#sticktogetherright

[sticktogetherright]

Now she was practically bouncing out of her skin. While Shauna tried to make sure not to flail the Pokéball too much, it still moved up and down with her in all her excitement.

"Look look look!"

Not really the kind for suspense, Shauna released her new Venonat buddy, giving him a perch right on her arm. Probably not the best idea, but hey, as long as she didn’t put her freaking arm in her mouth, she’d be good right?

"Look how CUTE he is!"

[fireflygraves-blog]

 Bugsy's eyes got big when he saw the cute little Venonat. It had been a long while since he had seen one and now the little bug lover in him was going crazy. He just had to look the little guy all over with an eager look on his face.

"Ahhhh He's so cute Shauna!!" Bugsy reached a hand forward but stopped about halfway, "C-Can I pet him?"

[workaholic-anonymous]

Toxic Pokémon Request Form

Species: Zubat, Golbat, (Shed Skin) Ekans, (Shed Skin) Arbok, Koffing, Weezing, Venonat, Gloom, Nidoran x2, (Stench) Grimer/Muk (x2)

Gender(s): Either, and one of each for Nidoran and Grimer, please!

Purpose: To raise them for extractable toxins, which will be used to make the chemicals I use in and out of the Fungeon.

Notes: Each Pokémon has a different strength of poison with different toxic qualities that cause different reactions to the bodies of humans and Pokémon alike! Having access to a variety of poisonous Pokémon will allow me to further expand my poisonous vocabulary and save me and other grunts a lot of poison-hunting trips. Here’s some of the advantages of each Pokémon, just in case you need more explanation!

Zubat: Produces primarily liquid toxins with a focus on disabling their prey. Their toxins are unique in that they keep their victims alive and warm, prevent blood from congealing, and still totally neutralize any threat!

Golbat: Golbat produce a more potent version of their Zubat counterparts; the poison works faster and is harder to expel!

Ekans: Their toxins are similar to Zubat, however their Shed Skin ability allows greater versatility in how we use these poisons and offers a weaker alternative when necessary!

Arbok: Kinda like with any other evolution, Arbok’s toxins are way stronger than an Ekans’. In addition, most Arbok are able to shoot venom as well as secrete it through their fangs, and their insides are highly acidic, even caustic. This makes its naturally produced toxins much more valuable than its actual movesets, even though these are already getting a boost in potency!

Gloom: Unlike an Oddish, whose poison comes from its leaves, a Gloom’s poison is found in its drool, which is way easier to use. Also, Gloom is very strongly affected by happiness, meaning you can actually get extremely potent toxin from a Gloom that doesn’t like you! This last reason in particular is why I’d like to get a Gloom without having to raise it.

Koffing: Koffing has the rare-ish ability to produce gaseous toxins, not just in its moveset, but just by natural production! It can also make fluid ones, too, which make it a versatile parter in poisons. Its gasses are very useful for creating non-lethal disabling toxins, which give it time to flee when necessary.

Weezing: Weezing’s kinda weird, because its toxins aren’t that much stronger than Koffing’s. This is probably because, like with Koffing, it’s really just to help conceal itself and get away most of the time. With that said, Weezing is able to produce much, much, more of its poisons in a shorter amount of time, which would make it a favorable partner if anything needs to be made in a hurry or en masse.

Venonat: Unlike the other Pokemon on this list so far, Venonat’s poison is used primarily to keep it from being eaten! Its poison, which oozes from everywhere, makes predators very sick to the stomach, and discourages others from trying to eat it. While its move pool isn’t that special for poison-types, having a Pokémon that specifically attacks the digestive system would be very useful for the purpose of slow and painful.

Nidoran: Nidoran are cute and all, but it isn’t until they evolve that they really become useful and different. They rely the most on their movepools than anyone else, with females making full use of their attacks and males having an extra-potent poison point. Females are really good for a quick, non-lethal dose, while the Males have stronger toxins that rival a Golbat’s!

