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Post by fattymccatcat on May 19, 2019 8:00:26 GMT
We wake up and have breakfast
Ronni holds up a map showing all the paths through the mountain
“So, there are two options, we can go back the way we came and continue on the blue path, it will take three days to get down off the mountain, or we can take an offshoot from the pink path, this red one, and be outside today, and off the mountain tomorrow” Ronni says
“I’m kinda over this darkness so I vote for the red path” I say
“Yeah, red” Ruche says
“Red” Sasha says
“Red it is! We should be outside in time for lunch” Ronni says with a smile
We pack up camp and head back down the path we came here on, after about an hour it splits and we follow the new path with red lights for about six hours
“Maw!” Scarlett says pulling my pant leg and pointing to a bright spot in the distance
“Sunlight!” I say
Scarlett takes off running and I follow suit
“Guys wait!” Ronni says
We burst out into the sunlight and we both fall to the ground clutching our eyes as the brightness of the sun burns our eyes
I hear Ronni call out from the cave
“You need to let your eyes adjust” Ronni says
I can her Ruche laughing
After a few minutes our eyes finally adjust and I take a look around
We are surrounded by cliffs with waterfalls cascading down into a deep ravine
A rather sturdy looking rope bridge stretches into the distance to the point where I can’t even see the end
“Wow, that’s a long bridge” Ruche says
“Yeah! None of you are afraid of heights right?” Ronni asks
We all shake our heads no
“Good, because we are going to spend the rest of today and tomorrow on this thing” Ronni says slapping one of the bridges hefty ropes
“Looks uncomfortable to sleep on but okay” I say
Ronni laughs
“There a halfway point where we can set up camp, and even bathe” Ronni says
“Oh thank goodness, I’m covered in dirt” Ruche says
We step onto the bridge and its a lot sturdier than I thought it would be
“Huh, I was expecting it to sway a lot more than it is” I say
“Nah, this things built wide and sturdy enough that even a steelix can cross it without a problem
"Cool, Scarlett stay away from the edges” I say as I see Scarlett walking towards the edge
“Wile” Scarlett says with a nod and walks a bit closer to me
We walk for about an hour and stop for lunch on the bridge
Then we walk for a few more hours
As the sun sets the end of the bridge comes into view
Its Hooked to a large stone island extending across the canyon an down into the ravine basically splitting it in two
Across from this bridge is another bridge that again stretches into the distance
We reach the stone island and Ronni leads us to one end of platform
There is a small waterfall gently pouring into a small pond and then the pond pours down into the ravine
The pond is deep enough to swim in
I dip my hand in and the water is rather cold
“You can bathe here if you want and there’s a cave behind the waterfall that we can set up camp in” Ronni says
We set up camp in the far back of the cave where it isn’t that wet and have dinner
We take turns bathing and I go last
I disrobe and the waters freezing but after I acclimate I find it rather nice
After I’m done scrubbing off the dirt that had built up I just stare up at the stars and enjoy the sound of the waterfall for a few peaceful minutes
I get out and dry off and get dressed then I go and sit by the fire and make myself some tea to warm myself up and then head to bed with Scarlett
I wake up above the lake as usual which immediately sours my mood
“I’m sick of this! I’m sick of this lake! I’m sick of trying to pull the water up here! I’m sick of these chains!” I yell as I struggle against my bonds
After a few minutes my tantrum ends and I just slump down exhausted
A sweat drop slides down my nose and drops into the waters below
“Ha… Ha ha… One drop… I’m going to get one drop of that stupid lake up here no matter what!” I yell
I focus on the water below and try to picture one drop rising out of the water
It feels a lot easier than what I was doing before
After a few hours I see it
A single drop of water slowly inching towards me
But I feel myself waking up and get distracted and the droplet plummets
“Tomorrow then” I say with a sigh as I wake up
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Post by fattymccatcat on May 20, 2019 9:24:09 GMT
My eyes open and I grab my pokenav
Its about four in the morning
I don’t feel like going back to sleep so I sneak out of my tent
It looks like I managed to find a time when Ronni is actually asleep for once
I stretch a little and head outside to the pool of water and dip my feet in
Its a bit cold but it feels nice
I lay back on the ground and just listen to the waterfalls echoing through the ravine
After a while it starts getting brighter and soon the sun peaks over the mountain flooding the canyon with a pale yellow light
It makes me remember the last time I saw the sunrise
It was after the time the guy held a knife to my throat as he was robbing a pokemart, my memory of that time and the year or so after are a bit hazy but for some reason this mountain spring is helping me remember
I was having trouble sleeping and my dad decided to take me to lake verity
We talked for hours and eventually we watched the sun rise over the lake
I slept like a baby in his arms
For a few years after that whenever I had started feeling overwhelmed or frustrated I visited the lake or a stream behind my house and it would calm me down
I haven’t done it since I was like, five, so I had forgotten but this scenery has brought those memory’s back
“I’ll have to thank Ronni again” I say with a laugh
“Thank me for what?” Ronni suddenly says walking out of the cave with a yawn
I nearly jump out of skin and flail a little splashing some water with my feet
“Ha ha, sorry, did I scare ya?” Ronni says
“Yeah” I say with a laugh
“Why are you up?” Ronni asks sitting down next to me
“Couldn’t sleep” I say
“That sucks” Ronni says
“Yeah” I say
“So, thank me for what?” Ronni says
“Oh, this mountain spring thing dredged up some memories I’d forgotten, so thanks! I couldn’t have gotten here without you guiding us” I say with a smile
“Well, I guess you’re welcome” Ronni says with a grin
We get up and head back into the cave and I make us some tea and wait for the others to wake up
Once they do we make breakfast and pack up camp
We set out across the second bridge and walk for a few hours
At about noon the end of the bridge comes into view
We get to the end and decide to stop for lunch
The area is wide enough that we can let the pokemon out to stretch their legs
We finish eating and decide to give the pokemon a few more minutes of play time
“So, in about an hour we will be off the mountain” Ronni says
“Aww, it was fun traveling with you” I say
“It was fun for me too” Ronni says with a smile
“Will we be able to have you guide us again someday” Sasha asks
“Maybe! Its sort of a luck thing. See once we get to the new guide station I’ll stay there until I guide someone else somewhere, then I stay at that guide station and the process repeats so even I don’t know what guide station I’ll be at” Ronni explains
“Well, let’s hope we get lucky then” I say
We pack up our stuff and put our pokemon away
We walk downhill for about forty minutes and come to a set of stone stairs leading to a small house
We descend the stairs and head inside
I pay and make sure to get a receipt for conifer
We say our goodbyes and thanks one last time and set off down the rest of the mountain
About an hour later we are back in an area with trees and grass and flowers
“So how far to Hearthome?” I ask
“Hmm… Three or four days” Ruche says looking at his pokenav
We spend the rest of the day walking through the trees enjoying nature
We set up camp in a clearing and after dinner I head to bed
I prepare myself mentally for tonight’s lake attempt
After about an hour I manage to fall asleep
I wake up above the lake and start pulling a drop of water towards me
After about two hours it comes into view and floats in front of my face
“…now what?” I say focusing on the droplet so it doesn’t fall
I decide to try seeing what happens when I drink it first so I float it into my mouth
Its like electricity shooting through my mouth down to my scar and I feel a surge of energy
It feels similar to the energy from when I use my eyes
I try to bring up another drop
After another two hours another drop appears
Surprisingly its a slightly bigger drop than last time
This time I try putting the water on the chains
The second the water touches the red and black chain it turns blue where the water touched and dissolves
“Yeah!” I shout
Unfortunately the chain seems to regenerate soon after
“… I get it. I GET IT! I drink the water to get stronger, and once I can pull enough water up to douse these chains and free myself hopefully this stupid dream will end!” I say happy that the dream might be over soon
I spend two more hours pulling up another drop of water and drink it
But I get tired and wake up right after
I take out my notebook and write down my findings and then go back to bed
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Post by fattymccatcat on May 24, 2019 8:38:52 GMT
I wake up early again
I sigh and take out my pokenav and browse the internet for a bit
I look up something for combee that I’ve been thinking about for the last few days but don’t find much and put my pokenav away and head outside
I stretch a little and then go gather some sturdy looking sticks for chatots training
Then I go and wake Scarlett up and summon the rest
“We have another gym battle coming up, its supposedly a fairy type gym, so steel type moves will be really helpful, which means Scarlett is gonna be our linchpin, and Chatot, we need you to learn steel wing pronto” I say
Chatot and Scarlett nod
“As for the third spot…” I say turning towards monferno and combee
“Combee, you are at a slight type disadvantage, bug type moves won’t do much damage…” I say and combee looks a bit down
I see that she want to do it so I relent
“However you do need the battle experience, so you can take the third spot” I say
Combee’s faces light up as she bounces happily in the air
“Besides, I have an idea, its time for some more special training” I say with a grin
“Bee comb bee!” Combee buzzes happily
I turn and see that Chatot has found the sticks I gathered and is already chopping away with a determined look on his face
They are a bit thicker than usual so I’ll have to monitor his wing condition closely so he doesn’t hurt himself
I turn to Monferno and Scarlett
“You two… Are gonna play tag today” I say with a nod
They look a bit confused
“Monferno will be using flame wheel to run, and Scarlett will be using iron head to chase him” I say and they nod
Luckily this area is rather open so they have plenty of room to run around
Scarlett’s maneuverability is higher with iron head but Monferno is a bit faster so I’m curious how this will turn out
But first I turn to combee and smile
“So something Ronni said got me thinking about your ability, I think we should try using it in battle” I say
Combee looks a bit taken aback but also curious and excited, each emotion showing on one of her faces
“But I couldn’t find anything about it online so were gonna have to wing it as far as training goes” I say
“So, let’s try building honey up in your mouths and spitting it” I say glancing at the others
Monferno is rolling around coated in fire and Scarlett is chasing him
Chatot is still chopping the sticks
As he reels back and brings his wing down, for a brief moment, it lights up and the stick snaps in half instantly
My jaw drops and I rush over to Chatot who’s just starring at his wing with a smile
“Was that it? Did you learn it?” I ask and Chatot shrugs
“Try again” I say placing another stick in position
He brings his wing down just like before but it doesn’t light up this time and he looks a bit down
“Don’t worry, you almost have it” I say happily patting his head
I head back over to combee
“Alright, let’s try this then” I say and combee nods
She closes her eyes and her mouths fill with honey
She goes to spit it out but it just dribbles down her faces
“Let’s keep at it until you run out of honey” I say
“Comb!” She says determined
We continue like this for about an hour until everyone else wakes up
“Breakfast!” Ruche calls out to us
We walk back over to camp and Ruche looks at us funny
“Why is she dripping?” Ruche asks pointing at combee
I laugh
“Because of our training, I’m thinking of having her use honey gather in battle” I say
“Huh, never heard of that before” Ruche says
“Yeah, I couldn’t really find anything about it online so were winging it for now” I say as I clean Combee’s faces with a wet rag
“Why not ask professor Andrena for advice” Sasha says
“… Nah, I don’t want to bug her” I say
We sit down and have breakfast
After we finish eating we pack up camp and continue walking for a few hours eventually stopping for lunch and some more training
Combee ran out of honey for the day though, so we switch to flight training
I have her weave through sticks placed in the ground to help her maneuverability in the air
Scarlett manages to tag Monferno right before we stop for the day
After we finish training we set off again eventually setting up camp and going to bed as the sun sets
I spend the time above the lake dragging a few drops up and drinking them
By the end of the night the drops are about the size of a nickel
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Post by fattymccatcat on May 25, 2019 11:52:38 GMT
I wake up tired from the lake dream again
“Uuugh, I’m sick of this…” I say as I toss my blanket off of me
I don’t feel like going back to sleep, after I wake up from the lake dream and go back to bed, there’s nothing, no dreams, no rest, I basically close my eyes and open them an hour or two later
I drag myself outside and make a fire and make myself some tea
“Maybe I should buy some instant coffee or something when we get to Hearthome…” I mutter
I reach into my bag for some sugar and honey
“Oh yeah, where’s that special honey from the Amber Castle, isn’t that supposed to be good for stuff like this” I say as I dig through my bag to find it
I take some and add it to my tea and take a sip
Its delicious and I can feel the warmth spread through my body and I relax a little
I sit and enjoy my tea and watch the sun rise over the trees
I hear something move behind me and I turn to see Sasha
“morning, want some tea?” I ask taking a sip from my cup
“No thank you, why are you up?” Sasha asks
“Couldn’t sleep” I say
“…you have been saying that a lot lately” Sasha says sitting down next to me
“I suppose I have, I haven’t really had a good nights sleep since I touched the statue” I say
“Have you told conifer?” Sasha asks
“… I’ll call him today, but there’s not really anything he can do, its just a bit more tiring than usual because I figured out what to do in the dream” I say then I explain about drinking the water and the chains melting
“… Perhaps you should take a break. Try not pulling the water tonight, and see if you still wake up tired” Sasha says
“But I’m so close! If I just get enough water and fall into the lake the dreams will end” I say
“… You do not know that for certain, and I would like to avoid you collapsing during the day from exhaustion” Sasha says
“I guess you’re right, I’ll try and take it easy for a bit” I say
“Good” Sasha says standing up and walking back to her tent
I stand up and stretch a bit
I go and collect some sticks for Chatot
then I head back to my tent and wake Scarlett and the rest up for today’s training
We all stretch a bit and then get started
Today Monferno chases Scarlett with flame wheel and Scarlett uses iron head to dodge
Chatot goes back to snapping sticks
And Combee tries spitting her honey but it just dribbles down her face like yesterday
“Hmm. Oh! What if you spin really fast and let centrifugal force do the work?” I suggest
“Comb!” Combee says with a nod
Combee starts spinning in the air picking up more and more speed to the point where she’s basically a yellow sphere
Suddenly honey shoots in every direction as a fine mist coating the ground and me in droplets of honey
Combee stops spinning and staggers in the air a bit dizzy
“Well… You did it, I guess” I say wiping honey off my face
“Bee bee” combee says in an apologetic tone
“Its fine, its only my work out clothes” I say with a laugh
“That was cool though, I’d bet it would throw off an opponent, at least for a moment anyway, the only problem is you get dizzy afterwards, so we will use this as a last resort until you learn to shoot it out properly, let’s call it… Honey Mist” I say and combee nods
The entire area smells like honey by they time we finish training
I let everyone rest as I go to a nearby stream and wash off the honey and clean my workout clothes
When I get back everyone’s getting ready for breakfast
after we finish eating we pack up camp and walk for a few hours until we stop for lunch
I text conifer about the progress with the dream, the fact that I’m tired when I wake up, and that I haven’t had any decent sleep since Eterna, and that I’ll see if I’m still tired after not doing anything tonight
He immediately replies with
“Okay, keep me posted, and please take it easy”
As I go to put my pokenav away it starts ringing
I’m surprised to find that its professor rowan
“Hello?” I say
“Ah, hello, this is professor rowan, this is Dakota I presume?” Rowan says
“Ha ha, yep! Its been quite awhile professor, how are you doing?” I ask
“Quite well. Quite well, and you?” Rowan asks
“I’m doing… Just great! A lots happened though, but that’s what a journeys about” I say
“Hm, indeed. I’m glad you are having fun, the reason I’ve called is because an interesting document came across my desk this morning, its your application to be a field agent for professor conifer, you wish to be a field agent?” Rowan asks
“Yep! There’s some circumstances behind it but I’d feel better telling you about those in person” I say
“I see… Well then I shall give my seal of approval” rowan says
“Oh? Are you the one who decides those things?” I ask
“Yes, the other professors say I’m an impeccable judge of character and pushed the responsibility to me, not that I mind, getting to see all the young promising applicants and future prominent researchers warms my heart and gives me hope for the future, I had a good feeling about you when we met in Sandgem all those years ago, I’m a bit disappointed that Conifer snatched you up first ” rowan says with a hardy chuckle
“Well, thank you sir, but conifer kind of needs me for his research” I say
“hmm, if I remember correctly his research was about the legendary pokemon correct?” Rowan asks
“Yep!” I say
“Interesting, has his research finally started bearing fruit?” Rowan asks
“Something like that” I say with a laugh
“Very interesting indeed!” Rowan says with a bit of excitement in his voice
He clears his throat
“Anyway, usually when someone signs up to work under a professor their pokemon would be reassigned to that professors facility. However as Professor conifer is more of the nomadic sort, bouncing from facility to facility, region to region, he has no habitats to keep your pokemon, so I’ll just let you keep them at my facility’s as was the original plan” rowan says
“Thank you very much sir” I say
“Hrm, yes, you are quite welcome, have fun on your journey, and be careful when doing your field work” rowan says
“I will, have a good day Professor Rowan” I say
“You as well” he says and the call ends
I walk back over to everyone
“Who was that?” Ruche asks
“Professor rowan” I say
“Oh? What did he want?” Ruche asks
“Apparently he is the one that gives the okay to would be assistants and field agents. I’m sure he was surprised by the application. I’ve only been on my journey for, like, two months… Oh man, has it really only been two months?” I say with a sigh
“Ha ha, yeah, a lots happened to ya huh” Ruche says
“I’ll say! … Well, underneath it all I’m having a good time though” I say with a laugh
“That’s good, you complain a lot so I was worried you were starting to regret leaving home” Ruche says
“Nah, I just like complaining” I say with a laugh
We pack up camp and continue walking until the sun goes down
When I wake up above the lake I don’t do anything like I promised, I just wait there until the times up
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Post by fattymccatcat on May 25, 2019 16:35:53 GMT
I wake up with a bit more energy than yesterday and at a reasonable time as well
I wake Scarlett up and we head outside
Everyone’s already up
Sasha looks over at me
“You look a bit better today” Sasha says
“Yeah, looks like you were right, I was pushing myself a bit too much” I say
“Take another day off before you start again” Sasha says
“Yeah, alright” I say stretching a bit
“What’s going on?” Ruche asks confused
I explain what’s been going on as I help him with breakfast
After we eat we pack up and set off
As we walk the path gets more and more prominent
“We must be getting close to Hearthome” Ruche says
“Nice” I say
“Look” Sasha says pointing into the distance
Along the sides of the path are a bunch of berry trees bursting with various Berries and wild pokemon
“Whoa!” I say grabbing my camera
I snap a few pictures then we move closer
The pokemon are mostly made up of starly, kricketot, aipom, and other common pokemon we see every day as we travel
Nothing I’m interested in catching at the moment
The berry trees are basically overflowing with berries that look perfectly ripe and delicious
Scarlett’s drooling just looking at them
“I’ve never seen so many different berry trees in one place before” Ruche says
“We must be close to the Berry Master Fields” Sasha says
“That sounds familiar, I think I saw a special about it on TV once” I say
“It is Sinnoh’s largest berry orchard, they supply a large portion of Sinnoh’s berry supply” Sasha explains
“Oh, are we allowed to take some?” I ask
“I believe these are wild trees that have sprouted from Berry’s pokemon have taken from the fields” Sasha says
“Cool, let’s find one without a pokemon hoard in it and pick some for lunch” I say
“Good idea!” Ruche says
We search around a bit and find an uninhabited tree filled with some sort of blue berry
“These are bluk berries right?” I ask
“Yeah, they are soft and easy to juice and have a slightly sour taste” Ruche says
“Cool, let’s pick some” I say
We spend some time gathering the bluk berries with the help of all the pokemon
As Ruche starts making lunch he looks around confused
“Where’s cherubi?” Ruche asks
As if on cue, a scream rings out
“Cheru!!!!” Cherubi yells
Ruche takes off into a sprint toward the scream with riolu following just behind
“Watch our stuff!” I yell to Chatot and the others
Scarlett, Sasha, buneary, and I chase after Ruche
After passing a few trees Ruche sees about five starly swooping down at cherubi pecking at her
“Riolu! Go!” Ruche says
Riolu Dash’s forward and kicks one of the starly away
“Star!” One screeches
The rest of us show up and the rest of the starly scatter
I notice one has a satisfied look on its face
Cherubi staggers up to her feet
“Cher…” Cherubi says in a sad tone, tears welling up in her eyes
Ruche picks her up and brings her to Sasha who examines her
I notice the little berry thing that’s usually at the end of her stem is gone
“She will be fine, however they took her nutrient berry, Luckily the stem itself is undamaged so she should be able to grow a new one, but she won’t be able to evolve for quite awhile” Sasha says
“Aww, that sucks” I say
“I’m sorry, I should have told you to stay close when there were so many starly around” Ruche says hugging cherubi close
Cherubi cries into Ruche’s shirt as we walk back to camp
We help make lunch as Ruche wants to hold onto cherubi for a bit longer
After awhile cherubi seems to calm down and hops out of Ruche’s arms
the rest of the pokemon come over to comfort her
We finish lunch and serve it up to everyone
Ruche makes a bluk berry juice to go with it
Its a slightly sour drink that makes your mouth feel a bit dry, it would be really good if we had some ice to go in it
It stains all of our mouths black, which the pokemon find funny
It seems to help cherubi cheer up a little
We pack up our stuff and walk until night falls
We can see the glow of a city over the trees in the distance but decide to set up camp for the night amongst the berry trees
I take it easy that night above the lake like yesterday
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Post by fattymccatcat on Jun 2, 2019 1:16:26 GMT
I wake up and head outside and see Sasha making breakfast
“Morning” I say to Sasha
“Good morning” Sasha says
“Where’s Ruche?” I ask
“Training” Sasha says
“You want help with breakfast?” I ask
“No. I have it covered” Sasha says
I let my pokemon out to play and then go and wake Scarlett up
Ruche comes back right as breakfast is ready
We sit and eat and then pack up camp
We walk for about two hours and Hearthome finally comes into view
We come out on a hill overlooking the expansive city
Its surrounded by a thick forest
Right in the middle of town is a beautiful stone cathedral that towers over the other buildings
The second largest building it a large dome shaped arena looking thing that I hope is the gym
We make our way down the hill and through one of the towns entryways onto a huge plaza
The ground is paved with flat brown brick and there are crowds of people and pokemon everywhere
“Scarlett stick close to me” I say
“Maw!” Scarlett says with a nod
“This is Hearthome plaza! Basically a huge funnel into Hearthome from three different routes” Ruche explains
“You sure know a lot about the towns we visit” I say
“Yeah. When I thought I was gonna be stuck in Canalave, I settled for just learning about the places I couldn’t visit” Ruche says
“Oh. That’s sad.” I say
Ruche laughs
“Yeah, yeah it was” Ruche says
