moomoo farm

Kris: I suppose it was.

They feel some of the bottles.

Kris: Are you sure we can just take these? We really don't have to pay anything?

Skyscraper Office, Mesagoza

Dr. Circhester: Likewise my associate, Mr. Tenor. Responsible for the new fawns populating my herd of Wyrdeer at my estate in the Paldean wilderness.

Dr. Valdés: Ah, you must be the rhythm teacher my esteemed colleague Dr. Circhester has sung praises of. I certainly hope his trust is not unfounded, as we have an especially difficult task for you, amigo.

Dr. Circhester: I assure you that Tenor is more than up to the task at hand.

Dr. Valdés: Make yourself comfortable, my friend.

The dumbwaiter porygon shuttles in another order of churros con chocolate.

Dr. Valdés: It took us quite a while to get chocolatiers of the finest caliber, but we found a quaint supplier of artisanal chocolates that catered to the nobility. Enjoy yourself.

Dr. Circhester: My friend Dr. Valdés is in charge of a group of less than orderly young learners with auric spectrum skills fairly similar to those you've observed from my assistant Watson. Yet they seem unwilling to cooperate with one another for long. I'm well aware that you are versed in dealing with adolescents. You've already faced the wrath of Laird and his herd in the rut. It should prepare you for what these young men and women are capable of.

Dr. Valdés: Of course, I also want to hear more about how your technique brings out rhythms. Synergy is important to us here and we'd love nothing more than to here a quick theoretical background on how you accomplish what you've done. In your own words.

Edited by MasterJayAM on May 30th 2023 at 3:45:19 AM

As instructed, Mr. Tenor makes himself comfortable.

Mr. Tenor: Thank you kindly, Dr. Valdés. Now, as to the nature of my technique, it is both simple in description and complex in execution.

He takes one of the churros con chocolate in hand and carefully holds it, not letting a single drop of chocolate or bit of churro fall to the ground.

Mr. Tenor: Simply put, my trade is in music. Not just in rhythms, but in harmonies, melodies, syncopations, and many other forms high and low. Through my studies in the musical arts, I have learned how it affects the hearts and minds of those who hear it, human and Pokémon alike. Thus, my technique involves observation of the current mental state of a given subject, selection of a musical suite most conductive to reaching a target mental state for the subject, and communication with the subject to bring their mental state from what their current one is to the target one desired.

Now, he moves his churro-holding hand above his lap, cupping his other hand beneath it.

Mr. Tenor: With Dr. Circhester's herd of Wyrdeer, as an example we're all aware of, I observed the herd's agitated state while in the rut, selected a soft classical piece intended to calm the herd without the use of sedatives, and communicated with the herd through body language to reduce their agitation and bring them to the desired state of calm. Now, if you're wondering how such techniques could be brought to bear for your gifted youths, Dr. Valdés, I assure you that I have successfully used this technique in my prior engagements as a schoolteacher, properly tailored to the challenges they presented.

He then takes a quick bite of his churro.

Mr. Tenor: I hope that clarifies for you the nature of my technique. If need be, though, I could clarify further.

Stormchaser

Hoops and Xaster are spending an evening in watching tv. However, the only thing they could find when flipping through channels are reruns of J-Show episodes from a few months ago. It's either this or Castelia Fire and Rescue, and neither of them are in the mood for that level of trash.

"So, I have a question about this show," Xaster says, gesturing at the screen.

"No, for the last time, I don't know why they gave me giant boobs," Hoops grumbles. "It's not even a casting thing, I've seen the actress in interviews and her boobs are way smaller that they look on the show. What are they even trying to pull with this?"

Xaster lets that hang. "Okay. Well, actually I was going to ask how they can known so much about us and still get so much wrong."

By sheer coincidence, the Chiyo episode that everyone else was watching the clips from is the next one to come on. Hoops finds their jaw slowly opening until it's in a full dropped position as they watch the show's interpretation of Chiyo.

