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All these little buggers have a little magic in 'em

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When you have to say you're vine, but you're not vine [S]

POSTED ON Jun 16, 2021 1:19:26 GMT

John Sullivan likes this

Zac sank into the cushions of his makeshift couch, just as the sound of a doorbell chimed through the warehouse.

Now who could that be? Zac wondered, before a more pressing thought popped into his head. I don't have a doorbell.

Zac opened the door to see Chryssa, holding the phone that had presumably played the doorbell chime. He couldn't blame her for not wanting to knock on the rusted metal door. "Come on in!"

They talked, and she handed him a scrap of dead vine. If flowers were a common gift to show appreciation and affection, it felt right that Chryssa would show up offering a scrap of, brown and withered foliage.

"Uh, I don't have a lot of experience identifying dehydrated samples," Zac said politely, scratching his beard in thought. "Where did you get it?"

⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤
chryssa glasgow Chu-e Choi

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Not-Chryssa

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Eterna City, Sinnoh

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When you have to say you're vine, but you're not vine [S]

POSTED ON Jun 21, 2021 15:04:11 GMT

Zac Ramsay, John Sullivan, and 1 more like this

Chryssa Glasgow sailed in the door like a ship returning to port, bearing all the spoils of her journeys. In her left hand she clasped a cell phone, still playing pre-recorded sound effects. In her right hand she held the mysterious Biome Gun, which she chose not to aim at Zac's heart. On her big head she wore an aluminum crown set with the timeless volcano insignia, the spoils of her Contest victory mere hours prior.

And in her pocket, sealed within a plastic bag, was the spoils of a different conflict-- one which she still was not sure if she'd won or lost.

All she had was the vine clipping. Withered, frayed, and bitter as fate.

"Your 'home' is as degraded as you are oblivious to the forces outside your own doorstep," Chryssa declared, spinning around unsteadily outside Zac's doorstep. "I obtained it from a Zarude, a marvelous monkey with a penchant for healing powers."

She twirled in place again to make her dress flare out, starting to get dizzy. "I want you to revive it for me. With your googly powers, or whatever was bestowed upon you that made you so enormous."

Chryssa stopped spinning, tottering into the room to lean against whatever passed for furniture in the abandoned factory instead. She suddenly seemed very weak and exhausted. It had been a long night of stunts and contest shenanigans, and she looked more fragile than ever.

"Then," she announced, her voice bearing no trace of the brittleness which seemed to shroud her form, "Then I will be unstoppable. Are you picking any of this up which I am putting down, Zag Hamsey?"

"Also," Chryssa added, bringing up her phone, "I invited Ji-Hoon, so please do whatever your cola magic is and bring it back to life quickly so he's not bored when he gets here."

^{Zac Ramsay Chu-e Choi}

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Ji-Hoon Ki

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twenty seven

june fifteenth

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Chu-e Choi

When you have to say you're vine, but you're not vine [S]

POSTED ON Jun 21, 2021 15:51:36 GMT

chryssa glasgow and Zac Ramsay like this

"Too late, Chryssa."

Echoed Chu-e, from behind where Zac Ramsay and chryssa glasgow were standing. It was a warehouse, not a house. There were plenty of places to slip in if you just had a trusty pokemon to bend the metal for you.

"Zac, this place looks like shit. You know I have, like, a four bedroom house, right? You'd be sharing space with my boyfriend and the kid I think I adopted, but, like, we could all make it work." He wonders how Leon Vercetti and Eris Halla would react to suddenly finding the towering redhead brushing his teeth one morning.

Creams pokes her head out from behind her trainer, the pink Lopunny carrying a few bags but mostly seeming to be looking for something... or someone?

"I brought dinner!" Picked up from Kalos Fried Chansey, Creams sat the bags down on whatever Zac was using as a table.

"Oh, and you both know I'm in Rocket and my real name is Chu-e or whatever, so don't let that awkward tension, like, effect your friendship." Was said idly, as if this was not a big deal at all to say randomly.

"What's a 'Zarude'? It sounds like something you would rub on hemerriods."

