Vital Spirit Festival

i used to dream in the dark of palisades park

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D-Bug

The Robust
He/Him/His
Twenty-Eight
October 30th
Bevaridge Town
Biomesexual
Pokemon Educator/Vlogger/Biome Enthusiast
Avatar/Gym Leader/Elite Ranger
See ya later, Feraligatr!
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Zac Ramsay DOLLARS
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Zac Ramsay
Vital Spirit Festival
POSTED ON Mar 8, 2021 1:43:25 GMT
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       "Little hand here?" Zac called to Tapu Bulu. "I'm not the one who needs to make up for lost time." There was a deep, sonorous clang, and suddenly Tapu Bulu was at his side. Zac's glaring red eyes met the creature's passive green.
    Tapu Bulu clanged, not in deference but in understanding. Zac did not control him any more than a sundial controls the sun, though there was a certain, undeniable correlation between the two. The sun was pure, unfiltered force. The sundial gave it clarity and direction.
    Tapu Bulu pressed its bell hands onto the wood. Emerald life dripped from the legendary, suffusing the soil, the pile, and the waking plants within. It was what Zac had done with the board, only on a scale a thousand times larger. The heap of dead wood pulsed, like the heartbeat of a forgotten forest. Wrist-thick roots wriggled underfoot like soaked worms, the lichen on the boards swelled to the thickness of redwood bark, and patches of creeping phlox bloomed, faded, and bloomed again in sporadic waves of purple.  
    "Oi, Zac. Mind filling us in on the plan? Gonna make a monument to commemorate yer Avatarship or somethin'?" Doug asked.
    "No," Zac replied, forcing the words out through his straining jaw, "it's for everyone."     
    Something massive moved within the pile. Boards rattled and fell as the thing pressed its way upwards. "The legacy of this festival will not be destruction and mayhem," Zac said, as the creaking rose towards the peak of the heaped wreckage. 
    The shuddering stopped, and Zac looked at Tapu Bulu. The legendary was no longer dripping green. Tapu Bulu's emerald splash could only grow so much before it needed to recharge. The blackened bull snorted, and then breathed in, pulling the life out of the plants blooming around them.  


    Sprouts crumbled, the phlox grayed, and the reanimated board under Zac's firm hands stilled. With a groan like a waking Torterra, the growth inside the pile resumed, and a dense spear of twisting wood forced itself through the top of the pile and out into the fresh air. The tree was bare, stripped of any leaves or branches by its passage upward, but as the rest of the hill grayed around it, the emerald force flowed up and into the young plum tree. The combined life of ten-thousand plants, and the will of Tapu Bulu himself accelerated the growth of the tree.     
    Zac saw the seasons passing in front of his eyes as the plum tree thickened, trunk warping and cracking. The tree's spear point tip split, unfolding into a weeping canopy that expanded over the pile and those around it, claiming them with its skeletal shadow. And then came the leaves. A million supple, waxy shoots that filled in the creeping branches. The new, centennial canopy shaded the festival grounds with crisp, dappled light. 
    The growth would have stopped there, were it not Spring, and were this not a plum tree. Pink buds pushed between the leaves, opening in a flush of cupped, red-throated blossoms. The dark canopy exploded with light and sweet fragrance as the plum tree reached full-bloom.



    The creaking of growing wood faded, and Zac pulled away from the board. His hands were covered in life and crumbling death, and he wiped them on his Golden Explorer's Jacket. 
    Zac and Tapu Bulu had grown a massive, blooming monument, not to themselves, but to regrowth. A pillar of proof that tonight's tale did not end in tragedy.



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Epic BugCatcher

Dr. Doug
He/Him
20 (40)
March 3
Viridian City, Kanto
It just works
Lt. Colonel, Medical Corps
AQUA Initiative
Dreaming
of our future
5' 11" (181 cm) / 180 lbs (82 kg) height
5' 11" (181 cm) / 180 lbs (82 kg) height
You're being healed. Please do not resist.
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John Sullivan
Vital Spirit Festival
POSTED ON Mar 8, 2021 1:46:03 GMT
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Doug grinned at her, his hands craddling his head.

