She marched to the door and slammed it open, eyes bloodshot, hair a mess, and kind of wobbly.
“First, shut up, Bun-Bun, why did you rat me out, this is a secret, TWO-” She stepped back a bit and sat on the edge of the bed.
“Don’t make me regret this more than I already do.” She pointed a finger at where her two ghosts sat curled together. Nightmare blinked, saw it was Cheren, and backed down. Skullz stretched but was reluctant to leave his pal.
Noir sat at the table. [”...this tea is almost empty.”] She shook the tin and sighed.
[Heyyyy, I’m in Sinnoh! Need to talk to you about some things. Here’s my hotel and room number, I’ll be there at…] She entered a reasonable time. [Bring Celeste if you can? I haven’t seen her in ages!]
What might have been a reasonable time for coordinators was not one for event officials. He ducked to the back of the room for a moment, pulled up his texts... Oh, Poppy. Maybe she didn’t know how packed his schedule was.
[Poppy, I don’t mean to be rude, but I had to get up at late in the morning to make sure the breakfast buffet was set up in time for the Winter Solstice entrance. I’m going to have to take down the buffet when it runs out of food, then while everyone’s taking in the scenery and chewing the fat, I have papers to get started on. I have to make sure the announcers have their scripts and the teleprompters have no scheduling errors. When everyone else has left for the night, I have to put away all these tables and chairs.]
[When I’m finished today, I’m going straight home. You should come see it, though. Meet more ‘yena than just Celeste.]
“Isn’t this exciting?” Shiori asked. Her Espeon was sitting by her side, sizing up the room. She wasn’t going to be competing this time, but she had convinced her trainer to let her make an appearance. More like popping out of her pokeball as soon as they walked inside, but details. “I can’t wait to see all of the different appeals!”
Zoey sat down in the lobby in a daze, stunned at the score they’d received. Kaiju paraded around her, striking poses and swinging his tail. She didn’t think he had any idea how well they had done; he was just excited to be dressed up and cooed over. She’d have to reattach the hood before the appeal, she was sure of it. Cute he may be, but gentle he was not.
Bean sat on her lap, gazing around nervously at the other contestants. Though the Skitty was too shy to compete herself, she had been excited to help Kaiju train for the contest. Now she huddled against Zoey’s belly, sizing up the competition, mewling advice to Kaiju that the Dunsparce clearly didn’t hear.
Zoey looked around, too, ignoring the people, admiring the other fancied up Pokemon. There were some great costumes around, certainly. She felt suddenly and overwhelmingly proud of Kaiju for doing so well. She smiled down at him...except she smiled at open floor. In a panic, she looked around and was somewhat relieved to find he had only crawled into a planter again.
With twin sighs, she and Bean got up to haul him out. At least she could be glad she’d made the dirt part of their costumes....
Songs: Animal Crossing (Winter) - Mario Kart 8, and Animal Crossing (Spring) (Final Lap) - Mario Kart 8
Prop: Picnic Basket
Pokemon: Poppy the Furret
Moves: Blizzard - Natural Gift - Covet - Grass Knot
June waved and smiled at the audience as she was announced, showing her appreciation for her hometown. In one hand was Poppy’s ball (a team member from her ongoing Johto challenge– she thought a different partner would be nice to shake things up), and in the other a basket full of Berries for use during the appeal.
The opening drumbeats hit, and June released Poppy into the air with a burst of snowflakes, her red scarf trailing behind her as she fell to the ground. The Furret landed neatly on all fours, standing up with an excited squeal.
June tucked Poppy’s ball back into the folds of her dress and beckoned her closer to dance together. They twirled around in the falling snowflakes like a single entity, Poppy scampering on and over June (and sneaking in cuddles, natch), showing off their bond.
Poppy used her first move of the appeal– a sweeping Blizzard that momentarily obscured the two and the stage around them like a white curtain. With the precious seconds of prep time, June passed Poppy a number of Yache Berries, which she used in conjunction with Natural Gift to create a miniature winter wonderland onstage. The audience would see only a blur of a red scarf moving about the stage, with bright flashes of blue and white light punctuated by jingle bells.
Soon enough, the snow settled, and the pair’s handiwork was revealed– keeping to their Red Riding Hood theme, they’d created a wintery forest scene to frolic in, with huge conifer trees made out of ice and a light dusting of snow, with some banks built up in places to resemble hills.
