As always, Priam's colorful enthusiasm was as welcome as it was infectious. Good thing Howard was not around to hear him call the place shit though, he would probably blow a gasket defending the farm. Oscar clapped his hands together as he searched for his building supplies around the makeshift base. "Nah nothing like that. This is hopefully gonna be a full research center, where any Rocket scientist or scientist adjacent grunt can come research Ultra Space. I'll try a secret evil lair for the second attempt."

Oscar was a bit dumbfounded about where his supplies could have gone, until he noticed something shiny sticking out of a large hill of sand nearby. It looked so natural that Oscar had hardly noticed it, but seeing the shiny protrusion suddenly made everything clear. "Ugh, speaking of melted down steel pokemon though." Oscar walked over to the hill and did some light digging, causing sand to spill over his boots. He cleared just enough to expose some steel foundation pipes, confirming that Oscar's supplies had been buried in sand.

Oscar groaned, "Well that's inconvenient. We'll need some pokemon to dig this stuff out." Oscar stretched to regain some of his pep and faced Priam. "All of the building materials, from the walls to the foundations, are made from organic steel alloy! You know, melted down steel pokemon. Mostly Steelix--and at least one bronzong. It's the only building material that can withstand the conditions of the Ultra Desert."

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Oscar beamed at Priam's quick thinking. A gabite was perfectly equipped to dig out their materials. However, he too did not expect it to instead create a sandstorm to displace the sand. It was a clever idea, but Oscar found himself struggling to maintain his composure as sand and wind began to ruthlessly batter him.

He shoved his hands into his pockets, trying to appear casual as the wind picked up even further. "Yeah it's like--" He would be forced to raise his voice so that he could be heard over the storm. "IT'S LIKE A DESERT ON STEROIDS! THE SANDSTORMS ARE MASSIVE AND CHANGE THE ENTIRE LANDSCAPE IF IT LASTS FOR MORE THAN AN HOUR!"

Oscar watched with squinted eyes as his materials were gradually unearthed. "THE CHALLENGE WOULD BE TO KEEP THE GARDEN FROM BEING BURIED! IT WOULD BE EASY TO--" The sandstorm abruptly died, causing Oscar to yell for no reason. He cleared his throat and continued at a normal volume. "It would be easy to lose it if it were to be buried."

Oscar kept his eyes on Priam, stifling a laugh as he took in how much sand had latched onto his head. "Uh, you got some sand in your hair." Some was an understatement.

priam conrad