Grimer& Muk: The Grimer line is similar to Trubbish in that its toxicity is a complete wildcard! Being that it’s entirely slime and its poisons vary by environment, I can’t guarantee a direct use for Grimer. However, having the opportunity to breed them and expose them to different environments would be worth the effort and spare Pokémon, I think.

XShauna Marquis

That... was a lot of pokemon for one grunt to request. Archer's brow furrowed as he read over the form again; he couldn't remember a single time he gave out a voucher for that many pokemon at once; in fact, he was pretty sure he was only supposed to authorize six per request at a max. And there was something about that name—it just looked so familiar, like he should have remembered who they were. Ah, well. No time to mull over that, now; he may as well let her have what he could.

Voucher: The bearer of this document will be provided with one (1) each of the following pokemon: gloom, zubat, ekans, venonat, nidoran F, grimer.

X Executive Archer

Simple, yet efficient; not a moment later, Archer sent the voucher on its way to that 'Shauna' person with a messenger. Hopefully they would be satisfied with that.

[fireflygraves-blog]

Shauna runs up to Bugsy, Rocket Pokéball in hand, and nearly slides past him in excitement. "Coconette! Coconette look what I got!"

Bugsy couldn't help but be slightly startled when Shauna ran over to him so suddenly and quickly, for a minute he was afraid that she was gonna bump into him.

"Uwah what is it!?" Bugsy asked as he looked at the Pokeball in Shauna's hand. He could only assume that it was a Pokemon but it never hurt to ask. 

[theories-on-evolution-blog]

You're Invited!

Oh, Diane. Diane was that sweetheart who stayed hidden but totally needed to come out more often. Shauna was gonna have her way on this one if she had to lure her out with an evolutionary stone on a stick. Knowing exactly where to find her, Shauna skipped down to her teammate’s lab and knocked politely on the door, waiting for an invitation before she entered. “Hi Miss Science! I’m having a Sweet Sixteen!” With that, she presented her with an invitation and a large grin. “You should come, so we can hang out for happy reasons this time! And we can talk about the chemistry behind fireworks, it’ll be awesome!”

In Diane's little corner of the base, a closed door was an extreme rarity.  Generally it meant that the Scientist was out and about doing other things, or possibly working with a less agreeable or more flighty Pokemon that might see an open door as an escape route.

And sometimes -- like now -- it was to hide the fact that she was goofing off.

At least in the sense that she wasn't doing actual work on her experiments.  But Phyllop's aquarium needed to be cleaned out and the water changed, and Mercury seemed much too fascinated with the little seahorse in his temporary liter beaker housing.

But it would be rude to just leave a visitor thinking she wasn't there.

So, while the aquarium refilled, the Scientist took her Horsea in a cup (much to the dismay of the Vaporeon, who followed hopefully behind regardless) and opened the door, beaming as she recognized Shauna.

The invitation was a surprise, though.  But a pleasant one!  The Scientist's face lit up as she read and listened.  "Ah, it's been forever since I visited a Disney park," she sighed.  "I'd love to come along!  Thank you so much!  -- oh, but..."

Well, it was an important event, and she didn't want to ruin it by going against the rules (however slight the infraction might be)... "W-would it be all right if I dressed up as a Disney heroine that wasn't a princess?  I-I think it would be fun to go as Jane Porter, from Tarzan, but..."

[sadisticrocket-moved]

25, 26, 27

Okay. She was nearing the end. And AS such, Shauna wasn’t going to be there to deliver her second-to-last batch of gifts. It kinda sucked, but she really needed to get 28 packed. And do a little stalking, if she was being perfectly honest.

So instead of being faced with Shauna or even one of her Pokémon, Proton was visited by three: A familiar Audino, a Zoroark that was actually showing up as a Zoroark this time, and a Furfrou. They each had something of their own to carry, and first up?

Fred. Between his teeth was a very small folded piece of cardstock paper with a thick piece of plastic in it. Shauna had written her note on the inside of this one, rather than adding it as another piece of paper.