We make our way though the crowds and a huge fountain comes into view and Ruche gets excited
“Oh! Its one of the Star Crossed Shellos Fountains!” Ruche says getting excited
“Oh? That sounds familiar… I think I read an article about it on AWWW” I say
“What’s that?” Ruche asks
“A blog I found about conspiracy’s and rumors, its called… "A weird and wonderful world” or something like that" I say
“Huh, didn’t think you’d be into that stuff” Ruche says
“Its growing on me, I’m keeping an eye out for any info about the magic stuff” I say
“Ah, I see, smart” Ruche says
We move a bit closer to the fountain
Its a massive stone fountain covered in stone Shellos, the west variant, there’s so many in various positions, some playing, some spitting water into the large basin bellow
They are so well made they almost look alive
At the very top there’s a large Shellos with a sad disposition, looking east and crying tears into the small basin bellow it which then pours into the big basin at the bottom
“Wanna visit the other one before we head into town? Its supposedly good luck” Ruche asks
“Sure” I say
Sasha nods and sticks close as there’s a bunch of people crowding around to see the fountain
We head over towards the east plaza exit and eventually reach the second fountain
Its identical to the first except shows the eastern variant of the Shellos line
The one at the top is also crying
“Why are they crying?” Sasha asks as there’s not a lot of people around at the moment
Ruche smiles
“These fountains are called The Fountains Of The Star Crossed Shellos, they are crying because they have been separated from the one they love, or at least that’s what the fairy tales based on the fountains say, these fountains are ridiculously old, like two thousand years old, made by a genius sculptor, they held up way past the civilization they were made in and were unearthed about a five hundred years ago when they were building Hearthome, they meticulously and carefully restored them to working order and bam! Hearthome plaza was born!” Ruche explains
“I read on AWWW that supposedly, the place where they had found the fountains there might of been a space for a third fountain, but they were never able to find any evidence it was ever made or installed, they figure the space was for something else or that the guy died before he started it” I say
“Oh, cool, I’ve never heard about that” Ruche says
“It might all be lies though, like I said, I got it from some weird blog” I say with a laugh
We leave the area and start heading into town to find a pokemon center when Ruche grabs my shoulder
“Hey, speaking of blogs, do you plan on putting any of your pictures online?” Ruche asks suddenly
“Hmm. I hadn’t really thought about it…” I say
“Well, you did do the amber castle pics, people might want to see more of your work” Ruche says
“Hmmmmmm. Good point… I’ll look into it later” I say
We reach a pokemon center in the middle of town and check in, we manage to get a room to ourselves and unload all of our gear
We take turns taking a nice hot shower and cleaning off the dirt that had accumulated since Oreburgh
Then we sit down for a snack
“So. What should we do first? Sightsee? Or gym?” I ask
“From what I saw about the gym we should head over there first” Ruche says
“Cool, you’ve been secretive about this one so I’m curious what its like” I say and Ruche just laughs
We finish eating and head out
“How is cherubi doing?” Sasha asks as we walk
“Fine, she’s still a bit down though” Ruche says
“Understandable. It was nearing the evolution period for cherubi” Sasha says
“Evolution period?” I ask
“cherubi usually evolve around this time of year, its not impossible for them to evolve at other times of the year, but most do it around now” Ruche says
“Interesting, I didn’t know some evolutions were season based” I say
“Yeah, I’ve heard of a few grass types that evolve in spring, and I think I’ve heard of one or two bug types that evolve in summer? Evolutions weird” Ruche says with a laugh
We turn a corner and see a building with the gym insignia on it
Its a small pink building with a playground next to it with a bunch of kids running around
“Its… A school?” I ask
“A kindergarten” Ruche says with a grin
“Huh” I say
We head over and go inside
We walk up to the counter and a lady behind it smiles at us
“What can I help you with today?” She asks
“I’m here for a gym battle” I say
“I see, do you have an appointment?” She asks
“No?” I say
“I see, well let’s get it scheduled then” she says typing something into the computer
“Looks like there’s an opening next week, shall I put your name down?” She asks
“I guess? My names Dakota” I say
“Excellent, we look forward to seeing you back here next week for your battle” she says with a smile
We leave the gym
“Huh, I wasn’t expecting to have to make an appointment” I say
“Yeah, I was surprised when I read that online, it looks like the gym leader prioritizes the kids over gym battles limiting them to two challengers a day” Ruche explains
“Well, it gives Chatot some time to learn steel wing at least, what’s there to do around here while we wait?” I ask
“A lot actually, this towns packed with stuff to do and see, there’s the contest hall, amity park, the ruins, the cathedra-” Ruche says
“Ruins?” I say accidentally cutting him off
Ruche smiles
“Yeah, there’s some super old buildings in the forests around here, they have been opened to the public for exploration, you just have to sign a waver” Ruche says
“Cool! I always loved my dads story’s of the ruins he’s found, I’m gonna be checking those out” I say happily
“Cool, I’m interested in the contest hall. Its almost contest season so people should be gathering around to see the opening ceremony held here” Ruche says
“I want to take my pokemon to amity park” Sasha says petting buneary’s head
“Bun!” Buneary says
“Let’s do it all then!” I say with a big smile
We go for lunch and then head back to the pokemon center
“So what should we do today?” I ask
“I’m kinda still tired from the trip, I think I’m gonna take it easy today” Ruche says
“That sounds good, I might as well do that too” I say
We all spend the day resting in our room
Ruche does some sketching in his new sketchpad
Sasha checks out some of the books from the bookcase in the lounge
And I browse the internet on my pokenav
I check the post about the fountains on AWWW
Seems like they date back to a civilization that lived about two thousand years ago that lived around here, the fountains were unearthed when they were building Hearthome about five hundred years ago, the cathedral was from the same era but seems to be the only building that didn’t fall to ruins so they built Hearthome around it
When they found the fountains they were on either side of the cathedral sitting on stone slabs, later they discovered a similar stone slab in front of the cathedral, but without a fountain, because the stone slab was so much bigger than the other two people think it was either for a very big fountain, or used for something else
Some people go on to speculate that maybe the sculptor never got around to making a third fountain because he switched focus to building the cathedral or died before he could make it
One person suggests that it may be hidden in the ruins around Hearthome but gets shut down pretty fast saying they must have been thoroughly examine over the years which makes me smile
My dads motto is “ruins always hold one more secret” so going by that logic its possible there’s something hidden there
Not to mention the idea of going on an expedition like my dads doesn’t sound too bad, everyone likes a treasure hunt
It starts getting late so we have dinner and turn in for the night
I wake up above the lake and decide to pull the water towards me tonight
By the end of the night I’m able to pull a drop the size of a quarter to me
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Post by fattymccatcat on Jun 5, 2019 5:19:53 GMT
I wake up and Scarlett and I get ready for the day and head out to train
I pull up the directions to a park on my pokenav and we start heading over that way
Its a bit hot out today and since its also foggy its just kind turned into a humid mess so I make sure to fill up my water bottles on the way so the pokemon have something to drink as they train
We reach the park and find a spot away from the other people who are training and start doing our stretches
I have Chatot continue strengthening his wings as usual
I draw a star on the ground and have Monferno try and trace it with flame wheel to try and improve his control and turning
Scarlett’s training consists of bashing her head against a nearby boulder with iron head
Finally combee trains to spit her honey for a bit, today we learned the longer she leaves it in her mouth the warmer it gets, making it easier to spit
Then she switch’s over to training her gust since we haven’t really trained it all that much
The breeze it creates is nice considering how hot it is today and since it looks like as long as she doesn’t put any force into it, it won’t create those little cuts so I have her go around and fan the others as they train to help them cool down
I make sure they are all hydrated and after about an hour we stop for the day
I let the others rest in their pokeballs and I carry Scarlett for a bit
I make my way through town to the northern edge of town
There’s a very clear line of trees that lead into the forests surrounding the city
On each tree is a sign that reads “please check in before going in to see the ruins” and then an arrow pointing to the left
We walk the along the tree line until we come to a small shack, so small there’s only room for one person to sit inside
I walk up to the front and a very bored looking man looks down at me
“Need directions?” He says
“No? I’m here to see the ruins” I say
He looks a bit surprised
“Oh, that’s rare, usually no one bothers to actually check in, they just wander in and destroy the place” he says with a sigh
“That’s awful, I was raised to respect ruins and the procedures that protect them” I say
The man looks like he’s about to cry
He takes out a clipboard and I read the rules and stuff
Its basically an agreement not to trash the place and some rules my dad taught me when I was little so I go ahead and sign it
He hands me a card, it looks like there’s a basic map of the area on it with twelve white blocks
“This is a stamp card, they set up a little stamp station at each if the twelve ruined houses to try and make it more of a tourist attraction” the man says with a laugh
“That’s neat, might get some kids interested In the ruins I guess” I say handing it to Scarlett who looks very interested in it
“Yeah, it didn’t work” the man says with a sigh
“Well, I’m sure Scarlett and I will have fun with it at least” I say
“That’s good then, have fun, and be careful in the tunnels” the man says
“I will” I say with a smile
We start heading into the forest
“Did you hear that? There’s tunnels!” I say getting a bit excited
We make our way through the trees trying to follow the very basic map on the stamp card until finally we see something through the trees
We walk up to the crumbling stone outline if what used to be a simple house
There’s only two walls left standing of the original structure
“Scarlett, you remember dads lessons right?” I ask and she nods
“Good” I say
We walk in through a gap in the rubble and start looking around
There isn’t much, the remnants of some broken wooden furniture and a hole in the floor with a ladder leading down into the darkness
Just to be safe I flash my magic eyes on for a second and nothing stands out
Walk over to the hole in the ground
“Must lead to the tunnels” I say peering down the hole
I check the ladders strength and it seems to be a recent addition as its strong enough to hold my weight
Scarlett points at the stamp card
“Hmm, I don’t see the stamp station, maybe its down the ladder?” I say
I take out my flashlight and shine it down the hole
Its not as deep as I thought so I climb down and have Scarlett jump into my arms
A small distance from the ladder is a small table, bolted to the top is a stamp pad and stamper attached to a chain as an anti theft measure
I lift Scarlett up so she can stamp the card
She doesn’t seem to know where to stamp though, so I point to the empty space in the lower left since that square represents the house we are at… Probably
Scarlett presses the stamper against the ink pad then against the empty space and it leaves the number one in a circle
Scarlett smiles up at me happily and I set her down
I shine my light down the stone tunnel, as there is only one way to go we start walking
As we walk I check around with my eye magic, if there is something hidden down here, I’m sure they can find it, but nothing shows up
After about half an hour we reach a large room, there’s a ladder leading up and a three other exits not counting the path we came in from
There’s an old busted piece of furniture in the corner, from what I can tell it might have been a bed
There are also a few clay and stone pots around, most are busted though
The walls of the room are pretty solid, there’s even a few things carved into the stone, one is a crude drawing of a pokemon and the other is in a language I haven’t seen before, luckily I can read it due to the translation magic
Its a simple “lavid was here” which makes me smile
I don’t see the stamp counter down here so Scarlett climbs onto my back and we head back up to the surface
We come out into a new ruined house, this one has all four walls and a roof, the floor is covered in a thick moss
In the corner sits the stamp table and Scarlett goes over and gets her stamp
This tables stamp number seems to be two
I look around for a bit and then we head outside
The trees in this area have bunched together and tower over the ruins creating a canopy that casts a nice blanket of shade over the area
Its still a bit hot but this area is rather tranquil
I take a few pictures of the area and we head back inside and down the ladder
“Scar, pick a path” I say pointing to the three new paths that lay before us
Scarlett takes a moment the point down one of the paths and we start walking down that corridor
This path turns out to be longer than we thought and we wind up walking for a few hours
By the end my eyes are starting to sting a little from using the magic for too long
They don’t catch anything of interest, and I don’t either since I’m not relying solely on my eyes but checking various point’s of interest on they way, but they wind up just being cracks, or carvings, or roots that have broken through the wall
We finally reach the next room and are surprised to see a tree in the middle of the room growing up through the ceiling
The stamp counter is sitting next to the trunk of the tree and Scarlett walks over and we get the number seven stamp
We head up the ladder in the corner of the room and outside
The house this time is completely destroyed, basically just a stone outline with a tree trunk in the center and overgrown with moss
“My eyes are tired, and I think… I’m running out of magic? Is that a thing? Anyway, let’s call it a day here and come back tomorrow” I say
“Maw!” Scarlett says with a smile
We make our way back towards Hearthome, when we leave the forest we head back over to the place we signed in
“Oh, hey, you’re back” the man says
“Yep! I was wondering if I had to, like, sign out?” I say
“Nah, you’re good, did you like the stamp thing?” The guy asks
“Yeah, Scarlett’s loving it, we got three today, and we will be back tomorrow to get some more” I say with a smile
“Oh, usually people blast through all twelve in a few hours” the guy says
“We’re taking our time, besides, I’m looking for something” I say
“Oh? What are you, an archeologist?” the guy asks jokingly
“Nah, just a Field Agent” I mention so I can get used to saying that
He looks a bit taken aback so I just smile and Scarlett and I walk off
I text Ruche and Sasha and see if they want to get lunch
We meet up at a cafe and have lunch and I tell them about the ruins
“So, what are you guys doing after this?” Ruche asks
“Nothing” Sasha says
“I don’t have anything planned until tonight” I say
“What are you doing tonight?” Ruche asks
“There’s going to be a nice crescent moon tonight, and the weather should be clear, so I want to take some pictures of the star crossed fountains with the moon and the stars in the background” I say
“Cool, anyway you guys want to check out amity square?” Ruche asks
“Yes” Sasha says
“Sure, what is it?” I ask
“Its basically a huge playground, I’m sure the pokemon would love it” Ruche says
“Cool!” I say
We finish up at the cafe and head over to the west edge of town to a large fenced off area
The huge wall is made of sturdy looking logs placed vertically with pointed tops
There’s a big wooden gate and a small check in station nearby similar to the one for checking into the ruins, except there’s a line at this one
We walk over and get in line and eventually reach the front
The lady smiles at us
“So three to enter the park? Can you take out your pokemon so I can check if they are eligible to enter” She asks
“Eligible?” I ask
“The park is split into two sections, big pokemon, and small pokemon, anything taller than four feet will have to enter through the other gate into the part of the park that has equipment to handle their weight” she happily explains
We take out all of our pokemon and she nods
“Yep. All small and cute. You can enter, have fun in amity square” she says with smile
We proceed through the gate with our pokemon following behind
The areas covered in grass and flowers and there a big pool with an island in the middle
Sitting in the middle if the island is a playground covered in swings, nets, ladders, bridges, and slides
There’s pathways leading to smaller ones positioned around the pond
There’s even tunnels, hoops, and stuff under the water for water types to play in
And above us are large heavy duty balloons secured to the ground holding up rings and tunnels for flying types to fly through
The pokemon look at us and I wave them off with a smile and they rush off to play
“So what should we do?” Ruche asks
“What do you mean? We play!” I say
“Aren’t we over the height limit?” Ruche says
“Dakota might not be” Sasha says
“Rude!” I say
“But I guess your right, I’ll stick to taking pictures then” I say grabbing my camera
“I’m gonna go sketch, seeing pokemon running around like this will help with coming up with designs” Ruche says
“I am going to soak my feet in the water and watch mantyke swim” Sasha says
We split up and I head over to the main play area and start taking pictures
I get a few good ones
Riolu jumping high on a trampoline doing a kick in the air with his scarf blowing in the wind
Mantyke jumping through a hoop sitting on the waters surface
Next was a funny one of buneary, Scarlett, and cherubi going down a spiral slide, buneary and Scarlett going down normally but cherubi rolling like a ball behind them
I took one of Sasha getting surrounded by pokemon who want to play with her
I got one of Combee and misdreavus playing up near the big balloons
I caught Monferno playing on some tire swings
And finally Chatot playing tag with some kids and their pokemon
As the sun starts to set we round them all up and start heading back to the pokemon center
They seems especially tired out when we get back
After dinner the pokemon fall asleep right away so we put them into their balls and I tuck Scarlett into bed
I send some of the pictures to Ruche and Sasha’s pokenav’s and then go to make myself some tea
Ruche joins me for some tea
“So are you going to wake Scarlett up? Your going to see the fountains soon right?” Ruche asks
“Hmm, I think I’ll let her sleep, she’s had a big day” I say with a laugh
“Alright, be careful” Ruche says
“I will” I say finishing my cup
After about half an hour I grab my camera and some stuff and I head out
I reach the eastern fountain at about ten
The moon is still low enough that I can get the shot I want and there’s only a few people around
I walk around the fountain and position the crescent moon behind the crying Shellos at the top
I have to lay on the ground to get the shot so I’m getting a few weird looks but I ignore them and keep shooting until I get one I like
I finally get the shot, the crying Shellos cradled by the moon with the stars glittering in the sky
After about an hour I move over to the western fountain, sadly it will be a few hours until the moon will be in position behind the crying Shellos so I text Ruche I’ll be back in the morning
Luckily its still pretty warm so I find a bench and browse the internet for awhile
I get bored at around one in the morning and try to get the shot but it doesn’t work, the moon isn’t low enough
I decide to get up and stretch my legs a bit since I’m starting to get tired
There’s no one around and the silence is starting to get to me so I put on some music
At around four, the moon is low enough to get the shot, after a few minutes of taking pictures I get an okay one
It would be better if the crescent moon was flipped the other way, but I don’t have time to wait the few weeks that would take
As I’m laying on the ground taking pictures I hear something shuffle behind me
I lower my camera and see an old man standing over me and jump
“Gah!” I yell scrambling to my feet
The man flinches and takes a few steps back
“Sorry for scaring ya kid, I saw a child laying beside the fountain and got worried” he says in a raspy voice
“No, I’m sorry as well, I was just taking some pictures” I say trying to calm down
The man sets his toolbox down
“I’m alabaster, I’m… I maintain the fountains and the roads around here” he says extending a hand
“I’m Dakota, a Trainer and Field Agent” I say shaking his hand
“Oh? A field agent you say? That’s a bit hard to believe” alabaster says
“Ha ha, yeah, I get that a lot” I say
“So what, you investigating these fountains?” He asks
“Something like that, I’m looking into the rumor there’s a secret third fountain” I say
alabaster laughs
“That old story huh, well if you do find it, I’m sure the mayor would be happy, plus it’d give me something to do” alabaster says picking up his tool box
I smile
“I’ll be sure to let you know when I do find it then” I say
He just smiles, shakes his head, and walks away
The sun starts to rise so I make my way over to the pokemon center, right as I arrive chansey unlocks the door and I head to my room and collapse onto my bed
I wake up above the lake as usual but don’t do anything
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Post by fattymccatcat on Jun 9, 2019 5:29:49 GMT
I wind up waking up around noon
I sit up and don’t see Scarlett so I text Ruche and he tells me Scarlett is with them at the contest hall
so I get up and head to the bathroom and take a shower
I get my stuff together and go to meet them
As I’m following the directions on my pokenav I notice a particular store on the corner of the street I’m walking towards
Its an egg shop
“Oh shoot, I forgot I had that ticket thing” I say
I decide to pop in and check it out real quick
The clean smell hits me immediately, the entire room is white and there are rows and rows of colorful incubators each housing a pokemon egg
The person behind the counter waves at me and I wave back
I start walking the isles checking out the eggs
Its all the same eggs that were in the other stores, and nothing really jumps out at me
As I pass by the counter I see something new
Sitting in a case behind the counter is a dark blue egg with a big red spot on top
“What’s the deal with that egg?” I ask pointing at the case
“Oh, well… ” he says shifting uncomfortably
“Its a-” he starts to say
“Wait! tell me what’s up with it, without telling me what pokemon it is please” I say
He sighs
“Its, an egg of a certain pokemon… That breeders dislike, because they steal pokemon eggs… So the fact that one is even here is super troubling, As soon as it hatches I need to immediately send it to its proper habitat” he says
“But its for sale right?” I ask super interested in this egg
“Uh, technically yes, I guess it is, but I wouldn’t recommend it, this pokemon has kind of a bad reputation, and not just with breeders” he says
And that seals the deal, I hate it when people judge pokemon based on appearance or hearsay
I take the egg voucher out of my wallet and slam it onto the counter
“I’ll take that egg” I say
He takes the egg voucher and checks it, then types something into the computer
“Look, kid, are you sure about this? They say-” He says
“Just please give me the egg!” I snap at him, a bit ticked off
“Okay, okay, sorry” he says unlocking the case
He hands me the incubator
Its a clear cylinder with a purple and black lid, and the egg sits on a grey pillow
Its warm to the touch
“Do you know how to care for the egg?” He asks
“Yeah, I’ve done it before” I say
“Okay, if you bring the incubator to any egg shop after your egg hatches you get a small refund, or you can leave it with a pokemon center if you don’t care about that” he explains
Then he pulls a little drawer out of the base of the incubator, sitting inside is a small regular pokeball
“Now we just need to register you as the owner” he says pressing the button on the ball making it expand
He opens it and presses his thumb against the bottom and it reads his thumb print then he presses a button
The pokeball makes a chime
“Press your thumb here just like when you registered your other pokeballs” he says and I do
It dings and closes
“There you go, its now registered to you, its already registered to the egg as well, so once it hatches you don’t have to catch it or anything” he says
“Thanks” I say
I leave the shop and start heading over to meet with everyone
As I’m walking I realize that I should have asked if it was a poison type, but Its too late for that now, so I’ll just have to talk to Ruche later
I finally reach the grand contest hall and start looking around for Scarlett and the rest
I spot them through the crowd and walk over