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All these little buggers have a little magic in 'em

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When you have to say you're vine, but you're not vine [S]

POSTED ON Jun 23, 2021 13:31:43 GMT

Eva Morales likes this

Zac had been looking forward to a relaxing evening alone. Instead, he found himself facing down the only thing better than that: Friendship!

He loved his friends, and always found it easy to take in stride their constant slam-dunks on his hair color, height, living situation, furniture, name, and his weird magic plant powers. "Yeah, I'm going through a bit of a rough patch at the moment, what with the Rydon living in my house and all. But don't worry, Eva Morales said I could stay with her. I could use a bite to eat though..."

Zac pulled over another two Charja-Cola crates, doubling his table size, and helped Ki lay out their blubbery feast. "Weren't you listening Ki? Chryssa already explained Zarude. It's a marvelous monkey with a penchant for healing powers." He said this without a hint of ridicule, as if it were a completely normal description for a creature to bear. He would know best, after all. Perhaps Zac and Zarude were related. They did both start with Z.

Once dinner was set up and he's had a few bites of the fatty food, Zac went rummaging around for something to plant the vine in. "Why do you want healing vines for anyway Chryssa? It's not as if any force, material or manmade, could stop you now. Hell, you've even got a Biome Gun!"

⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤
chryssa glasgow Chu-e Choi

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Not-Chryssa

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When you have to say you're vine, but you're not vine [S]

POSTED ON Jul 22, 2021 0:09:05 GMT

Zac Ramsay and John Sullivan like this

Gray as ghosts, Chryssa's eyes lingered on Zac with a strange emotion. Uncertainty. Discomfort. Most of all, like a brazier of coals concealed from sight but lit nonetheless; a desire not to be pitied.

"You ask after things beyond your ken," she said finally through a mouthful of KFC, mystery-laden tones ringing and resonating around the empty factory. "...But I suppose that's generally why people ask things. The truth is..." Chryssa leaned back, the back of her head bumping the wall. "Biome Gun notwithstanding, this... vine... might be my last chance. Do you recall the Foundation from which I get all my hilarious cars, penguin costumes, and hotel stipends?"

The Biome Gun rattled slightly as the girl's hands unwillingly began to shake. She set it down on one of the crates, picking up a carton of Crispy Chansey Tenders instead. Her tone somehow remained completely steady. "I'm afraid they only serve terminal patients. It's like a 'Last Wish' program or something. Don't get me wrong, it has its perks... but I would prefer an alternative."

Sharp as razors, her gaze flicked between Chu-e and Zac.

This was the third time Chryssa had admitted to someone the true nature of her cruel reality, and it rang like the last chime of a bell.

I'm on a timer. John Sullivan .

I don't have long to live. Chu-e Choi .

This might be my last chance. Zac Ramsay .

This is it, she thought. Everything had led her to this point-- destroying the Insect Plate after the accident at the church. Tracking Zarude with the Rocket intel from its underboss. Meeting Lulu Flint at the chapel to decide her next step, guessing at the games God played with fate.

This was her fate. Her choice. And for this final skirmish, Chryssa chose the most powerful weapon in her arsenal against God-- to ask for help.

"I'd like to call upon the boon you owe me, Zac. It is no trifle. Resurrect this vine and save my life, or bear the burden if you fail."

Chryssa harbored no illusions about what she asked, nor the emotional toll it would surely take should their efforts fall through. She'd been happy to die if it meant taking Arceus down with her-- her choice to fight, to live, had been made for the people she'd met along the way. People who'd convinced her life was worth living, and not just dying for.

"I have one more thing," Chryssa mentioned, reaching into her bag and pulling out a platter-sized, emerald green slab of strange, shimmering metal. "This is the Meadow Plate."

She took a deep breath. Don't think. Don't question. That way led to paranoia, to nihilism, to a world without compassion. A world where she'd been given the plate to taunt her, to warn her, to condemn her.

Could Chryssa believe in a good God?

"I think," she said, "We're supposed to use it."

^{Zac Ramsay Chu-e Choi}

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Ji-Hoon Ki

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Chu-e Choi

When you have to say you're vine, but you're not vine [S]

POSTED ON Aug 8, 2021 8:47:45 GMT

chryssa glasgow and Zac Ramsay like this

Chu-e watched the proceedings with interest. Yet, he wasn't really sure exactly where to join in.

