Scatterbug or something. She was too focused on the pokemon to notice that suspicious guy. Claire might not have been watching him however, but Ralia certainly was and she was definitely suspicious of a guy not coming out from behind a tree.

"Rrralll." Ralia lightly tugged on Claire's hair.

"Eh, what is it girl?" Claire watched as Ralia hopped off her shoulder and run over to the tree. Shrugging lightly, Claire followed, watching with mild curiosity as her pokemon started to inspect the tree in question.

---

---

The presence was chilling, and it was damn near overpowering. Skylar felt every single thought that pestered his mind, prodding at him and trying to get him to turn back to leave. Every thought that touched his mind slowly caused him to slow down, further and further, until he bumped into Vivia after her full stop. He pushed up his sunglasses onto his forehead for a moment and rubbed his eyes. It was... definitely intense.

He looked at the dark green Pokemon on his shoulder. "J-JoJo... how are you holding up...?" When he didn't hear a response from his Ralts his attention got fully invested. Why wasn't... why wasn't JoJo speaking? He wasn't shaking, panicking, he looked pretty stoic. Maybe a little concerned for Skylar himself, but otherwise the Emotion Pokemon was fine.

"... alright... here goes nothing." Skylar bluntly said before grabbing hold of Vivia's wrist in a fireman's grip and beginning to powerwalk. He prodded everywhere he could in front of the duo with his cane, watching out for steps and cracks in the path where he could feel them. After a moment he spoke to Vivia and Jojo (who was most certainly holding on, wearing Skylar's sunglasses in the process.

"Mesprit was the Being of Emotions, so Azelf and Uxie have to be beings of something related! This isn't anything but a test to our strengths and dedication as trainers! We just need to make it through here, Vivia!" Skylar explained, moving forward quicker and quicker. "J-Just... just trust me!!!"

---

^{Lakewatch Town || Day 5: Noon || @PlatinumSkink}
“Fifteen meter range, three second firing rate, can’t hit moving targets, one minute ETA,” Eryn said, ticking off fingers. “So, someone should stand right in front of the cracked wall, or somewhere between the wall and the hallway so that the Claydol will be aiming at the wall when it aims at them.” She nodded. “Sounds good. No questions. Three second firing rate is lots of time to zig-zag, and there’s lots of stuff to hide behind too,” she said, grinning. “Sit tight and I’ll get that Claydol to you in no time.”

One minute wasn’t a lot of time, so Eryn jogged her way back to the hallway where the Claydol would patrol to. Upon arrival, she looked around, then hid behind a large pipe at the corner where the hallway being patrolled met the hallway leading to the designated room. Despite the grin on her face, she could feel the adrenaline in her veins, and she felt a thrill of fear when she spotted the Claydol coming down the hallway towards her. Her Pokemon weren’t here to protect her this time. It was just her and her legs, and maybe her voice, if Claydol even had earbuds. All it’d take was one Psybeam, and she was going to make sure that Psybeam hit the correct target.

“Hey, Claydol, over here!” she called, stepping out from behind the pipe as soon as the Claydol was close enough to the corner. “Come over here!”

And with that, she took off running, ducking behind a pipe further down the hallway to wait for the Claydol to turn the corner. Slow but steady was the strategy here, interspersed with bouts of fast to get her out of harm’s way. Get the Claydol to the center of the room, huh? Doable. Very doable, though—on account of the possibility of getting Psybeamed—not totally easy.

---

---

---

As Cyril bounced down the sidewalk, navigating the unfamiliar yet surprisingly lively town, taking the time to pause and look at his map again before coming across some interesting looking trainers standing in front of what looked to be a dojo!... also, eh, their fashion sense left a lot to be desired. At least one of them looked moderately stylish with a pompadour and white trench-coat! Trying to look like a yankee, eh? One outta three, it was good enough.

Aster wilted back as soon as Cyril approached the tough looking fellows as he pivoted and examined the sign, reading it silently to himself as the little Budew buried his head nervously into the boy's chest. Normal type gym huh? He turned to see one of the fellows withdraw a pokéball and toss it out, a Hitmonlee springing out, looking around for action. Cyril glanced at the pokémon as it turned to its trainer to look at him, the others, and then over to Cyril, who merely beamed at the mon and gave him a quick little wave.

of course, the Hitmonlee was somewhat confused as it raised an eyebrow, shifting around a bit as it raised a hand up to wave at him before getting a hearty slap to his back from his trainer, who tried to psyche the fighting type up, despite how sweaty they looked. It wasn't that hot outside, was it? Nah, the heat was fine, but then the Hitmonlee turned to look at their trainer and back to the dojo behind them, then back to the trainer.

Hey, they were sweating a lot too! It wasn't that ot outs- oh who are we kidding, Cyril isn't that ditzy. Cyril merely stifled a giggle as he held a hand up to his lips, sniggering to himself as he realized the situation they were in. Walking by the guy and gal with the weird hair, he heard something that almost made himself explode out laughing on the spot, his lungs waiting to burst, his chest starting to hurt.

"COME ON HITMONLEE, WE'VE TRAINED TOGETHER, WE FEEL INCREDIBLE! YES, YES, YES, YES, WE CAN WIN, WE FEEL GREAT! WE. CAN. WIN. THIS!"

Of course, that's when he heard them stampede into the gym, hooting and hollering. Picking up the pace of his walking until he was some distance away, his giggling fit began to grow worse until he erupted into laughter, Aster nearly jumping out of his arms with its wide button eyes as it blinked, frowning for a bit. Cyril could only cover his eyes as he laughed before pushing some of his hair out of his face. He probably looked like a madman to these people, but it didn't matter; as far as he knew, he calculated that, based on their appearance and approach they all had quite a high chance...

... to lose that battle. Whatever their approach was going through their heads, he didn't know, but their posture told him they were not ready to contend with the gym, even with a type advantage. "The sin isn't in being outmatched, but failing to realize it," he murmured, shaking his head as he traversed down the sidewalk, passing by mewling alleyways, which caused him to peer over to see Meowths resting and lounging about on whatever, whether it be brick fences, windows, the top of dumpsters made him consider catching one, before one suddenly hissed and ran off as a couple of Lillipups chased after him or her. One waggled and pawed at Cyrils pant leg, causing him to look down and smile to say hello to the dog.

The dog barked with glee in response, wagging its tail before it shot off after the Meowth. Cyril barely had any time to record these Pokémon with his Pokédex, but he was somewhat deft enough to get the recordings before they disappeared to other places... or the rustling grass in different areas as some Lillipups popped out, causing Pidgeys to squawk and fly out, disturbed by the sudden intrusion of the pups.

The professor-to-be merely smiled at these events before looking down at his partner who seemed quite content with just staying put and looking forward. Cyril could tell they were nervous, even with the lack of shivering. Yeah, the school would definitely be a good place to start; while he was planning to catch Pokémon there, maaaaaybe he could get Aster to socialize with other Pokémon while being supervised! Yeah, he was such a good helicopter parent/partner!

Sprinting down the sidewalk, the Budew trilled in excitement at this sudden burst of speed! Screw having running shoes, he could run just fine without pushing B anyways! What kind of instructions were those anyways?!

After taking some twists and turns, in less than a minute, he arrived at the school, Aster announcing their arrival with a triumphant "Fweeeeeeeee!" Cyril was breathing lightly as he stared up at the building with a smile on his face, placing a hand on his hip as he looked around. The school seemed abuzz with activity, as teachers and the rest of the faculty monitored the area as the students sped around, playing tag or something. Now that he thought about it, there were plenty of students running around; one of them even mentioned a pink thing!

Pink baby-pokémon, huh? He could only guess they were all looking for either a Cleffa, Igglybuff, or Happiny. There was a glint in his eye; maybe he could kill three birds with one, well-timed arrival! One, find the Pokémon, two, slowly break Aster out of his shell (won't happen in one session, he knows), three, beat some kids up in battling like a proper, mature adult.

Smirking, he tapped the bridge of his nose with his middle finger, as if he were wearing glasses, and for some odd reason, the light reflected off his eyes. Huh, weird. As he traversed towards the park, he spied with his two, peeping eyes a hot, red-headed woman! Hoo wee, she looked pretty cute; maybe he could get her number before looking for this Pokémon! Hmm, maybe, maybe.

Setting the Budew down, he looked at the little partner who looked up back at him, a bit befuddled as it tipped its bud. "Say Aster, why don't you play with some of the other Pokémon for a bit? Could be a ton of fun and we could find a new friend to travel with us as well; whaddya say?" Aster didn't know whether to make heads or tails of this whole situation, switching between looking up at Cyril to staring back at the multiple pokémon playing in the park, before going back to their partner and gulping. As far as they were concerned, Cyril was trustworthy, plus it could be fun like he said! Weakly smiling, Aster bobbed its head before taking a couple of nervous steps into the park.

"If you get too uncomfortable just come running back to me, alright! Or fwee as loud as you can," now, to get this lovely lass' numb- oh? Before Cyril could even make a move he witnessed, Basil! Aha, the sly dog, he probably wanted to make a move on her too; could hardly blame him, red-heads were hot. Smiling, he hid behind the most conspicuous thing he could...