"Yeah, I getcha! Just stay 'round Hoenn for lil' longer. Weird stuff will become par for the course." He said.

Living in Hoenn really did desensitize one to weirdness. After the literal alien invasion and the timey-whimey nonsense, there was very little that could really floor the youth these days.

"... Say, Captn' Doctor Ma'am." He said as he glanced at her mischievously, eye gleaming. "Are ya'ere in yer lonesome?"

Aka, was the woman married to the job on a date?

His dumb question would have to wait for a response.

Because at that moment, Zac went above and beyond.

"Nevermind what I said." Doug said with a slack jaw of his own, staring up at the towering growth that Zac and his new partner had erected at the center of the festival and Oldale.

A monument to avatarship? Yeah, he had not given his friend enough credit on his lazy guesses.

"Make 'em 8 Wonders of the World." The youth said, punching Zac's shoulder weakly, grinning wide at the massive creation. "Ya gone done plum outdone yerself."


12/15
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BD

The Peacemaker
She / Her
32
January 25
Pallet Town, Kanto
Heterosexual...?
Veterinarian
Head Prof / Major
I HOPE
you dream of me
5'3'' height
5'3'' height
My legacy is in the lives I save
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Eva Morales DOLLARS
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Eva Morales
Vital Spirit Festival
POSTED ON Mar 8, 2021 2:11:33 GMT
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Doug had a point. She had heard enough weird stories from Hoenn. Hell, it was part of the reason that brought her here. When she came to Hoenn she wasn’t chasing Rockets, she was chasing adventure. Aliens, Megalopalans, Wars, they all pulled the doctor here. And now Avatars.

“Doug, just call me Eva,” she laughed, waving a hand as if she was shooing the formalities away, “Yea, just uhh, me and Blade tonight. On the job,” she patted the medic vest she was wearing for emphasis.

Zac soon gave them an answer to their curiosity. It was a stunning sight to behold, indeed. Eva stepped back even further, eye glued to the scene unfolding before them. From death and destruction grew a monument to life and beauty. She inhaled deeply, the sweet scent of plum, flowers, and fresh vegetation filling her lungs to the brim, “Wow, it’s beautiful ,” she commended the new avatar, breaking her awe to grin at the silly pun Doug made as he smacked Zac on the shoulder.


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Ven

he / him / his
thirty-two
august 1
?
bisexual
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civilian
silently judging everything
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Adam Lycaon DOLLARS
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Adam Lycaon
Vital Spirit Festival
POSTED ON Mar 8, 2021 2:15:54 GMT
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“Aye, that can be arranged.”

Once he was done previewing the footage, he turned off the camera in order to pop out the memory card—it was stupid full already, the ‘low memory’ light had been bugging him nonstop ever since he’d stopped filming the rampage.

Reaching for something around his neck, he pulled out a pair of dog tags—but looking closely, it was actually more than that. Popping the first memory card into a sneakily-disguised slot, he pulled out a second one and replaced the previous card.

Ah, there we go. Unused memory card, ready to film.

“If you wouldn’t mind, then,” he drawled, quickly opening the camera again. Thankfully the settings were still on ‘video’, so he had time to start recording the ‘crowning’ of a new… wait, it felt like a coronation of sorts! Anyway—

Off he went, holding the camera up and recording the scene that was happening with the ‘Tapu’, or whatever it was called. Legendary mumbo-jumbo he wasn’t familiar with—he only knew the legendary fragments from his home region, himself.



he's wearing the attire on the left and is HELLA weird about it

[#5]


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Epic BugCatcher

Dr. Doug
He/Him
20 (40)
March 3
Viridian City, Kanto
It just works
Lt. Colonel, Medical Corps
AQUA Initiative
Dreaming
of our future
5' 11" (181 cm) / 180 lbs (82 kg) height
5' 11" (181 cm) / 180 lbs (82 kg) height
You're being healed. Please do not resist.
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John Sullivan
Vital Spirit Festival
POSTED ON Mar 8, 2021 2:19:51 GMT
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No regrets on the pun.