"The magic hemorrhoid monkey's vine is going to help?"

He did eye the Meadow Plate with some interest, then frowned.

"Chryssa, don't let anyone else know you have that." For the lighthearted musings and KFC and other such shenanigans that Chu-e normally got up to with chryssa glasgow and Zac Ramsay, his voice was serious enough to slice the air. He sat up, concern written in his brows.

"That bitch that stole Zac's piece is after these things for some stupid reason." Which, the two were probably well enough aware of, but... "I gave her information before I realized she was a cunt." He thinks back to his office, of handing over the packet of details from the church before she had tried to kill him, Zac, and Flint.

Ah, regret.

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When you have to say you're vine, but you're not vine [S]

POSTED ON Aug 8, 2021 11:30:32 GMT

"You're not dying," he said, firmly refusing to deal with that possibility. First Chu-e Choi, and now Chryssa? "Neither of you are bloody clocking out early on my watch, okay?" Zac's hands closed over the plate, and he took it from Chryssa's grasp. Easy as that. Easy as breathing.

He felt the plate wriggle and bend under his broad fingers. An unbroken piece of smooth, cool metal that tickled like it was covered in growing grass. Zac held it so hard he felt it would snap like a biscuit. "You'll be fine. I can heal ya, no problem. Okay? Just don't...do anything."

There was no greenery to draw on. Not here. Zac had deliberately set up in a warehouse to avoid plants consuming it. To draw any healing punch he would have to go outside. But...would it be the same as with Ki? Enough to make her feel better for an day? An hour? Maybe not even that. Yet in his hands Zac had the parts to something more. He had a magical healing vine in his pocket, and in his hands...a mystery. We never did figure out what these bloody plates do. "It'll be safe with me," Zac said, nodding to Ki. He'd already put in some safety measures to limit the reach of the stick-fingered woman.

"Let me get some supplies," he said, and he ran out through the back door and into the garden. Minutes later everything was set up. KFC had been pushed aside, and more cola crates had been put together to prop the flower pot up off the floor. Garden soil and Mt Chimney ash scattered the floor, and a conical trellis stuck from the pot like a princess's tower. Stuck into the dirt was a singular, wilted vine. "Looks a bit sad now, but there's nothing that a little green thumb can't fix!" he said, chipper as ever.

Zac sat, one hand on the green plate and one hand pressed into the soil in the pot. His GRASSY TERRAIN should have been growing the vine on its own, but there was no hint of movement from the mystical sprig. That's not a good sign. It's like that bloody carrot, Zac thought. "Hold on guys let's give this a shot."

Life pulsed from Zac. In a room of death, rust, and sterile steel, he raged with green breath and growth. Deep below, roots swelled, cracking the ground and beating against the foundations of the factory. Outside, trees creaked and arched towards the sky. Zac felt the vine twinge. Sweat dripped down his face, falling onto his bright shirt. "Come on you bugger. Give me something!"

Under his left hand, the plate hummed, and then a deep, sonorous note pulsed through Zac's marrow. It was like one of Bulu's bells had struck his arm like a tuning fork. He tasted emerald, and heard the roar of a thousand years of old growth. The vine detonated. Each strand of the twisted foliage shot out, up, and around like whips, stretching from clipping to ancient lattice as the vine's growth was supercharged. A lifetime of growth happened in an instant.

The pot burst, scattering dirt, and the roots quested across the floor to nestle into the bags of mulch, Zac's couch, and the last bucket of KFC. Under Zac's left hand, the plate fell silent.

⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤
chryssa glasgow Chu-e Choi

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Not-Chryssa

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Eterna City, Sinnoh

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When you have to say you're vine, but you're not vine [S]

POSTED ON Aug 8, 2021 13:03:07 GMT

Zac Ramsay and Chu-e Choi like this

The warning tone of Chu-e's voice made Chryssa's head snap up, almost dislodging her aluminum crown. Is that all? she wondered, then remembered-- as if from a bad dream-- the threatening presence who'd swept into the church like Maleficent at a baby shower. The twisted portal which had swallowed Zac and the shard of his Insect Plate. The tingling presence of a dark god, the anti-being himself.

