“Would you rather wear an accursed bow tie instead? Those are even worse,” he said with a chuckle as he slapped at the bluenette’s hand that was fussing with the neck tie once again.

“Look, next time you need help with a neck tie, just—just come looking for me, okay? I can tie both of our neckties no sweat,” he remarked as he looked down at his—and then sighed. Oy.

He’d hyperfocused again and didn’t notice his own necktie was looking a little sloppy.

“Look, just—watch,” he said as he undid his own black neck tie; unravelling the knot and then re-tying it again as slowly as possible so Mattie could see how the knots were made, before he pulled it back into position one-handed.

Normally it would take two hands to do this, but seeing as his right hand was still not at 100% full recovery, he had to resort to doing everything left-handed.

“Well, then—you want to risk a drink or two? There’s like, a shit ton of open bars scattered here and there…” he said with a teasing grin.

Now—where the hell had Carina and Arkose gone off to?

“Geez, our Pokémon must be somewhere… laughing… at us…” he stammered, realizing at last what the hell Carina was up to all this time.

Crafty little snarky shithead sassy Ribombee he had.

The hubbub of so many people suddenly exclaiming at the Pokémon that had made its appearance—wow, okay, what was going on?

“Interesting… how can a Pokémon like that come so close to people without it being scared… normally every single Pokémon, unless they’ve been provoked, don’t initiate contact…”

He then remembered something that Ruby Walker had mentioned about ‘alphabet soup’ or something similar to that extent—and then realized that it had something to do with the mysterious device he had.

“Shit. Mattie, try your luck with catching it and let’s see!” he gestured, pointing at the strangely-shaped Unown. Seeing that basically everyone else was scrambling after it, Alexei decided to let them scramble for it—he knew that the Pokémon might make a run for it so instead he reached into his jacket pocket for a vacant Pokéball, and took aim above the crowd.

Hopefully the containment capsule wouldn’t hit anyone by accident should it land without its intended target…

---

• fixed own clothing (even gave a certain rockhead a demo on how to properly tie a necktie lol)
• referenced the Unown
• his outfit

“Well, I heard somewhere that Andy Blackadder was going here. Some kinda high-class socialite rubbin’ or something, considering he’s from a family of wealth,” he remarked.

Unless the other teen didn’t know about that?

“You think the others are going to—” he was about to say before he felt something drop atop his head. Something… prickly, not to mention sharp!

“Yeouch! What the hell?!” he exclaimed, reaching up with his right hand and plucking the offending crown from his head without even flinching.

“The fuck’s this?” he asked the other, before catching sight of something pink snickering as it… yeeted itself away from where they were.

“You think the other kids are here as well?” he followed up as he observed the flower crown—why the fuck were there thorns in it?

Geezus, that was sharp!

He then heard the ruckus inside, and wondered what the hell was up with that.

“The hell’s going on in there, you think we should look?” he gestured, before he thought he saw something that—holy shit.

What the—

“How the hell is that so far from the Ruins of Alph?!” he exclaimed, squinting as hard as he could and catching sight of a Unown flittering above the crowd inside the venue.

“Well what the hell…” he remarked, plucking out an empty Pokéball and taking aim as well—

---

• mentioned the Unown
• his attire

"I'll be taking the elevator," Chryssa said sweetly. Her Zorua moved so gracefully on the dance floor that it was easy to forget the actual Chryssa's problems with mobility. "I'm not the best with stairs."

"Care to join me, Miss Fairweather?" The girl turned suddenly to Lulu Flint , carelessly making up a pseudonym for the blonde on the spot. "I call you that because you remind me of a sunny day tonight." She tiled her head. "I wonder how long it will last."

She unclipped her long, lacy black train in the elevator, letting it fall like mounded ravendown to the polished marble floor. "That's better," Chryssa sighed as she stepped over the pile of frills and ruffles. 

Cool air from the open ceiling washed over the girl's too-thin legs as she crossed the third-floor hall to rejoin Bill Anderson and THEO BECKETT at the telescope. "What did you talk about on the stairs while I was gone?" she asked slyly. "Perhaps it was..."

Chryssa searched her mind carefully for the most outrageous possible claim she could insinuate, "...Cannabis?"

[attr="class","ruby"]