"So I know Starbucks isn’t your favorite thing, but when I heard that Dumb Starbucks was a thing I just knew I had to get you there! So here’s twenty-five dollars to Dumb Starbucks! Spend it wisely!

— ❤ Pupil”

Zorie was the next to step up, having insisted on being the one to hold this particular gift. When she’d seen it being wrapped, she’d barked and yipped at Shauna until she agreed to let her be the delivery girl. This too, had a note, but unlike the others that flat out explained her gift, Shauna simply hinted at it.

"I wanted to give you something that represents one of my most important memories. I’m pretty sure you’ll enjoy all twenty-six of these!

— ❤ Pupil”

Inside was Shauna’s personal favorite assortment of firecrackers, most especially roman candles. She figured Proton especially would appreciate these, if anything for how easy they were to shoot at people.

This left Ophelia to step up last. She jingled and smiled at Proton, whom she’d come to like over the small amount of time she’d known him. Her gift was also very suiting, so maybe the contents weren’t a huge surprise.

"Préfet, guess what! We’re alllmost theeeere! This gift is both for you AND your Pokemon babies! They’re all special items that can buff ‘em up a little! I gave you three each of all nine, including three Rare Candies, so choose wisely!

— ❤ Pupil”

Once Ophelia handed hers off and felt content that Proton had reviewed the three, she took it upon herself to lead the party away. That was it, their job was done! Now it was all left to Shauna herself.

Twenty five, twenty six and twenty seven.

Huh.

He reached out to take his first gift from the Normal type, grinning a bit as he read over the note. He wasn't actually aware that Dumb Starbucks was a thing, but hopefully it was a place the Executive would be able to freely go to without feeling the need to dress up like a goddamn hipster. They were a crafty sort, those glasses-wearing, fifteen minutes late showing up sons of bitches. He was firmly under the impression that they bled coffee and could smell fear. Which was actually pretty damn similar to how Proton himself operated, though he didn't need to wear a scarf and just generally pulled it off better. He was clearly the coolest of all of the cool kids.

Twenty six was next, and the vagueness of the note managed to pique the Executive's interest. He let out a small cheer upon unwrapping the gift, because anything particularly explode-y was a guaranteed favorite in Proton's book. And apparently Shauna's as well, if what she had ended up writing was any indication.

He turned his attention then to the final present, accepting it from Ophelia and making a semi-awkward attempt to return the Pokemon's smile. In all honesty, he owed the Normal type a lot. Still, instead of focusing on things that would almost certainly kill his good mood, the Executive instead got to work on unpacking his last gift. The contents made him let out a low whistle, and he was certain they would end up coming in handy- he did have more than his fair share of relatively new Pokemon in need of training, after all, and anything that would qualify as a boost would definitely be appreciated.

He glanced up after that, making some sort of attempt to wave at the trio as they moved to leave, before deciding he probably should attempt to head back to his own room as well.

[sadisticrocket-moved]

24

"Bacon pancakes makin’ bacon pancakes~ Make some bacon and I put it in a pancake~ Bacon pancakes that’s what I just made, bacon pancaaaaaaakes~! ♪"

Shauna was delivering this tray on her own, and, contrary to her song, she wasn’t actually delivering bacon pancakes alone. She had six different stacks of pancakes. Some coffee, some pecha, some chocolate chip, and of course, a stack of original. Shauna also had several syrups to choose from, just in case Proton didn’t like maple on everything.

"Préééfeeeeet~!" substituted for a knock, given that Shauna had a gig rolling tray between her and the door. Once she had his attention, she slipped the rolling tray into the room and celebrated her delivery.

"I brought you breakfast for dinner! Six coffee pancakes, six pecha ones, six chocolate chip, and six original! That makes twenty-four! Are you keeping count~?”

"Oh! And I brought milk, too! Cause you’re totally gonna need it~ Enjoy! ♪"

And once again, the chipper teen was off. She was getting pretty good at leaving unannounced.