... actually, there wasn't much to hide behind, so he just stood there like a dope and attempted to blend in with the crowd, pretending to be a teacher or supervisor. Maybe, just maybe Basil wouldn't notice him; also, he wasn't going to be a jerk and interrupt his session with the lady, did not want to ruin the guys chances.

Either that or he was here for the rare pink baby-Pokémon. Regardless, Cyril began to formulate his own plan since he did not expect to see Basil here so early. However, after a bit, the duo went off, the Darumaka and her own partner holding sandwiches. Maybe he could bum a sandwich off of him, but then again, he did pack some food, granted it was more for the road than here.

Smirking with a devilish glee and glint in his eye, he followed after them, shadowing their movement as he masked himself through the cacophany of shouting, battling and screeching in the park. Now that he thought about it, it was kind of irresponsible for him to leave his partner out here, but one quick glance made him think the little Pokémon, while nervous, was having a bit of fun with some Paras who were scuttling about. Seems like they were plenty curious about the Budew, and thankfully Aster seemed receptive. Thank gods.

Returning to his quarry, he stalked behind them for a moment, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike, his smile growing wider as he reached a hand out towards the boy's shoulder, getting closer, closer, aaaaaaaaand...

"Sup Basil!"

---

This wasn't so bad.

Aster relaxed alongside the few Paras who had scuttled up to the Budew, curious about the introduction of this foreign Pokémon around the park. While they were unfamiliar, they seemed amicable as the shy Budew trilled and fweed at them while they chittered excitedly. Aster was much more reserved right now as he sat down, interacting with the Paras, even going on to introduce himself and said what he was doing there.

Some of the Paras scraped at the air with a leg, confused, while a couple others bounced up and down excitedly, causing Aster to wiggle his bud in response. Despite this cute interaction, all things would come to an end the moment a couple of Shinx and Poochyena's took notice of the different Pokémon and ran towards it, some with curiosity in their eyes, others with an aggressive intent. Thankfully the Shinx were faster, with one arriving on the scene to tackle the poor Budew and pin it down with a smile.

"Fwee?!" Aster suddenly cried out as he found himself pinned by the electric Pokémon who growled playfully while another Shinx began pawing playfully at the bud. Aster sniffled and giggled, finding the way the one Shinx was playing with the bud to be ticklish, but not before being disrupted by the much slower Poochyena's.

One tackled the Shinx that was on top of Aster, causing the two to tumble and turn into a ball of fur pawing at one another while two others took their turns barking and growling, encroaching on the Budew. Aster froze, not knowing what to do in this situation as he felt his little heart beat. The other Shinx decided that it was play time like its sister and tackled one of the Poochyena's, causing them to yip as they rolled on the ground. The single one remaining wasn't having any of that, as it perched, ready to pounce as it growled.

Aster looked around, finding that most of the Paras hat scattered or vanished after this little tussle. Left alone, there was only one option they felt was left for them...

... N I G E R U N D A Y O !

Pivoting around and running in the opposite direction, Aster fled from the Poochyena with tears seemingly forming in its eyes as it frowned, "FWEEEEEEEEEE!" Its cries were drowned out by the much slower, persistent Poochyena who pursued it, barking at the Budew as it continued to flee.

After running for a bit, the small Pokémon began to realize that this Poochyena was not giving up on their mission. In a last ditch effort, Aster gulped and turned around, standing his ground as the dog got closer, and closer, and closer. Recalling what he did in the battle against Chloe and Sentret, Aster vibrated nervously as it made its battle cry, "FWEEEEEEE!"

The Poochyena began to glow for a bit as yellow blobs began to form on its fur before flying towards Aster. The Pokémon yelped in pain as it stopped pursuing the Budew, instead turning tail and running way, yipping all the way. Sighing, Aster whipped his head around, trying to find where his trainer was, only to bear witness to the gauntlet of Pokémon in his way. The Paras were fine, sure, but with this amount of Shinx and Poochyena's, nuh uh, not happening.

Looking around, Aster took notice of a bush and quickly hopped into it for shelter to rest for a bit. Retreating into the bushes to get out of sight, he decided he would peak out again in a minute or two as he sat there in his lonesome, pretending he was some phantom thief preparing a grand heist as he chuckled to himself, pretending to be all confident and smug.

@hatakekuro@Savo

There’s this, then there’s that, that then this.

Basil searched for a bit and didn’t find a lot, then Cyril showed up and made way too much noise for the possibility of finding a rare Pokémon, don’t worry, I’ll make it up to you in a bit.

So, Aster had this little adventure, which ended with…

He hid in the bushes, preparing for whatever fwee heist he might possibly be planning, when he heard the slightest bit of a happy little humming. If he then looked over, to the other side of the bush… there was a large gathering of stones gathered from across the park. Small, round stones gathered in a pile, with the happy gatherer looking at each in turn with a happy smile before picking out her favorite and sticking it in her “pants”. She looked utterly delighted.

Then the creature turned and happened to look directly at Aster. She tilted her whole body a bit and inspected him.

‘Happiny?’



Oh, and, Cecil noticed something was going on in that bush over there and is authorized to peek.

What will Aster do?

What will Cecil do?

What are the boys doing?



__________________________

@Rune_Alchemist

So, behind the tree that the man had gone past there was a section without vegetation, with a bunch of panels on the ground. Nothing looked out of the ordinary, and there were no human witnesses to claim anything strange was going on here.

There was a Pokémon, however.



Nincada sat in the grass next to the tree, absently tapping at the roots of it, when Ralia and Claire came over. It abscently pointed towards one of the panels.

‘Nincada…’

Translation for Ralia!

‘Yeah, he went down this panel… can be lifted… ladder, under… not very nice to tap into…’

Should the panel be moved by someone, they’d find a ladder going straight down into some sort of building. The walls were concrete, the smell exceedingly stiff. There were some unruly noises from below, probably from the guy that just entered. What was going on down here? Well. Only one way to find out… if they felt like investigating, that is.

What would Claire and Ralia do here?



If she headed out, here’s Raremine Town again.





Connected areas:
Route 6. The Vast Plains open up to the north of Raremine. The shorter paths lead to Route 8 and 16, while west far enough leads to Lakewatch Town.
Route 7. The single rocky desert of Isson, it connects to the Desert Mines, the Old Tombs and to the Mythic Oasis.



__________________________

@Gardevoiran

^{‘Wh-what?’} Vivia asked momentarily, her voice cracking as Skylar grabbed her wrist and starting to walk. She had to be very careful where she put her feet, and Skylar probably accidentally stumbled a couple of times too, but they were starting to move as they wandered further into the repulsing darkness. Each step still tried to tell them it was a bad idea, that home behind them was a much brighter and happier place and the only thing that awaited before them was misery. Yet, still, Skylar braved the darkness, and Vivia…

‘Y-’ A pause. ‘Y-yeah, I get it already! We just need to… I’ll do it!’ she said, and gripped him right back, her expression a grimace. ‘I’ll prove I can do it! Let’s go!’

And so, the two of them forced their way forward through the lengthy passage, and with each step the doubts and hesitation grew stronger… yet they had already decided, they’d do this.

Eventually, finally, they broke free.

The attacks stopped, they were free from the intrusive thoughts. They could stumble up a couple moderately corroded steps, and they came up into a new room…

It was a simple, empty room, surrounded by a slight channel of water. Except for the entrance, there were two exits, both somewhat to the left of where they came in. One immediately to the left, and one a bit further.

‘W-we made it…’ Vivia sighed out, hanging her head and sighing out a bit. ‘Thank you, Skylar. I don’t think I’d… have managed… huh?’ Vivia said, before looking towards something in the center of the room.

Where she was looking, in the center of the otherwise empty room, was a pedestal. On said pedestal, was a stone plate. A stone plate of red, or perhaps wine-coloured effect. Skylar felt himself urged to pick it up. Vivia gave him a curious look.

There was an inscription on it, which read…

"When the universe was created, its shards became this Plate."



… And then there was a crack, which sounded from deep under them.

Then… there was the sound of water flowing, from underwater. The water level was starting to slowly rise in the channels around what they stood on. It was not showing any signs of stopping, and soon enough it would seep over and make their feet wet. This was not caused by them taking the plate, as such placing it back would do nothing.

They somehow knew that, if they turned back, they’d be able to get back safely.

‘Oh, no,’ Vivia simply sounded out, looking towards the two routes. ‘There’s two paths out, one left and one right, but both turn left after a while, seems to head the same direction…? Not much to distinguish them otherwise…!’ Vivia called. Notably, she didn’t immediately suggest turning back.

What would Skylar do now?



__________________________

@Typical


_{Sure, the items could have been left with Wilhelm, no problem.}

‘Yeah. When it gets to the center, hide, and I’ll make it target the wall. Let’s go,’ Oaken told, nodding as he took cover, waiting for the Claydol to be lured over. Eryn took off, putting herself in danger for the sake of getting further into this dungeon.

