(gacha alolan diglett)

"YIEEEEEE!" Cass shouts, quickly taking a step backward and trying not to put any weight on her left foot that's just been lowkey pierced by something. Thank goodness she's wearing shoes despite having considered not to ... She stares at the ground, but there doesn't seem to be anything unusual ... she doesn't see the three hairs sticking out of it. "Okay, that's ... not normal," she says, before moving onto her garden patch. She only wanted to check how Peter's doing quickly, but.

So that's. Interesting.

It's been full of weed just yesterday, and now ... well, she's half heartbroken about the missing weed, but then again, it actually looks like someone's been working the soil now, which ... "Peter, did you notice anything happening here?" she asks, but the Flapple just flaps a bit questioningly. "Okay, seems like ... OUCH what the fuck," she screams again, this time with her right foot being the victim. Now, the cause actually shows itself too with a guilty look on their face. "You're ... You're an Alolan Diglett, aren't you?" she asks, looking at the Ground type with a squint and a sigh.

"Did you take care of the garden?" The Diglett nods, seemingly anxious to hear what she thinks. "It's ... thank you. Didn't really ... got myself to do it, so yeah, thanks for that. Still, I'd appreciate if you-" The Diglett starts pointing towards Peter, who seems unfazed by the new pokémon. Which generally doesn't seem odd, but ... "So, you know each other?"

Peter flaps in confirmation, and Cass sighs. "Alright, fine ... wanna join the team, little one? We could ... use someone who's actually ... knowing how to garden ..."

answered icly and anonymously

"What is your go to karaoke song?"
Lower One's Eyes by Lanndo if anything goes. ... else, whatever movie soundtrack's trending right now. I'm not super picky.

"Is the person you are now, the person you wanted to be when you were younger?"
... no.

"Have you told your loved ones that you care about them recently? If not, why?"
If we don't take "telling" literally, yeah.

"Do you have a suggestion for a future survey question? Please submit it below."
- Do you have a quote/proverb/lyrics that changed your life? If yes, what is it?
- What's your least favourite fashion style?

[attr="class","emapkmn"][attr="class","emapkmn"][attr="class","emapkmn"]

heads up talk of death and the Afterlife

That breath is insanely cold. She feels herself shivering, looking around as the temperature suddenly drops. Cass' eyes are met with a smug smile, as the Froslass' ghostly and icy breath envelopes the group. Delilah immediately is alarmed, throwing up Protect as well as Lava Plume to melt any ice that comes their way.

Del gives a battle cry, but Cass quickly shouts, "No, wait!" The Charcadet looks at her trainer with disbelief. There's a tense moment where Cass isn't sure if she'd still go for it, go for the K.O., but ... she remains still. Her flames are burning still, an eternal fire even within a blizzard. "Thank you."

The Froslass seems to be irritated now, throwing Ice Shards at them, that are all swiftly melted by Delilah's fierce fire and gaze. "I'm sorry, we didn't mean to intrude or anything. We'll leave any moment." She looks at the Froslass pensive. "I've heard you ... you died with regrets? Or your kind ... It's really hard to like, ... you've been a Snorunt before, and then ... ... nevermind, I'm just rambling." But, the Froslass has stopped her attacks, and simply eyes Cass with a wary look.

"I just wanted to offer to help you. If you ... have anything you'd like to do still while you're still here. I appreciate it, by the way. Thanks ... for coming back."

There's not even a personal reason, no personal connection to death - but she feels herself tear up. Her knees feel weak, even if she's already sitting, she feels her composure crack like melting ice. Like something pounding against the frozen lake surface. She feels Jon rustle in her arms, shaking her gently, urgently. "Oh, yeah, yeah. Let's- take a pokéball for now, yeah?" She turns to the Froslass again, who's now eyeing Cass with a very strange look.

"Sorry, I don't really know what happened either. Here, if you wanna give it a shot." She throws the pokéball in front of her, and the pokémon could decide whether or not to take it.

capture attempt froslass

[attr="class","emapokemonteam"][attr="class","emapokemonteam"][attr="class","emapokemonteam"][attr="class","emapokemonteam"][attr="class","emapokemonteam"][attr="class","emapokemonteam"][newclass=".emapokemonteam"]height:40px;width:40px;background:#2b2b2b;border-radius:100%;margin:0 5px;[/newclass]

There's no hiding from the gruesome violence enacted now. Cass looks at Thea, glad that there's been no opportunity, glad that she's made a right choice, but now ... If Thea would try to shelter Knight from what's going on, she'd help her, but otherwise, she'd just hold both hands tightly, knowing their friends insufferable call for justice. She just hopes it won't result in martyrdom.