He didn't even need to recognize the nickname to be able to make a guess as to who was at the door. It was beginning to get late, anyways. Just about anyone who was planning on giving him a gift had done so, already. Briefly, Proton debated on whether he wanted to fake surprise once he went to open up the door, regardless, but eventually decided against it. While he was generally one for theatrics, that sort of thing was all about timing, and to be completely honest, he was really curious to see what Shauna would have prepared for his next gift. It was getting towards the end, wasn't it? If he had been keeping count correctly, this would be number twenty four. Though the question of what twenty eight would be was currently nagging at him terribly.

He opened the door for her and stepped to the side, letting out a low whistle upon seeing what was laid out on the tray. Pancakes. A ridiculous amount of pancakes. Pancakes for days. The Executive wasn't against that idea in the slightest. He wandered over to inspect the food, but by the time he turned around, Shauna seemed to have let herself out. He wasn't really all that sure whether she would be able to hear it, but Proton at least made it a point to stick his head out of the door and shout, "THANKS."

Breakfast for dinner was the best kind of dinner, after all.

[sadisticrocket-moved]

22, 23

Xena was back. And she looked like she had walked straight out of a fairy tale, what with the way she was carrying a cute little basket between her beak. 

"Honestly, I’m gonna be surprised and a little distressed if no one else got you some of these! So if you DO already have some of these awesome breadsticks, I’m just saying, can twenty-two more really hurt?

— ❤ Pupil

PS: Oh! One more thing! Enjoy my book of twenty-three ways to almost-die! I thought it’d be a fun read for while you’re eating your nommy breadsticks!”

Unlike Shauna’s previous listy-gifts, this particular one was written on black construction paper with silver gel pen. Still pretty girly and cutesy, but ultimately more badass looking than the rest of her gifts.

Choke on your gibberish!

Or was it Pig Latin…?

Eat a poisoned Pecha. I-ro-ny!

Two words: zombie apocalypse.

Being kidnapped when you meant do do the kidnapping

Trying to save your princess but messing up

When Maleficent turns herself into a dragon

Choking on your birthday cake :’c

Or your ginger ale :’c

Or your berry (also ironic)

Or drinking too much adult juice

Tripping down stairs

Pissing off a Gyarados

Using Earthquake in a structurally compromised building

Stand under an apple and have a really bad knife-throwing partner

Get hit with a rock instead of a snowball DX

Drown in chocolate

Dive into the shallow end of a pool

Sit the wrong way on a water slide

Being rolled onto by a snorlax

Poison Gas

Hurting yourself in your confusion!

Eating rocks. DX

Honestly, Proton could have received all of the breadsticks in the world for his birthday and still wanted more, so getting another basket of them was by no means a bad thing. The Executive had to make it a point to restrain himself from eating all twenty two of them right then and there- and he was fully capable of doing so, as he really didn't so much have a stopping point as he had a tendency to eat until he wasn't physically capable of eating any longer- in favor of looking over his other gift, instead.

And to be honest, it was probably a good thing he wasn't eating while he decided to read that list, because there was a good chance he would have ended up choking on account of laughing too hard. If there was one thing Proton knew how to appreciate, it was a morbid sense of humor, after all. He was the guy who thought dead baby jokes were the pinnacle of comedy.

[sadisticrocket-moved]

18, 19

Oh, look! This pair looked familiar. Of course, how could Shauna not look incredibly recognizable with a purple Audino walking next to her? Hm… Ophelia wasn’t looking as chipper as usual…

"Hi Préfet~! We’re over halfway there! Or did you guess that already?" Shauna giggled and Ophelia did the same, her bells jingling while her smile curled into a huge snicker that was a little too big for her face. Shauna looked at Ophie and shook her head, but got right down to it.

"I have another book for you! I don’t know much about your childhood, but I know it wasn’t the best, so I thought I’d give you a taste of mine! It’s eighteen of my favorite memories all written down for you~!"