Ruche looks at me, then at the egg, then back to me, and sighs
“So, you have an egg now huh” Ruche says
“Yep, the clerk was saying mean things about it so I bought it” I say
“… Alright” Ruche says
“May I see it” Sasha asks
“Sure” I say handing Sasha the incubator
“Oh, right, since I kinda bought it on impulse, I don’t know if its a poison type or not” I say
“Its not” Ruche says
“You know what it is?” I ask
“Yeah, I think so” Ruche says
“I can’t wait to find out what it is, is it cool?” I ask with a excited smile
Ruche looks at Scarlett, then at Sasha, then to me
“I’m sure you’ll love it” Ruche says with a grin
Sasha hands the incubator back to me and we head back to the pokemon center
I walk up to the counter
“How can I help you today?” Nurse joy asks with her usual cheery demeanor
“I just got this egg today, Id like you to check it and make sure everything’s okay” I say
“Alright! Just leave it to me!” Nurse joy says taking the egg
“Thank you!” I say and we get out of line
“Wile!” Scarlett says getting my attention
She pulls the stamp card out from her inner vest pocket
“Oh yeah, Hey, me and Scarlett are gonna head back to the ruins, you guys want to join us?” I ask
“Its not really my thing” Ruche says
“No” Sasha says
“Okay, let’s go Scarlett” I say
We leave the pokemon center and head back to the sign in booth
The man sees us and smiles
“Oh, hey! You actually came back” the man says
“Yep!” I say with a smile as I sign in
“So… Are you actually a field agent? For, like, an actual professor?” He asks awkwardly
“Yes, a professor conifer, who’s stationed in Oreburgh” I say
He pauses for a moment
“You said, you were looking for something?” He says as he starts digging in one of the cabinets behind him
“Yeah, but, like, nothing in particular, I’m not here on official… Uh… Field agent work or whatever” I say stumbling over my words not knowing what to say exactly
“Hmm, ah! Here it is” he says pulling out a slip of paper and slipping it onto a clip board
“Since you are technically a "professional” you need to sign this, I think. I’ve never actually had to use this form before" he says with a laugh while handing it over to me
I read it and it seems to be a form saying any discovery’s made in the ruins are property of Hearthome’s administrative office, if my discovery is substantial I will be credited and paid for my time and contributions
I don’t see anything especially shady in the form so I fill it out and hand it back to the man who looks it over and nods
“Good thank you, I’d love to see the look on the face of the one who has to process this, anyway just to make sure, cuz your like, super young, you know what to do if you actually find something right?” He asks
“I carefully document it, then put everything back where I found it, and a professional will come and collect it at a later date” I say
“Good. You have gloves?” He asks already opening drawers in his little hut looking for some
“I think-” I start to say but he finds a box and hands me some
“Thanks” I say with a laugh and pocket the gloves
The man looks exited
“This is the most I’ve had to work since getting this job” he says with a laugh
“Maybe if I find something cool you will get some more foot traffic” I say
“Please do” he says with a smile and we depart
We head to where we left off yesterday at stamp station seven
We head back down to the ladder
There three exits from this room, one that leads back to ruins two, and two new routes
I pick the one that leads to the rightmost ruin on the map so we can clear our the bottom half of the map
We walk down the long corridor for about an hour. Checking the walls as we go but don’t find anything
We reach the next room and its in a very good condition, as in there’s a pot in the corner that isn’t broken, that’s it
Scarlett sees the stamp table and goes to get the stamp as I look around the room with my magic but nothing pops up
Scarlett walks over and shows me the stamp card, this room seems to be number eight
We do one more sweep and leave through the only other exit
We walk for about twenty minutes and reach the next room
Scarlett does a little gasp as we enter and places her hands over her mouth
This room is covered in years of graffiti
“Aww, lame” I say running my fingers over the walls
The stamp table in the corner is broken, but luckily the stamper and ink are still there
Scarlett walks over and gets her stamp, its number ten
I scan the room and nothing pops up
I notice there isn’t a ladder up to the surface
I look down the exit of the room and can actually see the next room
We walk over, and its pretty much the same as the other room, no ladder, covered in graffiti, and my magic says nothing is hidden here
Scarlett gets the stamp for this room as well, its number nine
We head back into the hallway between nine and ten because there’s a path leading up from there
After about five minutes we enter a new room
Scarlett acquires the number eleven stamp from the table in the corner
There’s a ladder leading up in this one and the graffiti isn’t as bad
After looking around we head up to the surface
The small stone house is just, filled with garbage
It sours my mood immediately
“Let’s head back for today” I say with a sigh and we leave
We head to the park for today’s training which is the same as yesterday
Then we head back to the pokemon center and I decide to take it easy for the rest of the day
I remember what Ruche said the other day and decide to look up how to make a website
After about five hours of research, creation, and uploading the pictures, I have a basic website with two sections
One for my personal pictures, things like shots of us on our journey, and a professional section where I start putting together a sort of portfolio
I put things like the pictures of the amber castle, the kricketot concert, the cleffa moonlight Concert, and others that I feel are worth showing off in the second section
Every photo can be liked, commented on, and shared
I decide to call it “Dakotas Photography Journey” as a placeholder until I can think of a better name
We have dinner and I share that I have a website now and give them the link so they can check it out
As I think of heading to bed the speaker in the corner of the room makes a crackling sound
“Can Dakota come to the front desk please” nurse joy says
“…oh right! The egg!” I say getting up off my bed
I head into the lobby and when she sees me she asks chansey to take over and help the people in line and walks over to me
“So, your egg is fine, I have all the information here if you want to read it” nurse joy says motioning to her tablet
“Ah, sorry, I’m kinda keeping the species a secret until it hatch’s, could you give me the cliff notes” I ask
Nurse joy laughs
“Sure, the egg is perfectly healthy, about two months old, there’s a slight divot on the top of the shell which may result in a shorter than average… Pokemon, or a smaller claw size, or something along those lines, its very slight though so it probably won’t be that noticeable of a difference, from what I know of this species it should hatch in about a month, give or take a week” nurse joy says with a smile
“Thank you very much nurse joy” I say
She types something into her tablet
A Chansey comes wheeling the egg out on a cart and I pick up the incubator and carry it back to the room
I set it on the desk and open the little drawer with the pokeball in it, I take out an empty premier ball from my bag
Since both are already registered to me I take them and press the buttons of the balls together and transfer the data from the pokeball to the premier ball and put that into the drawer and close it
I unregister myself from the regular pokeball and toss it to Ruche
“Here, I don’t need this” I say as he catch’s it
“Oh cool, thanks” Ruche says pocketing the pokeball
He looks at my belt hanging beside the bed with all my premier balls on it
“So… What’s the deal with you and premier balls anyway?” Ruche asks
I smile
“Its just a preference” I say
Ruche nods and turns back to his pokenav
I yawn and head to bed
I wake up above the lake and spend the night pulling the water up from the lake and drinking it
By the end of the night the globs of water are about the size of a golf ball
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Post by fattymccatcat on Jun 16, 2019 9:58:50 GMT
I wake and start making breakfast for everyone
It turns out okay
“You guys want to do something today?” I ask as we eat
“How about we check out the cathedral later?” Ruche says
“That sounds nice” Sasha says
“Yeah! how about we meet up around one o'clock?” I say
“Fine with me” Sasha says
“Yeah, sounds good” Ruche says
I grab the incubator from the room and we leave the pokemon center
Scarlett and I head to the training park and find a nice open spot to train
I set the incubator and my pack down in the shade and we do our stretches
“First, Monferno, we are switching your training to scratch, Scarlett will be up in… That tree, throwing leaves down and you just need to cut them before they hit the ground” I explain pointing to a nearby tree
They both nod and go off to do that
I see monferno help Scarlett into the tree and I turn my attention to the other two
“As for you two, were taking a break from the honey gather and steel wing training today, lets run through your other moves, don’t want them getting rusty right?” I say with a smile
“Chat” “comb” they say with a nod
“Ah, but don’t use fury attack and sweet scent” I say and they look a bit confused
“I read that if you don’t use a move for awhile they are more likely to be replaced, and those moves aren’t very good, so when you learn better moves we want them to be the ones that disappear” I explain
We run through all their moves
Nothing much has changed with Combee’s moves but chatots air cutter seems to have gotten faster since his wings have gotten stronger
I glance over at Monferno as a flurry of leaves drop from the tree
He quickly slices them to pieces with his glowing claws
He seems to be having fun because he’s smiling ear to ear
We continue like this for an hour and then stop for the day
I put everyone back into their pokeballs and then pick up the incubator and my pack
As I do my pokenav rings
Its conifer
“Hello professor, how’s it going?” I say
“Great actually, your application went through faster than I thought it would, you’re officially my field agent” conifer says
“Oh cool, professor rowan called me and we talked and he said he’d approve my application, but I didn’t think he meant immediately” I say with a laugh
“Oh, I didn’t know you knew professor rowan” conifer says
“Yeah, I’m keeping my pokemon at his facility, since you don’t have one” I say
“Oh that’s great, I didn’t even consider that part of the process, sorry” conifer says
“No problem, it all worked out, so you have my license?” I ask
“Yes, im looking at it right now” conifer says
“Could you over night it to me? I may need it soon” I say
“Why?” Conifer asks
I tell him about the ruins, how I’m using my eyes to try and find stuff, the rumors of a third fountain, and everything else
“Okay, I’ll send it to you tonight, and good luck with the search, its good training since some legendary pokemon had nests in some famous ruins” conifer says
“Cool, thanks professor” I say
I hang up and look down at Scarlett
“Wanna hit up the ruins today?” I ask
“Maw!” She says excitedly pulling out the stamp card
We head over to the booth at the north edge of town like usual
“Hey! Little field agent, how’s your day going?” The man asks
“Good, names Dakota by the way” I say with a laugh
“Oh, sorry, I’m Kevin” he says with a smile
“How did turning in that form go” I ask
“Oh man, their face was priceless, and when I told them you were a kid they thought I was joking and went to throw the form away” he says
“Aww geez sorry for the trouble” I say
“Nah, it was fun! Its cool that I know some Sorta prodigy” he says
“Oof, please don’t call me a prodigy” I say a bit uncomfortable with that since most of this set up is a farce
“So, what’s your specialty? Archeology? Paleontology? Anthropology?” He asks getting super excited
“Uh… Dead languages” I blurt out remembering my translation ability
“Oh neat!” He says with a smile
“I’ll see you tomorrow Kevin” I say trying to get away from this situation
“Okay! Good luck!” He says enthusiastically waving us off
As soon as we are in the forest I let out a deep sigh
“Guess I’ll have to get used to that” I say
We head back to where we left off yesterday at ruin eleven
We step over the trash and head down the ladder, I have to careful going down since I have the incubator with me today
Not counting the path that leads back to the graffiti rooms there’s two new paths we can take, one towards the east and one towards the west
Scarlett chooses the west path and we start heading down that way
I check the walls as usual and find nothing
We enter into a large room, All the rooms until now have been the size of a large bedroom, this is about twice as big and leads to two adjacent rooms of equal size and instead of a ladder there’s a set of stone stairs leading up to the surface
“Now we’re getting somewhere” I say shining my light around
judging by the small map on the stamp card this is the center of the ruins
I start scanning around as we look for the stamp station
After clearing the first two large room we enter the third one and I see the stamp station in the corner
Scarlett runs up and get the number six stamp
I scan around and when I come to what looks like a rotten pile of wood that was probably a bed I see something on the wall
One of the stones is shining red
“Yes!” I yell and Scarlett jumps
“Oops, sorry for startling you, but I finally found something!” I say with a grin
I take out a pair of gloves and put them on
I summon Monferno so his tail can help light up the room a little bit more as my flashlight isn’t really cutting it
First I take a picture of the wall, its a bunch of stones of varying sizes and shapes piled up with something holding them together
The one my eyes say is suspicious is a long, thick, flat one, and when I prod it with my fingers its a bit loose
The stuff surrounding this stone is a bit different from the rest of the stones, this is soft while the other stuff is hard, upon closer inspection this is just years of built up dust and dirt
I carefully remove the dust holding the stone in place and slide the stone out
I take another picture, then shine my light into the hole
Sitting inside is a book
I take another picture then very carefully touch it with one finger
It feels pretty solid so I gingerly pick it up and slide it out of the hole
Its a book bound in leather and the parchment is rather thick
It looks to be in pretty good shape actually
I take a few pictures and open it slowly
I hand Scarlett my camera so she can take pictures of the pages
The writing on the page is a bit sloppy and in a language I’ve never seen before, but I can read it just fine
“This translation ability is kinda unfair to the people who study this kind of stuff” I say with a laugh then I shake my head and focus
I look over and read the first few pages as Scarlett takes pictures of each page
“Looks like its a kids diary” I say aloud since Scarlett and monferno look like they are about to explode from sheer curiosity
The entry’s stop about half way through the book, the rest of the pages are blank, we have pictures of all the pages so I carefully close the book, put it back where I found it, and gently slide the rock back in place
It fits into the hole perfectly and it looks just how we found it, minus the dirt build up
All three of us collapse on to the floor and breath a sigh of relief
“That was nerve wracking!” I say with a laugh
“Maw!” Scarlett says in agreement
I get up off the ground and dust myself off
I scan around the room one last time and don’t see anything, even the rock with the book behind it isn’t glowing anymore, I guess because I know the truth about it now?
“Let’s go tell Kevin” I say with a grin
We head up the stairs into a field of flowers with a faint stone outline of what used to be a huge house hidden beneath the grass
We head south out of the forest and then start heading towards the booth
Kevin smiles when he sees us
“Hey, back already?” He says
I smile
He notices the gloves I’m wearing and the grin and his eyes go wide
“No” he says with a nervous smile
“Yes!” I say triumphantly
“No way!” He says spinning in his chair then he starts digging for something
“So, what did you find?” He asks as he’s searching the cabinet behind him
“An old notebook” I say
“Cool!” He says pulling out a slip of paper
He pulls out his pokenav and punches in the number on the paper
“Hang on one second” he says
“… Yeah, carol? Remember that kid I was telling you about yesterday? Yeah, he actually found something… A notebook… No, I’m not kidding… Alright I’ll hold” he says
“Who’s that?” I ask
“The mayors secretary, she’s going to tell the mayor about you” he says
“What!?” I say suddenly getting nervous
The person on the phone seems to come back
“Uh huh…okay… Yeah, ill let him know” he says writing something down
Then he hangs up
“The mayor wants to meet you” he says
“What?! Why!?” I say
“Of course she would want to meet you! This is the first time someone has found anything in those ruins in like, fifty years” Kevin says
“Aww geez, right now?” I ask looking at Scarlett and myself who are covered in dirt
“No, she’s busy today, she wants to meet you tomorrow at noon at town hall” Kevin says handing me the slip of paper with the address and time to meet
“…okay. What do I do with the pictures I took?” I ask
“You should probably wait and give them to her tomorrow” he says
“Alright… So, what’s she like?” I ask
He laughs
“She’s the best mayor Hearthome could ask for, I’m sure you two will get along” he says with a smile
“I hope so” I say still a bit nervous
I look at the time
“Shoot, I’m gonna be late, I need to go” I say running off
“See ya later!” He yells at us as we leave
We rush through the city towards the cathedral, brushing some of the dirt off of us as we go, but the incubator makes it difficult so I give up
We arrive and run up to Ruche who is waiting in front of the cathedral
“Sorry!” I say as we run up to him
“Its fine” Ruche says with a laugh
“Is Sasha not here yet?” I ask
“Nope” Ruche says
As we wait I snap a few pictures of the outside of the cathedral
Its a massive stone building that towers over everything around it
There’s two tall spires that tower above the sides of the face of the building
Sitting on top is a large stained glass dome, but I can’t really make out what’s on if from this angle
Above the ornate doors that lead inside is a stained glass circle, its made up of black and gold triangles making some sort of abstract figure that I can’t make out
“Wile” Scarlett says getting my attention
I turn and see Sasha walking towards us
“Hey” I say waving
“Sorry I’m late” Sasha says
“Its fine, let’s head inside” Ruche says with an excited smile
We walk through the set of large wooden doors into the main hall of the cathedral
The are rows and rows of wooden benches with a large blue carpet with gold trim leading up to a grand podium
The walls are covered in tall stained glass windows, the left is lined with blue stained glass, and the right lined with pink
Behind the podium is a massive stained glass depiction of Mt. Coronet with a shining beacon atop it shining down on all of Sinnoh
The ceiling has a huge stained glass dome depicting an abstract interpretation of a yellow, blue, and pink pokemon with a beautiful crimson chain connecting them
As the sun shines through all these different colored stain glass panes the room is dyed in a sea of colorful flickering lights
I hand the incubator to Ruche and grab my camera and start taking pictures, when I’m done I take the incubator back
We walk up towards the podium
“So what’s this place for?” I ask in a whisper
“I’m not sure, I think it might just be a beautiful building” Ruche says
We reach the front and head up to the podium
There’s an ancient looking plaque sitting on it, in a protective case, written in some old language
“Wow this thing looks ancient… Oh wait, Dakota can you read it?” Ruche says
I smile and look over the table
“Huh” I say
“What, you can’t?” Ruche says
“No, I can, its just… Listen. "Balance. the essence of the world, of reality itself, is to keep itself in balance. If something were to disrupt this balance and the world was thrown into turmoil, the universe would compensate and try to restore its balance. no matter the cost, an equilibrium must be kept, and it will be kept, even in the coming times, where darkness envelops the light and the future is thrown into question, the balance must be kept. No matter the cost.” I say
“Huh” Ruche says
“Exactly” I say with a laugh
“Spooky” Sasha says
“Ha ha, yeah, let’s go check out the rest of the building” I say
“I don’t think there’s anything else to look at though” Ruche says looking around
I notice all the exits from the room have little ropes that have little signs that say “no entry” on them
“…wanna get lunch then?” I say
“Sure” Sasha says
We leave the cathedral and head to a nearby cafe and have lunch
As were sitting there Sasha pulls out a flier
“Do you two want to come with me to this poffin class tomorrow?” Sasha asks
“Sure” Ruche says
“What time is it?” I ask
“It starts at four” Sasha says looking at the flier
“I should be done by then, yeah! Let’s go bake some poffins” I say with a smile
“What are you doing before that?” Ruche asks
“Oh, I have a meeting with the mayor” I say with a grin
“…The mayor? The mayor of Hearthome city? The mayor of this whole city?… What did you do?” Ruche asks
“Ha ha, I found something in the ruins, and I have to give her a report or something” I say
“Oh, what did you find?” Sasha asks taking a sip of her drink
“Some kids diary, my… eyes helped me find its hiding spot” I say looking around
“Cool, did you read it?” Ruche asks
“I skimmed the first page, I have pictures of all the pages though, im gonna translate them later and give it over to the mayor” I say
“Is that a good idea? What if she asks how you can read it” Ruche says
“It’ll be fine, I said I’m good with dead languages so I might as well go all out, and as of today, I am officially conifers field agent! my license will be here tomorrow” I say
“Congratulations” Sasha says
“Yeah, congrats!” Ruche says with a smile
“Thanks” I say
We head back to the pokemon center and settle in for the day
I head over to the communications section in the lounge and get on one of the computers
First I print out the pictures I took today, then I start typing out a transcript of the contents on them
I vaguely remember reading something similar in my dads study, so I format it similar to that
I notice in the first picture there’s a name on the back of the cover that I didn’t see before, it says “property of lavid”
The first few pages are the kid getting used to writing, mostly stuff about his friends and what he ate that day
The next page is a drawing of him with his parents and a Chimchar
The next few pages seem to be a few months apart as he’s suddenly talking about winter on one page, then spring on another
The next page is interesting, it talks about a cave in that woke everyone up, no one was hurt, but the path to a place called “the workshop” was cut off and that they would have to dig a new way in for “the old man” at the edge of town
I make a note of it as it might lead me to the place where the fountains were built
The third to last page was about a strange traveling merchant that visited town and tried to sell some peculiar items but was driven off by the village chief
The second to last page talks about a bad harvest, and how he’s gonna have to go help scavenging with the rest of the villagers to procure food
The last page seems to be his thought about his father, who seems to have passed away because of the lack of food
“Aww man, that sucks…” I say leaning back in my chair
I check the time, I’ve been at it for a few hours, Scarlett is asleep in the chair next to me
I print out all the transcripts and gather the pictures of the pages and layer them so it goes, picture, transcript, picture, and so on
I staple the corner and stand up and stretch
I wake Scarlett up and we have a quick meal and head to bed
I wake up above the lake but I just close my eyes and wait for morning
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Post by fattymccatcat on Jun 30, 2019 5:19:00 GMT
I wake up a bit early today and get ready for the meeting with the mayor
I head to the lounge and toss my clothes into the washing machine along with Scarlett’s vest and hop into a shower with Scarlett and get both of us cleaned up
As I’m getting dressed the speaker in the corner of the room crackles
“Dakota, please come to the front desk” nurse joy says over the speaker
I head out into the lobby and standing at the counter is a mailman dressed in yellow, blue, and white, with a big pelipper insignia on his chest and messenger bag
He smiles
“Dakota Douglas?” The man asks using my full name, which is rare
“Yeah” I say
“Delivery from a "Professor Conifer” please sign here for it" he says giving me a tablet
I grab the tablet and sign my name and hand it back to him
he reaches into his messenger bag and pulls out a small envelope and hands it to me
“Thank you for using Pelipper Priority Mailing” he says and then leaves
I open it and its my field agent identification card, I put it in my wallet and head back to my room
Then we have breakfast with everyone
Ruche sees my leg bouncing as we eat and smirks
“Nervous?” He asks
“Terrified ” I say with a laugh
Ruche laughs
“Well, are you at least ready for any questions they might have?” Ruche asks
“Maybe, I thought of some half truths I can toss out if I need to, like I learned a lot from my dad, who’s an archeologist” or “I grew up around this stuff so I guess I just picked it up naturally as I grew”, stuff like that" I say
“I see, that might work” Sasha says
