He was about to offer Tom to get up in the air so at least one of them could be on the lookout for shit on the ground when—when the ground beneath their feet trembled.

Really, right out here?

“Are you—you’ve got to be j-joking me!” he yelped as he quickly summoned his very familiar Braviary and quickly hopped onto the avian’s back, and not a moment too soon!

There was a full-blown earthquake that would shake the entire area for the briefest of moments; and he felt safer up in the air anyway.

“A-are you okay?!” he called from his new position on the Braviary’s back.

---

• earthquake time (total of rolls passed 377)

He would give the greenette (hi lam logan) a fleeting look of relief, before going over everything so far—

And then realizing, that asides from Miss Freya and Fernando who were here, there was someone else who hadn’t—

“I don’t mean to bring up the fire again, but I’d like to ask, forgive me in advance—why do we have a civilian at the meeting,” he dropped off as he tilted his head in Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki’s direction to ask the room at large.

He then made a mental note of… okay.

“I can send them directly to you,” he addressed freya morningstar.

“Do you need a copy of it by end of the day?”

---

• not meaning to stoke the fire again but WHO IS SHE *head tilts at Tsubaki*

Oh, shit.

Was it…

“Is that-is that the bowl-like… thing? Out at the Scorched Slab?” he continued in the same quiet, terrified voice; because what in the absolute fuck why wouldn’t he stop shaking?!

Ugh, was his mind playing tricks on him, or did he hear—no, no… that was just his friend’s Galvantula alerting them to something that they’d spotted.

“O-okay,” he continued, his voice so hoarse only Zubat could hear. A few deep breaths later…

“Fuck,” was all he would say next.

“At least—it was you, and not anyone else who saw me break down like that… what a mess. Sorry.”

He’d brought along most of his healing-capable Pokémon, and so here they were, sniffing out tracks of something that had come along…

When he felt a very great wave of abject, primal fear wash over him.

“I’m… I’m terrified, Tom,” he would breathe out quietly; because what if whatever had attacked the League research team was still out here, waiting for them to drop their guard and maul them to death?!

“What if-what if we’re n-next.”

He had to suppress the tremble that was threatening to break out of him; however it was too late—the abject fear had frozen him in his tracks.

---

• get hit by an indescribable wave of fear (using Tom’s 94 roll for this prompt kek)

The theme this time around was ‘legacy’, or some variation of it.

While he’d missed his friend’s story about the burden that he carried on his shoulders, well… he was afraid that for the first time in a very long time, he wouldn’t be able to tell the Calyrex anything! What could he share?!

Most of his dreams usually ended in bloody, splattered nightmares, so… he frowned.

He was running out of ideas; however he had to come up with one, and fast!

Wondering if he could take a leaf out of someone’s book, he waited until he could approach; with the same half-bow as always.

“I don’t have a story of a legacy to share, because I left Mistralton to take matters into my own hands when my family tried to erase me. So I’ve been living here since I was seventeen, and I won’t bore you with whatever crapshit I have about them.”

Okay, now that that had been said and done…

“This is going to be so fucking cheesy. I don’t care. Censor me if you want. However, this is… well, it’s already kind of there, but fact of the matter is, I dream of the day when…”

He faltered. This was going to sound incredibly pandering, if not worse. But he’d already opened his mouth so he had to go on.

“I dream of times when I’m not like. You know… this,” he gestured to himself.

“…but that’s not to say I don’t like being gay! This is about something else. About how. Well. I have ‘cursed blood’, or as my partner calls it, ‘that one little thing that makes me all the more special’.”

Heh. Special? More like there was a ticking time bomb inside him!

“I dreamed of times when I could do… well, pretty much any normal kid could get themselves into. Run. Tripping over. Falling and getting hurt, and getting back up and being tough through the pain. Because that’s a luxury I can’t have, with me like this.

“The closest I could get was climb trees, but then. You know how you want to go on all the extreme sports that you can—like skydiving, tight-rope walking, or just even being mostly normal without worrying about injuring yourself? Or even getting the tiniest little paper cut, or a bruise on your knuckles because you slugged someone who was being an asshole and got into a fight?”

He sighed.

“I can’t do really heavy physical things. Which is what most kids did back home, and even out here. I had a dream that I was normal. Absolutely fucking normal, no blood disease or anything hampering me and my curiosity to explore the world. to climb up a sheer cliff with just my hands, to fall and get back up without having to worry about internal bleeding… yeah. It’s a tough life, the one I have.”

He was wringing his hands by this point.

“I would dream that I could jump from the tallest cliffs and fly—glide, even—up on the air currents without having to worry about falling down. Kind of like being a superhero, only without the wings and costumes and stuff. I want to fly fly, not just fly in an airplane kind of fly. Well, I don’t get airsick so that’s a plus.”

He chuckled.

“Most everyone have one or two impossible dreams, and one of mine is just that. Me, wanting to be a very normal person, without living in constant fear that I would bleed myself dry from just a minor injury… that’s all.”

Did he really have to go into depressing territory? No, he was just being a realist, that was all.

“Sorry if I made you sad or anything. That’s the life I’m stuck with, however I don’t know if dreams, absolute deepest, darkest desire-like dreams, can be made into a reality without any consequence.”

Another moment of hanging silence.

“Thank you for your time.”

---

Alex talks about his delulu era greatest dream: to be someone absolutely normal without the fear of bleeding dry from a relatively minor injury.

Over on his end, he’d assembled a small team as well—obviously Claire and Ethan would turn up; it was like the two were practically attached at the hip or something.

(He had reasons to suspect they were absolutely a couple, no matter how hard they both denied the allegations.)

“Pretty much,” he nodded as the small team of six (three to a party) would disperse as well; some of the members of his side of the ‘search party’ taking to the skies on their own Flying-type Pokémon.

