Week 12.

[azumods]

WEEK 12 For the time being, it would seem that you're back on the routes again. Route 202 is thankfully a simple one - it's straightforward as compared to the winding paths of Eterna Forest, with a clearly marked path surrounded by trees. The usual patches of tall grass are present here, though they can be avoided if you really want to stay clear of them; it's a fair easier walk than most of the routes you've traversed so far, and mercifully it's also a far shorter one. It seems August is being kind to you in that way; there's decidedly less walking required of you, which is likely not all that unwelcome after the frozen hellscape that constituted most of July. As before, the changes to the world are still present, particularly in your own Pokémon, are still occurring but seem to be slowing down a bit as the month continues on; a worrying trend, perhaps, but they haven't stopped altogether. That said, however, there's a change to the route that you may see from time to time - patches of those bright flowers in varying colors will show up along the routes themselves here and there. Perhaps a sign of gratitude from a friend you've helped out... By Tuesday morning you'll find yourself in Sandgem Town. It's very small, similar to Floaroma Town in size, and the town itself smells vividly of the saltwater of the ocean; the main points of interest seem to be the research lab and the beach to the south of town proper, though there are a few locals present as well. Your stay here shouldn't be long; you're actually very close to Lake Verity, and it won't take you long to reach it given how relatively simple and straightforward the routes here are. Thursday morning will see you on Route 201 - it's just as easy a walk as the previous route, if not easier, and if all goes well you should be able to find the lakefront by Friday evening... CURRENT LOCATION: SANDGEM TOWN POKEMON AVAILABLE: WITHIN CITIES / NEAR WATER SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY [OOC: Welcome to week ten of Azume; feel free to make as many top levels as you'd like and tag out to other characters! This post is for all of your interactions this week... at least until the weekend.]

Comments

SUNDAY

[azumods]

[niceoppai]

[Rolly is a little less listless these days, but the Spheal still spends most of his days, well, rolling along or falling asleep. And thus you'll find Chelsea chasing after him down a slope after he's done both at once and is currently barrelling down the hill.]

Oh, come on!

[Otherwise, the path is pretty easy, and she finds herself battling wild Pokémon in the grass a lot. Lemonade is still a bit chicken, but that seems to be channeled these days less into hiding behind her trainer and more into dodging attacks, so it's going well! Sunflower...

Well, Sunflower is currently the entertainment of the afternoon as wild Pokémon are starting to gather and watch the indignant Munchlax try and fail to punch an Abra that just keeps teleporting around him. Chelsea laughs nervously.]

Uh... go, go, win?

slope

[swiftasacoursingkawa]

[Sena and his motley crew of Pokemon happen to be at the bottom of that slope when Rolly comes...well, rolling down.]

Wha-wha-wha-!? W-w-wait, hold on a - yikes!

[Sena dodges the little 'mon with ease, so do most of his Pokemon. But it's Monta who jumps after the Spheal with a flying leap and catches it with a screeching cry.]

N...nice catch, Monta...

[He keeps half-expecting his starter to screech out "CATCH MAAAAAAAX!" at any given moment these days, judging by the resigned expression on his face.]

Er... [He turns to Chelsea, probably still huffing her way down the hill.] Sorry?

[niceoppai]

[Chelsea stumbles to a stop in front of them and catches her breath.]

Thanks! I don't know how to deal with this stuff, I swear...

[The Spheal, for his part, is woken from his sleep by the yelling monkey and flaps his fins a bit with a little whine.]

Monta's good at that, huh?

[swiftasacoursingkawa]

[Monta is, sadly, oblivious to the Spheal's discomfort and instead holds him up over his head with two hands, cheering over his catch.]

Yeah...I'm starting to think that naming him after my best friend might be influencing him a little too much...

[Or maybe that his best friend is more like a monkey than he'd like to admit...which is probably the more true of the two options.

Sorry, Monta-the-person.]

[niceoppai]

[Rolly just sighs and flops his little fins. This is his life now.]

I mean, you do train him with football, so it'd make sense that he got good at it.

[swiftasacoursingkawa]

[Sena laughs weakly, waving his hands bashfully.]

Honestly, I think he's the one who took to it best...the others, they're good at running and the pass routes, but Monta really likes...all of it...

[He motions to Monta, and then yelps in alarm when he notices the monkey is still holding the Spheal up.] Monta, put him down!

[perfectselfie]

Try it like this, Chelsea.

[Aya looks around, picks a few flowers, and holds them like pom-poms.]

Let's go, let's go, go fight, win!

[She's waving the flowers and doing a jump at the end of the sentence.]

[niceoppai]

Let's go, let's go, go, fight, win!

[Chelsea isn't doing the whole cheerleader thing, but she's clapping along. Sunflower lunges again and misses the Abra.]

That's gotta be cheating.

[perfectselfie]

[Aya is doing the whole cheerleader thing, until the Abra teleports out of the way.]

...that's definitely cheating. What the heck?

[niceoppai]

That's gotta be even better dodging than Lemonade can do. How's it work, do you think?

[eudaimonikos]

[For someone who took two weeks to even bother naming his starter, Michael's managed to accumulate quite the menagerie these days. He lets them all wander freely while the group's traveling. Some of them are training - in particular, his new bright pink Heracross seems to like battling a whole lot. Almost as much as tossing its horn and flexing after each and every victory!]