"Hooey. Guess that's a wrap on that front, then." Said Doug with a laugh, crossing his arms over his chest, unable to look away from the wonder. "Ain't no one ever gon' believe me when I say I was 'ere to see it happen when this thin' makes it to the books."

There was no way it wasn't. It would be criminal if anything but this made the first page of the news.

"So Eva." He said, delighted to take her permission. "Need any help with the injured?"

He was a Soldier, and he was there, and ain't no way he was making it back to Ever Grande in time anyway, so... Might as well do his job.

"I ain't really done much yet, m'thinks."


13/15
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Ven

he / him / his
thirty-two
august 1
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bisexual
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civilian
silently judging everything
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Adam Lycaon DOLLARS
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Adam Lycaon
Vital Spirit Festival
POSTED ON Mar 8, 2021 2:36:45 GMT
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The camera in his hands was buzzing.

There was so much—wow.

People back home in Galar may or may not believe what he was witnessing unfold at this very moment, a literal living ‘monument’ brought to life by the now-calmed deity-like being he had witnessed calmed down and had practically chosen the big, burly, buff, red-headed man who had gone down and locked horns (quite literally, from what he remembered seeing in the earlier footage he filmed) with the log-swinging Pokémon.

Was it even a Pokémon?

“Wait, be right back,” he continued in ’s direction, before motioning to his Cinderace to follow him. he had an idea and he was going to ride with it.

Keeping the camera lens on the still-growing living monument as he approached, to give the footage more of a sense of grandeur, he eventually came to a stop and panned down to the shrine’s ‘roots’, so to speak.

Hitting ‘stop’ on the camera screen once he had enough footage, he then turned his attention to the small gathering of people who had converged close to the living shrine.

“Aye, d’you mind if I get a few words from either of you about the festival? I work with Vantage,” he began, looking over hopefully in and ’s direction.



he's wearing the attire on the left and is HELLA weird about it

[#6]


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Epic BugCatcher

Dr. Doug
He/Him
20 (40)
March 3
Viridian City, Kanto
It just works
Lt. Colonel, Medical Corps
AQUA Initiative
Dreaming
of our future
5' 11" (181 cm) / 180 lbs (82 kg) height
5' 11" (181 cm) / 180 lbs (82 kg) height
You're being healed. Please do not resist.
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2,878 posts
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TAG WITH @bugcatcherdoug
John Sullivan
Vital Spirit Festival
POSTED ON Mar 8, 2021 2:42:29 GMT
John Sullivan Avatar

Before he could hear Eva's response, they were approached by a camera totting young man. He didn't really do anything as he filmed Zac, figuring if the large man minded, he would let the guy know.

Eventually however, his attention came over to them, at which point Doug could only look around, before pointing at himself bemusedly.

Zac was right there. Why did he want an interview with the sideshows?

"Uh. Sure." He said, throwing a look Eva's way. "I don't mind. Do ya, Captn Morales?"

Back at formalities- not that it could be helped. If this was being filmed and recorded, he needed to be in his best behavior, lest his commanding officer chewed his ass in the morning.


14/15
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Banished

Ro
He/Him/His
21
April 14th
Wyndon, Galar
Homosexual
Ranger
Ex-Rocket Beast
shelter
from the storm
492 height
492 height
It's a long way forward, so trust in me.
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Rowan Wrynn DOLLARS
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Rowan Wrynn
Vital Spirit Festival
POSTED ON Mar 8, 2021 2:45:04 GMT
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    Rowan had hoped Lilith’s interest in his personal life would have been brought off track when the topic of conversation was interrupted by the rather exuberant pink-haired woman, not wanting to further embarrass himself than he already had. “S-special person?” He nearly choked on his takoyaki at the phrase, not expecting to be assaulted again with accusations so soon. “That’s ridiculous, no such person exists.” Denial wasn’t a good look on him, but he wasn’t about to openly admit that Lilith was right and there was in fact someone that had been on his mind as of late. “Besides, what makes you think someone would be interested in me anyways? If you haven’t noticed, I'm not entirely pleasant.” Normally disparaging his shortcomings was out of the question considering how highly he thought of himself, but this was something of a last ditch effort to possibly change the topic.