"Is that really..." they say.

Xaster shakes his head, giggling. "No, that's obviously rainbows."

Hoops smacks him on the arm. "We can't laugh about it. It's mean." Then shirtless Tagg shows up and they start giggling as well.

"No but we can't," they say, as Chiyo gives the bus speech. Then both of them start laughing again.

"Think of it like this," Xaster says. "If Chiyo sees us laughing at her, she'll be mad and probably hurt us."

"You sure she won't just give us a speech about her worth?" Hoops asks, setting them off again.

By the end of the episode, as Show!Chiyo drives away to possibly never return. They continue laughing as the previews announce a new introduction to the cast, and through the ad break and the next episode starting. Then Xaster abruptly stops as the new character appears.

Show!Xaster is played by Ben Platt, in full "pretending unsuccessfully to be significantly younger than he actually is" mode. He spends the first five minutes of his screen time wandering around without anything approximating a thought in his head, before bumping into Show!Hoops.

This meeting turns into a battle, where Xaster has to admit that his show counterpart is more skilled than he was back then, though it still ends in an embarrassing loss for Show!Xaster.

Show!Xaster: turns away from Show!Hoops (singing) I used to think that I could do anything...

By this point, the real Hoops is practically unconscious from laughing so hard at this, while Xaster stares in horror. "Why do I sing?" he asks. "I don't even sing much in real life."

Hoops laughs again, but stops as their show counterpart begins to harmonise with Show!Xaster, before turning the song into a duet. Then their face falls and they stare in a mix of horror and rage. "I'm going to kill somebody," they say. "That's not hyperbole."

"On the bright side, at least the actor can sing," Xaster offers helpfully.

"That's even more inaccurate!"

Somewhere, at the same time

The credits roll on the episode. Whitt stares at the screen, his brow furrowing into a confused frown.

"What the fuck did I just watch?"

Edited by theoncominghoop on May 29th 2023 at 10:55:04 AM

The GM House

Deziree: Uuuuuuuuuugh.

-*thmp*-

Deziree: You respect your mother, young lady.

-The Duraludon, hence having been named Bessemer, slowly blinks at his new trainer.-

Bessemer: <Is this really how humans reproduce?>

Deziree: Yes. It's horribly inefficient and can still be incredibly lethal to the mother if not in peak health or proper precautions are made.

Bessemer: <... And you're doing this, because...?>

Deziree: Because it's this or find a Ditto surrogate and I am NOT doing that cloning shit, natural or otherwise!

Bessemer: <Woah, woah, okay. Obviously touched a nerve there.>

Deziree: Sorry! Sorry. I'm just... ugh... I'm used to dealing with massive mood swings but these hormones are testing even my experience.

-A slight hum alerts Bessemer to the levitating of a particular Metagross.-

Dr. Mobius: <In my experience with biological reproduction, you are handling this better than most! Some species are much worse while the baby comes to term. Why, there was this one time a Kangaskhan tried ripping my leg off, which was rather rude, but I wasn't about to initiate fisticuffs with a mother while her child was present. That'd have been rude.>

Deziree: Yes, thank you, Mobius. Please go recheck the Yellow Group samples.

Dr. Mobius: <Oh, that's what I was coming here to report! Samples 3, 5, and 8 are all... clear.>

-Deziree's eyes snap open wide as she slooowly pulls herself up from her lounging on the couch.-

Deziree: "Clear"? As in, no signs of glitch contamination?

Dr. Mobius: <Indeed! Not a single sign of glitchmatter in sight. The enzymes appear to have, in fact, properly metabolized them.>

Deziree: Get Code Talker, find the common thread between those three, and get me the Jaegers.

Dr. Mobius: <In that order?>

Deziree: Yes!

-*thmp*-

Deziree: Also, I'm going back to laying down!