“I hope it does, I can’t just go ” I used magic" like a weirdo" I say with a laugh
“True, they’d think you were crazy” Ruche says
“Exactly” I say
“… May I see the pictures you are handing over” Sasha asks
“Sure” I say and I go get the packet I made yesterday
Sasha flips through it
“I think you should take the translations out” Sasha says
“Why?” I ask
“Being able to do this in one night seems unlikely, they may start digging into why you can do this, or doubt your credibility” Sasha says
“But I already said I could translate it” I say
“Hmm, how about only having the first page done, and say your still working on the rest?” Ruche suggests
“That’s a good idea, let’s do that” I say taking the packet back
I take out all the translations except for the first page and re-staple it back together
“Thanks guys” I say
I spend the rest of the morning preparing
I ask Sasha if she can look after the egg today and she agrees
I change into my usual outfit and help Scarlett back into her vest
She usually wears it open but I decide to try buttoning it up today
“Looks good” I say with a nod and Scarlett does a little twirl
“Alright, we should get going, I’ll see you guys at the poffin thing later” I say grabbing the folder with the pictures
“Good luck” Sasha says
“And mind your manners!” Ruche says sternly
“Okay, mom!” I say jokingly and duck out of the room as Ruche throws a pillow at me from his bed
Scarlett and I walk through town looking for the address and after a bit of looking we find it
Its a small and simple looking building, if you weren’t looking for it you’d probably walk right past or without giving it a second thought
I double check and its definitely town hall
“Huh” I say shoving the scrap of paper into my pocket
I’m about twenty minutes early but I head inside just to make extra sure this is the place
On contrast to the outside. The inside does give off the feeling of being an important building
The carpet is a dark red color, and reaches halfway up the walls stopping at a metal divider the rest of the wall is white marble
There are two stone fountains that seem to be miniature recreations of the star crossed Shellos fountains sitting in the corners of the room
There are a few chairs for people to sit and wait to be called
And finally at the back of the room is a large circular counter where a woman seems to be reading a book
She looks up at me then back down at her book then back to me quickly in some sort of double take
“…Dakota?” The lady asks
“Uh, Yes, I’m here to meet the mayor, although I’m a bit early” I say
“That’s fine, I’ll let her know you’re here” she says with a smile
She gets up and leaves through the door behind her
We take a seat and wait for her to come back
Scarlett goes to check out one of the fountains while we wait
The lady comes back about five minutes later
“Follow me” she says with a smile
We follow her through the door and down a hallway towards a set of large double doors
As were walking I notice there’s a bunch of stone carvings set into the walls
They are of pokemon or places of interest in Hearthome
We reach the doors and walk in and it looks pretty muck like the lobby
Red carpet, white walls, fountains, and more stone carvings
A lady a suit bounces happily beside a large oak desk with a big smile on her face
She has dark red hair pulled back into an incredibly long ponytail
She’s about six feet tall and a lot younger than I was expecting, only about thirty or so
She rushes us and grabs me and Scarlett up into a big bear hug
She’s incredibly strong and we can’t break free
“Oh look at you two in your little vests! So cute!” She says as she does a little spin
“Carrara! Drop them this instant!” The lady shouts
“Aww but carol!” Carrara says
“No buts! This is not how a mayor greets guests!” Carol says sternly
“Tsk” Carrara says clicking her tongue and dropping us
“I’m sorry about her” carol says as we catch our breath
“I-its fine, just a bit sudden” I sputter out
I Stand up and straiten my clothes and then help Scarlett up
“So you’re Dakota! I couldn’t wait to meet you!” Carrara says with a big smile
“Really? I couldn’t tell” I say snarkly
“Oh? Maybe I should express my excitement again” she says getting into a pose like she’s getting ready to tackle us and Scarlett hides behind my leg
Carol claps her hands together loudly
“I think we should start over!” Carol says and then glares at Carrara
“Y-yeah alright” Carrara says straightening up
“Fine by me” I say with a laugh
Carol motions for us to start
“I’m Dakota, and this is my partner Scarlett, we found a diary in the ruins and came to report it” I say
“And I’m Carrara! The mayor of Hearthome! And that is my best friend and assistant, Carol” She says with a big smile
She motions for us to follow and we move to her desk
“So! You said you found a diary?” She asks
I smile and hand her the folder
She opens it and carol crowds close to see as well
“That’s not very professional carol” Carrara says
“You’re the last person I want to here that from!” Carol snaps
They flip through the pages
“It was hidden in the wall!? How did you even notice that!” Carrara asks
“It was the only long flat stone in the room, it was suspicious” I say
They continue flipping through the pictures
“It looks to be in pretty good condition, the writing has barely faded” carol says
“I think the dirt that build up around the stone created like, an airtight seal that preserved the book” I say
“Huh” carol says
The get to the last page which is the translation of the first page
“What’s this?” Carrara asks with a glint of hope in her eyes
“A transcript of the first page, its all I could translate on such short notice” I say with a smile
They both just kind of stare at me
“D-did Kevin not mention that I specialize in dead languages?” I ask
“He did not, please excuse me” carol says through gritted teeth and leaves the room
“Ha ha, well, it seems they are at it again” Carrara says shaking her head
“Should I not have mentioned it?” I ask
“Nah, Kevin knew this was gonna happen, they are just… Like that. Even after ten years of marriage, no one but him can get under her skin like that” Carrara says with a laugh
“That’s… A weird way to flirt, but its nice they get along?” I say a bit confused
Carrara laughs
“We’ve gotten off topic, this discovery is amazing and the fact that you can translate it is even more amazing, and Id like to you to translate the rest. You will be compensated and credited of course” she says
“Sure” I say
“Fantastic! Once it gets out that someone found something in the ruins that should draw some more people to the city” Carrara says happily
“About that. Could you hold off on telling people about this for a few days?” I ask
“Sure, a few days won’t make much of a difference but why?” She asks
“Well, I’m not done exploring the ruins yet, and… I’m looking for something a bit bigger than the book” I say with a smile
A smile creeps across her face
“And what would that be?” She asks
“The workshop of the guy who made the star crossed Shellos fountains” I say
“Oh? But its believed that ruin six in the center of the forest was the workshop” Carrara says
My eyes light up
“I see” I say with a smirk
“…you know something!” Carrara says
“I might. You’ll just have to wait for my investigation to finish” I say
“I’m looking forward to it” she says with a big grin
Carol comes back and sits down
“Hey, this is a bit off topic but can I ask you something?” carol says
“Sure!” I say
“I did a little digging, is it true you took those pictures of the amber castle?” Carol says excitedly
“No way! That was you?” Carrara asks
“Yeah, wow, that feels like ages ago” I say with a laugh
“Can you tell me about it? I love bug types” carol says
“Sure! Id be glad too” I say with a smile
I proceed to tell them about meeting professor Andrena and the amber castle while showing them pictures on my camera then we talk about myself and my friends and our journey so far, leaving out the magic stuff, and before we knew it three hours had passed
“Oh dear, look at the time!” Carol says
“Whoa, time just flew by” Carrara says with a laugh
“I should get going” I say standing up
Scarlett fell asleep on the couch a few hours ago so I go and wake her up
“I’ll get back to you with those transcripts and any other things I might find in the ruins” I say walking toward the door
“Can’t wait!” Carrara says with a smile
I head out the way we came and start heading to the address on the flyer
I get there about ten minutes before our meet up time and see Sasha and Ruche waiting for us out front
“Hey guys!” I say running over to them
“Hey! How did the meeting go?” Ruche asks
“Great! The mayors real nice, we got along great” I say with a smile
I see Sasha holding the incubator
“Thanks for looking after the egg today” I say taking it back
“You are welcome, it was fun” Sasha says
“Anything happen with it?” I ask
“Yes, it lit up once” Sasha says
“Oh that’s great!” I say happily patting the incubator
“Let’s head inside and get signed up for this thing” Ruche says
“Good idea,” I say and we head inside
We walk into the building and follow a series of signs to a big kitchen with six long counters, and along both walls are box’s of various berries
A lady walks up to us and smiles
“Are you here for the poffin class?” She asks
“Yes” I say
“Great! I’m the instructor, please go ahead and grab a station and once everyone’s here we will start” she says walking off to greet someone who came in behind us
each of the long counters have three identical work stations on them and we find an unoccupied one
I set the incubator down somewhere within eyeshot but where it wouldn’t be in the way
Each station has the same stuff
A pot, a juicer, a paper bag with something that looks like flour, and muffin tray, some cups, a plate, and some other stuff
As more people show up the stations fill up more and more until each one is filled
The instructor closes the door and walks to the front of the room and smiles
“Welcome everyone to introduction to poffins! Today I’ll be teaching you all how to make poffins!” She says happily
“First, everyone, in an orderly fashion, please go and pick some Berry’s from the boxes that are along the walls of the room” she says gesturing to either side
Everyone in the room slowly make their way around the room looking at the various berries
Each of the boxes has a little note on it describing the berry and its flavors
“Scarlett, what are you in the mood for?” I ask
Scarlett makes a fanning motion with her hand towards her mouth
“Spicy? Alright, let’s do spicy” I say
I look around the room and spot a box of tamato Berry’s and grab one
The instructor sees this and walks over
“Remember, with tamato Berries less is more, I’d recommend pairing it with something else as well” she says
“Alright, I’ll look for another one, thanks” I say and go back to walking along the wall
I spot a pretty blue berry I’ve never seen before
The note says its a yache berry and has a minty flavor
I grab it and head back to the counter
“That’s… An interesting combo” Ruche says looking at my berries
“What did you get?” I ask
“A roseli berry and a Cherri berry” Ruche says
“Never heard of roseli” I say
“What about you Sasha” Ruche asks
Sasha holds up a pecha berry and a purple berry I don’t recognize
“Oh, payapa and pecha! That should be good” Ruche says
Everyone Finishes picking their Berries and heads back to their stations
The instructor smiles
“Great! Now the first step is to juice your Berries in the juicer, just pop a berry in and hit the button, don’t forget to put a cup under the spout that’s on the side to catch the juice” she says
I pop the yache berry into the juicer first and hit the button
The cup is immediately filled with a light blue juice that smells strongly of mint
I put the tamato berry in next and get a cup of red juice I don’t dare to smell
Once everyone has their juice the teacher smiles
“Fantastic, next throw one cups worth of juice, into the pot to boil” she says
I go three parts yache and one part tamato and set it on the stove to boil
The room becomes very aromatic as everyone’s juice starts heating up
“Once the juice begins to boil, pour in the bag of poffin mix, once you pour it in, start stirring it and don’t stop until it starts to thicken, once its thick enough, pour it into the poffin mold tin, and put it into the oven at 350” she explains
I turn on the oven and get the poffin tray ready
Then once the juice starts boiling I dump the poffin mix in and start stirring it
As we are all stirring the teacher starts clapping
“Don’t stir too fast or too slow, stir to the beat of my clapping” she says as she walks around the room
It finally starts to thicken up and everyone starts to pour it into the molds
“Don’t pour too much into one mold, they’re gonna poof up!” The instructor says
I pour my purple mixture into the nine molds and try to keep it at an even amount, then I put them in the oven
“this is pretty fun” I say
“my arms are kind of tired though” Ruche says
“Yeah, going at that steady pace was kind of a pain” I say with a laugh
“Okay, while were waiting let’s clean up!” She says with a smile
We clean up everything that’s been used so far and then wait around for the poffins to be done
After about half an hour the room starts smelling great
And ten minutes later an alarm goes off
“Time to get them out!” The instructor says
I put on oven mitts and get them out of the oven and set them down on the counter
Mine are light purple, Ruche’s are dark red, and Sasha’s are pink
Scarlett is drooling by this point
Once they cool down I take the little almond shaped cakes out of the tray and put them onto a plate
I hand one to Scarlett and grab another and we take a bite
The minty coolness of the yache berry hits you first, making your mouth feel pleasant and cool, then after a moment the spiciness of the tamato berry starts ramping up and paired with the cooling effect of the yache makes it feel like a thousand needles piercing your tongue
Scarlett and I start pounding a fist on the nearest possible surface as we chew
“What’s wrong?” Ruche asks
We quickly chew and swallow the bite we took
“Ha ha that sucked!” I say
“Oh, did it taste bad?” Ruche asks
“No, it actually tasted fine” I say sweating a bit
Scarlett smiles and Finishes hers and starts stomping her feet with a smile on her face
“Hmm. I’m curious.” Ruche says picking up one of my poffins and pops the whole thing into his mouth
“Oh, minty” he says as he chews
Then his head tilts to the side
His face then kinda turns red and he quietly gets himself a glass of water and downs it
“That… How did you even do that!” Ruche says with a laugh
“I don’t know!” I say
Sasha takes one and bites into it
She chews it and after a moment stomps her foot once and swallows it
“It… was… Certainly unique” Sasha says
“Maw!” Scarlett says pulling my pant leg and indicating she wants another one
“You like these?” I ask
Scarlett nods furiously
“Alright, sure” I say handing her another one
“Can I try yours?” I ask Sasha
Sasha hands me and Ruche one and we all take a bite
Its incredibly sweet and taste like fruit
“Nice” Ruche says
“Yeah, especially after mine” I say
“…sweet” Sasha says
“Mine next!” Ruche says handing us each one of his
I take a bite
It tastes like Cherries with a hint of roses, its a bit on the bitter side
“Hmm, these might be better with some powdered sugar on top” Ruche says
“I agree” Sasha says
“I like the flowery after taste” I say
The instructor comes by
“Oh these look lovely! May I have one?” She asks
She’s holding a little basket with one poffin from each of the other participants
We each hand her one and she tosses them into the basket and walks to the front of the room
“Now for a surprise event! We are going to taste each of your poffins! And the best one wins a prize!” She says dumping all eighteen poffins onto a plate
She takes out a pokeball and summons her pokemon, a Munchlax
“You hungry?” She asks
“Munch!” Munchlax yells with a smile
One by one she tries each poffin, splitting it in half
Munchlax eats each one happily while the teacher gives everyone notes about their poffin
She picks up Ruche's and splits it and they pop it into their mouth
“Hmm, this is good, it could use a bit of sweetness though” she says
Next was Sasha’s
“Fruity! I like it” she says
She eats two other poffins and mine winds up being last
She splits in and they start chewing and the instructor nods
“Huh, that’s an interesting sensation. Not many people use yache berries either… I kinda like it” the instructor says with a laugh
Munchlax nods along
“Its not the winner, but it gets an honorable mention for the sheer novelty of it” she says with a smile
“Cool!” I say
None of us won, but all the winner got was five bags of poffin mix and they could keep the poffin tray they used
We summon all our pokemon to share the rest of the poffins with them
I give the last three to combee, Monferno, and Chatot
They eat them happily and their reactions to the tingling sensation is quite funny
We leave the building and head back to the pokemon center and lounge around in our room for a few hours
We have dinner and then go to bed
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Post by fattymccatcat on Jul 1, 2019 7:59:54 GMT
I wake up after another night above the lake and get ready for the day
After breakfast we head to the park and start training
I have Monferno and Scarlett pair up as usual
Scarlett is in the tree throwing leaves down while Monferno cuts them apart using scratch
Combee trains by spitting her honey, she’s getting pretty good at it, she can spit it about three feet in front of her now
And Chatot goes back to trying to learn steel wing
As he’s snapping sticks his wings light up twice, but he still hasn’t learned the move yet
After about an hour we pack it up and Scarlett and I head over to the ruins
We walk up to Kevin’s booth and he smiles at us
“Hey! How’d your meeting go?” Kevin asks
“Great, Carrara is pretty cool” I say
“Yeah, she is pretty cool” Kevin says with a nod
“Also met carol, she’s pretty cool too” I say
He smiles
“Yep! The coolest” he says grinning like a love-struck idiot
“I’ll see you later” I say and Scarlett waves goodbye as we walk into the woods
“Let me see that stamp card for a second” I ask and Scarlett hands it over
“Four stamps left…. Alright, I think I know the path we’re gonna take” I say handing it back to Scarlett
“Let’s head to ruin six” I say with a smile
We make our way through the forest to the small flower patch and head down the stone stairs into the ruins
There are many exits from ruin six, but only one leads to a new ruin
We head down the path and I check around with my eyes until we reach the new room
There’s nothing here except the number four stamp and I notice there isn’t a way to the surface
There are two exits from this room, one leading to the east and one leading to the west most side of the map
The line on the map that indicates the path leading to the west side is incredible long, so we go the other way for now
I scan around with my eyes and see nothing and eventually we reach the next room
Scarlett acquires the number five stamp and the room is empty
We head south and back into ruin eleven, the one near the graffiti rooms, and rush back through the tunnels to ruin six, and back to ruin four where we started
We start along the stupidly long path that leads to the west
After about an hour and a half I spot a big red patch on the tunnel wall
“Sweet!” I say rushing to it
I press against it but it doesn’t give
I notice that the stones on this part of the wall are a slightly lighter shade than the ones around it
“…what did the diary say? The tunnel to the workshop collapsed? … If this was where the tunnel was then the workshop is somewhere north of here, right?” I ask with a big grin
Scarlett shrugs
I hand the incubator to Scarlett and summon Monferno for some light and take a picture of the wall
Coupled with the flash you can really see the color difference of the stones
“Nice, let’s get the rest of the stamps then head topside” I say and Scarlett nods excitedly
We continue down the path for about two more hours and come to a small room
Scarlett gets the three stamp
There isn’t a way up but there is a new tunnel going north
“The last stamp should be at the end of this tunnel!” I say and Scarlett gets excited
We rush down the tunnel and after twenty minutes we reach a small room
The smallest room we have seen so far
There’s old rotten wooden shelves on the walls and a small desk with the last stamp on it
I lift Scarlett up to the desk and she gets the final stamp, the number twelve stamp, and Scarlett holds the stamp card aloft triumphantly
We have to head back down a few different tunnels to find a way back up as the last few rooms didn’t have any
By the time we reach the surface the sun has started setting
“Lets go see Kevin and turn in the stamp card” I say
We leave the forest and head to Kevin’s booth
“Hey, what’s up” Kevin says
“We finished the stamp card! On the back of the card it says there’s a prize?” I say handing him the stamp card
“Oh cool, let me just…” He says opening a few drawers
He grabs something and hands me two Shellos keychains, a pink one and a blue one
“You’re only supposed to get one, but who cares” Kevin says with a smiles
I hand them to Scarlett who’s eyes light up
She puts them into her inner vest pocket for safe keeping
“See you tomorrow Kevin” I say
“Bye” he says happily waving us off
We go and get a small snack since we missed lunch and then head back to the pokemon center and just take it easy for the rest of the day
Scarlett happily shows off her keychains to everyone
As I’m laying in bed browsing the internet I realize that my eyes don’t feel tired despite using my magic all day
I don’t know how I feel about that
We have dinner and head back to our room
As we are getting ready for bed the egg light up into the incubator
“Should be any time now” I say happily
“So, what’s the glowing mean? Is it about to hatch?” Ruche asks
“No, I’d say there’s about two weeks left before it hatches, but I’ll be able to take it out of the incubator soon” I say
“You can take it out of the incubator?” Ruche asks
“Yeah, once it stops glowing and starts shaking, then you take it out of the incubator and cradle it in your arms, that’s usually about three or four days before it hatches though” I explain
“Isn’t that dangerous? What if you drop it?” Ruche asks
I laugh
“Pokemon eggs are indestructible, you could drop it off the tallest building in Sinnoh and it would be fine” I say
“Really?” Ruche asks
“Yeah, I dropped Scarlett’s egg all the time when I was raising her” I say with a laugh
“Maw!?” Scarlett says with a shocked expression
We laugh and turn in for the night
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Post by fattymccatcat on Jul 3, 2019 2:53:36 GMT
I wake up and get showered and dressed
We eat breakfast and then I make some sandwiches for lunch and pack those away
“You look excited” Ruche says
“I am! I very close to finding something! Well, I hope so anyway” I say with a laugh
“… why are you doing this again? Like the whole ruin diver thing?” Ruche asks
“… Huh… Well, It started with just wanting to see if I could, then it turned into getting used to my magic, then I just Sorta… started to like it” I say
“That is understandable, you have always looked up to your dad” Sasha says
“So, what’s gonna happen after this is over? You going to find some more ruins?” Ruche asks
“Hmm. No. I think I’ll go back to focusing on training my pokemon. This was kinda just… Me getting swept along by the flow of events? Like this is fun, but training for gyms and taking pictures was a lot more fun” I say
“And you still have to get to lake valor” Sasha says
“That’s true, we don’t know what’s going to happen with that either, cant keep playing archeologist when things are so uncertain about this magic stuff…” I say clutching my shirt above my scar
There’s an uncomfortable silence in the room that resonates in my stomach
I grab my bag and force a smile
“But today I still have stuff to do in those ruins, so we can worry about that later!” I say patting Scarlett’s head
“… Want me to watch the egg for you today?” He asks
“Would you? That would be great” I say
“Leave it to me!” Ruche says happily
Scarlett and I leave the pokemon center and head to Kevin’s booth to sign in
Surprisingly he isn’t here, just a little sign that says “back in five minutes” and the sign in sheet
I sign us in and we head into the woods
We make our way to ruin six at the center of the map
“If my magic was telling the truth there’s another ruin somewhere north west of here, let’s just hope my magic shows us where” I say
We start walking
We spend six hours zigzagging through the woods looking for any sign of the workshop
There’s no path, and the trees grew a bit too close together so climbing over the tangled gnarled roots of the trees was quite the chore
Its about two pm so we stop for a quick lunch
Scarlett, Chatot, combee, Monferno, and I enjoy some okay sandwiches while sitting on a large tree root
After we finish eating I realize something
“Chatot! Can you fly above the trees and look around?” I ask
Chatot nods happily
“Great! I don’t think you’re looking for a building, the fact that they had to make a new entrance into the workshop after the tunnel collapsed means it was probably underground like some of the other ruins, look for… A gap in the trees? Or anything that looks out of place” I say not really sure what to have him look for
Chatot takes to the sky and comes back about five minutes later
“See anything?” I ask
“Chat chat chat” he says
“Three things?” I ask and he nods
“Lead the way!” I say
Chatot leads us to a little clearing, as we enter some wild pokemon run off
There’s a few big boulders here but nothing else
We continue following his lead and next we reach a massive tree
Its about twice as big as those around it and there’s a small stream nearby
We take a look around and don’t find anything