As a screen lights up and depicts- pokémon. She stares at their warden with a crazed look in her eyes, piercing through the mask, even if they might not pay attention. She feels all of her muscles tense at once, and her hands holding Knight's and Thea's would notice it, as her grip is almost crushing with strength she never displayed before.

She lets out a snort as she hears the vote - really now? She bites her lip, barely just remembering to not break skin, as she shakes her head. That's just ridiculous. Not even a proper prisoner's dilemma, just stupid. Trying to release the tension in her body, she breathes out, then looks at Knight and Thea. It's so stupid, everything is so stupid. What the hell is that choice?

It's psychological, she decides, just like everything here. Sickening, spreading like poison in the mind ... she'll have to ... (some part of her must be safe. She can't let them get to here there ...)

"Trust," she votes.

Knight Naito Thea Naito
tl;dr dummy ward
- will help thea if she tries to guard knight from what's going on
- generally holds knight and thea by hand or arm if allowed
- upon seeing the pokémon on display, her grip tightens a lot
- VOTES "TRUST"

[attr="class","emapokemonteam"][attr="class","emapokemonteam"][attr="class","emapokemonteam"][attr="class","emapokemonteam"][attr="class","emapokemonteam"][newclass=".emapokemonteam"]height:40px;width:40px;background:#2b2b2b;border-radius:100%;margin:0 5px;[/newclass]

As much as Cass adores Gominha, there's always a struggle to keep a straight face when Gominha makes a deflating balloon noise, which is to say, that happens quite a lot of time due to her, well, balloon-ey nature. She does manage to not let it transfer into her hands, however, with her lower lip instead trembling like crazy as she's holding back, her entire face twitching here and there. "We do make a formidable duo, hm?" she grins then, sounding a bit like a deflating balloon herself as she finally is able to speak Words again.

But it is strange how long Pic is taking, given his drawing speed and enthusiasm. It's a marvel how sometimes, he's truly just quantity over quality, and sometimes, it's simply ... still speed drawing. She's not sure if she's ever seen him draw calmly. "Belle, thank you dear!" she calls after the Minccino, before giving Gominha a last rub with the towel. "Alright, this is you finished up Gominha ... anything you're still unhappy with?" Cass fixes up some of the fur with her hands and fingers, but it might also be an excuse to keep her hands buried in soft fur for a moment longer. And also, of course, to look for anything she might have missed. Yep.

Pic is almost reaching a point where he's dizzy from all the praise, drowning in it but also happily so. He's ecstatic so many like his art so much! But the arrival of Belle does lead him to focus his attention on her a bit, waving his sketchpad and taking his tail to-

OH MAMMA MIA!

He looks at her in shock as the memory hits him like truck-kun, hastily waving thanks and goodbye at the dojo pokémon, motioning that a matter of great importance has come up! He then grabs Zeus and Belle- he moves to grab Belle, but remembers how Cass told him not to just touch everyone, so his arm will make an akward curve if she'd flinch away. Then, he rushes over to the dojo entrance. ... and then stops, pensive.

He has no idea where he has to go, actually.

Thea Naito

[attr="class","emapkmn"]

Philomena the Silcoon is quite calm in this unfamiliar environment - one could almost say she's the very opposite from anxious and scared. She's arrived with her new trainer, Cass, travelling by her favourite way of being attached to her backpack, and now floats in the area, looking at the other Bug type pokémon with curiosity.

Despite being rather lacking in the communication department, she somehow, with only one red eye, manages to appear relatively approachable. Maybe the fact that she stands in front of a display saying that Silcoons naturally can only learn Harden helps, as she has zero offensive capabilities nor desires. She willingly lets the students pet her while Cass is keeping watch that nothing bad happens, just in case.

Oh- hang on, woops- one student turns away, ready to try and approach some other Buy types, as Philomena just ... has attached herself to that student's backpack by accident. Oh well. And Cass is also distracted, or something - it's really hard to see if you only have one eye.

Oh well. She'll figure something out! At least the student doesn't freak out when they finally realise they've carried Philomena out for a walk around the school.

John Sullivan Andrea Vaneau Shalin Nariya El Sunderland Elise Calcifet Eris Halla Jack Napier

[attr="class","emapkmn"][attr="class","emapkmn"][attr="class","emapkmn"]

It's a melancholic mood that brings Cass all the way up here, slightly huffing and puffing as they climb and hike half of the easiest path up on Mt Pyre. She should literally be doing anything else - studying, for example - but she finds herself here, accompanied as always by Jon in her arms and Martin resting beside her. For some reason, Delilah seems to have sensed her mood and has also come up, after giving Sona a loooong look, as if wanting to make sure she'd be safe.