Ambiguous Time

Stormchaser

Chloe: -Laughing as she watches the clip- "Honor Student"? You know the Templars would try to kill whoever came up with that one.

Boron: What do they call Alumni on the show? Graduates?

Abe: If only getting people to change their minds was that easy.

Zee: Damien only barely accepts that we might have a point.

-Annoyed-

Can't believe they wrote me out.

Abe: -Eyebrow raise- You sure you even want to be part of this?

Zee: It's the principle of the thing, I guess they wanted someone shorter and scrawnier than me.

Chiyo: -Amused- Show Damien's looking a bit... satisfied in that one shot of Maggie stepping on him after the kneecapping.

-Smirks-

I think they got one part of him accurately from what Zee has told me.

Zee: -Sharply- Don't be ridiculous, I was holding him down with gravity and an axe to his neck. And he ran off because of me, not you, I tied him up and carted him and his annoying Houndoom off to my cabin.

Chiyo: -Laughs- You know some people are totally into that, I've met plenty.

Zee: If Damien wants to spar I'll just beat him again.

Chloe: Yeah, "sparring", that's what he wants to do with you...

Edited by rmctagg09 on May 29th 2023 at 8:40:12 AM

Desmond carries the milk boxes.

Morgan:' <You're going to break them.>

Desmond: No I won't! I won't let go!

he snips at his partner, before turning to Kris.

Desmond: Nah! Special offer, so free milk!

he grins, holding up the milk. However, a sudden thought strikes him.

Desmond: Hold on... how in Distortion will we be able to keep all these bottles fresh?! There's like 36 of them!

Edited by Jules-Firenze on May 29th 2023 at 11:42:47 PM

Moomoo Cafe

Atrin: Don't look at me. This whole operation was your idea!

Atrin thinks for a moment.

Atrin: Okay, we got 36 things of milk and a few Pokemon between us...Pokemon Milk drinking contest?

Desmond's eyes gleam in challenge.

Desmond: Sounds good to me! Hey Kris, is Soul your only Pokemon?

moomoo farm

Kris: Yes. My... younger sister has some more pokemon at home. I need to save a few bottles for them.

Soul scoffs at the idea of a milk drinking battle.

Soul: <Now this is stupid. We go to all this effort to get milk and we're going to waste it.>

Kris: Still, I don't think we can handle twelve whole bottles. I don't think we'll be able to participate, but If you run out of bottles you can have some of mine.

Morgan: <I honestly don't get it myself. I am quite thirsty, though.>

Morgan mutters to Soul, shrugging.

Desmond: Sure! How many do you need?

Desmond nods to Kris, before turning to Atrin and grinning.

Desmond: Who's your contender?

Moomoo Cafe

Atrin: Right, I was totally serious about this plan. Wasn't a joke at all. Well...

Atrin pulls out a pokeball and sends out his Appletun, Orchard!

Atrin: Orchard, you want some milk?

Orchard makes happy Appletun noises.

Desmond: Hey, how else are we gonna keep all these, unless you have some Ice types?

Desmond shrugs. Morgan rolls her eyes, but smiling(?), she floats in.

Morgan: Well, guess the undead sword will have to beat an apple at a milk-drinking contest. Wow that's weird.

Moomoo drinking contest

Kris smiles slightly.

Kris: Good luck, then.

Cardiac was struck and knocked back, shaking themselves a bit. <Dusty! Get in here!>

Out of thin air leapt a Umbreon, fangs bared as it went for a Bite right at the Slowbrow. Isaac tossing another ball as out popped a Midnight Lycanroc in a red jacket. "Lupin, intercede, I've got to get looking."

<Sure thing, always liked causing a bit of mischief, henhehehe.>

Another Eeveelution came out of the air, a Espeon, it faced off against Jet and casted Confusion. <Seriously Cardiac, you're our Hunter-Killer, how did you screw this up?>

<Don't start with me Queen!>

Isaac threw out a whistle to Risky. "Come on, I can see footprints, what do you want to bet he can't hide them?"