    Of course even the best laid plans run into snags whenever you slip up as spectacularly as Rowan was about to do. “I wouldn’t bother asking Mistral, he hasn’t even met him, yet.” It took a few moments for the realization to overcome the trainer, eyes widening and immediately turning his gaze away from Lilith once more. Mistral let out an exasperated sound, mocking Rowan both for being so distracted and flustered as to out himself and for the fact that he seemed to remember the night in question, as he’d been left alone until the morning. “Bloody hell…” He cursed under his breath, awaiting retaliation from Lilith at any moment.

 
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BD

The Peacemaker
She / Her
32
January 25
Pallet Town, Kanto
Heterosexual...?
Veterinarian
Head Prof / Major
I HOPE
you dream of me
5'3'' height
5'3'' height
My legacy is in the lives I save
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Eva Morales DOLLARS
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Eva Morales
Vital Spirit Festival
POSTED ON Mar 8, 2021 2:45:38 GMT
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Eva gave Doug a shrug, while taking a quick peak around, “Well,” she tapped her chin momentarily in thought, “I still need to take a good look around,” she had treated some she had immediately seen but there had to be more injuries that weren’t being addressed, “I should probably set up a medical tent or something,” she mused with sigh.

Just as she was about to start mentally formulating a plan of action, a young man approached with a camera, “Huh?” she asked, not fully comprehending right away what she could possibly have to say about any of this. If he was looking for answer, he was barking up the wrong tree. Doug brought her back to reality, “Oh, uh, yes 2nd Lieutenant. Don’t mind at all,” Maybe she’d just let him do the talking.


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Ven

he / him / his
thirty-two
august 1
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bisexual
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Adam Lycaon DOLLARS
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Adam Lycaon
Vital Spirit Festival
POSTED ON Mar 8, 2021 2:52:15 GMT
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“I’m here on behalf of miss , editor in chief for Vantage—she’s currently busy elsewhere around the area. Apologies,” he continued.

Stay calm, Adam. Stay the bloody hell-ass calm! He thought as he fought down the urge to panic and run away. He had to do this! Even if it was in travel he excelled the most in, reporters had to be ready to do anything at the drop of a hat!

Okay, now that he’d stayed himself, what—no, no—ah.

Reaching into his sleeve (hell, who knew these sleeves were handy as an alternate to lugging bags around) he pulled out a pen and notepad, ready to take shorthand. He didn’t want to let the silence get any more awkwarder than it should…

He then finally hit upon his first question.

“What can you say about the living shrine, as a testament to the Vital Spirit festival?” he asked, ready to take notes.

Okay, there we go. Slow and steady…



he's wearing the attire on the left and is HELLA weird about it

[#7]


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Epic BugCatcher

Dr. Doug
He/Him
20 (40)
March 3
Viridian City, Kanto
It just works
Lt. Colonel, Medical Corps
AQUA Initiative
Dreaming
of our future
5' 11" (181 cm) / 180 lbs (82 kg) height
5' 11" (181 cm) / 180 lbs (82 kg) height
You're being healed. Please do not resist.
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John Sullivan
Vital Spirit Festival
POSTED ON Mar 8, 2021 2:56:42 GMT
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Doug kept his expression blank for all of a moment, registering the question. It really wasn't much of 'facts' question; was this a forum opinion piece?

Well, at least that made it easy to answer.