(She still doesn't really understand what's going on between those two, but also, Thalia and Eira also are waaay beyond her, so she might have given up trying. But only a bit. After all, gossip is quite fun ...)

She finds a suitable place to sit down for a while on a rock. Since she's not at the top or much above the usual ground, the mood here isn't all too special and the view isn't really that breathtaking, but ... she takes a deep breath.

CASSANDRA KUBRICK

17, student (slateport private school)

PUBLIC

• attends a prestigious private school in slateport city; one of the top students there (but shows signs of declining in ranks).
• essentially always seen with her trubbish.
• best friends with THEA_NAITO and KNIGHT_NAITO, trio's often together. generally has a medium-sized to large friend group, a social creature.

LEAGUE

• child of the infamous CALPURNIA_KUBRICK.

ROCKET

• child of the infamous CALPURNIA_KUBRICK, but make it more dubious now.
• possibly known to be a future recruit; quick on her head, ruthless, anti-league and cautiously rocket-favouring in all this uncertainty.

PRIVATE

• delulu.
• cares more for pokémon than for human in most given situations.

LUTGARDIS
DIJKSTRA-NIEMANTSVERDRIET

24, ranger cadet

PUBLIC

• only ever called "lutgarde". always seen with their sylveon sylv who's dyed in black-red hues.
• originally from kalos and stationed in hoenn since january '24.
• usually doing work around cities and urban environments, but seems to have expanded since coming to hoenn. doesn't have a permanent station.
• (almost) exclusively favours fairy types. known to have a set team of at least sylveon, togekiss, primarina and galarian rapidash.
• most often seen in (gothic) lolita fashion or variants thereof.

LEAGUE

• has personally requested the transfer kalos to hoenn.

ROCKET

• yet another one of those annoying leaguers.
• vaguely could be known for being soft when it comes to condemning individuals. forgiving; gullible in this regard.

PRIVATE

• has dealt with anger issues in their youth by "simply repressing" them; it haunts them still.

For now, Cass has given up on trying to convince Knight that there are other regions, letting him believe whatever he wants. She also, indeed, might have been too busy to play dress-up, anyway, as she arrives to their agreed meeting place in full old-timey steampunkey fashion with a top hat and something of a fancy suit in brown and white colours. "I don't think you can detach those hats from them, however," Cass replies to Knight's words, having just arrived in time to catch them.

"Sorry, bit late, the hat was in a worse shape than I remembered." Which did remind her of the last time she wore it, and the really hairy situation she's got herself in with it. "They're like an anti-thesis to pollution." Which also makes her grimace with disgust and fondness, both sentiments directed at, in her mind, vastly different groups of people. Pokémon evolve, but humanity stagnates so goddamn badly.

She sighs, shaking off these thoughts for now, and then readjusts her hat - just in time for one of the Weezing to actually come close, too! "Well, hello," she says, and bows slightly, and sees that the Weezing actually returns it in kind - and she could just not take this opening to throw a pokéball, right?

Knight Naito Thea Naito
BUpDKj_n

[attr="class","emapokemonteam"][attr="class","emapokemonteam"][attr="class","emapokemonteam"][attr="class","emapokemonteam"][attr="class","emapokemonteam"][newclass=".emapokemonteam"]height:40px;width:40px;background:#2b2b2b;border-radius:100%;margin:0 5px;[/newclass]

Cass grins at Thea's shower of compliments while she's massaging the shampoo into Gominha's fur, before washing it off and switching to get another furcare product. "Must be sign that she's got the best trainer in the world," Cass diverts the stream of affection towards her good friend with a laugh. Upon meeting eyes with Hammy, she has a hard time not cooing - gotta stay focus on the princess for now !!

After another shorter while, since she doesn't do any cuts this time, she deems Gominha as finished as well, fondly drying the Wigglytuff with a soft towel. "Alright, we should be done with you in a moment ... " Maybe she also buries her hand in soft fur for a bit longer than strictly necessary. Who's to tell! "Pic should be back any moment now, too ... they're taking quite some time, huh?" she laughs. With Zeus at his side, she isn't particularly worried about her Smeargle.

Who is, in fact, kind of having the time of his life. Pic is quite relieved to see his move being recognised by the one and only Zeus, and then quickly afterwards also by all the other Dojo pokémon. He stands there, being vaguely embarrassed but also clearly not minding the compliments - even seeking them! - as he shows off his new move a couple more times. But he can't help but think like he's forgetting something in all that commotion ...

Thea Naito