Silas paced in a panic, no response so far. What did Roxy mean by Project Paldea, the life support was keeping her breathing but it was a temporary measure at best.

Roxy however by sheer willpower was keeping herself going, she refused to lay down and die like this. This wasn't how her story ended, and she refused to let anybody decide otherwise, fate it seemed was on her side on this. She looked over to Silas and mustered enough power to whistle, and point to the desk.

Silas seemed to follow and scrambled over to it, he opened the desk and pulled out a folder, project Paldea listed. He opened it up and started flipping through, inside was a set of ideas about genetic therapies and ditto chameleon cells to repair long term damage. This was Project Paldea?

"I had *huuuuff* the idea after you *huffff* told me about space plans. *huff* I thought the augmentation *huff* idea was a little heartless. Change *huf* people to fit to space? No... *huff* seemed so cruel honestly."

She smiled. "*Huff* We can *huff* use that. Fix me. *huff* Contact whomever you can. There are *huff* names we know. Use them."

Silas nodded, and grabbed the phone one last time, she just had to hold out.

The Hamlet, The Weald

These woods, tinted orange by the ever present fungus that grows in every crevice and on every trunk, is almost claustrophobic in its density. If there were more people here than you, this would probably have to be a single-file scenario. But just you and what few Pokemon you have out? It's not a terrible amount of space.

After minutes picking down the dirt track, the first sign of change in the environment becomes visible: Further down the track is an old log cabin from which are coming sounds of clattering and faint music.

Autumn Mountain

-Gale heads in, though before she does she gives this look at the Falinks who nod and gather up next to (or really more like around) Bobby. Probably to keep them company-

-Now inside, Gale seems to stick to the shadows as she follows behind the group. Honestly, lighting like this was kind of her preferred terrain-

Pokepark, Dojo

Gale's Mystery Bird: <Mmm? Well obviously there is one easy way to get our friend free but it'd ruin the fun...>

The GM House

Selene: Uuuuugh.

-Selene collapses onto Ludmilla's bed, causing the younger girl to bounce a little as the Mobius-Type Supersleep Padding^TM tries to compensate.-

Selene: I hate this! We haven't made any progress on this - we've looked up and down the freaking dictionary to try and find the right word and none of them work!

Ludmilla: Maybe we're thinking about this wrong. Perhaps we need an adjective in there?

Selene: Uuuuuuugh I hate language sometimes! I don't know math but if we slapped ever adjective onto every location-based noun in the dictionary we'd both be spacedust by the time we found it!

Ludmilla: I... okay, fair. Maybe deal with some of the School things nearby to try and find a clue?

Selene: Yeah, I guess. I wonder what ride on The School's Grand Abusement Park we're going to try this time.

Ludmilla: Okay then, Selene the Downer, think of it this way. You're making the world safer for your new niece that's coming.

-Selene's hair bristles.-

Selene: Oh crap you're right.

Sunnyshore, A While Ago Don't Think About It

-The only thing that could possibly clash with the brilliant colors of the Sunnyshore environment would be the sterile, painfully achromatic grey of a Templar uniform.-

-And yet, strolling like it weren't nothing, a young girl in one such outfit seems to go entirely unnoticed by the public at large.-

Moomoo Cafe

Atrin places the bottles on the ground, before looking down a moment, thinking on what to say.

Atrin: So many milk chuggers have dared to challenge me. Let's hope that you can give us a worthy battle!

Dramatic Boss music plays!

Milk Chugger Atrin has challenged you to a chug-off!

Desmond grins widely in challenge, his eyes sharp.

Desmond: Oho! You're approaching me? Instead of running away, you're approaching me?

Morgan floats next to him, inexplicably holding a glass of milk, her eye narrowed.

Morgan: <Of course. He can't beat you without coming closer, after all.>

she snarks. Desmond spreads his hands wide, holding milk bottles in both hands.