"Oi, isn't that obvious?" Doug said with a bright smile, gesturing with his thumb over his shoulder at the monument. "Just look at it, man! It's a work o' art! Heck, it's a wonder o'the world, is what is! Puts the pyramids to shame, that's for sure! Ain't no one forgettin' bout this festival or the man who made this thing possible."


15/15
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BD

The Peacemaker
She / Her
32
January 25
Pallet Town, Kanto
Heterosexual...?
Veterinarian
Head Prof / Major
I HOPE
you dream of me
5'3'' height
5'3'' height
My legacy is in the lives I save
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Eva Morales DOLLARS
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Eva Morales
Vital Spirit Festival
POSTED ON Mar 8, 2021 3:01:52 GMT
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“Yes, it’s quite beautiful,” she nodded in agreement with Doug. Her eyes turned back to the wonder in front of them, “It’s a testament to good and beauty this new partnership can bring,” did Eva really believe that? Maybe, she wasn’t quite sure yet. But it was certainly a good start.


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Ven

he / him / his
thirty-two
august 1
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bisexual
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civilian
silently judging everything
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Adam Lycaon DOLLARS
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Adam Lycaon
Vital Spirit Festival
POSTED ON Mar 8, 2021 3:16:14 GMT
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Away went the pen, scratching on paper—to most other people it was chicken shit but to him?

It made perfect sense.

Never mind if he left his notes scattered around for anyone to find, well, at least nobody would be able to read his own terrible brand of shorthand.

Knocking the wood ever so slightly, he waited for any further reaction. All he got were falling petals in return.

Damn, this tree was a masterpiece.

“If there was one thing you could choose to improve on for the Festival in the following years, what would it be? Rampaging Tauros aside, he continued further. Ah, okay now they were getting into the serious shit.

Hopefully steering the topic towards something more—realistic, so to speak.



he's wearing the attire on the left and is HELLA weird about it

[#8]


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Epic BugCatcher

Dr. Doug
He/Him
20 (40)
March 3
Viridian City, Kanto
It just works
Lt. Colonel, Medical Corps
AQUA Initiative
Dreaming
of our future
5' 11" (181 cm) / 180 lbs (82 kg) height
5' 11" (181 cm) / 180 lbs (82 kg) height
You're being healed. Please do not resist.
awards
2,878 posts
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TAG WITH @bugcatcherdoug
John Sullivan
Vital Spirit Festival
POSTED ON Mar 8, 2021 3:19:37 GMT
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Doug shrugged his shoulders, passing the question to his Captain with a look.

"Sorry m'man, I'm only 'ere cause o' the stampede. First responders and such, eh?" He said simply. "Wasn't really 'round to enjoy the festivities, so I ain't got a clue of how things were goin' 'fore it all went sideways."


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BD

The Peacemaker
She / Her
32
January 25
Pallet Town, Kanto
Heterosexual...?
Veterinarian
Head Prof / Major
I HOPE
you dream of me
5'3'' height
5'3'' height
My legacy is in the lives I save
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3,757 posts
Eva Morales DOLLARS
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TAG WITH @dreva
Eva Morales
Vital Spirit Festival
POSTED ON Mar 8, 2021 3:27:42 GMT
Eva Morales Avatar


Now this was something Eva could talk about. Although she was working the whole time, she did get to enjoy some of the festival, “It was a great event, don’t get me wrong,” she began with a smile, “But all things could use improvements!” she declared with a nod, “I know it’s tradition and all but . . . Those fireworks and paper lanterns are terrible for the environment. I can’t tell you how many wild pokemon I’ve had to treat because they were off running around scared silly by fireworks. I mean . . . hard to ignore the result,” She knew he said raging Tauros aside but it really did prove her point, “And those lanterns don’t just disappear,” she waggled a finger, “They land somewhere, and hopefully somewhere a forest fire won’t start!” Eva’s unpopular opinion on the traditions probably wouldn’t go over well with the man’s readers but the Doctor was never one to shy away from sharing her own opinions and the conflict that came with them sometimes.