With this, the main portion of the appeal could begin. June calmly opened her basket to a carefully sorted bounty of Berries– common ones like Bluk, Cheri, Rawst, and Pinap at the top, with more exotic ones tucked lower down for use later in the performance– and began to play her role as a young maiden taking a stroll through the woods for a picnic.
Meanwhile, Poppy assumed her own role as “adorable and mischevious forest critter.” She broke from June’s side to play in the snow, having the time of her life. Between each tunnel she dug and tree she climbed, she made a quick stop at June’s picnic basket to snatch a Berry with Covet when her Trainer’s back was turned.
As Red Riding June visibly puzzled over what was stealing her picnic lunch, Poppy used Natural Gift with the Berries over and over again to simulate the coming of spring. Her speed was incredible, and before their eyes the audience could see the Furret using a Fire-type move to melt the snow, or a Grass-type move to make crocuses and snowdrops bloom beneath the pine trees.
The performance marched on, and Red Riding June started to outright chase after the little forest Furret in a lighthearted game of tag. They were through the common Berries with weaker effects, and now they were down to the Rindo and Liechi Berries that gave Natural Gift the power to sprout mini fields of grass and wildflowers in place of the light coating of snow, shrubs to replace the banks of snow, and flowering vines up the tree trunks blossoming into a pine green color.
The change in scenery was reflected in the music, and the slightly slower jingle bells faded into a higher tempo, bouncy flute piece, with the brass section remaining as a unifying theme between the two.
June continued to chase Poppy around the forest bursting into springtime, with the Furret using Grass Knot here and there to trip June up in tufts of grass and sudden sprouts of daisies and lavender. These were interspersed with bursts of Fairy energy, sparkly pink lights that cast the pair in a rosy glow with sparkles encircling them just like in a shoujo manga. This was a planned routine, of course, and the extra foliage afforded by the Grass Knots slowly but surely formed into a grassy knoll for June and Poppy to collapse onto in worn-out happiness.
Poppy snuck in some extra cuddles as June removed her red cape with a flourish, laying it out between them and spreading the remains of the picnic basket on top. The audience was left with a closing image of two Little Red Riding Hoods enjoying their spring picnic after the winter thaw, before they shed their roles and rose to take a bow. They’d played their parts, and brought a bit of early spring to Hearthome City.
The applause, the cheering, it was loud. So loud, so loud, so unbearably loud. Slowly, but surely, it became too much, and she found herself unable to move. Gloved hands shook, her whole body quivering. Her knees gave in, her breathing shallow and unstable, heart beating so fast, so hard, so painfully. Velvet and Aurichal rushed to her side, trying to comfort her until Iona could make her way through the crowd in order to get Yuugetsu to a quieter place. Applause turned to chattering, some yelling, and even a laugh here and there.
The noise wouldn’t stop.
‘Stop, stop, please, stop.’ The words were in her head, but her vocal chords were too busy blubbering and crying to say anything. Tears ran down her face, dripping onto the stage. She needed Iona. She needed her quiet mewing, her soft, velvety fur, her warmth. The beautiful telepathic voice in her head. She needed it, now.
「I’m coming. Hold on, I’ll be there soon.」
The voice echoed in her head, but was drowned out by the crowd. There was just too much noise echoing in the hall, bouncing off and creating even more individual noises that she couldn’t filter. Her brain, racing from overstimulation, still tried in vain to track each and every one. She was curled up on her knees, unable to do anything but panic and cry. Finally, finally, Iona made her way up to the stage, nuzzling against her trainer in an effort to at least snap her out of her unresponsive state.Unable to get herself off the ground, the young Coordinator ended up having to be carried off the stage by her Lopunny, with Iona and Aurichal following her.
It was a repeat of what had happened in her early career. She had an anxiety attack after an appeal. Again.
Clearly, sitting around waiting to be spoken to wasn’t going to work, and it wasn’t really part of the whole defrosting ice queen thing she was going for, either. She had to, well, defrost.
Still, she was more interested in Pokemon instead of people. Blame the medic in her. She waddled around, melting in her winter armor of layers and layers of clothing, looking for any Pokemon that seemed interesting, all while keeping her hands clamped around her own Pokeballs that would not give up.
“So, what first got you interested in contests?” He couldn’t go wrong with a simple, basal question. He’d lead into a mini interview they could use later-- between acts, they’d play the ‘special’ ‘behind-the-scenes’ footage.