She called out to Claydol as the floating robot appeared, and… and it quickly lifted its arms and glared with an ominous noise coming for it as Psybeam charged. Now, Oaken perhaps was accurate in how long it needed to fire, but it sure FELT like less, yet Eryn was able to dodge. One thing she quickly learned was that Claydol fired even if it lost sight of its target, as it fired on the things she hid behind, causing pulses of force to shake her a bit from impact-force despite them not actually hitting her.

She called out, and Claydol gave an irritated beep as it floated after her, as she zig-zagged away from the range of the Psybeams it fired. Finally, after numerous longer turns and hiding behind the pipe as Claydol floated to the middle of the room and fired a Psybeam right at the pipe, which sounded almost like it cracked beside her…

‘Hey! Pathetic excuse for a defense system! Where are you aiming!?’

Oaken called from over there, and Claydol quickly beeped and turned to aim its arms at him. The boy winced before he jumped out of the way just in time, as a powerful beam was fired from Claydol right at him. Oaken precisely got out of the way, right behind him the beam of psychic power impacted the cracked wall, and-!

There was a thunderous crack as the wall collapsed, breaking apart at the floor and revealing a new path!

Claydol froze in the middle of the room, as if realizing it had just been used. It floated there for a couple of inactive seconds… and then it turned eastwards, just slowly drifting away and off into the corridor…

‘… Well done, Eryn,’ Oaken said as he stood up where he was, adjusting his glasses. ‘It appears the way is open, and interpret that as the Claydol acknowledging our success. Shall we go?’ he asked, as he began wandering without further ado.

Here’s a moment for Eryn to potentially say anything to Oaken, as he wandered northwards up through the corridor. This corridor was decently tight, but still with random extrusions from the ground and pipes and who knows what else along the walls and otherwise as they moved through. If she does, I’ll have Oaken respond in the next post. The corridor turned west, and…

The next room they arrived to was partially surrounded by water, a small island with fallen moss-covered towers, with bridges out over the water to paths in all four directions. To the left, back south, were another gang of Beheeyem guarding the way. They were guarding the way to the same room as the previous gang of Beheeyem…

‘Tsk. They really don’t want us going that way,’ Oaken commented. To the right, northwards, stood a…

‘Mime?’



A Mr. Mime stood right in the way, on top of the bridge to the north. It looked towards them with a bit of confusion.

And straight forward… was a darker path. It wasn’t properly lit like the rest of the place somehow was. It was sort of unpleasant to look in that direction. Hurt even worse to consider going in that direction. However, notably, it was a slope that led upwards, higher.

Oaken wandered over the bridge on the side they’d entered, looking around in the three directions.

‘Hm, suppose the way is-’ Oaken started, when suddenly there came a loud crack from somewhere beneath the island, just as one of them took a step onto the island in the center. Oaken froze in place, frowning, gazing around him all alert. Mr. Mime looked somewhat panicked, flailing its arms a bit over there.

Then… there was the sound of water flowing, from underwater. The water level was starting to slowly rise. It was not showing any signs of stopping, and soon enough it would seep over and make their feet wet.

They somehow knew that, if they turned back, they’d be able to get back safely.

‘… Drat,’ Oaken said, looking around in annoyance. ‘Fleeing may be the only way to assure safety… but no, this is a trial…!’

Still, his second of hesitation muttering that to himself meant that perhaps Eryn would be first to act?

For just a brief moment, Basil's heart stopped. He swirved around and let out a sigh of relief that it was only Cyril. "Hey Cyril. Didn't expect to see you so soon." Truth be told, he was actually annoyed with him; his sudden appearance may have scared off any rare Pokemon though he did not show it.

Meanwhile, Cecil was munching on her sandwich as she watched the trainers converse. It seemed like a whole bunch of nothing was going on, but that was quickly not going to be the case; just nearby there was some rustling in one the bushes. "Dar?" Curiosity peeked, she walked over to the bush and somehow on the very tippy-top of her toes she looked over the bush. On the other side, she found a Pokemon doing something."Dar dar?" Wait...they were looking for a pink baby Pokemon. This certainly looked like a baby Pokemon and it most definitely was pink.

There's a thing about standing on being on toe tips; weight begins to shift and gravity does the rest. In Cecil's case, she was leaning forward and began to flail her arms about before she falls through the bush onto her face. "Darrrr..." Hopefully she did not scare the Pokemon off.

Basil was not paying attention though when he glanced down to see how Cecil was doing, she was nowhere to be found. "Hey, did you see where she went?"

Amelia flinched and withdrew a bit at the glare she received from Elma, causing her ghostly companions to return the older woman's glare with six of their own.
"I actually don't know much about business. I just said things I've seen others do or have noticed make me more likely to want to buy something, even if I don't in the end." Amelia said, her tone a bit frightened now. She nervously watched Zachery as he worked on his phone. When the man finally spoke to her about the pokemon for sale, she relaxed a bit and stood up straighter again. His list of examples was only met with a look of confusion. Despite all her studying, some of the names he listed were not familiar with her.
"I've heard of Mimikyu, Oricorio, and Sandygast but I've never heard of Sinistea, Dreepy, or Galarian Corsola. I know of Corsola but I'm guessing by the name that this one is from a region called Galar and that makes it a Ghost-Type?" She said, authentically curious and wanting to meet some of these pokemon. Part of her really, really wanted to buy one or two of them, as she certainly had the money to do so. But, she was also hesitant because it meant getting more pokemon she couldn't travel with and there was also the fact that they might not even listen to her if she tried to use them in battle. Still, at least learning about the ones she was unfamiliar with wouldn't hurt, assuming she could learn anything at all.

@Joshua Tamashii

‘Oh, yeah, they're Galarian. I actually just returned from there, a great island region with a bunch of unique Pokémon. Sinistea is this possessed little teacup, Dreepy is this tiny dragon-ghost hybrid, and Galarian Corsola is indeed a regional variant that's a ghost-type! Really sad little thing, really... Anyway! What do you think?’ Zachery replied, looking expectantly at the young girl that was his first customer.

---

---

Cyril couldn't help but giggle with a wide, toothy smirk as he withdrew his arm, pointing it up directly to the sky, "Yup yup, didn't expect to see you here either, pretty convenient huh!" He continued to chuckle, placing a hand on his hip as he raised any eyebrow, combing the boy over as he drooped his arms a little. "Sorry about that by the way, couldn't resist."

While he was talking, he whipped is head around to search the park around for Aster, only to not find a trace of the green Pokémon; heck, the Paras he was conversing with had scattered in that area, and it was not occupied by some aggressively playful Shinx. Cyril's eyes widened as he bit his lip, frantically searching the park for the Budew. This was probably not a good idea in the slightest as he felt his heart pumping harder and harder. Where was he, where did Aster go? Ugh, why did he even suggest such a stupid idea?! Idiot, idiot!

Cyril was actually knocked out of that worrisome thought, albeit briefly when Basil went over to his partner, Cecil, and asked if they had found something. Considering they were located by a bush and monkeying around trying to tell Basil something, maybe they were signalling that they found a Pokémon, more importantly, Aster!

Following after Basil, Cyril peered to the side of he, leaning down to level with the boy's face, "So Basil, whatcha' doing right now anyways?" Despite this question, he wondered what those kids over by the pond were getting so worked up about... actually, why did most of the common Pokémon around the park congregate there?

---

As the Phantom Thief Aster made his escape back into his hideout, he peered outside the bush for a brief second as he jiggled his bulb. The police and gangsters of these streets were persistent, but even they were no match for the esteemed and suave Phantom Thief Aster! He puffed out his chest with a smirk on his face as he retreated into his secret lair, where he could begin planning his next heist while the others wasted time, trying to seek him out.

And what better to be in his lair were his... stones? Wait what? This shattered the Budew's immersion for a second as he totted on over to the pile, unsure about what these things were, besides stones, let alone what he even found. Leaning in, his bud began to waver a bit as it unfurled to touch a stone before looking up to see a pink creature.

Aster stayed perfectly still as they began sorting through the pile of stones before acquiring one and placing it proudly in her pouch. From what Aster could tell, she seemed jovial until she looked up to catch a glimpse at the Budew, which caused a surge of electricity to shoot down his spine, shivering for a moment. Was she like those Poochyena's and Shinx he just encountered?

‘Happiny?’

Or not.

From what Aster could see, she seemed as curious about him as he did about her, and unfurled the bud to give a little wave to her, "Fwee?" Despite his own gesture, he still inspected the baby Pokémon, who reclined back and smiled and held her hands up, ‘Hap, Happiny,’ she cried out with a smile as she leaned in, curious about the similarly shaped green Budew.

"Fee... Budew," Aster responded, puffing his tiny chest out as he interacted with the other Pokémon; seemed like the duo were introducing each other to one another as ‘Happiny!’ From what Aster could tell, she seemed to enjoy his presence, or at the very least didn't mind it as she rubbed the little rock in her pouch, purring to herself. Was that supposed to be like an egg?

"Bud, fwee?" Interested in the piles of rocks that were gathered at the center, Aster picked one up to examine it only for the Happiny to frantically cry out as she held her little arms, frantically wiggling them, ‘Hap, Hap, Happi!’ Aster stumbled around a bit, confused by this action as he danced around the rocks a bit while she explained what it was, only for him to place it back into the pile, calming the baby down.