Like most of Shauna’s other written gifts, these were written individually on neon-bright colored flash cards. She kept each story as brief as she could muster:

When I was really little, I don’t remember how little, I accidentally got Poison Powder in my face! It doesn’t sound fun, and it wasn’t, but I remember me and daddy really bonding over getting me better!

The first time I watched The Lion King I cried when Mufasa died AND at the end.

One time daddy was first teaching me how to groom Furfrou and the one we were using didn’t like us much and he splashed us a lot on PURPOSE but it was actually really fun getting that wet.

I used to really look forward to going to visit mommy. We’d always make a big deal of finding the prettiest flowers all by ourselves and not in the store.

Daddy was super SUPER awkward when we had to go get pads for the first time and I think it’s really funny.

I actually made friends with a lot of the little Pokemon cuties on Route One before I left on my journey and I was kinda sad to leave them!

I remember when Serena moved in, we were so excited that we were both girls!

My daddy’s friends used to say I was getting REALLY tall even though I never really was.

I got to see Tangled in theatres THREE TIMES and by the third time I could sing along!

My daddy and I used to perform I See The Light at our local talent show because I was addicted to that movie!

He used to let me walk to Aqacorde Town all by myself to get sweet cream ice cream. Sometimes we’d go together and we’d get the cones dipped!

Sometimes my route one Pokemon friends would help me pick berries!

I made friends with a really cute Oddish that I wanted to take with me on my journey, but she had family and friends so I would’ve felt bad.

I’ll never forget how cool it was to meet Calem, Serena, Tierno, and Trevor in one place for the first time!

Meeting Chester was one of the coolest moments of my LIFE!

Or when I got to battle Clemont for his badge! It was so cool because we were already friends and we were both secretly rooting for each other to win!

Speaking of badges, I was so super proud of myself when I beat Valerie! I dunno why maybe it’s just I really like the girl leaders and also I used VeeVee so… yeah!

Aaaand of COURSE I have to mention winning my eighth badge!

"Aaaand," a giggle and air quotes, “‘Ophie’ has Beedrill Cookies for you, yummy!"

Of course, “Ophelia” wasn’t too happy about being outed at all. “Rark! Zoroark!” The oversized fox barked, dropping her illusion much less dramatically this time for the sake of the cookies, but still frowned at Shauna while she continued.

"I betcha don’t remember why Beedrill, right? Before we were friends, you got really, really mad about something and set a whole bunch of Beedrill on the break room and honestly it was really scary and I was pretty sure I never wanted to be anywhere near you. But here we are, right? I made you a nice good hive of nineteen! They’re pretty big, so they should last you a while, right?”

He raised an eyebrow upon taking notice of the look on the foreign-Chansey's face, but brushed it off after a moment or two. It wasn't his Pokemon, after all, though the fact that he had seen the Normal type acting nothing short of cheerful near-constantly from the first moment they had received it was a bit strange. Eh. It really wasn't his problem. "Pretty sure I figured that out, yeah." Proton replied, turning his attention over to Shauna and shooting her a smile. It was his twenty eighth birthday, so he was going to end up getting twenty eight presents, right? The Executive had at least assumed as much, anyways.

The brief mention of his childhood caused the faintest of frowns to flash across his features, though he made it a point to quickly change his expression in favor of a more interested one in response to the newest book. She had managed to catch his attention with that one, and Proton reached out to take it from her, flipping through the brightly colored flash cards and grinning a bit at the stories she had written down. If she was honestly curious, the Executive would have probably been willing to return the favor, though he didn't think Shauna would appreciate learning the story of how he had secretly bashed in a teammate's face with a rock once because he wouldn't stop giving him shit on a mission. Along with twenty seven other equally as bedtime story-worthy tales.

He turned his attention over to the Audino, then, raising an eyebrow at the air quotes. It was only when the Pokemon revealed itself to be a Zoroark instead that the pieces finally seemed to click, and Proton grinned. "Pretty sure I remember that." He muttered, reaching over to grab the cookies. "Thanks, Pupil. Totally try to make them last~" Though trying and actually succeeding were two completely different things, considering who was talking.