Now that they were alone…

He let out a sigh.

“I hate getting grilled.”

Surely, the other would know exactly what he meant by that statement.

“Your tiny little murder paper sure is coming in handy,” he yelled over the howling storm that they were accelerating through; now that the Kartana was taking the lead, Kaguya would follow.

Closer and closer they would get to the eye of the storm itself; before one of her arms would swing out in some form of Dragon Hammer to smash what appeared to be a crystal—a Grassium-Z from the looks of it—which exploded upon impact with her gigantic arm.

And then the storm would promptly die down the moment the ‘power source’ (was it?) had been broken beyond repair.

“Geez… that was all it would fucking take for this debris to clear out?!” he exclaimed once the wind had calmed down; and the Kartana was leading them somewhere… somewhere… down towards the ground?

“Uh… where’s your little origami assassin taking us?” he asked her as the gigantic ‘moon princess’ then made to gently come down for a landing…

---

doing prompt 33: allow a celesteela or kartana that you own to guide you safely through the realm, or have them encounter previous members of their kind that believe it to have betrayed them.

To be fair. The main reason why he wasn’t sighted at the front lines as much as she would have wanted him to be—

“Rearguard. Support. I’m over at the healing stations—because that’s a role I’m more suited to be when battle breaks out. If not over with the healing units, up in the skies as aerial support. Covering fire. Helping as much as I can with the injured.”

That was the truth, after all. What else was there to disclose?

To Cian, he could only shrug his shoulders slightly.

“It would be easier if he could communicate, but alas—he remains to be a silent one; though I’ve heard stories that there are some avatars who have legendary patrons who communicate with them, but I’m not sure if that’s true across everyone.

However, fact of the matter is… he’s here for a reason. Maybe it’s because I’m from Unova, I don’t know; or there may be something coming from across the ocean and he’s here as a warning or as a guide to help us find whatever’s coming…”

He’d already encountered the other version of Thundurus previously, the one that had the strange non-cloudman form; even though it was just inside a simulation.

“Speaking of—has anyone else gathered here encountered—the brother during the tournament? Sudden thunderstorms with no explanation whatsoever, wrought by a Pokémon that looks similar to him, but not quite so—only instead of purple and green, mostly blue?” he would inquire further.

“They are part of a group of three, however I haven’t seen the third one anywhere. His brother, at least from Unovan lore I know of—I’ve encountered inside those simulations, but that’s about it.”

---

• this post is mostly for Cian’s question/s
• he then asked everyone else if they’ve seen or encountered the other cloudman outside of the simulations that are available for League access

The good thing about this was—he hoped, at the very least—that he’d chosen to make this challenge a private one; as this was one of the most closely-guarded secrets he currently possessed.

‘You’ve got to… oh, come on.’

“What?” he hummed, trying to look over at his shoulder where the not-Carina was perched.

‘THIS is what you’ve been lusting over?!’

“H-hey!” he yelped, as he looked across the pervading gloom; however…

‘Humans. Sometimes I wish I didn’t understand your kind. But alas I do.’

“Oh, shh,” he shushed the Ribombee, before he made to take a very cautious approach because who knew what else tricks were waiting for them.

“To be fair, I’m looking for answers. Answers as to why your other self gave me… this.”

From inside his jacket, he would pull out a particular piece of rope; while it was crude as compared to where his flecked, fading bird whistle and dogtag was strung up on, this one had a singular feather—a feather that looked like it had come from another version of the approximation of ‘Tornadus’ in front of him.

“Why you appear in that form, and not the other one that has these feathers.”

There. That was the truth, and nothing else but.

Oh, djinni. He was… he was the first Toukon contest champion, so hopefully he could pull something out of his ass and make it through this contest without too many mishaps!

Much as he wanted to use—no, no, he would not do that, especially not when there were too many eyes in the crowd—he’d decided to not bring his Salamence, but his Charizard instead.

How was he going to be as bombastic as everyone else…?

And then, it hit him.

(Of course he would be saving that ace up his sleeve for much later in the contest!)

---

The stage was dark, at first. No illumination, no nada, no nothing whatsoever…

At least until he walked onto the stage, holding one singular candle in his hands; while there was a mic clipped onto his jacket lapel. Out of sheer irony (or hilarity, he wasn’t sure which) he’d chosen to wear the exact same outfit he had on during the time when the second Kyurem incident went down.

“We all thought the beast from the frozen deep would consume everyone who’d helped out near Oldale. Things were looking pretty grim for everyone, at first.”

He then blew out the candle, plunging what little the people could see of him into darkness as well.

“However, with the burning fire of toughness… we made it through.”

That was the cue for his Charizard to come flying in from the opposite side of the theater, the only source of light she brought along was her own flaming tail.

“People thought winter was an impossibility that could never happen in Hoenn; however—as you all know—things work differently around here. The impossible, no longer improbable—a reality that existed in the Silent Icelands.”

The airborne Charizard would continue to circle above, lighting a torch near him with a tiny, little practiced puff of flame; a very controlled fireball.

“No winter will keep us down. From the deepest, darkest cold—a new flame, of a new year altogether, burning bright—will bring Hoenn back into the sunlight she is known for!”

At that the Charizard then bellowed; before releasing a very controlled burst of Flamethrower; illuminating the stage and making him visible for the crowd—as well as all the other participants—to see.

“It’s me, the Fortree Gym Leader, Alexei Ivanov,” he continued, throwing a wink towards the camera—if anyone had seen last year’s Toukon Contest they would recognize him— “…and this is my companion, Ravana the Charizard; whose fire shall never go out! Together, we faced the odds from up in the skies; bringing warmth and flame; and we are ready to serve our brand of toughness for you all!”

---

Charizard used Flamethrower to illuminate the stage!

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