‘Happiiiii,’ as that little spiel came to a close, she sniffled, giving Aster a small pat on the back, apologizing. "Fuh-fwee, fwah," unraveling a bud, Aster empathized with her, reassuring that everything was OK. Wait a minute, this was kind of like a treasure to Happiny, which meant...

"Fwee!" Aster suddenly announced, doing a little twirl before hopping onto the pile and puffing out his chest, much to the bewilderment of his new friend, ‘Happi?!’ He couldn't help but lightly blush, twiddling his feet on the rocks as he looked down, explaining it all to her, "Fwee, fwah fwee! Budew fwah, bud fwee, fweeeee! Fweeheehee!"

Happiny didn't get it much at first, but the way her eyes lit up with a small o as her mouth opened in interest made her clap before doing a little twirl of her own, ‘Happiny!’ Whatever this was, it seemed like she was interested in this little roleplay and got into it as well, ‘Hap, Happiny!’

Aster smiled as he hopped off the pile, gesturing for her to follow him; the heist was on! Their target was to add more gems (rocks) to their hoard! As the Phantom Thief Aster, and his partner in crime, Lady Happiny neared the edge of the door to their safehouse, his partner suddenly tugged on him. Being the ever so charming thief, Aster turned his head ever so slightly to see that his partner, Lady Happiny, was... shaking?

"Fwee? Bud, Budew, fwah?" Happiny twiddled her little nubs for hands and looked up with a frown, ‘Hap, Happiny... Pi, pi pi... Happi...’ Those words sunk in for Aster, right, she couldn't leave, especially in this state, with everyone calling out and seeking her out, there's no way they would play like this... which meant.

"Fwee! Fwah, fwoh, bud!" Happiny looked up to see Aster smiling, with her staring to glow a bit as well. Yes, she could be mission control! And then after this, they could play whatever she came up with! Happiny was elated as she hugged Aster, thanking him before seeing him off, making sure not to reveal her presence too much as Aster burst out of the bush, making what he believed to be a really cool pose.

And now, the Phantom Thief began his heist! Locked up in the bank by the lake, there was said to be a mysterious gem that was under lock and key! Security members patrolled the area nearby and the police were on the hunt for him and his partner, with giant flesh mechs seeking the capture of his lovely partner, Lady Happiny! He would need to be quick, nimble, and sneaky! This would be tough, but Aster, the luxurious Phantom Thief, could handle it!

"Fweee!" Aster yelped as a couple of new Shinx and Poochyena noticed the little bud Pokémon dashing through the 'streets,' and with their own agenda began to trot, pursue, or run at the Budew. Aster could feel his little heart beat as his eyes widened at the small horde of Pokémon that was following him, "FWEE!"

Even with the police and gangsters on him, they would never catch him! Was it because he was naturally adept at dodging fellows like these? Nah, it probably had to do with the fact that a Budew was somehow faster than a Shinx and Poochyena! Seriously, look this up, how is a Budew faster than these two Pokémon?!

Regardless, he made his great escape, hopping over hapless citizens who watched in curiosity while others got caught in the mix, becoming the victims of police 'brutality' (being tackled and cutely pawed or barked at) or advanced upon by 'gangsters' (being tackled and cutely pawed or barked at as well). Whatever the case was, this caused a bit of a stir in one area as multiple Pokémon began congregating around that area before some of the children running around the park seeking the pink baby Pokémon noticed something.

"Hey guys, there's a green baby Pokémon as well!" Oh no. The shrieking of the childre- flesh golems intensified as they caught wind of him! This wasn't good at all, oh geez, oh god, they were after him now too! "FWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" The panic only intensified as he got closer to the pond, with Finneons resting and relaxing in the pond, swimming around only to poke their heads out from time to time to interact with other Pokémon or children. Of course, what they didn't expect was there to be a stampede of Pokémon and children coming towards their oasis, seemingly spearheaded by the Budew who seemed to have tears forming in its eyes.

Some took it as a sign of playing, others went on the defensive. Whatever the case was, some of them began to shoot Water Guns directly at him, or just splash the water with some Pounds. Looks like security would be a pain for our hero- OH GOD THERE ARE MORE CHILDREN COMING FOR HIM, OH GOD!

Bobbing and weaving between the Water Guns, some barely scraped by him, only to splash a pursuer, sometimes knocking them back if they were a Pokémon. A few of the children sometimes giggled, others cried out in pain and screamed happily that they were wet, causing this whole situation to be a right mess as it broke out into a right battle royale with the Finneons diverting attention away at times, some Pokémon deciding it would be fun to play with the kids or Poochyena's, all while the Paras chittered in the background.

Thanks to his raw skills and charisma, Aster, the Phantom Thief, was obviously able to create a distraction, and not because so much happened in the span of a couple of seconds, resulting in a mishmash. Taking this opportunity, swinging on in, but much to his chagrin, there were many, many gems (rocks)! They all looked alike, possibly to hide the real gem amongst them all! Aster had to be quick and discern the real gem from the fake and get out of there before security locked the safe. Looking through the rocks, he saw one.

Snatching it up, he observed it for a second before nodding to himself with a smile on his face, "Fwee!" Yes, this had to be it! This rock was so much more smoother than the others, or at least that's what he thought. Feeling the polish of it, Aster held on tightly to the rock between his buds before observing the area around him.



With that said, he began to look for his escape route, before noticing the perfect opening! There, now was his chance, as he dashed forward through the ensuring chaos, bobbing and weaving between each playful paw, tackle, and sometimes even battle that spontaneously occurred. "Hey, the green baby Pokémon is getting away!" No, the flesh security alarms caught him?!

Forcing his legs to move even faster, Aster sprinted down the streets as a part of the horde broke off from around that area to pursue him, with those flesh golems tossing their own Pokéballs at him. While most missed, one manage to bop his head before tumbling to the ground, "FWEE!"

Ouch! Ugh that golem managed to get a hit on him, but that seemed to give them pause for a moment while the rest of the horde continued their fervent pursuit, "Wait, why didn't it go in the ball?" Still, everything (didn't) seem so fine and dandy, as Aster noticed a familiar face as he got closer and closer to the safehouse, "Aster?"

Sorry partner, but he couldn't stop now, but he could tell that Cyril was worried based on the fact that he was being followed after by a decent amount of Poochyena's, Shinx's, and one or two children who were throwing out their own Pokémon while waving a Pokéball in their hand. The situation seemed dire, but the flesh golems seemed to be stopped by his partner! Did he input a code to disable them?

"Wooooaaaah, hey there kids, that Budew isn't for catching, he's my partner!" Despite this most of the Pokémon ignored Cyril, causing him to peer at where his partner ran off to. Aster looked behind him as well, jiggling his bud a bit before hopping back into the safehouse, bringing along a slew of Poochyena and Shinx, who barked at the bush or pawed at some of the leaves.

Following that, some of the children Cyril managed to pacify began to grumble before stating that they wanted to catch the kitty and dog, before pointing and running towards the bush.

Oh no. Aster had to warn Happiny, their safehouse was compromised! What might happen next? Will he be able to protect his new friend?

Find out next time on Aster, the Phantom Thief! Stay tuned trainers!

---

---

Skylar paused for a moment to catch his breath, JoJo patting him carefully on the back as he stood with his hands on his knees. "Ohhhh man... that was... certainly a test of willpower. Good thing we made it... oh...?" The boy began to walk towards the center of the room, stopping at the red plate and holding it up momentarily before he placed it in his bag. "Interesting... probably should ask Kalmia about it, eh?"

Skylar returned to the main part of the room with Vivia, thinking about things for a moment. "Can't really get a feel on either direction. Hm..."

"Rraall~." JoJo cooed on Skylar's shoulder, simply watching the boy try and figure out a path.

"... I have an idea." Skylar snapped, grabbing a few of his coins out of his bag. Strange, since he had a large abundance of bronze 1P coins, but it'd certainly help out at something. "We'll go down the longer left path, but right here at the entrance..." Skylar placed one bronze coin down right at the door they just entered from. "This coin'll be here. In case we need to turn back and find our way out of here, we can use these coins to track where we've come from."

Skylar prodded around until he was at the immediately longer of the two paths, and looked back at Vivia. "Worst case we need to turn back. Best case we don't. At least we won't have to worry about any bad emotions this time... hopefully."

@hatakekuro@Savo

So, all that reacting in Savo’s post happened, and then Happiny was left mainly to wonder how life was going for Aster. After all, it’s difficult being mission control when you don’t actually have any means of controlling the mission, so to say.

That’s when Cecil stumbled in, and Happiny turned around with a touch of being startled. However, after identifying the intruder and generally confirming that she didn’t appear hostile, Happiny went with the first thing that occured to her.

‘Happiny!’ Happiny called as she skipped over to Cecil. She had to be a companion of the gentleman thief that had just suggested he steal stones for her! Such a welcome surprise! ‘Happi! Happiny!’ Happiny called happily over the probably confudled Cecil.

‘Happi!’ Happiny called as she suddenly realized. With multiple allies, then maybe, just maybe…

She peeked out the base, looked like Aster was still busy, oh, well!