"I won't," she breathed. Unconsciously, her grip tightened. "It was given to me."

For what reason, she didn't know. But she hoped this was it.

As Zac made his preparations her fingers loosened again on the Meadow Plate, releasing it to the grass-type Avatar. There was no one more fitting to utilize its power. Fate, or perhaps Arceus, had led her to this moment. With her life on the line, she had decided to trust it.

It was reassuring to hear the plate would be safe with Zac, though Chryssa was a little skeptical about his defense system. "How effective are your security measures, exactly?" she pestered. "Granted, I can't imagine she'd find it here. Isn't that what these... Z-Plates you've been distributing are for? To muddy the trail?"

She helped clear a space among the unconventional furniture for the ritual-- she couldn't help thinking of it like that-- and stood back with Chu-e as Zac placed himself between the pot and the plate.

A tense moment. A breath. A tingle on the back of her neck.

And then-- a sound.

Something changed in the air, sweeping her skin with goosebumps as the bell-like tone reverberated from the Avatar. Her heart sped up as vines and roots shot out like Spinarak webs, spooling and winding in great swathes of emerald creepers. Chryssa cried out and stumbled backwards, pushed by an explosively-growing wall of greenery.

Unconsciously, she groped for Chu-e's hand, seeking reassurance.

When it was all over, she couldn't even see Zac through the tangled thicket. "...Did you survive?" her voice filtered through the foliage.

Chryssa had never seen the Zarude in person, but she could imagine it now-- these vines were its veins, its arteries. Without the monkey as a host, the power to resurrect them on their own must have been enormous. It would be like bringing someone a finger, Chryssa thought, dazed, and asking them to grow you a new body.

"Quick! Let's eat them!" Chryssa said brightly to Chu-e, seizing a vine in both hands and offering it to the Rocket Underboss. "You first..."

^{Zac Ramsay Chu-e Choi}

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Ji-Hoon Ki

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twenty seven

june fifteenth

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Chu-e Choi

When you have to say you're vine, but you're not vine [S]

POSTED ON Aug 8, 2021 13:30:07 GMT

chryssa glasgow and Zac Ramsay like this

The area is prepped and the ritual starts.

Chu-e stands in a ring of death, eyes wide but not seeing.

He grips chryssa glasgow's hand and when he stares at Zac Ramsay and the miracle taking place before him, all he can see is a meal.

A fat steak, bleeding red, perfectly seasoned. Not from some fancy restaurant, no, it's artisnal. Homemade. A mother's love pouring out withe steam, a special treat for a special occasion. A heaping pile of brussel sprouts on the side, baked, just how he liked them.

Words filter in and out.

His grip is maybe a smidgen too tight but not enough to hurt.

Chu-e blinks and he's back, and Chryssa is shoving the vine in his face and his best friend is simply his best friend again.

The ring around him is both barren and decay. Nothing sprouted in the immediate area around him to begin with. Anything that wandered into the zone is brown and crackling.

"Well...." It's a vine, so what harm could it do? Plus, he's put much worse in his mouth at this point.

He takes a bite and it crunches.

"Ew. Oh my god. It tastes like cheap perfume." But, diligently, with much forced chewing, Chu-e eventually swallows his offered vine down.

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October 30th

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Avatar/Gym Leader/Elite Ranger

All these little buggers have a little magic in 'em

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When you have to say you're vine, but you're not vine [S]

POSTED ON Aug 8, 2021 13:52:54 GMT

Zac battled through the mass of vines, heaving them aside as he tried to get back to his friends. "I'm alive!" he answered Chryssa, and with a grin on his face and hope in his heart he emerged from the indoor jungle to see her watching as Ki chewed one of the growths. "Ew. Oh my god. It tastes like cheap perfume." Zac laughed. "That'll be the terpenes," he said, rummaging around in the root wreckage. "Aha! Here we go." There was a crumpling, rustling sound as Zac pulled his prize from the remains of their KFC: a little plastic cup of Sweet and Sour sauce. "I don't have any Caesar dressing in the fridge, but this outta make it a bit more bearable."

⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤
chryssa glasgow Chu-e Choi

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Not-Chryssa

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Eterna City, Sinnoh

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as flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport

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