As were walking to the next spot I’m looking around with my magic and in see a flash of red in the distance
“Guys! This way!” I yell and Chatot and Scarlett follow me as I rush toward the highlighted spot
The thing that’s glowing red is a tree and a good portion of the ground under it
“My eyes say this tree is hiding something” I say placing my hand on its trunk
We look around but don’t find anything
“…there’s something I’ve been wanting to try” I say
“This tree is hiding an old ruin!” I say aloud
The red highlight over the tree and ground starts to fade and I smile
“This is the workshop of the guy who made the Shellos fountains” I say and the light practically disappears and I get an idea
“And there is no way in!” I yell
The light fades and a spot under the base of the tree lights up so bright I have to turn my eyes off for a second
“Awesome!” I say with a laugh and go to the base of the tree and start digging with a little trowel from my backpack
After about ten minutes I hit stone
I spend another ten minutes clearing the area with Monferno and Scarlett’s help
After we get a lot of the dirt out of the way we see what we unearthed
A large stone block
Its a basic square shape about four inches thick
Just to be sure I turn on my eyes
“If we move this we will get into the workshop” I say and the light disappears
I laugh
I grab my camera and take a few pictures
“Help me move this thing” I say
All three of us pull the stone block off of its setting revealing a rotten old ladder leading down into the darkness
“Shoot… Can’t use that…” I say
I take another picture and walk over to my bag
I take out my rope and start tying knots into it every foot or so making a simple rope ladder
I tie it around one of the nearby roots and triple check its secure because I know my luck
I toss it down the hole and shine my light down into it to make sure it reached the bottom
“Alright, into your pokeballs” I say
Scarlett shakes her head no
“Its just for a second, carrying you down this rope is impossible, I’ll let you out at the bottom” I say and she reluctantly goes inside her premier ball
I take out my pokenav, check the coordinates and text them to Ruche with the note “just in case”
He replays immediately
“What do you mean! Are you doing something stupid again!?” Ruche writes
“Ha ha, Sorta, I found a new ruin, I’m going down for a quick peak” I text back
“Please please please be careful!” Ruche sends back
“I will~” I write back and put my pokenav away
I steady my nerves and head down the ladder
At the bottom I turn on my light and let Scarlett out of her pokeball
I look around the room and smile
The room is pretty big but the walls of the room are a bit sketchy as a lot of roots have broken through
there are stone tables everywhere, and sitting on top of them are tools and stones and half completed Shellos statues
I summon Monferno and tell him to crank up the light on his tail and I start taking pictures of everything in the room
“Maw” Scarlett says pointing to something large in the corner
Its covered in a moldy old sheet
I put my gloves on and a mask to keep the dust out
I put one on Scarlett and Monferno as well
I take a picture of the sheet and then grab it and carefully remove it
As soon as I see what it is I start grinning wildly under my mask
Its the finished top section of a fountain
It has two Shellos, a west and east variant cuddled up together, smiling, and crying tears of joy while they look over a pokemon egg
Its looks so realistic that I can’t help but smile along with them
Scarlett taps my leg and I snap out of it
“I can’t believe we actually found it! Well, looks like they had only finished the top part of it though, but still! Carrara gonna freak” I say with a laugh
I take a few pictures and do one last check around the room and put Scarlett and Monferno away and climb back up the ladder
We put the stone cover back on and start heading out of the forest
As we get closer to town my excitement starts to bubble up and I find myself running gleefully towards the forests edge
Scarlett and I break out of the forest in a sprint grinning from ear to ear and rush to Kevin’s booth
“Oh hey, what’s the-” Kevin starts to say but I cut him off
“Call Carrara!” I scream happily
“What-” Kevin says
“Now now now!” I say tapping on the counter and jumping
His eyes go wide as he realizes I’ve found something bigger than a diary this time
He fumbles with his pokenav and hold it up to his ear
“Honey? Yeah, Dakotas here and he’s freaking out! He wants to talk to Carrara, I think he’s found something big this time” Kevin says
I nod enthusiastically
“Uh huh, uh huh, okay” Kevin says
“Go to town hall! They are waiting for you!” Kevin says
“Thank you!” I say and start running
“No, thank you!” Kevin yells out at us as we rush off
We run through town and reach town hall in record time
I take a second for us to catch our breath and then we head inside
Carol and Carrara are waiting for us in the lobby and rush us the second we open the door
“What did you find!?” Carrara shouts with an excited smile, grabbing my shoulders and shaking me
“T-t-the third star crossed Shellos fountain” I sputter out between shakes
Everything kind of stops
Carrara freezes and her eyes kinda glaze over
“Oh, she broke” carol says
“Is-is she gonna be okay?” I ask
“Yeah, she did this when I asked her to be my maid of honor, she got so happy she shut down” carol says with a laugh
“So, I did good?” I ask with a laugh
Carol walks over and grabs my head and turns it so we are looking eye to eye
“You did amazing” she says
Carrara blinks a few times and looks at me and grins
“Tell me everything!” She says dragging me into her office
I tell them about the stone under the tree and the workshop and show them the pictures, but stop before the fountain top
As I pull up that picture Carrara and carol gasp
I start saying something about it only being the top but when I look back at the them Carrara is crying
“Carrara” carol says putting a hand on her shoulder
Carrara snaps out of it
“Oh, geez sorry, excuse me” she says as she wipes away her tears and leaves the room
“Uh” I say
Carol smiles softly
“Her… Late father, was a sculptor. He took her to see the fountains every day when she was growing up. They both loved and admired those fountains, Its… She loves this town more than anyone, and works tirelessly to make it better, she’s the best mayor this town could ask for” carol says with a smile
After a few minutes Carrara comes back smiling like usual
“Sorry about that!” She says walking back to the desk
She takes a deep breath
“Dakota, you have done a great thing for Hearthome, and I cant thank you enough, come back tomorrow. I’ll have some sort of reward ready from me personally, as for your proper payment, that might take a bit, we need to call in someone to catalogue and collect these things immediately” Carrara says
“Cool, when I come back I’ll have printouts of all the pictures I took, as well as the rest of the transcripts for the diary, and an SD card with all the pictures on them” I say
“Fantastic!” Carrara says with a smile and charges at me
She scoops me up into another bear hug, only this time my head winds up in her chest
She has me in a death grip and her ample chest makes it hard to breath
After about ten seconds carol coughs
“Carrara” carol says
I start getting light headed, when she charged me I exhaled so I’m working with no air
“Carrara he can’t breath!” Carol shouts
“Oh shoot! Sorry!” Carrara says dropping me to the floor
I take a moment to catch my breath
“Oh! I’m going to go tell gramps the good news!” Carrara says happily bounding out of the room
Carol walks over and crouches next to me on the floor
“Your face looks a bit flushed” she says with a grin
“…shut up” I say turning away from her
She laughs and helps me to my feet
“Alright, I’ll see you guys tomorrow, how’s noon sound?” I ask
“Let’s make it ten” carol says jotting it down in her pokenav
“Got it” I say and start heading for the door
“Oh, let’s keep this under wraps for now okay?” Carol says
“Okay, my friends already know but they wouldn’t tell anyone, if there’s a leak I feel it would probably be Kevin” I say with a laugh
Carol eyes go wide and she pulls out her pokenav
Scarlett and I leave and head back to the pokemon center
Ruche is drawing in his sketchbook next to the egg at the desk when we walk in
Sasha isn’t here
“Oh, hey, how’d it go?” Ruche asks closing his notebook
“Great! I found the third star crossed Shellos fountain” I say sitting down on my bed
Ruche’s jaw drops
“Ha ha, wanna see? You’ll be the fourth person to ever see it” I say
Ruche nods
I hand him the camera
“…wow” Ruche says
“Yeah, they aren’t star crossed anymore, they got a happy end” I say with a smile
“That’s… ” Ruche mutters at a loss for words
Ruche hands the camera back to me and opens his sketchbook and starts scribbling away
I leave Scarlett on the bed with my pokenav and go to the computer room in the lounge and get to work
I print out all the new pictures and then I transfer all the pictures I’ve taken of the ruins so far, the diary, the workshop, the fountain, the stones in the tunnel, and the transcripts onto an SD card
I put the pictures and the rest of the transcripts into a folder, toss the SD card into a case and glue it to the inside of the folder and head back to the room
When I get back Sasha’s is sitting on her bed
“Oh hey” I say
“Hello, how did your trip go?” Sasha asks
“Ruche didn’t tell you?” I say
“He has not looked up from his sketchbook since I arrived” Sasha says
“I found a new star crossed Shellos fountain” I say and show her the print out of the picture
“Oh, congratulations” Sasha says
“It was mostly the magic’s doing” I say
“True, but you are the only one with magic, so this was something only you could do, correct?” Sasha says
“Huh, I guess so” I say sitting down on my bed
“Are you ready for your gym battle tomorrow?” Sasha asks
“Well, no, but I’ll give it all I’ve got” I say with a smile
Sasha and I make dinner for everyone
we have to pry Ruche away from his notebook but we get him to eat
After dinner Scarlett and I head to bed early as I’m a bit tired from everything that’s happened today
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Post by fattymccatcat on Jul 20, 2019 2:01:34 GMT
I wake up and prepare for all the stuff I have to do today
“What time is your gym battle again?” Ruche asks
“One” I say looking at my pokenav’s calendar
“Should we meet you at the gym?” Ruche asks
“Yeah, unless you two want to come to the meeting and meet Carrara” I say
“I’m good” Ruche says with a laugh
“No thank you” Sasha says
We have a nice breakfast then I grab the incubator and head outside
I summon everyone
“Well, our gym battle is in a few hours, are you guys ready?” I ask and they all cheer
I notice chatots a bit hesitant
“You okay?” I ask
“…chat” Chatot says swinging his wing down
“Ah, steel wing. You don’t want to sit this one out right?” I ask and he shakes his head no
I see that Monferno got excited for a second hoping he was going to be put into the rotation
“Hmm… Who wants to battle today?” I ask
All three with hands raise them while combee floats upwards
“… Okay, change of plans, let’s leave who’s going to battle today up to chance” I say with a smile
We head inside and I make four slips of paper and mark one with a red tip and mix them up
“If you get the red one, you have to sit out today, how’s that sound?” I ask and they all look at me excited
They decide amongst themselves the order in which they will draw
For some reason they all decide Scarlett should go first
She confidently picks one and draws it with a flourish, raising it high into the air
Its the red one
Scarlett fall to the ground in despair and bangs her fists on the ground
we all burst into laughter
I laugh so hard my sides hurt
“Oh man, scar, that was amazing” I say wiping the tears from my eyes
“Maw” Scarlett says pouting and crossing her arms
I pat her head to try and comfort her a bit
“Okay, combee. Monferno, Chatot. You three are up, let’s try and get this done in one!’ I say and they all cheer
Everyone goes back into their pokeballs and Scarlett and I walk around until its time to head to town hall
I buy her some candy since she’s still down about losing her spot on today’s roster
We walk into town hall and carol smiles from behind the desk
"Good morning!” Carol says
“Good morning” I say
“Maw wile!” Scarlett says waving at her
“Let’s head to Carrara’s office, she’s talking with her grandpa right now” carol says glancing down at the egg
“Shouldn’t we wait then?” I ask
“No, he’s going to be doing the restoration on the fountain, he’s Hearthome’s greatest stone worker and a world famous sculptor” carol says
“Huh, okay” I say
We walk down the hallway and into Carrara’s office
Carrara smiles brightly and waves us over
Standing beside her is a man of about seventy years of age, white hair, sour demeanor, and I’ve met him before
Its alabaster, the man I met next to the fountains a few nights ago
I’m a bit shocked that’s he’s here but quickly regain my composure
“Good to see you again alabaster” I say with a grin
“Well well, when Carrara told me about the fountain I thought it might of been you, I can’t believe you actually did it though” alabaster says in his gravely voice
“Wait wait wait! how do you two know each other!?” Carrara asks
“We met when he was taking pictures of the fountains the other night” alabaster says
“Yeah, he scared the hell out me! It was four am and he walks up behind me without a sound like some sort of ninja!” I say
Carrara pinches the bridge of her nose and sighs
“Alright, well, let’s do introductions anyway. Gramps, this is Dakota, a field agent, photographer, and dead language specialist. Dakota, this is my grandfather alabaster, he’s a famous sculptor, and stone worker, he maintains all of Hearthome’s fountains, statues, and roads” Carrara says
I set the incubator down on the floor next to Carrara’s desk and we shake hands
“Nice to formally meet you” I say with a smile
“Likewise kid” alabaster says
I grab the folder and hand it to Carrara
“Here you go! The rest of the pictures and transcripts, as promised” I say
She flips through it and smiles
“This is great! Thank you!” She says
She opens the drawer and takes out an envelope
“This is a gift from me” she says handing me the envelope
I open it and inside are three fancy looking tickets
“What are these?” I ask
“Those are invitations to Hearthome’s biggest party of the year, Seln’s Battle Banquet! I managed to pull some strings and get your friends tickets as well” Carrara says with a smile
“thank you! When is it?” I ask
“About a month from today” Carrara says
“Wow, okay. Anything I should Prepare?” I ask
“Its fancy dress, tuxedos and dresses and whatnot, and all you should bring are your pokemon” Carrara says
“Alright, that should be fun” I say putting the tickets away
“I’m hoping to unveil the fountain to the world at the party, if its ready by then anyway, how’s it looking gramps?” Carrara asks
Alabaster sets down the pictures he was looking over
“sadly we’re going to need to dig into the ruins to get the fountain out, the entrance you found is way too small to carry it up through” alabaster says
He rifles through the stack of pictures and grabs one
“And there’s another problem, the walls aren’t really stable, with all these roots breaking through, we are going to need to be very careful, we are going to need to get someone familiar with ruins in to help” alabaster says
Carrara starts smugly laughing to herself
“You don’t have to worry about that! One is already on their way here!” Carrara announces
“when did you do that? Who did you get?” Carol asks
“Its a secret! You will just have to wait until tomorrow when he arrives!” Carrara says happily
We spend the next hour going over the transcripts, pictures, and any questions they have, which I do my best to answer
I check the time on my pokenav
“You have somewhere to be?” Carol asks
“Yeah, I have a gym battle at one” I say
Carrara seems surprised
“So you’re taking on felicity huh, good luck, she’s a tough one” Carrara says
“You should probably go get ready then, felicity is very strict when it comes to punctuality, if your even a minute late you will be turned away” carol says
“Wow, Really? Then yeah I guess I should go” I say reaching down and picking up the incubator
“Should I come by tomorrow?” I ask
“Yep! I want you to meet the guy I called in” Carrara says with a smile
“Alright, see you tomorrow then” I say and Scarlett and I leave
We make our way across town and reach a park next to the gym and get warmed up with some stretches
Then as the time to meet up approaches we leave the park and head over to the gym and wait on a bench outside
After about a minute or so I get a text from Sasha
“Something has come up, proceed without me”
“Everything okay?” I text back
“I am fine, good luck with your battle” Sasha texts back
“Okay, if you need help just call” I text back
I put my pokenav away and Ruche shows up a few minutes later
“Hey!” I say waving him over
“Is Sasha not here yet?” Ruche says looking around
“No, she texted me saying something was up” I say
“Is she okay?” Ruche asks
“She said she was, I’m a bit worried but she would have asked for help if she needed it” I say
I check the time
“Alright let’s go in, apparently this is a test on punctuality” I say
“Here, I’ll hold onto the egg for you” Ruche says
“Thanks” I say handing the incubator to him
We walk inside and up to the counter
“I’m here for a gym battle” I say
The lady behind the counter smiles
“Dakota?” She asks
“Yep!” I say
She stands up and motions for us to follow
We walk through the door behind her into a large colorful room
It looks like a kindergarten, there’s toys and tiny desks and chairs everywhere and kids are running around and playing with a bunch of small adorable pokemon
A gentle looking woman with light pink hair looks at us and smiles
I assume this is Felicity
She is wearing a large white apron filled with markers of all different colors in the front pocket
She also has a small whiteboard on a strap hanging at her side
I also notice a fancy looking silver slide whistle hanging from her neck, it has some buttons and holes on the side
I’ve never seen a whistle quite like it
The lady leading us starts making gestures with her hands and to my surprise my translation ability still works
“The challenger is here” the lady signs
“Thank you, Which one is it?” Felicity signs
“Hat” the lady signs
“Okay. Take care of the kids while we are gone, they should be getting picked up soon” felicity signs
The lady walks off and felicity turns to us and grabs her whiteboard
“So, what are your names?” She writes
I take a deep breath and decide to give it a shot
“Hello, my names Dakota, and this is my friend Ruche” I sign much to everyone’s surprise
“You know sign language?” Felicity signs
“Apparently” I sign and laugh
Felicity looks a bit confused and Ruche is completely lost
“Yes, I know sign language, I know a lot of different languages” I sign and say aloud
Ruche nods as he gets the message and felicity smiles
“That’s great! Writing always takes up so much time” she says happily dropping her whiteboard to her side
“Tell your friend to go through the red door at the back and walk down the hallway to the viewing booth” felicity signs
I relay the message and he leaves the room
Felicity walks over and crouches next to Scarlett
“What a cute Mawile” she signs and starts petting Scarlett all over
Scarlett smiles happy as she’s getting pet all over
“The deceiver pokemon. Sums up fairy types perfectly huh? I love that about them, their little deceptions” felicity signs with a smirk
Then felicity stands up and nods
“So, your challenge is to bring me the golden ball” she signs as she leads us to the center of the room
“You are allowed to use as many of your pokemon as you wish to help you look for it, you have half an hour” she signs
“That sounds fun, so what, is it hidden in this room?” I sign as I look around the messy room filled with toys
She walks about five feet away, turns, and smiles sweetly
She stomps her foot and the floor below us falls away
“Shit!” I yell involuntarily
I grab onto Scarlett as we fall through a rainbow tunnel
as we fall the walls slowly start to curve and catch us and suddenly we are sliding
We twirl around this tube and then shoot out into the air and start falling again
We quickly land into a sea of plastic rainbow balls and are quickly enveloped by them
We struggle to swim to the surface but eventually get there
I see a little blue platform a few feet away and I push Scarlett up onto it and then pull myself up
“Thirty minutes remain” an automated voice says over an intercom
I stand up and look around
The ball pit is about the size of a swimming pool and I can’t tell how deep it is
The room is poorly lit, you can basically only see the pool sitting in an endless black void, but if you focus for a bit you can sort of make out the walls of the room
There’s a few other platforms like the one we are on situated across the surface of the balls
And there’s a big coiled rainbow slide hanging down from a hole in the ceiling
I quickly summon everyone
“We have to find a golden ball in this pit” I say and they all nod
Monferno, Scarlett, and I dive in and start throwing balls around while combee and Chatot look for it from the sky
After ten minutes of throwing balls around we have nothing to show for it
“Twenty minutes remain” the voice announces
“This isn’t working. Everyone regroup!” I yell
Scarlett looks at me and seems to get an idea
“Maw!” She says pointing to her eyes and then points to me
I understand immediately
“No, I’m not gonna use that” I say sternly
I look over everyone and get an idea
“Scarlett, combee, and Chatot, use gust, fairy wind, and mirror move to blast all the balls into the air!” I yell
They all separate and start blasting wind towards the center of the pool
The gusts and fairy wind start to mix and swirl around creating a cyclone that starts picking up the balls creating a giant cyclone of plastic balls
“Ten minutes remaining” felicity says
The golden ball is nowhere to be seen
Chatots mirror move times out and he fly’s over to me and the cyclone crashes into the pool
“Look from the air” I say he fly’s upward
A few minutes pass
“Five minutes remaining” the voice says
My mind races as I think about everything that’s happened so far
I focus on everything felicity signed
“…their little deceptions… Bring me the golden ball… Wait, she never said the ball was in the pit!” I yell
I look around the room again, but still don’t see anything, then my eyes fall onto Scarlett and Monferno on a platform across from me and I figure out Felicity’s trick
“Sixty seconds remaining” the voice says
“Monferno! Throw Scarlett to me!” I yell
“Maw!?” Scarlett says
Without missing a beat Monferno grabs Scarlett, spins to gain momentum, and launches her straight towards me
Scarlett is screaming the whole way and as she approaches I tilt the platform at a slight angle and brace myself
I catch her in my arms and the force sends the platform sliding backwards across the top of the balls to the edge of the pool
I set her down and start digging through her coat and pull a small golden ball from her pocket and hold it up to the sky
“Found it!” I yell with all my might
The room is silent
Then the lights in the room click on and felicity appears beside us
“That was very cool, and you managed to do it with three seconds to spare” felicity signs with a smile
We all collapse exhausted onto the platforms
We all crawl out of the ball pit
We follow felicity to the edge of the room across a red line
“Don’t cross the red line until I say” felicity signs and I tell the others
She hits a button on the wall and the whole room starts shaking
The rainbow slide retracts into the ceiling while a cover slides over the ball pit
Then a large hole opens along the side of the edge of the room and a large rolled up black mat rises up out of the hole
It starts unrolling over where the pool was and covers most of the floor
“Okay, its done” felicity signs and we run over to see what it is
Its a battlefield made of some sort of black material, sort of like the stuff you see on playgrounds to keep the kids from hurting themselves when they fall, only more pliable and springy
Scarlett is enjoying bouncing on the mat when felicity walks over
“Its a weird battlefield huh?” Felicity signs
“Looks fun though” I sign
Suddenly the lady from before walks in
“All the kids have been picked up” she signs
“Great! We can start then” felicity signs
“Oh, right, where’s Ruche?” I ask looking around
Felicity points up towards the ceiling and I can just barely make out a pane of glass
“Its one way glass, he can see you but you can’t see him” the lady says
I give a little wave towards the glass
Felicity walks over to her trainers box and smiles
I do the same
I have Scarlett sit on a bench behind us and watch the match
The lady stands to the side of the middle of the battlefields
“This match will be a three on three battle, first side to knock out all of the other sides pokemon is the winner and the challenger is the only one who can make substitutions, do you agree to these rules?” She asks
Felicity gives a thumbs up
“Yes” I say
Felicity takes a pokeball out from her apron and tosses it
A small pink pokemon appears, its Sorta like a cleffa but… Not a cleffa
I take out my pokedex
Igglybuff - The Balloon Pokemon - Normal/Fairy - Left to its own devices it will constantly practice its singing to the point of hurting its throat. It moves by bouncing along on its soft body. If it picks up to much momentum it is almost impossible to stop
I see felicity take that silver whistle hanging from her neck and place it between her lips
I turn towards my pokemon to decide who should go first but before I can combee rushes onto the field
“Alright then! Go get em combee!” I say with a laugh
“Comb!” Combee says happily
The stage is set!
3
2
1
Battle start!