Happiny grabbed onto Cecil and attempted to lead her out of the safehouse, after having looked around a bit to confirm that everything was safe… which it strangely was, had something to do with how Aster had managed to attract/distract the majority of chaos this park could sustain… and then promptly led Cecil off, should she allow her to. There was a couple of steps behind a tree, and then Happiny peeked out to potentially wave Aster over, this way! He’s also the only one who’s allowed to see her peek. She’d just temporarily left her hoard behind, not knowing that Aster may have led them there. Anyway!

Regardless of if he succeeded in coming over or not, Happiny pointed out a strange structure in the park _{that absolutely existed before I started writing this post}



There was a Treehouse Palace placed by the pond in the park, standing there decently proudly and oldly which some kids were about exploring and such. There was a bunch of Paras and Meowth around that were just like hanging about as guards for no definite reason, and from the top window, a dark shape of a great can could be roughly seen, looking out with gently glowing eyes…



‘Happiny, Happi…’ she sounded a little sad for a moment, and then, ‘Happi, ny, Happiny!’ she called with significant determination.

See, apparently there’s this Persian inhabiting this park. The kids and teachers of this school all like the Persian, guarding the Pokémon from other Pokémon threats from the outside and letting them pet him and all of that… but secretly, he sees the whole park as his kingdom, and the treehouse as his Palace palace, from which he rules them! He’s been collecting things from other Pokémon, including this beautiful Oval Stone that Happiny had when she came here!

He has this female Lopunny too that he uses for physical threat when he needs to, acting as an agent, always standing behind him when he gives his threats, like a personal shadow, or almost like he was her trainer or something weird like that. Yupp, she totally stands right behind him up there in the tower.



‘Happiny!’ Happiny called to them. Everyone else was too afraid to act, but there was something else to it. There was this super-precious weird oval rock with a hole in it that Persian was guarding up there. Apparently, he hadn’t been so cruel to everyone before, but after he found it was like he changed in some way, so perhaps if they managed to steal the treasure rock they’d be able to change his heart mind?

All they’d have to do is get by all his Meowth guards and get to the top of the tower first!

‘Happiiiiiiiiiiiiiii…?’ Happiny looked to them totally pleading.

What would Cecil and Aster do?



__________________________

@hatakekuro@Savo

MEANWHILE!

There was a bunch of kids and Pokémon running about for whatever reason… anyway, two people entered the school ground, and…

‘Kids. Calm down,’ A man said, and all of a sudden it was like someone stopped time, because the kids basically just froze in their motions and looked over. He looked a bit worse for wear, like he was constantly exhausted, and, perhaps mildly comically, there were three Shuppets hiding behind his back. Whenever he moved, they hurried to stay behind him, as if they were avoiding being noticed by him…



‘We have a visitor. Go ahead, Dorian,’ the man said, taking a step aside to show…

‘It’s old man Dorian!’ ‘Wooo! The Gym Leader is here!’ ‘Don’t you have challengers this time of day?’

The other man was an older man, his atmosphere having somewhat of an air of serenity to it, and upon being faced with the kids he smiled so gently, years of wisdom visible upon his face now. With him, he had this positively giant brown-white dog with what looked to be a massive beard, who also super happiny skipped over to gently energetically greet the kids coming over.



‘Hello, children. Yes, indeed, I typically take challengers this time of day, but today’s challengers were… taking a toll on me,’ Dorian said, gently accepting most of the attention showered on him.

‘Were they that tough?’ the child asked, wide-eyed.

‘No… No, they were not,’ Dorian said, his smile a bit wider. What that could be taken as is up for debate.

‘Are you alright?’ the child continued, looking honestly worried.

‘I am very much alright, thank you for asking,’ Dorian said, and then turned to the other adult here. ‘How about you, Johannes? Do you feel alright?’ Dorian asked, and the other man looked a bit startled at being asked. The Shuppets looked at him curiously from behind him.

‘… Actually, yeah,’ Johannes said, perhaps to the disappointment of the Shuppets behind him. ‘I’m finding myself strangely fine today. Perhaps it was because, you see, not a long time ago found myself comforted by this tiny girl with an affinity for ghosts…’

‘Did you now?’ Dorian asked, looking the mildest amused by Johannes’ statement.

They then continued their conversation with the kids a bit, not necessarily anything Basil and Cyril needs to concern themselves over, but it happened over there. _{If they need to keep themselves occupied while their Pokémon does random stuff.}

What will Basil and Cyril do now?

---

^{Lakewatch Town || Day 5: Noon || @PlatinumSkink}
“Easy peasy,” Eryn declared at Oaken’s compliment. In fact, it had not been ‘easy peasy,’ and towards the end there she’d been quite nervous since she hadn’t counted on the ground literally shaking at the Claydol’s beams, but now it was over and onto the next.

“Let’s go,” she said, leading the way down the hall with a grin. Stray pipes and crevices kept her eyes on the ground, and finding Beheeyem blocking two of four paths in the next room didn’t help lift her spirits. While it took choice out of the equation, that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing; there were no wrong choices in a situation without choices, and not having the option to go wrong seemed like a pretty sweet trade.

“So, what’ve you been up to so far? Last time I saw you was Pureplain, which feels like ages ago.” Eryn grinned. “Speaking of, that Mawile I caught, Kylie, is the strongest member of my team now. She’s growing up to be a little tank with fangs, so you better watch out,” she said, shooting Oaken a look. “But other than that, nothing much has happened. Just went from Pureplain to Lakewatch. Hit up all the places in between the two, but, well, there hasn’t been much there,” she said, shrugging. “But, you know, when am I going to get a chance to come back? Not for a while, most likely, so seeing all the sights now it is.”

The next room proved to be more water-based than the others, with another two groups of Beheeyem againn limiting their choices. Oaken commented on it, and she nodded. “Yeah, but so far that hasn’t affected us, so maybe they’re helping in their own way.”

A sound to her right captured her attention, and she looked over, registering the Mr. Mime blankly. Personally, Eryn didn’t like discriminating between Pokemon. Each was unique in its own way, appreciable for its own skills, but Mr. Mime? They’d always stood out to her as psychic-types and as, well, one of the funniest-looking Pokemon out there.

Covering up a giggle, she cleared her throat, then waved at the Mr. Mime. “Hey there, you lost?” she asked, following Oaken forwards towards the island in the middle of the room. The Mr. Mime certainly looked confused, glancing this way and that without any indication that it knew what it was looking for. “Do you need help, maybe?”

Just as she and Oaken reached the island, however, a resounding crack split the air, and she froze, glancing around at her feet, at the island, then at the bridges and water around it. “Oh, no,” she said, backing up the island as she noticed the rising water levels. “Oh no no no I did not sign up for this.”

As Oaken started muttering to himself again, Eryn looked around, spotting the Mr. Mime gesturing wildly. Directly ahead, though, was the only path forward. It was dark, and thinking about it made her head hurt—the pressure of being down so deep catching up to her?—but the path seemed to be leading up, which was exactly where they needed to go given the rising water level.

“Alright, time’s up, we’re heading this way,” she said, grabbing Oaken’s arm and, after a brief moment of hesitation, darting towards the right bridge and grabbing the Mr. Mime’s arm as well. “You can’t stay here,” she said, then dragged them both towards the dark path forwards, her pace picking up into a jog as she did her best to ignore the coming headache. “Do either of your heads hurt?” she called, turning to look between the two being forced to keep pace with her. “I mean, my head kinda hurt on the way down, but coming with a water-type helped, I think.”

---

@Gardevoiran

‘Alright. Sounds good,’ Vivia decided about the coin plan, just in case what came ahead of them was a maze. Then, she was moderately quick at pulling at Skylar, since there was an increase in the water-level. Would the coin even stay there when the place got flooded? That aside. Vivia led Skylar on to the next room, when-

When they both heard the sounds of something firing destructive beams of power at something.

‘Wh-what now…!?’ Vivia questioned, as she peeked over to the next room, and then perhaps also led Skylar a bit closer as she looked around.

So, the next room they arrived in had little vents on the sides of it, but also pillars that were hanging around a bit of everywhere. The room in general was a mess, probably not designed to look like this but the varying pillars had collapsed over time. There were five exits. The one which Skylar and Vivia just came from, and one right beside it that went far east. There was also the one south, which wasn’t looking particularly notable.

Then there were west and north. To the west…



A blockade of Beheeyem floated in the air, just stationed partly in the air with space in between them. They were perfectly stationary, just warning anyone from trying to walk through that particular way.

The way north… wasn’t actually just a regular path. It was several meters into the air, too high to climb normally, but high was perhaps the direction one wanted to go as water was starting to drip in from the room the two had come from. If they wanted to get up there, they’d have to figure out some way to reach it, first. Climbing pillars was not a realistic means of success in that regard.

In the center of the room was a Claydol. It wasn’t hard to avoid it, given the mess inside the room, but here it was, and it was constantly shooting Psybeams at a strange humanoid Pokémon that couldn’t help peeking at it and then dodging the various beams.

‘Mr. Miiiime~!’



‘Okay, so there’s-’ and then Vivia explained that which was described above.

What would Skylar want to do here?

Here’s a reminder that the water-level of the entire dungeon is slowly rising right about now.