Desmond: Then come as close as you'd like!

he growls, then Morgan cries,

Morgan: 3, 2, 1, GO!

and, striking a pose, Desmond begins chugging fiercely as both sides begin. Morgan dips her appendage in the milk and begins slurping it up like a straw.

Moomoo Cafe

Atrin and Orchard start chugging, but they're struggling to keep up with the raw milk drinking prowess of Desmond and Morgan! Atrin looks back at Mimir.

Atrin: Secret weapon time! Mimir! Hit the arena with a trick room!

Mimir's eyes glow white as a transparent cube covers the arena.

Atrin: There isn't a rule that bans Trick Room!

Moomoo cafe drinking game

Kris observes, vaguely confused. Soul looks disgusted.

Mt. Battle Master's Office

Dune: So, run that by me again. Slowly. So the transcriber can get this very clearly.

-The representative on the other side of Dune's screen tugs his collar a little.-

All-Natural Berries Inc. Representative: Well, you see, Mr. Galvani-Morton, one of our shipments was, ah, shall we say, compromised-

Dune: Let the record show that the term used earlier was, and I quote, "tainted".

-The rep really didn't look forward to describing this interaction to his boss.-

ANB Rep: And we quickly discovered that a shipment of goods that had passed through Holon's port had obtained a collection of local fauna.

Dune: Continue.

ANB Rep: W-well, uh, we don't believe it will become a problem, with Orre's natural inhospi- i-inhosp- with how difficult it is for things to live here, but-

Dune: What. Came off of. Your. Boat.

ANB Rep: W-w-w-well, sir, I was just getting to that, and, um, we believe that they are a Holonic subspecies of... Durant?

Dune: Durant.

ANB Rep: Yes, sir.

Dune: And what, by chance, is the nature of their particular Holonic subspecies?

ANB Rep: Well... ah... They have shown unusual natural defenses...

-Dune can barely keep himself from rolling his eyes at the stalling.-

Dune: Of what nature?

ANB Rep: They have, ah, shown somewhat... pyrotechnic capabilities?

Dune: ... They breath fire.

ANB Rep: Um. That... is the long and short of it, yes.

-Dune shoves his goggles onto his forehead to make space for his two-handed facepalm.-

Dune: Your ship, which you insisted did not need quarantine (as is usual procedure for all imports) due to the high demand in Phenac, brought a load of fire-breathing Durant into the region.

ANB Rep: W-well, sir, we did go through proper channels for our request for exception-

Dune: Under the simple condition that you had taken proper precautions before leaving your last port of call.

-Dune was forcing his voice into as flat a tone as he could manage. This did more to unnerve the rep than any shouting or screaming ever could.-

ANB Rep: I-I-I- um. Y-yes.

Dune: Tell your bosses we will be having a conversation about this later. As of right now, your cargo is undergoing inspection to avoid any other invasive species from sneaking through, and once the cargo is unloaded, your ship is going under quarantine until such time as the current situation is handled.

ANB Rep: B-but you can't do that!

Dune: Article 3 of the Orre Nautical Trade Code clearly states that in such times as a business or government breach of any agreement or contract signed by a representative of Orre in good faith, the nature of the breach shall be answered by a proper response. Subsection 4 of that same Article then denotes that a breach of agreement in regards to the safety; biologically, mechanically, or ecologically; of the cargo or package may be met with a quarantine of the vehicle or vessel that delivered the goods in question until such times that an assessment has been made as to the safety of said vessel to leave Orren port.

ANB Rep: ... I...

Dune: You know what my number is.

-Dune ends the call there before bringing up a new call screen.-

Dune: Call up contact, "Crazy Bug Lady".

Edited by DuneTheWanderer on May 31st 2023 at 1:54:00 PM

Ambiguous Time

Edited by rmctagg09 on May 31st 2023 at 8:54:51 AM