“Combee, bug buzz!” I say
Felicity blows into her whistle, to my surprise it doesn’t make a sound
However I see Scarlett covers her ears and look around out of the corner of my eye
Igglybuff jumps up and the entire room lights up
Combee winces as she was starring directly at it
Combee, blinded, fires off her bug buzz randomly and misses
Felicity blows into her whistle again
Igglybuff charges forward and slams into combee with a headbutt and combee flies backwards and crashes to the ground
“Combee, fly up high until your eyes recover” I shout
Combee floats up and squints and flies toward the ceiling
After a few seconds combee blinks a few times and regains her eyesight
She looks towards me and nods and I get an idea as I look at her
“You have three faces! Keep one of your sets of eyes closed so when you get flashed you can switch to the ones not affected!” I shout
Combee closes some of her eyes and flies down toward Igglybuff
“Bug bite!” I yell
Combee grows glowing fangs and charges at Igglybuff
Felicity smiles and blows her whistle right as they are about to clash
Igglybuff glows pink and suddenly a translucent pink bubble forms around the two of them and its filled with a pink mist
Combee gets distracted and slams into Igglybuff instead of biting it
Igglybuff starts bouncing wildly around the misty terrain
“Comb!?” Combee says, her voice muffled by the bubble
“Get out of there!” I yell
Combee tries to fly away but the bubble is solid
Suddenly Igglybuff slams into combee pinning her to the wall before bouncing off and continuing her ricocheting
Combee starts trying to dodge Igglybuff but as it bounces it seems to keep gaining momentum and its getting faster and faster
Combee gets hit again and its a hard hit, she goes down and I don’t think she’s going to get back up
But to my surprise she floats back up into the center of the bubble
“We need to stop it…” I mutter
Then it hits me
“Combee! Use your ability! Like we did in training! The Spinny version!” I yell
Combee starts spinning in the air and starts spraying a fine mist of honey around the dome
Then combee speeds up and lets out a thicker spray of honey, a lot more than when we did our training
Then she let’s out so much it sounds like rain
The inside of the bubble becomes obscured by the sheer amount of honey
Felicity looks confused and blows on her whistle but nothing happens
She looks at me and I shrug
Suddenly the bubble pops and the honey that had built up on the walls slides down into a pile on the ground
Combee is floating there panting and wavering in the air, barely able to keep herself afloat
Igglybuff is completely coated in honey and is trying to crawl away from the pool of honey that is slowly creeping over the center of the battlefield
“Bug bite!” I say
Combee slowly floats over to Igglybuff and her fangs start to glow
Igglybuff tries to pry itself off the ground but its basically glued down at this point
Combee sinks her fangs into Igglybuff who screams
Igglybuff passes out after the third bite
Then combee looks at me, smiles, and passes out as well
“neither side is able to battle, this round is a draw” the judge announces
Felicity and I rush to our Pokemon’s sides and help them up
Combee seems fine, just tired and maybe a bit shriveled
“You used too much honey” I say
“C-comb” combee says dribbling honey
“Rest inside your pokeball for a bit, I’ll get you to the pokemon center” I say and put her away
I look over at felicity
“I’m worried about her, I think-” I start to say I forfeit when Ruche bursts through a door into the room
“Give combee to me, I’ll take her to the pokemon center” Ruche says
“Wait really?” I say
“Yes, hurry! She didn’t look good” Ruche says
I hand him her premier ball
“I’ll take care of her, good luck with the rest of the fight!” Ruche says and disappears as quickly as he showed up
“You have a good friend” felicity signs with a smile
“The best” I sign back
I look down at Igglybuff who’s awake and sitting in Felicity’s lap
“How’s Igglybuff?” I ask
“Fine, a bit sticky though” felicity signs and puts Igglybuff away into its ball
luckily the pokeball seems to only take in Igglybuff leaving the honey
Unluckily the honey drops onto Felicity’s lap
She frowns adorably
“I’m very sorry” I say and sign
Felicity laughs silently
“Its fine, but I’ve never seen a combee use its honey like that before, its interesting” felicity signs
“Yeah, we’ve been training for a bit, obviously its not quite ready for battle” I say and sign
“Agreed, let’s go get cleaned up while they clean the field” felicity signs
I follow felicity to the bathrooms and we clean the honey off of ourselves
When I exit the bathroom felicity is waiting without her apron
“The apron was unsalvageable huh” I say with a laugh
“Yes, luckily I have a few more of them at home” felicity signs
“Again, sorry” I say
As we walk back I take the chance to ask about her whistle
“So is that whistle how you issue commands?” I ask
“Oh? You noticed? Yes, I call it my fairy whistle, only pokemon can hear it, I can change the tone with the sliding part and have trained my pokemon to know what tone means what attack to use” felicity signs happily
“That’s cool!” I sign back
We head back to the battlefield and get back into position
The field is a bit wet but all the honey is gone, washed down the drains that are next to the pool
I look at Chatot and monferno who have been waiting on the bench next to Scarlett
“Chatot” I say and he flies over and lands on my shoulder
“You ready?” I ask
“Chat!” Chatot chirps happily and flies out onto the field
Felicity reaches into her pocket and takes out a pokeball and tosses it
And a small white pokemon with wings and red and blue markings appears
I take out my pokedex
Togetic - it can float midair without moving its wings. It flies around looking for kind hearted people to share its happiness with. If it spends too much time around unkind people it becomes dispirited.
“Cool” I say putting my pokedex away
The stage is set!
3
2
1
Battle Start!
“Air cutter!” I say while felicity blows into her whistle
The tips of chatots wings glow blue and he flaps them hard and sends a blue cross of energy soaring at Togetic
Togetic dodges upward leaving a trail of little yellow stars behind it
The stars start spinning and shoot at Chatot
“Dodge!” I yell
He flaps his wings hard and shoots upwards
Unfortunately they seem to be homing and start chasing him down
They slowly inch closer and closer and right as they are about to hit I get an idea
“Use mirror move to cancel out the attack!” I yell
Chatots eyes turn to mirror and he turns and fires a flurry of stars at the ones chasing him
They collide and both attacks get cancelled
Felicity blows into her whistle again, this move seems a bit more complicated judging by how she’s fiddling with the whistle as she’s blowing it
“Something big is coming! Brace yourself!” I yell
Togetic smiles and flies to the center of the field and starts screaming and holds its hands up
A sphere of pink glittery wind forms between its hands and slowly starts expanding
“Chatot! Mirror move!” I yell
Chatot eyes turn to mirrors again and a sphere of wind starts to form in front of him, only his is blue
Felicity blows her whistle again
Togetic slams the sphere onto the ground and flies away
There’s a huge blast of wind that knocks me back a step and slams Chatot into the ceiling and the sphere of wind he made starts to fall
Then the wind sucks back in and a huge pink cyclone forms in the middle of the field sucking up chatots attack
A second later the wind swells and the twister turns into a full blown tornado of pink and blue
Chatot and Togetic try their hardest to fight against the current
Even me and felicity are having trouble standing
Suddenly felicity blows her whistle and Togetic starts throwing rainbow spheres into the tornado
“M-mirror move!” I yell and Chatot starts firing them in as well
I recognize this move from a study they did about it on tv
Its called present, its a move that can either hurt or heal the opponent
“Don’t get sucked in! Those are bombs!” I yell
Chatot looks at me and then at Togetic on the opposite side of the twister
It isn’t struggling as much as him because it moved back pretty far
Suddenly Chatot gets a determined look on his face and dives into the tornado
“What!?” I yell
I hear an explosion then see a flash of green
Then I see Chatot shoot out of the other side of the tornado at Togetic
“He used the momentum to launch himself!?” I shout
Togetic gets caught off guard and chatots slams into it
Chatot latches on to Togetic’s wings with his claws and smiles devilishly and they start falling into the tornado
Felicity blows her whistle and Togetic’s hand glows blue and it swipes at Chatot as hard as it can
The sound of something hitting metal really hard rings out and my pokedex dings
I look up at them and the attack is stopped mid swing by chatots wing, now coated in metal
“Yes!” I yell pumping my fists into the air
They tumble into the twister and disappear from view
Explosion after explosion ring out as the spheres explode on contact with their bodies tumbling through the air
There are just as many green lights which I assume means the present is healing them on contact as well
I look at felicity and we both know this is all just a matter of luck now
After three agonizingly long minutes the twisters fade and the two pokemon clatter to the floor
Chatots wings are still steel, I assume he used them to try and protect himself as much as he could
The referee starts to walk over but stops when they both push themselves up to their feet
They look more mentally exhausted than anything, being blown up and healed randomly over and over would takes its toll on anyone
They just kind of look at each other for a moment
Chatots the first to move
He just takes a single step towards Togetic
This causes Togetic to take a step back
And it trips
It falls backwards and doesn’t get up
“Togetic is unable to battle! The winner is Chatot!” The referee yells
Chatot raises its wing into the air and I rush over to him and scoop him up in a hug
“You’re amazing! I’m so proud of you!” I say hugging him
Felicity walks over and puts Togetic back into its ball
“Geez, never had my own tactic thrown back at me like that” felicity signs
“Ha ha, it seems mirror move is as hard to counter as it is to train” I say with a laugh
“And that block with steel wing? Brilliant” felicity signs
“That one was all him, he always manages to pull through, he’s so reliable…” I say smiling down at him
He’s unconscious
“Oh. What happens now?” I ask
“well he was declared the winner, so technically he will have to fight if your next pokemon loses, but if he’s unconscious you will have to forfeit” felicity signs
“Oh, well, good thing Monferno is just as reliable” I say
Felicity smiles
“I’ll have you know my next pokemon is my partner, and he’s quite strong” she signs
“I see, looks like we are in for another good match then” I say with a smirk
“Seems like it” she signs
We walk back to our sides and I set Chatot down next to Scarlett
Monferno jumps off the bench with a determined look on his face
“Oh, did chatots battle get your blood boiling?” I ask
“Mon!” Monferno screams and throws a few punches
“Good, let’s get this done” I say
“Mon!” Monferno says with a nod
We walk over to the battlefield and monferno runs out and gets ready
Felicity takes her last pokeball from her pocket and tosses it
And a small clown pokemon appears
I take out my pokedex
Mime Jr. - The Mimic Pokemon - Psychic/Fairy - In an attempt to confuse the enemy it mimics its movements then makes itself scarce. If it succeeds at surprising an opponent they are known to feel so happy it ends up forgetting it was doing an imitation
“Mime!” Mime Jr. Says as it starts mimicking Monferno's posture
The stage is set!
3
2
1
Battle start!
“Flame wheel!” I yell
Monferno charges at mime Jr and tucks into a ball and combusts and starts rolling
Mime Jr smiles and waves his hands in front of him and then doesn’t move
Monferno crashes into an invisible wall and gets bounced backwards
Mine jr starts running flailing his hands as he circles around monferno in sort of a large circle
“its trying to trap you!” I yell
Monferno stops flame wheel and turns and runs at mime jr
Mime jr points at monferno and fires a beam of electricity at him
Monferno can’t Dodge in time and he gets blasted backwards
Mime jr keeps running and circles back to the start
There’s now a circle of invisible walls surrounding monferno while mime jr is on the outside
“Flamethrower!” I yell
Monferno fire a stream of fire at mime jr who ducks behind one of his walls
The wall protects mime jr but it allows me to see how big the walls are
They are about three feet tall and have gaps between each section of wall
“They aren’t that tall, jump over them!” I yell
Monferno charges for the opposite edge of the circle way from mime jr but mime jr sticks his hand through the gap between the walls and fires another beam of electricity
It passes by monferno as he runs and bounces off the wall he’s running towards and fires back at monferno, hitting him, and blasting him back to the center of the circle
Monferno jumps back to his feet with an annoyed expression
This repeats a few times, every time mime jr uses a different beam with different speeds and bounce patterns, there’s the electric one, what I think is Psybeam, and a rainbow one
After each hit knocks him back to the center monferno looks more and more beat up and more and more annoyed
We’ve tried everything I can think of to escape but mime jr just keeps blasting monferno back to the center
Felicity blows her whistle and Mime jr starts firing a bunch of beams into the circle at weird angles and they start ricocheting around the circle avoiding the center
Monferno head shoots around looking for an escape as the beams fill the ring more and more
Suddenly they all fire at the center at the same time and I get an idea
“Jump!” I yell
Monferno leaps into the air and the beams collide under him creating a massive explosion
The explosion launches monferno at the ceiling
As Monferno soars upward he smiles and flips as he hits the ceiling so he lands feet first, upside down, and kicks off the ceiling towards mime jr with all his might before gravity makes him start to fall
“Brick break!” I yell
He flies directly at mime jr, fists glowing bright
Mime jr panics and makes a barrier above him
Monferno reels back and punches towards mime jr with all his might
The sound of glass shattering accompanies Monferno’s fist as it breaks through the barrier and connects with mime jr
Mime jr is pounded down into the black mat so hard he bounces high into the air while Monferno slams into the ground with the full force of his jump
Mime jr lands and they both just lay there
The referee walks over and checks on them and stands up
“Both pokemon are unable to battle, this round is a draw! That means the challenger wins the match since he technically has one pokemon remaining!” She announces
“Yes!” I yell running over to monferno
Felicity runs over to mime jr as well and we check our pokemon
They are both fine, just unconscious
“This was way too close, every match was basically a draw, we need to train more” I say
“But this was a really good match, our tactics are trap the opponent, then whittle away at their health, the fact that you and your pokemon powered through each trap and forced a draw is amazing” felicity signs
“I guess, but still, we will need to think of ways to avoid traps like that in the future, they were kind of a pain to deal with” I say with a laugh
Monferno wakes up and looks at me with a disappointed look
I smile
“You did it! We won!” I say
He looks surprised, then relieved, then he goes back to sleep
We put them away in their pokeballs to rest and stand up
The referee walks over with a small wooden box
She opens it and sitting on a pink pillow is the gym badge
Its a small metal badge made up of colorful spheres lined in silver
“Challenger Dakota, I hear by present you with proof of defeating the Hearthome gym, the Pit Badge” felicity signs
I take my badge case out of my pocket, open it up, find the correct slot, and press it into place
“Three gyms down!” I say happily putting the case away
“The nearest gyms are in Pastoria and Veilstone” felicity signs
“Are they close enough to go there and come back in a month?” I ask
“No. I don’t think so” felicity says
“Then looks like I’m stuck here for a month” I say
“Oh, why?’ Felicity says
"I have tickets to Seln’s Battle Banquet” I say
They both look a bit surprised
“Wow, those tickets are hard to get, how did you get a ticket?” Felicity signs
“Car- the mayor gave them to me” I say
“You know Carrara?” Felicity signs
“Yes, but why is a bit of a secret” I say with a smile
“Interesting, I though she had a bit of a spring in her step lately, I’m looking forward to this years party now” felicity signs with a smirk
“Alright, I really need to go check on combee” I say
“Oh right! It was nice meeting you Dakota” felicity signs with a smile
“Likewise” I say
I put the still unconscious Chatot into his ball and Scarlett and I are lead out of the building
We walk through town and head to the pokemon center
We walk inside and its pure chaos
“Bring more buckets!” Nurse joy shouts as chansey and a bunch of trainers run around carrying buckets
There’s some buckets sitting by the door and I peer inside and my heart drops
They are filled with honey
I rush to the counter where a chansey is stationed as nurse joy is preoccupied
“My combee was admitted a bit ago! Is she okay?!” I ask
Chansey’s eyes go wide and she slaps the keyboard a few times
“Dakota!” Ruche calls out
He’s walking out from the back with two buckets of honey in his arms
“What’s going on!?” I ask
“Combee is-” Ruche starts to say but gets cut off by nurse joy
“Are you Dakota? The trainer of the female combee that was admitted half an hour ago” Nurse joy asks
“Yes!” I say
Her hair is a mess and as she brushes it back out of the way of her face it gets slicked back with the honey that was on her hands
“Come with me” She says with a sigh
As we walk I can’t take it anymore
“Is she okay?!” I ask
“technically speaking, she’s fine” nurse joy says
We reach a room in the back and there are chansey and trainers carrying buckets of honey out of the room
I peek into the room
Combee is unconscious, laying on a metal slab with holes in the bottom and buckets lined up underneath it
She’s hooked up to a few iv drips
Honey is just pouring out of her
“What’s wrong with her?” I ask
“I’ve seen this happen a few times with water types, they push themselves past their limit and it opens the proverbial flood gates, their body’s create water beyond their means, and they shrivel up as their body can’t handle that level of creation. Usually we hook them up to an iv and wait it out, the water leaks out through that special bed and down the drain in the floor, but since this is honey we can’t let it go down the drain, so we have to use buckets. Anyway, she should be fine with enough time and rest, but we need to deal with the honey. I even had to ask for volunteers, you should go and change into something else and help out” nurse joy says
“Okay!” I say
A group of trainers carrying empty buckets walk up
“Thank you for your help!” I say
“Oh, so this is your combee? Its no problem” one trainer says
“Yeah, we couldn’t just sit in our rooms and leave nurse joy high and dry” another one says
“Give me some of the honey and I’ll call it even” someone says jokingly
“Oh, me too!” Another one says with a laugh
“You’re welcome to all the honey you want” I say with a laugh
Scarlett and I rush to our room and change
I take off Scarlett’s vest and toss it onto the bed
We rush to the front counter
“I’m sorry, but I also need to admit these two” I say putting Monferno and chatots premier balls onto the counter
Chansey types away on the computer and takes the pokeballs into the back and another chansey takes her place
Scarlett and I start helping carry buckets of honey
After about half an hour a few more nurse joys show up with some more volunteers and the first group takes a break
Sasha is one of the new volunteers and is surprised to find out that the combee she heard about was my combee
We have enough people now to work in shifts so the work goes by a lot easier
Combee drains iv after iv and finally after three hours the downpour of honey stops
The volunteers all collapse exhausted onto the couches in the lobby
We are all a little sticky and smell of honey
Nurse joy walks up and smiles, still full of energy
“Thank you all for your hard work” nurse joy says
We all weakly cheer
“Ha ha, oh right, Dakota, now that the worst of it has passed, she will be fine, we will keep her under observation tonight and then she should take it easy for a week or so after that” nurse joy says
“Got it” I say sitting up
“As for the honey…” Nurse joy says turning to the sea of buckets that have taken over the lobby
There’s about seventy or so buckets filled with honey
“Everyone can take as much as they want” I say
Everyone kind of groans
“I’m kind of over honey” one girl says
“P-please no” one guy says
“So nobody wants it!? What am I supposed to do with almost a hundred buckets of honey!?” I say
“Hold on” a girl says and take out her pokenav and texts someone
After a few minutes she looks up from her phone
“My mom will buy it off of you” she says
“Really!?” I say
“Cool, let’s just split that amongst everyone here then” I say
“Whoa seriously?!” A guy asks
“Yeah? You all deserve something for helping!” I say
“Cool!” Another guy says
After ten minutes the girls mom shows up with some machoke and some sealable barrels and start dumping the honey into them
The lady pays me quite a bit and I split it evenly to everyone that helped
Nurse joy declined though
Ruche and Sasha walk over after I’m done handing out the money
I give them theirs as well and they put it away
“How did your gym battle go?” Sasha asks
“Oh yeah! Did you win?” Ruche asks
“Yep! Just barely though” I say with a smile
“Congrats!” Ruche says
“Congratulations, sorry I could not make it” Sasha says
“Yeah what was up with that?” I ask
“I helped a pokemon who got hurt in the park during a battle, and a woman would not leave me alone” Sasha says
“What did she want?” Ruche asks
“Something about meeting her boss. I was not interested so I ditched her. It took a bit of work though, she was quite persistent” Sasha says
“Well, let’s hope you don’t run into her again” Ruche says
We head back to our room and take turns showering off the honey smell
After that we get dressed and decide what to do for dinner
“We got some cash to burn, and we are all way too tired to cook. Let’s eat out” I say
“Sounds good” Ruche says
As I’m grabbing the incubator off the desk I grab the banquet tickets as well and we head to dinner
We find a cafe and order our food
“So, have you guys heard of Seln’s battle banquet?” I ask
“You bet I have! All of Sinnoh’s big shots get invited, its a massive televised party held in Hearthome every year, I watched it every year on tv, why?” Ruche asks
I take the tickets out and put them on the table
“You guys want to go with me?” I ask with a smirk
Ruche’s jaw drops
“Sure” Sasha says
“Ruche?” I ask
No response
“Hello?” I say waving my hand in front of his face
“H-how?” Ruche asks
“Ah, Carrara got them for me, she’s planning to unveil that thing I found at the party. I kind of have to go, which puts us in a tough spot that I want your opinion on” I say
“What is the problem?” Sasha asks
“Well, its next month, so we cant get to the lake and back in time, so I think we’re stuck here” I say
“Let’s do the loop!” Ruche says suddenly
“The what?” I ask
“We leave Hearthome, head north west up to Emergrove, from there go east to Solaceon, then we head south and swing back around to Hearthome, if we’re careful and don’t get distracted we should be back in time!” Ruche says
“How do you know all that?” I ask with a laugh
“Well I was going to bring it up tomorrow actually! There’s a festival in Emergrove that I want to take cherubi to” Ruche says
“let’s do that then, I’m up for a festival” I say
“What do we do about outfits for the party?” Sasha asks
“I don’t know, its fancy dress, so like tuxedos?” I say
“Normally I’d offer to make them but there’s not enough time, so we are just going to have to buy them” Ruche says
“We should do that tomorrow, it might be harder closer to the party” I say
“Good point” Ruche says
“So all that’s left to do in Hearthome is to buy the outfits and meet the guy they called in to help excavate the thing I found, we can probably leave tomorrow then” I say
“Cool!” Ruche says
We eat dinner and head back to the pokemon center and go to bed
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Post by fattymccatcat on Jul 30, 2019 10:04:59 GMT
I pull myself up out of bed and take a shower
I get dressed and head to the lobby with Scarlett
Nurse joy is behind the counter and she smiles at me as I walk up
“How’s combee?” I ask
“Oh she’s fine! She is a bit dizzy though” nurse joy says
“Can we see her?” I ask
“Yes, chansey, take over for a minute” nurse joy says
“Chanse!” Chansey says happily walking over and taking nurse joys place
We head to the room from yesterday and look in through a window
They have placed a mattress over the bed with holes now that she won’t ruin it with honey
Combee is floating above the bed spinning in place laughing to herself
“Chan!” A chansey yells in an exasperated tone and combee begrudgingly floats back down onto the pillow
“Well, looks like she’s having fun with the dizziness at least” I say with a laugh
We walk into the room and Combee’s faces light up
“Comb! Combee bee?!” Combee starts asking something
I assume its about the outcome of the match yesterday
Before I can answer Scarlett chimes in
“Maw!” Scarlett says with a thumbs up
Combee gets so excited she spins into the air
“Comb!” Combee says spinning into my chest
“Uh. Yeah! We won yesterday! You did great!” I say giving her a hug
I walk over to the bed and set combee back down on the bed since the chansey looks like its about to cry
Nurse joy walks over to chansey