__________________________

@Typical


‘I’m sure she serves you well now, but that may change in the future, when you face more evolved opponents and your own other Pokémon have evolved as well,’ Oaken commented about Mawile, then considered what more to say.

‘… Still, I, too, have caught Pokémon merely for my short-term goals. I went up Route 1 to 4 and over Mountain Valley to Route 8 and Worldedge City first thing I did. I needed a Psychic Pokémon for the Fighting-gym, and I needed a Flying-type for both the Bug-type and Grass-type gyms. I got a Gothita with Shadow Tag, which was nice. I caught a Wingull, whom I’m hoping to make a Pelipper for a sure victory at both the Fighting and Ground-type gyms. I caught a Riolu at Mt. Strength, because Lucario is a well-respected, diligent and intelligent Pokémon,’ which all are things Oaken valued.

‘I also caught a Diglett, because Dugtrio’s a powerful contender with Arena Trap and the ability to outspeed most Pokémon with powerful Ground-type moves, should help against the Electric, Rock and Steel gyms eventually. I caught an Electrike for the Flying-gym, and a Staryu to compliment the Wingull for Ground-gym, but Staryu’s evolution is very promising for future use as well. So far, I’ve beaten the Bug-type and the Grass-type Gyms…’

His expression twitched a bit.

‘Keep in mind that I was at this for some time before you started your journey. Regardless. I always intended to head down here sooner or later. I was heading this way anyway because I want to catch a Fletchinder at Route 6 and I believe I have enough Water-Pokémon to take on the Ground-type gym at Raremine Town. When Rodger, the guy I’m travelling with, lost at the Grass-type Gym and stayed behind to complete it, I took the opportunity to go myself here, to find out the truth, using Staryu’s Dive. I didn’t imagine running into you, here…’

And that’s when they arrived in the new room. The water level started rising, and Eryn grabbed both Oaken, who was quick to get the idea and head along, and also…

‘Mr. Mime?’ the Pokémon made a surprised sound when Eryn grabbed and had him follow along towards the rising path.

‘… Of course. Yeah, I feel it too. This has to be the way,’ Oaken said in response to Eryn’s question, shaking his arm a bit insisting that he could jog perfectly well on his own.

‘Miiiiiime…’ Mr. Mime commented sounding a bit complaining about being made to head this way, looking a bit distressed, yet definitely let himself be pulled along.

And so, they made their way up the incline, where the path took a sharp right, and-

There was something strange about this tunnel. It was tighter, more claustrophobic than the other tunnels, also worse lit.

There was like the presence in the air was directly opposing her path forward here. It was powerful enough that someone doubting themselves might get stuck here. Regardless of how she would realistically feel, thoughts came unbidden to her mind, as if inspired by the tunnel itself, thrown in to sow the seeds of doubt in her mind.

All this danger wasn’t what I set out on this journey for.
I’m a Pokémon Trainer, why am I not using my Pokémon?
I shouldn’t be here, I’m not safe here. I was just exploring…
I should turn back, get out of here, continue my journey.
I don’t have to go through all this. It’s not worth it.
What am I even doing this? I never asked to be tested like this…

… And thoughts along the like, happened regardless of if she actually had these opinions or not, trying to dissuade her from continuing forward. Regardless of how Eryn was handling it…

‘… HAH! As if I’d… stop like this…!’ Oaken declared, and was most, definitely continuing, even if he perhaps slowed to a steady walk facing against the oppressive force of the tunnel.

How was Eryn handling?

A Ghost/Dragon type did sound very interesting, as did the Galarian variation on the Water/Rock type Corsola. But alas, Amelia knew that if she actually picked up either pokemon, she wouldn't be able to take them with her, as they would be spending all their time with Professor Kalmia. Not that she disliked the Professor or anything, she just preferred to keep her pokemon with her. So, there wasn't really much thought to be put in it once that fact crossed her mind.
"I'm sorry, but at this time, I really can't afford to buy any of the Pokémon you have off of you. I wish I could, for it feels like I just wasted your precious time, but once I am able to do so, I will be back and maybe I'll be able to get more then one Pokémon. Until then, I think this is farewell and thank you for offering the chance to buy one." She said, bowing to the Captain and his crew. With that, she would turn around and leave the docks, heading for the lab.

When she arrived, she was surprised to see a large amount of people there. There was of course the Professor and the twins. But Jacques was also there, surprising Amelia as she didn't expect to run into him again so soon. There were also two faces she didn't recognize. One was a brown-haired boy who was sitting on the ground with a Fennikin and a pretty girl with dark blue hair. Well, she knew two-thirds of the people there, she so approached, her entourage and ghost-types following after her. Arriving at the group, she would raise a hand in greeting.
"Good afternoon everyone. Hello again Mr. Jacques." She said before turning to the boy and the girl. She noted the boy was actually rather close to her age, the closest she had seen anyone be up to this point. She wondered how many more trainers would be joiing this mission and competition between Jacques and Kalmia. Not that she cared for either, she was just happy to no longer be caged. "Am I interrupting anything?"

Well, perhaps Basil could just not worry about Cecil. The park is not that large so he was bound to bump into her eventually...or actually sooner than he thought; she was being dragged out of a bush by a pokemon...that was pink...and small. "Wait, what?" And he lost them before he could even do anything. Bloody hell.

Okay, so at least Cecil was safe...probably. She was with someone, very likely the Pokemon that he was looking for. It was not like they could get into too much trouble, no need to panic. Cecil was just making friends. It was not like they were going to commit a heist or do something dangerous. It's a park, what kind of danger could they even put themselves in? The thought was certainly a comfort.

If it was not one thing, it was another; a chill crept in the air just from some man's word and of course Basil could not help, but look to see what kind of terror could do this. What he found was a man that looked like he had not slept for the last ten years with a group of Shuppets that were either fearful of him or were just shyer than all get out and judging by their Pokedex entry, hopefully they aren't too attracted to Basil.

There was definitely some intrigue with this peculiar person, but he was not someone to bother a random stranger. That was until the fact that he revealed the gym leader of what Basil assumed to be Pureplain's gym leader, a much more serene older gentleman compared to his much more sleep deprived companion. The real question though was how the heck did that Stoutland hide behind them. Seriously, if the first thing they would notice would be the tired man them the second thing should have been the giant dog with a glorious beard prancing about.

Well, he may as well go and meet them. It's not like he had anything else to do."Well, uh, gonna go and meet the gym leader? You in?" Basil asked Cyril though regardless the answer he was going to go greet them.

"Um, hello there. He said as he approached the two of them."If I heard correctly, you said you're a gym leader. I'm Basil, I just received my starter today."

---

---

Cyril merely emitted a sigh of relief as the children dispersed to pursue the Shinx and Poochyena, leaving his own partner around. Now that he thought about it, Aster was carrying what looked to be a regular rock when he dashed into the bush which gave the trainer some pause as to what the Budew was accomplishing. Furthermore he was dashing away from a rather chaotic scene which did catch the young mans attention, at least for a couple of seconds.

He could discern that the stir in the park might of been caused by Aster, based on how the cacophony of deafening squeals suddenly erupted out of nowhere, followed by him running from the scene of the crime. Cyril could feel his face crinkling up as he wrinkled his nose and pouted, turning away for a second as he squinted his eyes and stifled a giggle. "Someone's having fun, ehehe."

Soon the bush rustled again, though Cyril thought it was Aster messing around before he caught to rotund shapes of different colors moving out of the bush, the pink one hustling to bring the red one over. While it was a blink and you miss moment, he got a better look at the red Pokémon to realize that it was Basil's Darumaka, and the pink shape was...

Well, he only really caught its color; most of Cecil's body was obscuring the other Pokémon, so he didn't get a focused glimpse of them, however Aster was still in there and Cyril... well, lets just say he was curious about what his little partner was up to.

Well, was and still is, however a new event was on the forefront of his mind at the moment with a man who had so much bags under his eyes that they could be mistaken for luggage! Heavy luggage mind you. But still, the way the Shuppets swayed behind the man, well, Cyrils reaction to it all told everyone his thoughts on the ghosts, even as he recorded them with his Pokédex.

_{"Snnnrrrrk~."}

Yup. Wore his emotions on his sleeves as much as his smile on his face and neither would ever go out of fashion, at least to him! Still, the way they hid made him think of another certain Pokémon. Speaking of which...

"So, where do you think you're goin' Aster~?" His eyes suddenly shifted back to the side to witness his partner frozen on the spot, seemingly sweating bullets for a bit as he slowly turned to face Cyril, "Fweeeee?" It was an awkward reply, strangely unnatural, as if he was hiding something as Cyril peered off in the direction he was heading off in. A tree, huh?

Waaaaait a minute, did he make a friend? "Fwee, fwee!" Yep, Aster definitely made a friend; could definitely tell based on how shy he was acting, especially around him! Cyril crouched down in front of Aster, giving the bud a gentle pat on his side. "Hey, come on, there's no need to be shy! You gotta introduce me to your new friend!"

Aster spun to look at the tree, causing Cyril to look up to barely catch a glimpse of something quickly disappearing behind the tree. Were they a bit shy as well?

