The little town was lovely. Shame they were having so many problems.

Camryn had never been this way before and she was loving all the attention she was getting. She guessed entertainers didn't travel up this way too often, given all the wildlife and small towns. Sucked for those who thought themselves too good for small shows. She had really been getting her name out there!

But it hadn't been filling her wallet, and travel took money, so Camryn had found herself dipping into the online for some local missions. One had caught her eye because it was on the way and she just loved a good ghost story.

Camryn was just a few minutes late due to getting held up by a line of wild Smoochum, carrying loads of... presents? But she just waved the cute little things on as they ran out of sight, wishing them well on their way. When she arrived, the older people of the village were more than happy to direct her to whoever her partner for this adventure would be.

"Hi there!" If she snuck up behind him, it was an accident. If he got spooked, she would also feel bad. "I'm Camryn! Are you Alexay? Alexei? Did I get that right?" She had worried about saying this person's name wrong every since she got the ticket saying the name of the guy. May as well just move on from it. "It's, like, nice to meet you! I'm sure we'll do super well on this mission together!"

---

Alexei Ivanov
enter mime girl

"But, like, it's your name, right? It might be hard for me at first but I can learn! Promise! I'll call you whatever you like, though! Oh, and-" One of the elders had to butt in to stop her before taking her inside. Poor Alex had gotten partnered up with someone very chatty. His ears would probably fall off before the mission was over.

When Camryn was ushered inside she mostly managed to sit quietly through the two old people chattering. This was mostly only because she was enjoying the cookies. It had been so long since she had had something homemade like this! She would need to see if she could take some of these along with her...

After all was finished, Camryn stood up and saved a little 'bye' to the older people for now, starting outside and figuring that her new partner would follow. "It's probably just some wild pokemon all stirred up. There's been a lot of construction and people passing through ever since Slateport, so..." Camryn waved it off, looked up at her much taller companion and smiled. "It would be, like super cool if it was a ghost thought... not a ghost pokemon, but like a real ghost! What if we uncover some super secret plot and become the next Hardy Boys!"

---

Alexei Ivanov
i maybe phoned it in a little where i'm so tired dkjgfakd

"I don't think it can be as big a deal as they're making it. They seemed nice but a little kooky, ya know?" Camryn took her offered cookies with a little 'thanks', already scoping out a place they could hide. "I don't know what you do for a living, you could be like a super secret agent and that would be super cool, but I'm just a magician. If it was something really groundbreaking someone more important than me would be trusted with it." She didn't mean to be rude, and she really hoped she wasn't. Camryn just knew as a profession how to trick people and how silly they could be when they were freaked out. One old woman had tried to say she was a demon because of her magic before even after she explained it was only simple sleight of hand. She liked to be more grounded when it came to stuff like this. She wanted to believe that things like actual magic and ghosts and faeries were real- but she would only turn to that option when everything else had been disproved.

"This look good?" It was the small space between a house and the neighbor's fence, recycling cans and trash cans giving them a good view of the village square and a few surrounding areas but hiding them both pretty well if they knelt down some. It was better than nothing and this place was very cute but didn't seem to offer much in the way of being sneaky. This spot was a little stinky but it would do.

She hunkered down anyway. If Alex didn't like this spot that was okay, and she could understand since he was so much taller than herself. He might have different needs. It wasn't long after, though, that a fearsome beast appeared from the entrance of town.... It lurched forward with a horrible screeching noise, ominous in the darkening evening. Maybe Camryn should have brought a light with her.

She gasped as the beast.... fell over and into a street light. That group of Smoochum she had saw on her way to town were pushing a large, worn crate of precariously stacked items. Most of it looked like junk, really, but she could see a few shiny foil wrapped presents. The scrapping had been the box on the stone.

The Smoochum, there was at least half a dozen of them, gathered around the crate and started to take out the things inside. They were followed into town a little later by a large group of Jynx, who started to go through the small stacks of items the Smoochum were making.

"Um..." Camryn wasn't sure what to make of this. Maybe Alex knew?

---

Alexei Ivanov
enter the jynx >:u u control them as much as u want too!

Another wanderer like herself? That was exciting! Camryn wanted to comment on that, maybe suggest some places for the other to visit before settling down, but the appearance of the Jynx had cut chatter short. Shame. This guy seemed really nice and she wouldn't have minded sitting down and talking with him more. Maybe she could ask if he wanted to hang out after this mission was sorted and done with! That would be pretty cool.

"I think Jynx is a Kanto thing?" Camryn wasn't really sure. She just knew that from time to time in Kalos when she had lived in Castelia, once her boarding school had taken a trip to Little Kanto during the holidays. Unlike the rest of the city which was covered in Delibird there was a lot of the same type of memorabilia except Jynx were in the red hats. She had bought a little snow-globe of one since it was so kitschy to her. It was sitting back in her room in Kalos, gathering dust, unless her parents had packed up her room by now and stored it away.

That thought made her sad. Camryn didn't want to think about that.

"I got an idea." Unclasping her pokeballs from her belt, she released all four of her pokemon she had brought with her at once. A family of Mr. Mime and Mime Jr, the two parents holding the hands of their children, and also handing hands with each other. They seemed confused, especially since all this trash was around. "Hey guys, can you see what those Jynx are doing and come back and tell us, please?"

Jester was apprehensive, as was Prankster, the Mime Jr taking after her father in being nervous. But, Harlequin just shrugged and marched right over, Trickster letting go of his mother's hand to rush over to the Smoochum as he was excited to play with them. Seeing her brother go, Prankster followed albeit more shyly.

The Smoochum stopped in their task and the baby pokemon seemed excited for more friends. They chatted for a bit, the Smoochum explaining, and then the two Mime Jr clapped their hands and started to help in unloading the presents.

Harlequin approached the Jynx instead, Jester belatedly following now, and looked to be talking much like how you would see PTA moms in movies chatting with other PTA moms. After a few minutes, Harlequin patted Jester and motioned to the presents. The other Mr. Mime sighed before he went to help unload them as well.

Harlequin made her way back over to the two humans and started to do some very elaborate movements, trying to play charades to show the two what was happening. Alex could probably pick up a lot of what was being motioned but Camryn was used to this all the time.

"Okay.... okay.... right." She perked up and just stood up straight, smoothing out her skirt and revealing their hiding spot. "It's okay, Alex. They're nice! Harle says they feel bad the humans are so sad so they wanted to help the Delibird cheer them up!" That was sweet! "They've been coming every night to hang out the presents but none of the humans seem to be out, so they're waiting on them. But the babies have to go to bed so they leave by in the morning.... Guess it was all a misunderstanding?"

---

Alexei Ivanov
sorry this took me ;w;

mr. mime family to the rescue! feel free to add anything, too. i don't wanna take agency away from alex dsjhfad

"Pokemon are really strange sometimes. I guess just cause they look more human doesn't mean they know more about humans?" Camryn tilted her head in thought before shrugging. She wasn't really a deep thinker. But, she was happy this had all resolved itself in the end. "Hey, maybe if we get the elders to come out now, everyone can get their presents and they won't have to worry about it anymore!"

Camryn nodded to Harlequin as the female Mr. Mime made her way back over to help where the rest of her family was at. Camryn could come back and collect them in a bit; they seemed to be having fun and she trusted her pokemon to stay out of any trouble.

For now, Camryn gently grabbed for Alex's hand so she could tug him back to the town hall- which would be a comical sight in itself, given how short stature compared to his giant one. "They'll be excited to see that video! I wonder what the Jynx got for everyone?"

---

Alexei Ivanov
the mystery has been solved >:u