“Ha ha, why don’t you take a break” she say and chansey trudges out of the room
“Sorry, and thank you!” I call after her as the door closes
“So, combee, how are you feeling?” Nurse joy asks
Combee floats up again and starts slowly spinning
“I see, its a bit slower than before, the dizziness should be gone by the end of the day then” nurse joy says happily
“For the next week she will need to drink some nutrient supplements, and definitely, under no circumstance, should she try to make honey for the week” nurse joy explains
“Got it, you got that combee?” I ask
“Comb!” Combee says still spinning and laughing to herself
“You should probably remind her later” nurse joy says with a laugh
“Yeah, I know” I say with a sigh
I put combee into her ball and we head to another room where Monferno and Chatot are resting
“Hey guys!” I say as we walk in
Chatot shoots out of his bed and slams into my stomach with a headbutt
I crash against the wall and cradle him in a hug
“Ha ha! Monferno told you we won huh?” I say through a pained breath
“Chat chat tot!” Chatot chirps happily
“Congrats on learning steel wing by the way” I say gently petting him
Chatot flies onto Monferno’s bed and turns his wings to steel with a pleased expression
“Nice! We will check it out tomorrow, you guys should just rest for today” I say
I put them into their pokeballs and then I follow nurse joy to the front
She gives me seven little bottles of some clear liquid that combee is supposed to drink over the next week
Scarlett and I head back to our room
Sasha offers to look after the egg today
As we are having breakfast I get a text from Carrara that the guy is here
“Looks like I gotta go” I say and me and my pokemon quickly finish our meal
“Call when your done, we need to meet up and go shopping” Ruche says
“Okay, I’ll ask Carrara about some fancy clothing stores” I say
“Please call them high end boutiques” Ruche says with a sigh
“Got it, see ya!” I say as Scarlett and I leave the lounge and head across town
We walk into town hall and carol is smiling happily
“Good morning!” Carol says
“Morning!” I say
“Maw!” Scarlett says
“So he’s here? Who is it?” I ask nervously
“I have to give it to Carrara, she managed to get a big shot this time” carol says happily
“Who?” I ask
“You’ll see” carol says happily
We start walking down the hallway and as we get close we can hear Carrara’s voice
“I can’t wait for you to meet him Mr. Apeldoorn! This kids amazing!” Carrara’s voice booms down the hallway
My heart drops
“Maw!?” Scarlett says surprised and goes to run towards the room but I stop her
“Aww, she blew the surprise” carol says looking down at me
“Dakota!? What’s wrong, you look pale all of a sudden!” Carol says in a worried tone
When I don’t respond carol turns to walk into the office but I reach out and grab her arm
“I… I need a moment” I say trying to organize my thoughts
I see no way out of this, I can only hope things don’t blow up completely
Thankfully Carol gives me a moment to catch my breath and I calm down a bit
I let go of carols arm
“Sorry, I’m ready” I say
It comes out sounding more solemn than I wanted but there’s nothing I can do about that now
We walk into the room, Carrara and alabaster are there looking over the pictures with the archeologist they called in
He’s tall with brown hair, glasses, and he’s quite well dressed
“Dakota! You’re here! Let me introduce yo-” Carrara says but gets cut off
“…Dakota?” The man says hesitantly
“…H-hey uncle Johnny” I say forcing a smile
“Dakota! Scarlett! Its been what? A year?” Johnny says rushing over and hugging us both
“What are you doing here?” Johnny asks
“Johnny, I’ll explain later, please just… Go along with it for now” I whisper as he hugs us
“Huh?” He asks confused
He sets us down and I look over at Carrara who’s just kind of starring off into space slack jawed
“Johnathan Apeldoorn is your uncle!?” Carrara shouts suddenly
“Yep!” I say
“Wait. Then that means your parents are… No wonder you are so talented!” Carrara says with a boisterous laugh
“So, the young field agent you mentioned is Dakota”?’ Johnny asks looking at me
I shift my gaze away
“Yes! You have quite an amazing nephew!” Carrara says
“Apparently so” Johnny says eyeing me suspiciously
“Ahem, if we can get back to our talk about the ruins…” alabaster says
“Oh, yes! Ill need to inspect them more closely to make sure, but from the pictures the ruins should be more stable than they look, if we are careful we should be able to excavate the fountain fairly easily” Johnny says
“That’s fantastic!” Carrara exclaims happily
We spend the next hour or so going over the plans, however I’m not much help
Once everything’s been talked over Johnny and alabaster decide to go check out the site
As Johnny leaves he pulls me aside
“Let’s get lunch later, and you can explain what’s going on” he says sternly
“Yeah” I say with a sigh
They leave and I walk over to Carrara
“Hey, so I think its time for me to go” I say
“Okay, see you tomorrow” Carrara says happily
“No sorry, I mean leave Hearthome” I say
“Oh” Carrara says
“Yeah, I’m not much help at this stage of the process, so me and my friends are going to head up to Emergrove for the festival” I say
“You will be back for the banquet right?” Carol asks
“Yeah, we should be. Oh, do you know of any fancy- high end boutiques in town that we can get the proper attire for the party?” I ask
Carrara smiles
“Carol, prepare his payment and a letter to that one old fart at the edge of town” Carrara says smiling suspiciously
Carol looks surprised then quickly leaves
“Old fart?” I ask
“Don’t worry about that, just hand him the letter when you meet him” Carrara says
“Okay, and the Payment?” I ask
“Yeah! We asked Jonathan about the amount we should pay you for your services before you got here, to be honest we had trouble pinning down the appropriate amount, sorry it took so long” Carrara says
“I see, well, you can trust Johnny to give a fair evaluation” I say with a smile
“Oh right? Since you’re leaving I assume the gym battle went well?” Carrara asks
“yeah, well, sorta,she was kind of a pain to deal with” I say with a laugh
I tell her about the gym battle and the honey incident as we wait for carol to come back
Carol comes back with a letter and an address
“The deposit has been made into the bank account you gave us, it should go through in a bit” carol says with a smile
“Thank you!” I say standing up
“No, thank you Dakota, for everything” Carrara says offering her hand
I take it and she pulls me into another hug
After she let’s go I smile
“I’ll see you two next month” I say
“Yeah! I’ll make sure the fountain is ready in time for the party” Carrara says with a smile
We leave town hall and take a seat on a nearby bench
I call Sasha and tell them where we are so we can meet up
“whoa, you look exhausted” Ruche says as they walk up
“Yeah, something came up” I say with a sigh
“Are we still leaving town?” Sasha asks
“Oh yeah, I kinda wish we left yesterday” I say with a laugh
“What happened?” Sasha asks
“The expert they called in was my uncle” I say
“Oh, that’s bad” Ruche says
“Yep!” I say
“Do you plan on telling him about your magic?” Sasha asks
“No! I know him, he would charge off and start investigating the statue in Eterna” I say with a sigh
“And I am sure he would let your parents know” Sasha says
“Yeah, I want to avoid that for now… Ugh, okay, I need to think about what I’m gonna tell him, let’s just go get these clothes” I say standing up
We head through town and eventually reach the boutique
Its a small shop tucked away in the corner of town
We walk inside and a bell chimes
“One moment” a man call out from somewhere
The room is rather strange, there’s two couches with a coffee table between them on one side of the room
On the other side are rows of mannequins with tuxedos and dresses adorning them as well as tags with names on them
Even I can tell these are high quality outfits
I notice Ruche starring at the clothes and working something out in his head
At the back of the room is a curtain leading to some other room
As I’m looking around a man walks through the curtain
He’s tall, slender, well dressed, and about the same age as alabaster
“Oh my, quite the young guests I have today, that’s rare” he says with a smile
He motions for us to sit on one of the couches and he sits on the other
“Hello, I’m Dakota, and this is my partner Scarlett” I say
“Maw!” Scarlett says with a wave
“I’m Ruche” Ruche says nervously
“And this is my friend Sasha” I say gesturing to Sasha
“Well its nice to meet you all, I am called Rigel Bloom, what can I help you with today?” He asks
Ruche’s face lights up when he hears the name
I take out Carrara’s letter and hand it to him
He takes a monocle out of his pocket and opens the letter
As he reads it his smile fades and as he finishes he sighs
“I see, I understand the situation now! that accursed family is actually trying to kill me! Four outfits in time for the banquet!? She must be joking!” He shouts ripping the letter in half
“Uh, sorry?” I say
He takes a few deep breaths and picks up the letter pieces and pockets them
“No, its not your fault, its mine. I never should have acquainted myself with that sour old man when we were kids” he says
“You mean alabaster?” I ask
“Yes, having that man as my best friend has brought me nothing but headaches! And that god-daughter of mine is even worse somehow!” He says with a smirk
He looks at his watch
“Well, let’s begin, if I have any hope of completing your outfits in time for the banquet I must get your measurements and stylistic tastes written down today, pardon me while I go get my tools” he says heading back through the curtain
“So who is he?” I whisper to Ruche who looks like he’s on cloud nine
“He’s a Bloom! The bloom family is one of the most renowned family’s in the fashion industry! They each specialize in a style, Rigel Bloom is one of the greatest formal wear creators on the planet, this is crazy!” Ruche explains happily
He comes back with a notepad and a measuring tape
“So, who wishes to go first?” he asks
No one says anything
“Me” I say standing up
He starts taking my measurements
“So, what’s your favorite color?” He asks as he works
“White” I say and he writes it down with the measurements
“Hmm, a white suit will stand out quite a bit, I’m not against it though” he says
“Maybe like, a half black half white? I like stuff like that” I say
“Hmm, I see” he says as he works
He finishes with me and then its Ruche's turn
Ruche looks ecstatic
They seem to decide on a bunch of things, they use a lot of words I don’t know but from what I can tell Ruche is getting a cobalt blue suit
Then its Sasha’s turn
Its a bit difficult as Sasha has trouble answering in anything but one word answers, but he seems to accommodate by showing her a catalogue of dresses he made in the past and having her point at ones she likes
Then to my surprise he calls Scarlett over
He takes a look at Sasha’s pink vest
“Hmm, this is quite well made” he mutters as he looks it over and measures her
Ruche grips my arm tightly to help him hold in his excitement
“Well. We are done, I’ll get started on these right away, I’ll work tirelessly so that they will be ready in time for the banquet” he says closing his notebook
“Thank you so much, how much will that be?” I ask
He chuckles
“Nothing. I owe alabaster a few favors, his daughter called one in for this” he says
“Oh, well, cool” I say not sure what to say
“Drop by a day or two before the banquet for a fitting, you kids are still growing so we may need to make some last minute adjustments” he says
“Thank you so much Mr. Bloom” Ruche says
“Thank you” Sasha says
“You are quite welcome, have a nice day” he says as he sees us out
We get a bit away from the shop when Ruche can’t contain his joy anymore
“I can’t believe I’m getting a Rigel Bloom tuxedo for free! Thank you Dakota!” Ruche says happily
“Don’t thank me. Thank Carrara” I say with a laugh
“You’re right! We have to go thank her!” Ruche says as he starts dragging me in the direction of town hall
“Wait wait, let me text carol and see if she’s available” I say taking out my pokenav
I see I have two messages
One informing me of a deposit into my account and a message from Johnny
I check the deposit first
“Whoa!” I say looking at the amount
“What?” Sasha asks
I show them my pokenav
“Whoa! That’s a lot!” Ruche says
“Yeah! I might be able to buy some training equipment now” I say happily
“The best place for that is Solaceon, I hear they have a lot of equipment shops there” Sasha says
“Sweet!” I say
I text carol but apparently her and Carrara are busy for the rest of the day
“Aww” Ruche says
“We can thank them when we get back” I say
I sigh and open the text from Johnny
“Let’s meet up at the cafe near town hall, I’ll be waiting” it says
“Look, I gotta go deal with my uncle, you guys head back and pack up so we can leave immediately” I say
“Alright, good luck” Ruche says
Scarlett and I head over to the address in the text and walk inside
I see Johnny sitting in a booth at the back of the café
“Hey” I say taking a seat
“Hi, so what’s going on?” He asks
“Oh okay, so were just diving right in then, fine” I say with a sigh
I take my field agent Id card out and slide it to him
“I am a field agent for a professor, his name is conifer, we are working together for reasons I can’t go into, this thing in Hearthome was sort of a form of training for me, since in the future I’m going to be going into ruins around the world. It went well, I didn’t expect to find anything, but I did, and its kind of snowballed into this big thing” I say as he listens patiently
He takes a deep breath
“… i have a four questions” he says
“Okay” I say
“You’re a dead language specialist?” He asks
“Actually I’m fluent in all languages” I say
“… Then what am I saying now? If you understand say blue three times” he says in another language
“Blue blue blue” I say
His eyes go wide
“How?” He asks
“Is that your second question?” I ask trying to dodge that question
He clicks his tongue and glares at me
“I can’t go into it, im sorry, please drop it” I say
He sighs
“Okay, then tell me about this ”professor conifer" that you’re working with, are you sure you’re not getting tricked or used?“ He asks clearly worried
"Professor conifer… Is okay, from what I can tell he’s just a sad old man who needs my help, and I need his knowledge, the situation has forced us together, and no, I can’t go into what that situation is” I say with a laugh
He looks more worried than before
“Next quest then. Why haven’t you told you’re parents about this? I talked to them last week, they didn’t mention any of this, its not like you to hide anything from them” he says
This one hurts a bit
“I-I can’t tell them yet, I… I don’t know how” I say choking up a bit
“Well, you literally have a month to figure it out, the banquet is televised remember, and I’ve only known Carrara for a few hours but I’m sure she’s going to make a big announcement with you at the center” he says
I sigh
“Yeah, I wanted to do it in person but I guess I’ll have to call them” I say
“…Are you in danger?” He asks suddenly
I’m a bit taken aback by the question and take a moment to think of an answer
“…Yeah, a bit” I say with tears welling up
He looks distraught
“Is- can I help?” He asks also tearing up a bit
“No, but… I have my friends and I have my pokemon, im… Working on it” I say trying to reassure him
We just sit there for a bit collecting ourselves
“You’ve changed so much” he says
“Oh?” Have I?“ I ask
"Yeah, this is the first time I’ve seen you cry, you weren’t a kid who would show his emotions like this, I guess your journeys been good for you in that respect” he say with a laugh
“Yeah, I guess… I need to go, my friends are waiting” I say
“…Okay then, if you ever need any help… please call me” he says
“…i will, and I’ll introduce you to my friends when we are back in town” I say
“I’d like that” he says with a smile
We leave the cafe and head back to the pokemon center and into our room where Sasha and Ruche are waiting
“How did it go?” Sasha asks
“It went as well as it could have gone” I say with a laugh
We finish packing, head out to the lobby, check out of our room, and leave the pokemon center
We make our way out of town and start following a dirt path
eventually Hearthome fades into the distance and becomes obscured by trees
We continue along the path until night falls and we set up camp, have dinner, and go to bed
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Post by fattymccatcat on Aug 1, 2019 8:55:36 GMT
I sit up and nudge Scarlett awake
we head outside and summon everyone and do our morning stretches
I have combee sit out and drink one of her nutrient supplements that nurse joy gave us
We finish stretching and I have them do whatever they want for today’s training
They seem to discuss it amongst themselves then they go and get a stick
They walk to a nearby patch of dirt and Monferno draws a big circle
“What’s this for?” I ask
Monferno and Scarlett start pushing each other
“Oh! A knock your opponent out of the circle type of thing, that sounds fun” I say
“Alright, let’s go… Scarlett vs Monferno, Chatot vs Monferno, then Scarlett vs Chatot, and let’s say you can each use one move each, uhh… Chatot use steel wing, Monferno use brick break without making a fist, and Scarlett use feint attack” I say and they all nod
Monferno looks a bit confused though
“Your brick breaks a bit too strong for a game like this, its to even the playing field” I explain and he nods
Scarlett and Monferno enter the ring
Monferno’s hands glow white and Scarlett’s hands start to emit a black smoke
“Go!” I say
Scarlett and Monferno charge at each other
Monferno swipes at Scarlett with a chop but Scarlett ducks under it and plants a fist into Monferno’s stomach and he slides back a bit
Scarlett continues charging forward and throws another punch
Monferno chops downward and cuts through Scarlett’s body which turns into black smoke
Scarlett appears above Monferno and axe kicks him into the ground
Everyone looks surprised, especially Scarlett
Monferno jumps up to his feet and with an excited smile and dashes at Scarlett
He catches her off guard and sinks and open palm into Scarlett’s stomach sending her tumbling backwards
She stops rolling just an inch out of bounds
We take a five minute break so they can rest up
While we do so I pull Chatot aside
“Hey, I want to check something, turn your wings to steel” I say picking him up
He does and he gets a few pounds heavier
“I see, so it does add a bit of weight, interesting, it should be fine then” I say putting him down
Chatot and Monferno step into the ring
“No flying… Go!” I say
Chatot charges Monferno and swings a steel wing at him
Monferno jumps over it and chops down at Chatot
Chatot blocks with his other wing and kicks off the ground and headbutts monferno knocking him back a step
Monferno grabs Chatot and throws him towards the edge of the ring
He fly’s out and lands in the dirt
He picks himself up and looks more disappointed than injured
We take another five minute break and then Chatot and Scarlett enter the ring
“Go” I say
Scarlett charges first and throws a punch
Chatot blocks with a wing and chops towards Scarlett
She jumps backwards and Chatot misses
Scarlett charges at Chatot and tackles him and starts pushing him back towards the line
Chatot starts chopping at Scarlett’s side to try and make her let go
She powers through and pushes him out of the ring
She raises one arm into the air triumphantly as the other arm cradles the side that was getting chopped
“Let’s go over the matches, first I’d like to point out that this was always going to be skewed in Monferno’s favor, he has a height and weight advantage, not even taking into account his raw strength” I say and they all nod along
“Now lets go over some alternatives as to what you could of done in some of those situations” I say
We spend a half an hour going over the matches
We walk back to camp and Ruche and riolu are sitting there after seemingly finishing there own training session
They look a bit worried though
“What’s up?” I ask
“Well, riolu learned a new move” Ruche says
“That’s good!” I say
“It erased counter” he says
“Oh, that’s bad” I say
“Yeah, we relied on it quite a bit when we battled” Ruche says
“What move did he learn?” I ask
“From what I can tell its bullet punch” Ruche says
“That sounds cool” I say
“Oh yeah, its not a bad move at all, we are just going to miss counter” he says with a laugh
“Do you want to battle? Try out the new move?” I ask
“Nah, maybe after we’ve spent a few days getting used to it” he says
Sasha emerges from her tent and we all work together to make breakfast
We all finish eating and pack up camp and set out towards Emergrove
After about four hours we start climbing a large hill
And as we reach the top an amazing view spreads out below us
At the bottom of the hill beyond a white picket fence stretches rows and rows of berry trees, fruit trees, and berry bushes
They stretch far into the distance
I take my camera and snap a picture
“Wow, that’s a big orchard” I say
“Yeah, its called the berry master orchard, it surrounds Emergrove completely and is one of the biggest orchards on the planet” Ruche says reading from his pokenav
We walk down the hill following the path to the picket fence
There are signs posted all along the fence
“Battling, catching wild pokemon, camping, and setting fires is prohibited beyond this point except at the designated locations along the path. As compensation for the trouble travelers are allowed to pick as many Berries and fruits as they wish on the way to town, please exercise restraint however as too many Berries may upset your stomach”
“Well at least there are designated areas to camp” Ruche says
“And its all you can eat” I say with a laugh
We walk through the gate and start walking along the path
As we walk we look at the many Berries and fruits hanging from the trees
They are all different shapes and sizes and colors
There are wild pokemon everywhere, running amongst the trees, sitting on branches eating berries, just enjoying the day
I ask Ruche to hold the incubator for a bit so I can snap a few pictures as we walk
There’s so many berries that I’ve never seen and want to try
As I reach for one Ruche grabs my hand
“I wouldn’t, those are super sour until you cook them” Ruche says
“Ah, okay then” I say
“Here… Try this one” he says handing me a green one
I split it in half and give it to Scarlett and we take a bite
Its both sweet and bitter
“Oh, this is nice” I say and Scarlett nods along
We walk for a bit hours and reach a big clearing
There’s a bunch of people around cooking lunch or battling in the middle of area
“I figured there’d be a crowd, everyone must be going to the festival” Ruche says
“What’s this festival celebrating anyway?” I ask
“Oh, didn’t I say? Its a festival celebrating cherubi! They are sort of Emergrove's mascots, I’m hoping it helps cherubi cheer up” he says
“Is she still down about losing her berry thing?” I ask
“Not really, I just want to do something nice for her” he says with a laugh
We stop here for lunch and then continue walking for a few more hours
As we reach the next rest stop we find a spot to set up camp
It looks like all the other campers are holding a sort of pot luck and we participate
I take a few pictures as everyone enjoys a lot of berry and fruit based dishes and then we turn in for the night
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Post by fattymccatcat on Aug 3, 2019 4:16:21 GMT
We wake up and have a wonderfully fruity breakfast
I also make sure combee drinks her nutrient supplement for the day before we set off towards Emergrove
We walk between the trees for about four hours when I notice a few orange trees in the distance
“Oh cool! Oranges!” I say running over
I pick a bunch and put them in my bag
“I’m gonna make some orange juice when we have time for lunch” I say with a smile
“That sounds nice actually, its a bit hot out today, let’s keep an eye out for a lemon tree as well” Ruche says
“Lemonade sounds lovely” Sasha says
I take chatots pokeball out and summon him
“Fly up and see if you can see any lemon trees, they are yellow and oval” I say
He nods and fly’s up
“Good idea” Ruche says
Chatot flies back down and points off into the distance
We follow him and eventually reach a row of lemon trees
We take enough for everyone to enjoy a glass of lemonade
As I’m putting my backpack back on my eyes fall onto an Oran berry tree
I get that tingling behind my eyes that signal I’m looking at a massive lie
“…huh” I say
“What?” Ruche asks
“That’s tree is setting off my eye magic” I say
“What? Why?” He asks
“I don’t know, hold on” I say
I turn on my eyes and sure enough, one of the Oran berries is glowing red
“What? Only one of the berries is a lie?” I ask confused
“…oh… It might be an enigma berry” Sasha says
“What’s that?” Ruche asks
“Enigma berries are extremely rare. They grow randomly and disguise themselves as the berries around it until they are picked” Sasha says
“How’s it taste?” I ask
“I do not know” Sasha says
“Here, I looked it up. Enigma Berries, the berry of the starry sky. They grow on random trees or bushes that have an undisturbed view of the night sky. They disguise themselves as the berries that surround it making it impossible to tell where one has grown until it is picked, then it will transform into its actual shape. No one has successfully gotten a video of this phenomenon as finding them is near to impossible until they have already been picked” Ruche reads from his pokenav
I smile and take out my pokenav
I start the video and walk up to the tree
I videotape my hand reaching out and plucking the berry
The second its plucked it doubles in size
Its shape starts to change into a teardrop shape with a little ball at the point
Then all the color drains from it creating a sort of black and white swirly pattern
The whole process takes about four seconds, I can see why taking a video was unlikely before
I stop the video and rewatch it
Its perfect, super clear, my hands were steady, this should be fun to put online
“That was cool” Ruche says
“Yeah, I almost dropped it when it doubled in size” I say with a laugh