Whatever the case was, Aster was somewhat nervous as he began to shiver a little, though that was quickly put to rest with a gentle nudge towards the tree, "Alright, I understand... but you should introduce em' to me later, sound good?"

Following that, Cyril turned to respond to Basil, "Yeah, sure, just uh give me a moment." With that said, he merely gave Aster a toothy smile to encourage the little Pokémon to go forward, "Just don't do anything too risky alright; anything happens, give me a biiiiiig fwee, alright?" Aster could only go between glancing at the location and up at his trainer, swapping between the two before bobbing his own head in delight, "Fwee!"

With that said, Aster darted off behind the trees to meet up with his newfound friend while Cyril lightly jogged over to meet up with Basil, who was going about introducing himself to the Gym Leader. Now then, this guy was the Normal Type Gym Leader for Issen? And this Johannes guy met some chick with an affinity for ghosts? Sounds like these guys have a buncha' fun stuff to talk about!

While he certainly was no mushroom, he was definitely a fun guy to say the least, so he had to get in on this whole situation! "And I'm Cyril and I also received my starter today; also, cute Shuppets by the way," well, he would be a bundle of fun in a sec when they got past the introductions! He wasn't just gonna stomp all over Basil's introductions, no, that would be just rude!

---

^{Lakewatch Town || Day 5: Afternoon || @PlatinumSkink}
Eryn listened to Oaken with interest. From the sound of it, he got quite a lot done as well, perhaps even more than her, but how much of what he’d described was before she’d met him? Still, that was five Pokemon he’d just listed, plus his Skorupi was already six. A full roster. As intimidating as that might’ve been, Eryn felt less threatened and more challenged. Filling up her roster had never been a goal for her; training her Pokemon was. Exploring new places and meeting new people, finding new Pokemon and learning new information—those were her goals, the things that drove her towards trainership. Sure, becoming Pokemon Champion was somewhere on the horizon for her, but for now she was just enjoying the sunlight.

That said, though, all Oaken’s talk managed to do was to make her slightly rethink the possibility of challenging him to a battle after they got out of the cave. From the sound of it, he’d spent most of his time engrossed in training, so his team would be strong, likely stronger than hers. But that only made it more of a challenge. The possibility of losing, or of perhaps training harder so she’d have more of a chance next time completely eluded her precisely because she lived and breathed in the present, and she was fine with that.

“Well, I guess it’s just a coincidence that I got around to coming down here when you did,” Eryn said, shrugging. “But catching Pokemon for ‘short-term goals’, huh? What do you plan to do with them after you achieve those goals then?” She shot him a sharp, inquisitive look. He didn’t strike her as the type to catch and box, but he already had more than six Pokemon. That meant that some of his Pokemon were sitting in the box right now, like it or not.

Later, at Oaken’s shaking, Eryn had let go of his arm with a grin, then turned to the Mr. Mime. “Thanks for agreeing to come along!” she called at the worried-looking Pokemon.

As they progressed through the tunnels, Eryn felt increasingly unsettled, and she eventually dropped her grin, her pace slowing to a walk in the darkness. Then, all at once, it hit her—this place was dangerous. She shouldn’t have come here, should’ve gone back for her Pokemon after all, who could definitely help her in these tunnels. Having Dei with his fire and Eri with his night vision by her side would save her so much trouble, and without them, without being able to share the sights and sounds down here, it wasn’t worth it.

Right?

An outburst from Oaken surprised her, jolting her out of the haze of thoughts that had taken over her mind. Suddenly they made no sense. Yes exploring was easier with her Pokemon, and yes she missed them and wished that she could’ve brought them with her to see everything down here together, but the thought of bringing half her team down here was silly. Dei hated the water, for one, and so did Peri. Kylie would sink like a rock, and Eri… Eri was missing out, but Eryn would make it up to him. Next time. Next time she’d bring all of her Pokemon, whether or not she had to keep them in their Pokeballs, but that wasn’t this time, and she wasn’t about to turn back halfway just because she could’ve done some things differently. Danger? Trouble? Eryn had faced enough danger, seen enough trouble to know that her thoughts were the least of her worries, if they were one at all.

“Oh, I get it!” she said, turning to Oaken. “That was part of the test, right? To test whether we’re able to conquer our doubts?” She grinned, then turned forward and cupped her free hand over her mouth. “Well you’re gonna have to do better than that if you wanna make us doubt ourselves!” she shouted at the darkness ahead, then picked up her pace, pulling the Mr. Mime after her with a grin. Mind tricks, huh? What other challenges did the one behind the maze have in store for them?

---

---

---

"Hm, what to do now..." Skylar pondered aloud. The room they were in certainly had an exit, but to where that was... well, not very many locations overall. The West was blocked by Beheeyems, the North too high to pass, and the South not very much of note. There was also the other room to the East, which Skylar thought was pretty barebones overall too. It extended further than the direction Skylar and Vivia came from, but that was pretty much it, since Skylar wasn't too focused on it to care much. Really, the North direction seemed to be the one that would hold the way further.

The only problem? It was a bit too tall for the two kids to climb to, unless something happened... like the water rising higher... wait a second.

"I think we need to go North, though it's not going to be easy to climb. We might have to get our shoes wet with this room, Vivia." The blind boy started, grabbing JoJo and placing the Pokemon on his head. "The way I see it, we don't really have much of a choice to get up higher unless our path is made for us ^{_{like the Claydol breaking that pillar}}. So... we need to wait. The water seeping in here doesn't show any signs of stopping, that's for sure, so we just wait for it to rise higher and higher until we're able to climb up. It'd take longer for that, though, than it would for a Swablu to cross all of Hoenn..."

The boy put a hand to his chin in thought. "This is only a theory, but if we were put through the ringer with our thoughts prying at us, then getting put through it again with almost drowning might be another considerable thing. Even then, we do have our way out if things get too hairy riiight here." Skylar patted JoJo's leg affectionately, the Ralts giggling. "Teleport should be able to get us out of here in a jiffy."

Ryu was so happy to seen Fennekin, he almost missed what Jacques and Professor Kalmia said to him in regards to him having a battle with a rival trainer that Jacques had scouted out. While he pondered whether or not he felt like having a battle, Jacques got a call and soon left on the back of an Aerodactyl. Ryu couldn't help but stare at the prehistoric pokemon as it flew off. He had read plenty about it in his books but had never seen one in person before, not even at his mother's pokemon clinic. It wasn't until Fennekin playfully nibbled on one of his fingers to get his attention that he did turn back to the tiny fox with a smile.

Maybe about an hour later, Ryu's rival finally did arrive on the back of a Skarmory. She was a girl, probably a few years older than himself, with dark... Teal hair? The color was hard to describe. Kalmia told him the girl's name was Ellyn and the girl... did nothing to confirm this, instead instantly demanding cake as soon as her feet were on the ground. This... greatly confused Ryu. Was this girl really supposed to be his rival? Or was she actually here just to get some sweets and be off?

Thankfully, she answered his question herself, asking if there was a 'newcomer that needed someone to battle'. Assuming this was him, Ryu went to approach, only to be buffeted by air as Jacques returned with his Aerodactyl. He once again stared at the ancient pokemon until Fennekin nibbled on his leg, snapping his back to reality as he approached Ellyn to speak to her.

"I am guessing I am the one you are to battle. The name is Ryu and this is my partner feenekin. This is my first battle of sorts."He spoke to Ellyn before looking at fennekin, only to get a nod from his partner before Feenekin moved forward standing in front of Ryu facing Ellyn.

@hatakekuro@Savo

The elderly Gym Leader looked over as Basil and Cyril came over, the older man holding a light smile as he both watched the children play with Stoutland for a bit and look the two of them over.

‘You heard correctly,’ Dorian answered Basil’s statement. ‘I am Dorian, Gym Leader of the Major League Gym here in Pureplain City. Should you decide to make winning in Pokémon battles your goal throughout your journey, then I imagine that one day your journey will take you to my Gym. My goal has always been to procure the perfect Pokémon, and for that the Normal-type has attracted me for its lack of weaknesses. But of course, there is no Pokémon without flaw, or we would not have such an exciting stage for them. Hoho…’ the old man said and chuckled a bit for himself, looking decently at peace with himself.

Johannes meanwhile stood on the side, not expecting to be talked to, but then Cyril turned and complimented his Shuppets. He looked a bit taken aback for a moment, and the Shuppets hid as if their presence had been a secret, but…

‘… Thank you,’ Johannes replied. ‘They decided to hang around my house a while back. At first I thought them a nuisance and had a trainer chase them off, but then I realized their presence actually comforted me… so I let these ones hang around,’ he explained, looking a bit awkward to actually address them, on top of looking constantly exhausted.

Anyways. That’s all I really got.



__________________________

@Typical


‘If I truly see no use for a Pokémon, then I will release it. Otherwise, I will keep it in the box for the purpose of testing future tactics. I will need a diverse team to take on the varying challenges the Gym Leaders will throw at me, but at the end I will also need to craft a team of six capable of overcoming any challenge. But, I should keep more than six around to change up my plans. I must be ready to adapt to an evolving competitive scene, after all,’ Oaken replied to Eryn’s question, and with this the GM reminds that there should no negative stigma against storing Pokémon in boxes in this world, usually. Up to the individual character, of course, but in general.

