"Wha?-poison? but I..." Zac tried to keep up with the string of cryptic claims and barely veiled threats, and suddenly he was holding five new Pokeballs. "Oh, so, right now?" he tried to ask, but Chryssa was already leaving the cinema humming some threatening tune. "Hey! Wait! I need to get my Pokemon out, I didn't bring extras!" Zac said, as he hurriedly cleaned up and returned Zappa, who was digging around under the other rows for fallen sweets.

Out in the lobby, Zac caught up with Chryssa, and they headed for the mini-PC installed near the concession stand. He spent so much time picking the five Pokemon that the transaction cancelled itself twice. "It's not easy giving friends away," Zac said, when he had finished. He handed Chryssa the five balls, on top of a plastic container. "And, uh, here is what I was planning on giving you for Arceusmas anyway."

Zac opened the box to show Chryssa what was inside. Instead of a bomb there were two sheets of festive cookies, each shaped pretty accurately like Pokemon. There were all the holiday classics there: Delibird, Abomasnow, Snom, Stantler, Electabuzz, Pineco, and of course an extra large Arceus cookie. "They're ginger and orange, with a mint glaze," he explained "oh, and uh, this year they're completely free of Dunsparce venom."

"Fine. Tell me a story then!" Chryssa declared. "It can't be as good as the movie, but tell me how you got these five precious little pokes so I can contextualize them mentally." It was basically free backstory.

She'd sat down on one of the benches while she waited for Zac to retrieve five Pokemon. Lucky for her, she'd gone out tonight planning to spontaneously dump all the Pokemon she didn't need on random passerby after the movie, playing some kind of rogue vigilante Santa bestowing Skrelp and the like. That said, she was actually a little relieved to be able to gift them to someone she knew. 

She didn't care about Pokemon well-being-- at least, probably not in the same way that Zac did-- but she did hate not knowing the end of a story. Who knew where those Pokemon she had were going, or what would happen to them? At least this way she could get updates on their character arcs.

Chryssa was surprised to receive cookies. Nobody had ever made her anything before. "Oh!" she said, holding the container stupidly in her lap. "Thank you!" Her surprise didn't last long as the girl greedily pried it open, breathing in the warm scents of orange zest and ginger. "Luckily for you, I'm already immune to Dunsparce venom," she said, reaching into the tin to break the head off Arceus and pop it into her mouth. She chewed aggressively. "I spent years inoculating myself to the most deadly poisons, so I don't need to milk these toxic Pokemon anymore."

She broke off two of Arceus's legs and pretended to make them dance on the lid of the cookie tin. "Do you have a New Year's Resolution, Zac Ramsay?" she asked suddenly, distantly. Her eyes seemed unfocused. "Is there anything you... want to do?"

Zac looked over at the five balls that were rolling around in the lid of the tin. "Their backstory? Well sure! If it helps you connect with them."

"I found Cacturne on route 117. She had been pestering a Ledian's flower grove and had gotten a whole mess of Mach Punches for his trouble. I took her in, healed her up, and she's been sunning himself near my house in Lavaridge ever since. Been a bit listless lately. I think she wants some more adventure. Her name is Scarecrow Jones."

"Snivy is another one from the hotter part of the country. Found her exploring out in the desert. Haven't had a lot of time with the little gal, but I did promise her I'd find him somewhere less burning hot," Zac said with a chuckle. "Basically the opposite of Scarecrow Jones."

"Swablu was nesting in my chimney. Only found out when a Magnemite dropped into my living room. She likes shiny things, I guess. Caught Whismur in the rock tunnel near Rustboro. I was attacked by a Gigalith and almost tripped on the little screamer on my way out! Please be careful where you use him, as he has no voice control."

"And last is Malcolm...and Munro. Malcolm is the big one," Zac shrugged as he struggled to explain his reasoning. "I, uh, used another Weezing in that battle with Ooper, so I thought you would like one of your own. You know, uh, to remember that...time."

Quick as a Seviper, Chryssa changed the subject, and Zac floundered. "Resolution? Uh, to be more appreciative of my friends. Always a good thing, right? Yeah, next yeah I'll be sure to- Oh shit! I forgot to pick up Devin!" Zac pulled out his phone, which was still off from the movie. He turned it on, and winced at the many, many missed calls and messages from his friend, who he had left stranded somewhere in the festive streets of Fortree. "Ah dammit. Yeah. Definitely sticking with that resolution." He sighed. "Well What about these guys?" He asked, indicating the pocket full of Pokeballs he had just received. "What's their story."

Having listened attentively while Zac had explained all five Pokemon, Chryssa was eager to make her own narrative contribution. "Well, as mentioned previously, Skrelp, Scolipede, and Nidoking I was using to make myself gradually immune to all the poisons known to man," she said, not wanting that detail to slip by. "Nidoking and Scolipede were never reclaimed after we returned all the Pokemon Bailey Ooper had stolen to the authorities." Chryssa shrugged. "For all I know, they might have been her starters. Poison-types are naturally weak to Psychic... perhaps she found them in the wild and trained them on her own."

"Skrelp was just something my Lapras tried to eat the other day. Sharpedo was swimming in a pond near the Verdanturf Contest Hall, which I thought was rather curious, and Tynamo I... won in a game of chess," she said. "I was actually playing against her in the chess game, she's quite the brilliant strategist. Just don't let her play white."

Chryssa smiled, leaning back and closing her eyes for a moment as she pretended to be transported back by the 'fond' memory. Her eyes opened again and she sat up. "Anyway, that's probably all true."

Which brought them back to New Years Resolutions. Chryssa was quiet as she popped Arceus's legs into her mouth, chewing slowly as Zac checked his phone and exclaimed over his own forgetfulness.

"Appreciating your friends is good," she said absentmindedly, using her fingernail to scratch out the base of the Arceus cookie's neck. "But it's not a very tangible goal, is it? You're supposed to set something more achievable. For example, instead of 'I want to throw the world into chaos,' you should say 'Every two weeks, I want to assassinate one political leader, leaving no trace of myself and slowly turning all world nations against one another.'" Chryssa looked up for a moment. "So you should say something more like, 'I'll hang out with my friends once a month' or something."

She drew a line down Arceus's belly, scraping away the white mint drizzle. She put her finger in her mouth. "The human mind loves to make vague goals, you know." It was its way of making up for the possibility of failure.

So what was her resolution?

The last of Arceus crunched in her teeth, gingery and pungent. Bitter as it was, she relished the taste.

"I'll find a Contest to join once a week," she said simply. "I have... other hobbies, and some research I'm doing. But I'll try to travel to the local Contest Halls more frequently, not just when there's a Grand Festival. I have to keep in practice."

Tangible. Achievable.

But how about something impossible?

Thirsty after eating Zac's cookie, Chryssa stood up and walked to the concessions stand, returning with two more bottles of their favorite soft drink. "A toast to the New Year," she said, handing one to the bearded man. "To a year of friendship, competition, and absolutely killer stunts."