“Ruche, are there any recipes online?” Sasha asks
“Hmmm…. Nope” he says scrolling through his pokenav
“Should we just… Eat it?” I ask
“I guess” Ruche says with a shrug
We cut off a few small slices
It doesn’t cut like a berry, its more like a soft ginseng or a mushroom, no juice, the knife just slices right through
The four of us take a small bite at the same time
The texture is wild, it starts hard, then turns chewy like taffy, then after a moment it melts like cotton candy coating your tongue and starts popping like that pop rock candy, but more violent
The taste at that point is almost indescribable, hitting you in waves, first its bitter, then sweet, then sour, then spicy, then minty, then other flavor profiles I cant describe, and it keeps cycling through faster and faster until they all blend together into something out of this world
“Its like there’s six parties in your mouth and everyone’s mad about it” I say with a laugh
“That was peculiar” Sasha says
“Uuugh” Ruche says covering his mouth like he’s about to vomit
Scarlett is just laughing hysterically
“May I have the rest? I want to see what I can do with it” Sasha asks
“I don’t want it” Ruche says
“Sure, I’ll see if I can spot any more as we walk” I say turning on my eyes for the rest of the day
Sasha packs the rest of the enigma berry away and we continue on to Emergrove
After about two hours we stop for a proper lunch at a large rest stop
As Ruche cooks I start squeezing the oranges and lemons creating a few glasses of orange juice and plenty of lemonade for everyone since we grabbed more lemons than oranges
Sasha passes it out to the pokemon as I pull out my pokenav and go to my website
I haven’t checked it since I made it
It looks like there’s been a little traffic, there’s even a few nice comments on some of the pictures I’ve taken
I make a new section for videos and upload the enigma berry video
I also upload any pictures I’ve taken since creating the site to the appropriate sections
I can’t put the pictures of the fountain or the ruins onto the site until after the banquet though
I put my pokenav away and take a sip of my orange juice and then we have lunch and continue on our way
After a few hours of walking night falls and we reach the next rest stop and set up camp
Then we have dinner and go to bed
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Post by fattymccatcat on Aug 4, 2019 6:10:24 GMT
I wake up a bit tired from the lake dream
I yawn and wake Scarlett up and we head outside for breakfast
I give combee her medicine after she’s done eating
She seems to be happy about it, I think she likes the flavor
After lunch we pack up camp and get moving
After about four hours the big pink blob that’s been in the distance for the last few days starts to come into view
After another hour we can finally see enough detail to tell that it’s a giant tree with pink leaves
“What the heck is that?” I ask
Ruche smiles
“That, is Emergrove’s grand berry tree” Ruche says
“Grand berry tree?” I ask
“yep, it’s a massive berry tree, it grows every kind of berry on its branches, there’s only three in the world.” Ruche explains
“that’s so cool!” I say excited to get closer and take some pictures
“they made the saplings in some lab like a hundred years ago, total fluke that it worked, they haven’t been able to make any more than the three saplings they made back then, the other two are actually way smaller but the nutrient rich soil around here made this one grow like crazy, apparently it pretty much destroyed the town and they had to rebuild a lot of it” Ruche says
“Wow, science is kinda scary sometimes” I say
“says the professors assistant” Ruche says
“Shut up” I say with a laugh
It takes two more hours of walking but we eventually reach the edge of Emergrove city
The tree is even bigger up close
Its canopy covers the entire city and there are pink leaves raining down as the wind blows through its branches
The shade is perfect because it was starting to get hot, but it let’s just the perfect amount of light through to illuminate the town and give it a chill laid back atmosphere
The trunk and branches are white, and there is a spiral etched into the trunk
There are rope bridges hanging from the biggest branches, I’m guessing they are there to help harvest the crazy about of berries that are hanging above the walkways
“cool! Is that spiral a path, can we climb it!?!” I ask
“I figured you would ask that, yes, you can climb it” Ruche says with a laugh
“we should find a place to stay first” Sasha says
“Oh right, that might be hard with the festival tomorrow” I say
We walk around town checking every pokemon center but they are all full
So we start checking the towns inns
After the fourth attempt we find a room, but there’s only two beds
“Dakota and me in one, Scarlett and Sasha in the other?” Ruche suggests
“fine with me” I say
“Maw!” Scarlett says happily
“sure” Sasha says patting Scarlett’s head
We pay for the room and each get a key
We put our stuff away in the rooms closet and head out to explore the city
The building are all one or two stories tall, they have cute cottage like exteriors, that and the brick roads add to the chill ambiance of the town
There is also an abundance of Cherri berry and cherubi themed decorations all around town
We walk towards the towns center where the base of the tree is
It take an hour or so since our inn is on the edge of town and the place is crowded with people
When we finally reach the towns main plaza the view of the tree is amazing
Its so big it kinda makes your head spin
The plaza is a large circle around the base of the tree
There are stalls being set up and stuff being prepared for the festival tomorrow
Ruche is reading his pokenav
“apparently this plaza was made to keep the trees roots in check, funneling them down instead of out towards the buildings” Ruche says
“cool” I say
We make our way through the crowd of people and head for the entrance to the walkway that leads to the top of the tree
We walk through the entrance after paying and start heading up, surprisingly there’s not as many people climbing as I would have thought
“This is a weird tree” I say looking at the spiral indentation that coils all the way up the tree
Its big enough to walk in and has a piece of clear Plexiglass on the outer edge creating a safe tunnel that leads to the top, but doesn’t obstruct the view
“Yeah, it was carefully dug out as the years went by so the people could easily get to the top, it was made so the tree wasn’t hurt either” Ruche says as he reads his pokenav
“That’s a bit hard to believe, this had to of hurt the tree a little” I say
Ruche shrugs
“the berries didn’t stop growing so its probably fine” Ruche says
As we climb higher I realize why there aren’t a lot of people climbing this thing
Its physically taxing, the spiral wraps around the tree a lot of times at a pretty steep angle and It doesn’t help that im carrying a ten pound incubator
After about an hour or so we reach a rest stop, there are benches and a vending machine with water bottles and other drinks
“Oh geez, this is hard” Ruche says panting
Sasha is downing a water bottle
“We are… half way up the tree, I think” I say looking through the glass with Scarlett
The view from here is beautiful, so I’m looking forward to reaching the top
After a small break we grab some extra bottles of water and continue up the path
After another hour we finally reach the top
We emerge into a sea of color
The pink leaves and colorful berries just take my breath away
I start taking pictures immediately
At the top just before all the branches splay out into the canopy is a large wooden plaza, there’s even a few food stalls up here
There’s plenty of other groups around looking at the view but what catches my eye are the hundreds of cherubi that are running around
“Wow, that’s a lot of cherubi” I say
“Yeah! They live up here and help take care of the tree, its how they became the towns mascots!” Ruche explains
We walk around and I take some pictures when we come to one of the suspended bridges that stretch out over the town
We walk out to the edge and get another nice view of Emergrove
I snap a few pictures and we head back and grab some lunch
After a bit more sightseeing we start heading back down the tree
Once we get to the bottom we walk around town for a bit then head back to the inn and spend the rest of the day relaxing
We eat dinner at a nearby cafe then head back to the inn
We turn in early and rest up for the festival tomorrow
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Post by fattymccatcat on Aug 10, 2019 5:48:14 GMT
We wake up and get ready for the day
After we finish eating breakfast I give combee her medicine for today
Then we have all the pokemon form groups of three in case they get separated in todays crowd
As we are getting ready to leave the egg shines brightly in its incubator
The light is brighter than ever before
“Oh! That was bright, maybe I should take it in for a check up” I say
“You just don’t want to carry it around today” Ruche says
“Ha ha, you caught me” I say with a smile
We leave the inn and head to the pokemon center
Its a bit crowded but we eventually reach the front and leave the incubator with nurse joy
We walk through town towards the big tree
It seems they have the plaza roped off until the booths are set up and everything is ready
We wait amongst the crowd and I notice there are a lot of trainers with cherubi around
Suddenly there’s a loud popping sound and confetti and pink leaves start to rain down from the tree signaling the start of the festival
The ropes comes down and everyone floods into the plaza
We walk around and eventually reach a stage that’s blocking the entrance to the top of the tree
There’s an old man with a megaphone
“Thank you all for coming to the 49th cherubi festival! We will be hosting a bunch of fun events throughout the day, if you wish to participate please feel free to sign up here!” He announces
We decide to get in line to sign up and the man repeats the message a few times before we get to the front
We finally reach the front and see what events are going to be held
“There seems to be two events, you can enter one of your pokemon into a Cherri berry eating contest, and then something called a drop lottery where you catch a cherubi with a number on it” I read aloud
Ruche enters cherubi into the Cherri eating contest
None of the other pokemon are interested in participating
then we all decide to enter into the drop lottery
We get little number cards to signify that we are signed up for the events, and if we lose them we can’t participate
There’s about an hour before the first event so we look around some of the stalls to pass the time
The plaza seems to be separated into sections
There’s the main stage where the events will be held
Then walking around the tree counterclockwise its games, then food, then activity’s, then merchandise, then back to the stage
We decide to check out some of the games
I do a quick check with my eyes to see if any are rigged and I don’t see anything
We get in one of the lines and when we get to the front the game seems to be a balloon popping game
You get one dart and you throw it at a wall of balloons, whatever comes out when you pop it decides the prize you get
We each decide to throw once and pay for three darts
Ruche goes first
“Riolu, pick one to aim at” he says
“Rio!” Riolu says pointing to a blue one
Ruche throws the dart and it just barely misses and sticks into the wood
“So close!” Ruche says
He gets a Cherri berry keychain as a consolation prize
Next up is Sasha
She takes the dart and throws it
It hits a yellow balloon but bounces off
“You need to throw a bit harder” the man running the booth says while handing Sasha her dart off the ground
She throws it again a bit harder and it sinks into the wood and she gets a keychain as well
“My turn!” I say picking up my dart
Sadly there’s no white balloons on the board so I decide to go for the yellow one Sasha hit
I toss the dart and the balloon pops with a shower of glitter
“Yes!” I say happily
“Good job kid, here you go” he says handing me a small plush toy of a gible that fits in the palm of my hand like a baseball
Its one of the poke-ball plush line, where they take a pokemon’s likeness and make it into a little plush sphere
“Cool” I say putting it into my pocket
We head over to the food area and get in line for some drinks as its starting to get a bit warm
We reach the front and buy three Cherri sodas and nine ice waters for the pokemon
We drink our drinks as we head back to the stage for the first event
The Cherri berry eating contest
It seems to be separated into weight classes to keep it fair
There also seems to be a special section for people who entered their cherubi
After about an half an hour of watching pokemon stuff their faces its time for the cherubi to go onstage
There are seven other cherubi onstage, luckily Ruche's cherubi is wearing a little crown so I can tell them apart from the others
Then a massive cherubi waddles onto the stage wearing what looks like a championship belt
It’s at least twice as big as the other cherubi
They all get into place and they each get a pile of Cherri Berry’s in front of them and then the announcer tells them to start
They all start eating
They don’t have hands so its even messier than the other rounds
They eat and eat and eat and slowly cherubi after cherubi start to drop out
The big cherubi and our cherubi wind up as the last two
Each have eaten nine plates of Cherri berries
The announcer says the record for the cherubi weight class is ten plates
They both clear the ninth plate and start on the tenth
The big one starts to struggle a bit while our cherubi seems to be happy as can be
Suddenly our cherubi burps loudly and smiles and walks off the stage looking completely satisfied
“Yeah I figured she didn’t care about winning, she just wants to eat her fill” Ruche says with a smile while reaching down and picking her up
They announce the big cherubi as the winner and Ruche gets some prize money for coming in second place
We head over to the food section to get lunch for everyone
Then we go to the activity section of the plaza to kill some time before the next event
We play in a bounce house shaped like a drifblim with the pokemon for a bit
Then we go and check out what they have for sale
There’s nothing that really seems worth buying so we head back to the stage and wait for the lottery to start
They have a big square area outlined in front of the stage that no one can enter
As the time draws near the announcer tells everyone with the entry number cards to step inside the large box
There’s about two hundred or so people participating in this thing
The announcer smiles
“Looks like that’s everyone, if you aren’t in the box you are disqualified! Now let me explain what the drop lottery is! Cherubi wearing parachutes are going to be dropped one by one via starly, you just need to catch one, and take it to the front to register that Cherubi’s number, then once everyone has claimed a number we will reveal the winning number” he explains
The announcer blows a whistle and a bunch of starly carrying cherubi take to the air from behind the stage
“He didn’t say what the prize was” I say
“I assume it is a surprise” Sasha says
The starly swirl above us and start dropping the cherubi
Their little parachutes spread open and they slowly drift down towards us
The cherubi look like they are having a blast, like they are in a rollercoaster
Its a lot more civil than I was thinking it would be
People start calling out dibs as they fall and people move out of the way so they can grab the cherubi they want
I see one falling and I call out that I want that one
I move under it and catch it in my arms
I smile down at it
“Hello” I say
“Cher!” Its says and smiles up at me
I take it to the stage and they record my number
It seems my number is seventeen
Sasha comes soon after and her number is sixty six
After a bit Ruche shows up and his number is fifty three
After everyone gets their number registered the announcer smiles and takes a card out of his pocket
“The winning number is… Fifty… four!” He announces and a young girl screams happily and runs onto the stage
She’s a little bit younger than us
“The prize this year is… This Oddish egg, a leaf stone, and a sun stone!” He says and someone walks out with two little bags and an incubator
“Oh geez, kinda glad I didn’t win, two incubators would have been a pain” I say with a laugh
“Oh man, that was close” Ruche says
The girl runs off stage and the announcer smiles
“That will be all for now! Please enjoy the rest of the festival! The plucking ceremony will start in about an hour! Please feel free to stop by and watch” The announcer says and everyone disperses back towards the booths
“What’s the plucking ceremony about?” I ask
“They have all the cherubi who live in the tree get up on stage and if any of them don’t want to evolve they pluck off their berry thing for them. Then they take all the berries and burry them at the base of the tree” Ruche explains
“Oh, are we gonna watch that?” I ask
“I don’t know, Everyone looks a bit tired, I think we should head back, its mostly for the people of the town anyway” Ruche says
“I agree, we should head back” Sasha says cradling Reavus in her arms as he sleeps
We make our way through town back to the inn
We stop by the pokemon center on the way and pick up the incubator
Nurse joy says its perfectly healthy and that is should hatch within a week
We get back to our room and put all the pokemon away into their pokeballs so they can rest
We relax until dinner then pack up our stuff so we can leave first thing tomorrow
Then we go to bed
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Post by fattymccatcat on Aug 10, 2019 8:03:13 GMT
We wake up, shower, grab our stuff and check out of the inn
We head to a cafe for breakfast then we leave town through the eastern most exit
We step into the orchard that surrounds the town and start walking along the path
After a few hours of walking we reach a rest stop and decide to stop for lunch
As I help ruche make lunch Sasha plays with the pokemon
“Oh yeah, how’s the bullet punch training going?” I ask
“Fine, he’s getting use to the change of pace” he says
“Cool, when youre ready I’m sure Monferno would love to have a battle” I say with a laugh
“He does enjoy his fights huh” ruche says with a smile
“Yep” I say
“So how’s combee feeling? She’s looking a lot better” ruche says
“Oh she’s fine, she likes those nutrient supplements nurse joy gave us, did you see how fast she drank the one at breakfast this morning? I blinked and it was gone” I say with a laugh
We finish making lunch and get everyone fed then we start cleaning up
“Oh yeah! Ruche can you tell me about the pastoria gym? That’s the next one right?” I ask
“…yeah.” Ruche says looking a bit nervous
“What’s up?” I ask
“… Its… Its a poison type gym Dakota” Ruche says
“Oh” I say
“And pastoria… Is filled with croagunk, everyone has one. They are the towns mascots” ruche says
“Oh no, what… Are we going to do?” I ask
“I’m… Thinking about it” ruche says
“Do you want to just pass through?” I ask
“No! No… Look, you want that badge and i’m not going to get in your way… If… No, I am going to… Try, ive been thinking that I need to face this fear instead of running away” ruche says
“That’s… Okay look, fear is… No. if you want to try, that’s great, but if it gets to be too much, just tell us and we can leave” I say
“Yes, we will be there to help” Sasha says
“…thanks guys” ruche says
We finish cleaning up and gather the pokemon and put them away
I pick up the incubator and the egg lights up again
We walk for a few more hours until night falls and we reach the next rest stop and set up camp
We have dinner and then go to bed
I can’t sleep so I grab my pokenav and go to the AWWW website
Theres a few new posts, one that catches my eye is the story about the massive flock of murkrow, its been updated
Apparently the flock attacked a town and stole a bunch of food
Before the pokemon rangers could get there the entire flock just disappeared
There is another thing that stands out
Its a video
My video of the enigma berry
“No way!” I say sitting up
“This video has been making the rounds around the internet, it looks legit but people are suspicious because the person walked up and grabbed the berry like they knew it was going to be an enigma berry, the video doesn’t look like its been tampered with and when we reached out to a professor who specializes in berries he had this to say
"This is amazing! I’ve plucked two enigma berries before, this is exactly how it looks when one changes, this is most likely real, however I’d like to ask them how they knew that one was an enigma berry, it may help further my research into the mystery of the enigma berry”
So, that’s what he had to say, but what do you think?“ It says
And then it has a link to my website
I check my website
Its exploded
Every picture has a bunch of likes and tons of comments
The video has thousands of comments and likes
"Oh man, this is… Good… Right?” I say trying to reassure myself
I spend the next few minutes coming up with a believable lie I can tell if anyone asks how I knew it was an enigma berry
What I come up with is that I took the same video a bunch of times with other berries I plucked until I happened to find an enigma berry
I lay back down and read some of the nice comments people left on some of the pictures I took until i eventually fall asleep
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Post by fattymccatcat on Aug 10, 2019 17:14:29 GMT
I wake up and head outside with Scarlett
Its a bit earlier than usual and its already starting to get warm
There’s a few other people up and training with their pokemon
I summon everyone and we do our stretches
Before I give combee her medicine for today I smell it
“Peach flavored huh, okay” I say putting the straw in and setting it in front of combee
“Comb!” She says happily drinking it
I turn towards the others
“We are a bit limited as to what we can do here… How about we do that pushing game again?” I say and they all get excited
Well, except for Chatot
“Chatot, you’re going to be doing something else” I say and he nods
“I need you go look for something” I say
“Chat!” Chatot says happily
“We are going to need some peach’s. They sort of look like pecha berries but aren’t, you will know if its fuzzy… Actually, you know what, try and find some pecha’s as well, that’s your training for today, fill this with berries and fruit and bring it back” I say handing him a small bag
“Chat tot tot!” He says taking to the air
I turn to Scarlett and monferno
“Same as last time, except no moves this time” I say and they nod
We draw a circle and they get to it
“…comb?” Combee asks clearly wanting to train
“You have one more bottle, so the day after tomorrow is when you can train again. We will ease back into it” I say with a smile
Combee smiles and goes to rest by the tents
We do three rounds of sumo before Chatot gets back
The bag is full and heavy and he struggles to carry the weight as he flies
He lands at my feet panting
“Good job!” I say picking him and the bag up
Everyone is tired so we head back to camp and wait for everyone
Ruche wakes up and goes off to train with riolu
After awhile Sasha wakes up as well
She walks over as I’m counting the peaches
“Peaches?” Sasha asks sitting down next to me
“Yeah, I was thinking of making something with them for combee, like candy or jam or something” I say
“Jam sounds nice” Sasha says
“Yeah. I’ll look up how to make some later” I say putting the berries away
“How to make what?” Ruche says as him and riolu sit down next to us
“Peach jam” I say
“Oh, I’ve never made jam before, lets try it later today” Ruche says with a smile
We pack up camp and walk for a few hours until we get hungry and stop for lunch at a rest stop
We have lunch then we set up the stuff to make jam
“The recipe says we need lemon juice? Why?” I say
“I have some lemon juice” Ruche says taking a little plastic lemon out of his backpack
“Okay, it says we peel them, slice them up, take out the pit, add sugar, and lemon juice, then heat it and then store it in some jars” I say reading the recipe
“Sounds simple enough” Ruche says
We follow the instructions and produce three jars of jam
One that’s pure peaches, one that’s pure pecha, and one that’s a mix of both
It took three hours
We each take a spoon and taste them
They are delicious, my favorite is the peach/pecha mix
“Well this turned out pretty good” I say
“Yeah, I think I’ll try making some other jams later” Ruche says
“Enigma jam” Sasha says
I get goose bumps just thinking about that
“That would be weird! But one berry wouldn’t be enough right?” I ask
“Probably not” Sasha says
“Oh right! Speaking of that enigma berry, that video I took has like ten thousand views” I say with a laugh
“Seriously?” Ruche asks
“Yeah, my website was flooded with people, all the pictures I posted have a bunch of likes and nice comments” I say
“Congratulations” Sasha says
“Thanks” I say with a smile
We clean up and start walking again
We walk for about two hours and reach the end of the orchard
We walk through the little white fence and continue walking for about two hours when we come to a field of tall grass
Its taller than all of us and silky to the touch
“What do we do about this? Walk through it?” I ask
“You are supposed to cut your way through” Sasha says
“Really?” I ask
“Walking blind would be dangerous” Sasha says
I get an idea and grab Monferno’s premier ball and summon him
“Monferno! Training time! Use scratch to cut a path through the grass!” I say
Monferno looks excited and grows glowing claws
He slashes the grass and it falls to the ground
Monferno cuts us a path through the grass for about two hours and works up a good sweat
He’s smiling the entire time as he pushes himself to the limit
I make sure he doesn’t go to far and keep him hydrated
It starts getting late to we stop and help him cut out a large circle where we set up camp
We eat dinner and turn in for the night
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