Questions right off the bat? He liked that!

(Honestly, the last time someone came by for a tour was Zac Ramsay… and that was some time ago, now. How was he doing these days?)

“Alright, one at a time,” he chuckled as he decided to tackle them in order.

“Not counting the three aviaries for newborns, the special one just for the Toucannon Armada™ and the tree that houses a literal flock of Pelipper… quite a lot. You see, the entire place allows for not just my Pokémon, but for the staffers’ own Pokémon to run about during the day. We work on an open space system.”

He hummed for a few moments before turning to go for the second question.

“We get yearly migration routes that come by here. Vivillon come by in the spring before departing in the early summer, for one thing. Come fall there’s a yearly arrival of Talonflame that winter over and leave when spring breaks. And then there’s this flock that comes in during the chilly winter—that’s the Toucannon—and leave just before summer. So things can get pretty loud out here when they all start arriving or departing. You should see the Vivillon that nest here, so many wing patterns and all that!”

As for Pokémon that were owned previously? Yes, he had those, too!

“There’s a bunch of Delibird running around here—most of them are rescues who can’t return to the wild anymore. You know… you know how it is with some Pokémon species, they’re there for the gimmick or the fad but once it’s over they’re abandoned, or left in boxes near here…”

Food for thought, indeed.

“It’s no matter, feel free to ask more questions or pick my brain about things, I’ll answer them best I can.”

He cackled the moment she took the offer, quickly switching out the Beedrill for a Flygon—his own Flygon’s wings began to vibrate excitedly because he would be flying against another one of his own kind!

(The last time he’d flown in a match was against Nike, but see how that turned out, lol.)

“I mean, the both of you have a thing for riding Pokémon, are you sure you’re not like, related or something?” he cracked once he got on his own Flygon and zipped up to the ‘starting point’ where surprisingly it was Ethan who had the whistle—riding his Pidgeot, Idun.

(He still didn’t have a ridable Flying-type, plus Idun was one of the more amiable ones who would allow someone else on her back, so there was that.)

“Alright, you two—welcome to this insanity,” the brown-haired receptionist cracked as he gestured to the insanity ahead of them. “There’s only like, one thing you have to do,” he continued in Shalin’s direction.

“Get out in one piece.”

And no, that was not a joke, either.

“Fair bit of luck involved here, too,” he chipped in, considering that aforementioned ‘Master of Faster’ legitimately struggled through this entire course. “Oh, and another thing—don’t fly above the obstacles, you’re going to get disqualified if you do that!”

“Anyway, at the ready!” Ethan called the two to attention.

He then snapped his goggles down on his face, before the starting whistle blew—

And off they go!

The first obstacle of the day, he had to call in a favor from some of his friends because it was a literal… battering ram of circling Charizards, all breathing fire at completely random intervals!

The only way through was literally, through a trial by aerial hellfire.

---

Part 1: trial by hellfire: roll higher than the total of Alex’s rolls to pass! Should you get lower, do you want to know what happens?

No, no, he had to resist the cute charms of the pink Pokémon in front of him!

He knew just how much of a problem Blissey were on the battlefield, so he would definitely have to think outside of the box for this one—and then, an idea clicked into his head.

“Let’s get this started, can’t keep you waiting too long now!” he chirped as he crossed the open-air arena and plucked two Pokéballs from his pocket, revealing a Hawlucha and one of his two Gliscor (no it wasn’t the shiny one today, this would be Scorpio’s time to shine) once he took position on the other side of the field.

“You get first move!” he added as he popped a few more jellybeans into his mouth, the Hawlucha tensing themselves; while the Gliscor snapped their pincers in anticipation.

---

Gliscor and Hawlucha are out on the field!

You know that meme where someone is standing at a crossroads that splits into two? One where the outcome is for the better, and the other is for the absolute worst?

That was where he was right now.

He crossed his arms over his chest as he looked down at the other man across him.