And that’s where we cut that conversation because stuff started happening.

‘Miiiime,’ Mr. Mime called back to her thanks, still not looking thrilled.

Now, while Eryn was able to convince herself that the thoughts that occurred to her was part of the test, they wouldn’t stop coming just because she figured that out. Armed with the knowledge, however, she’d be able to more easily brave the unwarranted impulses, and slowly but surely, she was able to make progress…

__________________________

@Gardevoiran

‘Gh,’ Vivia frowned a bit as she was told the plan to simply let the room fill up with water and swim up to the edge. ‘Right. Alright. Let us do this. I don’t really look forward to getting soaked, but let us do this,’ she muttered decently unhappily, but she went along with it.

So time passed, during which the Mr. Mime eventually had enough of triggering the Claydol, and hid behind a pillar and took it easy. Eventually, though, he looked over at Skylar and Vivia curiously, even as the water started building up beneath their feet. Vivia quivered a bit, clearly worried about the water, but she stood firm.

As they waited, it became immediately clear that neither other Pokémon in this room was actually particularly bothered by the rising water. Claydol simply floated above the rising surface, and Mr. Mime was standing on top of the water, on his own reflective barrier just on the water’s surface. Eventually, the water got high enough that the two of them had to either swim or hold onto something to “climb”, Vivia definitely selecting the latter option.

At some point, the Claydol floated away and inserted himself into an indent in the wall at a higher level, the doll turning itself off as the room for its operations ceased. Now without its playmate, Mr. Mime walked over to inspect Skylar and Vivia a bit. Vivia looked back at him with a bit of a worry, before the weird humanoid Psychic-type just smiled at them.

‘Mr. Miiiime~!’ he called, before walking up a staircase of barrier and walking off the north path.

Some time later, which Vivia could inform Skylar of when it was time, they could make their way to the northern exit, climb up, and then make their way down the corridor.

‘Oooogh, I really don’t like this…’ Vivia complained a bit as all her clothes were now drenched, but anyway, they headed on, and arrived to…

__________________________

The room before them had strange mechanical pillars sticking out of the ground, and grass and moss grew in between it all. Some fallen over pillars still showed sign of where they’d once stood, and small chutes for water flowed between the pillars as if supplying each of them with water. And…

Eryn entered from the south-eastern end. As she entered, the oppressive thoughts vanished, and everything became clearer. Oaken breathed out in relief as to where they’d arrived, looking around. Mr. Mime was still being dragged along. And…

Then Skylar and Vivia came in from the east, their clothes drenched from their most recent endeavour, and just as they entered, the Mr. Mime they’d seen was standing leaning immediately to the right from where they entered. And over there, was Eryn and Oaken, for whatever reason. Not soaked.

‘… Vivia?’ Oaken asked, a raised eyebrow. Also threw a look at Skylar, because, huh.

‘Oaken!? And… Eryn, right?’ Vivia asked, just needing to remember Eryn a bit from the time when Eryn had just received her first Pokémon and so. ‘What are you doing here!?’

‘… Hmpf,’ Oaken made a slightly displeased noise, because clearly there wasn’t much time to deliberate. Water was still rising, and this room was higher up, but the water level had not stopped rising, hence Oaken looked for ways out of this room.

So, there was five exits out of this room. There was the dark corridor that Eryn had come from to the south-east, and there was the soaked corridor to the east that Skylar had come from. There was a path west, but it ended in a sudden and unmistakable dead end, no progress in sight. There was a path south, but unfortunately that was an incline downwards into a room that had already been flooded. That left the path north, which by looking from the flow of water they could actually tell that the water was coming from. The problem was…



… The path north was once again blocked by five floating Beheeyems.

What would Skylar and Eryn do here?



__________________________

@BlackMaiden

Ellyn looked towards Ryu, her face looking mildly troubled for a moment, before she nodded a bit.

‘… Right. Guess I should start acting like an upperclassman,’ Ellyn said, before taking a deep breath and straightening her back.

‘I am Ellyn, Pokémon Trainer. I already started my journey and have the bug and grass gym-badges. You have some catching up to do. But, for this battle, I suppose I will be given a new Pokémon that is closer to your level. … Where’s Jacques?’ Ellyn asked, starting to look around…

And as if on cue, the great Aerodactyl swooped in again, and the glassed man in a top-hat jumped down to land, his knees bending expertedly to absorb the impact. He quickly returned his great mount to its Pokéball, and then turned to Ellyn.

‘I am glad you could make it. Thank you for your help, Eugene. Here you go,’ Jacques said, handing over the payment to the Freecape Ferryman that had brought her here. Eugene nodded to him as he accepted the payment.

‘Always a pleasure to be of service to you, sir Jacques. Now, if that was all, I’ll return to my duties…’ Eugene stated, starting to turn around…

‘Nope. You stay. You’re going to fly me back after the battle. Jacques will pay for that trip, too,’ Ellyn declared in a non-committal tone. Eugene paused, and threw a glance over at Jacques, who simply did an amused shrug and handed over another payment.

‘You had something for me, did you?’ Ellyn then asked, holding out her hand to Jacques. Jacques took a look over her, giving a slight smile.

‘You sure got more assertive. In the beginning, you seemed like any sort of effort was a pain. Is this Maple’s influence?’ Jacques asked, placing a Pokéball in Ellyn’s hand.

‘That oblivious girl would charge headlong into every danger she came across and drag me along into it unless I learned how to speak up to persuade her to be more careful,’ Ellyn said with a sigh. ‘… but besides that, being dragged back here was not my choice, and very sudden, because you needed me. Hence, I get to act as queen for the duration of my stay,’ she then declared, like it was natural. She inspected the Pokéball a bit, and… ‘Now, what’s this?’ she asked, as the Pokéball opened and something came out of it…

‘Well, since you wanted cake so much…’ Jacques commented…



‘Oooh…! That one’s not native to Isson!’ Kalmia said with a realization, looking over at Jacques… who was looking decently pleased with himself.

‘It is not, but since Zachery just came back from his oversea trip with his hull full of foreign Pokémon, I thought I’d ask him for a favor,’ Jacques told, voice also pleased.

‘Milcery?’ the floating wad of cream asked, looking back at an unconvinced-looking Ellyn.

‘That’s, like, a floating wad of cream, not a cake…’ Ellyn said, sounding slightly disappointed, looking over at Jacques… who quickly hurried over to Ellyn and showed her something on his phone.

^{‘It can become this,’} he whispered. This was the moment when Ellyn’s mouth fell open, her eyes widened somewhat, a couple of stars appeared in her eyes and a slight bit of drool leaked on the right side of her mouth.

‘… CAKE!’ Ellyn called, turning towards the Pokémon, suddenly brimming with determination, arms crossed as she faced the Pokémon. ‘I am Ellyn! I am your trainer! Together, we will conquer Isson and make you a cake, Cake!’ Ellyn declared, while Jacques was snickering and escaping from Ellyn’s immediate vicinity.

‘… Milcery!’ a slightly confused cream Pokémon responded, regardless seeming cheerful.

‘Our first opponent is this kid that just got his own first Pokémon, Ryu! Tackle that Fennekin, and don’t get yourself baked!’ Ellyn called, and Milcery was quick to spin around to face off against Fennekin!

‘Milceeeeee~!’ it called out as it floated forth at Fennekin…!

The scene of the battle was the front yard of Kalmia’s lab. There was a suitable amount of grass, but there was also the road. There wasn’t really a fence between the grass and the road. There was a small asphalted path up to the house between the plains of grass. There may also have been signs of recent battle, a puddle of water in one place, and a field of grass that had been torn up by a Rollout that dug itself into the ground, and a bucket nobody has picked up yet. With that, the stage was set for battle.

What would Ryu and Fennekin do?

_{‘… If you showed her the picture I think you did, it can’t actually become that kind of cake in Isson, can it?’ Kalmia asked Jacques in the background.
‘Shhh. Excitement comes now, disappointment comes later,’ Jacques replied, looking overly pleased with himself still.}

__________________________

@Joshua Tamashii _@BlackMaiden

‘Ah, well! No worries! I’ll be riding about the western seas of Isson, if you change your mind! Farewell for now!’ Zachery called in response to Amelia’s eventual decision, holding nothing against her, and with that she could turn and leave and go after Jacques. Now, Jacques rode back on an Aerodactyl, so it makes sense he’d arrive back way beforehand, so the above scene can have happened first.

Then Amelia arrived at the scene, a suitable amount of time after having departed from the harbor.

‘Hello again, Amelia. Our two your hopefuls are just about starting their battle,’ Jacques said, gesturing forward at the would-be battle.

‘You’re not interrupting anything. You’re always welcomed back, though I haven’t yet had time to make much progress on your request,’ Kalmia said, and yeah, she’d been busy with new hopefuls all day. ‘Can I help you with anything?’

Anything Amelia wanted here?

And yeah, Ryu could possibly see this young girl arriving with an entourage of ghost-Pokémon on the side starting to talk with Jacques and Kalmia. If he found a time to look away from Ellyn and Milcery, anyway.