Yeah, yeah. Get over yourself, Pinkie.

[But Michael seems a little pleased as well. It's a strong one, isn't it?

Others in the party have graduated to making their own independent mischief. Cat Janet in particular has recently rediscovered her capacity to find things funny. Unfortunately, her sense of humor is brand new and not at all refined, which means she's experimenting with childish pranks today. You may find her just throwing a piece of Combee hive at you and fleeing, or goading poor Quaver into screaming the Spiritomb scream at random. At one point, she also flips a Bonsly over on its side and spends a while rolling it around like the most fun cat toy ever, while it ineffectually kicks its tiny legs. This game ends once Jane Doe notices, and the Haunter spends the rest of the day carrying the little Pokemon around in a claw.

Michael's been letting Cat Janet roam free, so it's entirely possible that he's not even around for most of this. Maybe you should tell him to come collect his cat.]

pranks

[discutio]

[Ignis was not necessarily a jumpy person by nature, but some things were startling to even the most hardened soldiers. Among them, the tormented shrieks of the damned. So hearing the Spiritomb shriek without any obvious context to it, he jumped nearly a mile in the air and instantly snapped into what looked like a fighting stance. Hemera bristled at his side, growling at Cat Janet and Quaver as if the pair of them were ready to throw down immediately.]

[...Basically, what the fuck, Michael.]

[eudaimonikos]

[Cat Janet laughs a cartoon cat laugh, complete with hissing. Funny! That was funny! Gleeful, she immediately turns to run off and do the next thing.

Quaver, on the other hand, is a bit of an idiot, and flaps about excitedly. Ignis and Hemera reacted and looked at him, so obviously they want to play too, right? Wanting to make friends, he opens his beak and echoes back Hemera's growl.]

[discutio]

[Fortunately, Ignis wasn't often the 'strike first, questions later' sort. And the cessation of the infernal screeching did a bit to offset the initial reaction he'd had. Enough to at least realize something was afoot, between the oddly feline snickering and echoed growl. Hemera didn't seem much less relaxed, still waiting for the go-ahead to probably do a murder.]

...And just what might you be doing? [When in doubt, address the source of some mystery noise.]

[eudaimonikos]

Youuuuuuuuuuu be doing!

[That makes sense in Quaver's head, at least. He puffs up a little with pride, and totally doesn't notice that he's been abandoned by Cat Janet.]

childish pranks

[enjoymyatelier]

[





THERE'S HONEY IN HIS HAIR NOW WHAT THE FUCK oh god it's michael's fucking cat. okay. okay. he's going to take this up with michael whenever he finds him, so he's just going to kind of yell when he can't find him immediately.]

Michael, control your cat!

[eudaimonikos]

What's your problem?

[To be entirely fair to Michael, he does genuinely seem to be off doing something else during all this. To be fair to Kayneth, Michael also does not seem overly concerned about whatever may be happening. But he'll start coming back, Jane Doe and pink Heracross behind him, with his Mawile in his arms.]

[enjoymyatelier]

Your cat's being a complete menace, and if she throws a Combee hive at my head again I'm treating her as an enemy.

[there is honey dripping down his face now...]

[eudaimonikos]

[Michael muffles a snort in his hand at the sight, but other than that manages to pretty much contain any laughter.]

Ah. Right. I'll talk to her. [.....] You've got a little something, here...

[He gestures at his own chin]

[divinedescendant]

[Apparently leaving Jubilife is too much to ask of Duma, who has absolutely no interest in cooperating even a little bit—like, more than has been true of the past week. Emmeryn spends longer than he probably deserves trying to bargain with him to do anything but stand in place; anyone else would just put their Pokémon in the ball and move on with their life, but she almost always has him beside her...

Once she's done bargaining with a toddler, Emmeryn sets out in the morning with the solution to the Duma problem, and also the one where she needs to keep track of a whole trio puttering along behind her now: a cute little wagon with all three of her Pokémon piled in.]

Now, when the terrain gets rough, you'll either walk with me or return to your ball, do you understand?

[But it doesn't, at least, and Emmeryn spends the hike pulling her team behind her in their wagon like she's humoring some kids. But then, isn't she always. Sometimes Latona gets restless enough to want to walk, and when she does, Ralts immediately makes way to sit on her back like a noble steed. Duma just looks real grouchy about it all the time.

In the evening when the group settles in for the night, Emmeryn gains some self-awareness about the whole situation as she tries to strike a balance between not pushing Duma out of her lap now that he actually wants to show any amount of affection, and being able to fold up her wagon and put it away.

softly, but with a lot of feeling:] Children. I am taking care of children...

[it's like what if chrom was nine years old again but also he could breathe fire]

Morning

[eudaimonikos]

Is this really what children are like? I thought this was pets.

[divinedescendant]

I always had little siblings to take care of instead of dogs, so perhaps my perspective is skewed, but I swear I have dealt with this very same tantrum a hundred times before.

[eudaimonikos]

Demons don't have children or pets. So I guess it doesn't really make a difference to me which it is. Kids are just like, pets with a few added steps, right?

[divinedescendant]

Something like that, I suppose, as the very simplest explanation...

[like, she'd like to say no, but,]

Of course, cats will always be cats, but children grow up.