“Of course Tulio had something to say about this,” he began in that same quiet little voice. “I’m hazarding a guess he didn’t take it well… neither did your clan, if I’m correct.”

He had to resist the urge to pinch his nose.

“You know that admitting that you’re a Rocket to me will get you arrested when I catch you, because I do have the right to do that, as I’m the Gym Leader around these parts…” he trailed off, reaching for something that hung from his neck—a battered, flecked, metallic bird whistle.

One singular whistle from the object brought two shadows to hover near him—his Salamence and Braviary.

“I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to bring you in.”

The betrayal hung heavy between them, and he knew, somehow—just knew that this connection they had may not survive what would happen next.

(The deception was palpable between them.)

Preparations for Halloween were always hectic.

Candy, decorations (they only ever stayed up for a few days so what even), carving pumpkins (sorry love) and then getting little costumes for their ovine horde ready (yes, this included Atalys and Ovejita this time)…

The insanity never ended.

So when it was time for the tradition of them watching a movie (where he would always end up in his partner’s arms, hiding his face or in a pillow because those things on screen were scary!) he had the bowl of popcorn ready.

(Well, popcorn and anything else that was considered normal for standard ‘stay at home’ movie fare.)

This year’s sacrifice offering to the movie gods was something called ‘The Shrine’.

“Even from the title I’m already getting the heebie-jeebies,” he chattered as he reached for a handful of popcorn and had the pillow ready for hiding behind!

---

sometimes the noise you hear in the night becomes all too real

Normally it was him that needed rescuing, however this time around…

“Loki, are you absolutely sure that you saw the Hypno taking him away?!” he began as he looked over at the Sableye that was frowning his way and making extremely wild gesturing motions.

“Wait, what—when did this happen?!” he blinked a few moments later.

“Are you shitting me?!” he exclaimed as the Sableye made a few more gestures that meant ‘it literally happened while I was here and you were busy earlier today!’ before he pinched the bridge of his nose.

“…alright. Take me to where you last saw him. Please.”

He hoped that he wouldn’t run into any doppelgangers or anything fucking out of the ordinary…

---

how the turns have tabled this time!

There was… there was so much paperwork to get done!

Why did he leave them all until the last minute?! What was wrong with him?! Was it because he’d sunk into another spiraling fit of—

Yeah we don’t talk about that, we do not go there!

He sighed.

So rather than being in bed and enjoying the extremely cold AC in their shared bedroom, he was… he was out at the dining table staring down at an entire pile of paperwork he’d kept on putting off until the very last second.

What made this all the more worse was that the papers were due before the end of the week, so… there was that.

How many more papers did he have to sign?!

This entire night felt like a curse…

---

so much paperwork to catch up on the madness never ends

Oh, if there was another month in the year he absolutely did not like, it was this one.

Unlike May (for reasons kept secret), October was just. Full of heebie-jeebies every-fucking where. That dark corner with a pair of ominous eyes staring out of them?

He was sure that wasn’t Loki the Sableye, because aforementioned Sableye had red gems for eyes.

(Why did everything have to be supernatural for this month?! Yeesh. Couldn’t a guy catch a break?!)

He couldn’t help but hide behind the couch, because there was… there was something inside their bedroom that was creeping him the fuck out.

“Can…can…can you check… out what that noise is?”

(Cue the screaming cat face here.)

---

getting matrix vibes from this

Knowing the other, he would’ve bought quite a lot of candy but this.

This was unbelievable.

(And he still had that giant jar of jellybeans to go through! Whoops!)

“Frog,” he blinked quietly at the vast array of candy that had been spread out all over the countertop. “This is… are you sure this wasn’t on sale because it’s about to expire?!”

You never know!

(For what it’s worth, he thought he saw a couple of Rage Candy Bars in the mix…)

“I know you want to celebrate Halloween and all, but I want to make it to Christmas with my teeth!” he chuckled a few moments later.

---

oh no who asked for a sugar rush?!