(To be fair, he needed context for the question.)

Now that he had actual context for what kind of a human he was, he understood right away what they meant!

Oh. Well, if you specified th— he thought before a mess of words started tumbling out of him.

“I’m many things, I don’t know if you know about drag queens but I’m one of those. I’m also a bartender, but I’onno if you have bars in here either. I’m also a baker, but not as often unless I’m absolutely losing it so uh…”

He trailed off before realizing that half of what he said may not have made any sense! Either way…

“I take care of Pokémon… so there’s that too. A caretaker? Yeah. Close.”

He was erring on the side of caution about mentioning him being a gym leader because that concept may fly over the fae’s head…

“Wait, why do you want to know what kind of human I am?” he followed up a few moments later.

Unfortunately for all involved, he was already too far ahead of everyone else.

He’d already recalled his Typhlosion in the process of the chase. The blue-plumed Braviary let out a surprised, angry squawk before scooping him up on his back and following the skyborne Kaguya Celesteela, which was very clearly headed toward orbit and out into atmospheric space.

(Never mind if he had no Psychic-types out, he was very busy chasing the gigantic flying thing as fast as his Braviary could fly.)

“Go, go, go!” he hissed, hiding his face in the avianid’s feathers, feeling the upkick of speed as they slipped into the Celesteela’s humongous slipstream of air to avoid getting blown back as they flew… out, out, out into orbit and onwards to the Moon!

---

completed 29: ride one of the aforementioned large celesteela in prompt 28 to reach the large moon in the sky. here, a large gathering of celesteela can be found, ready to launch again, perhaps to new worlds. due to supernatural means, being on this moon may cause your characters to want to stay and remain in this realm instead of going back home;

headed to the MOON, wanting to stay there; cue SPACE MAN by Sam Ryder

What was it with his receptionists always bearing witness to some kind of insanity when the challengers rolled in?

Luckily, Claire had left to run a few errands through the city delivering prescription medicines and stuff, so it was the nicer of the two that she would meet—Ethan with the mousy brown hair who’d taken a few moments to take in the sight of a shiny Beedrill floating along the premises—at least the stingers had foam over them, that was a relief—and showed her the way to take to the back.

(Right door behind the front desk, as always.)

For Alexei himself was already waiting outside, arms crossed and equally-cheeky grin on his face as he saw that she’d arrived—hoo boy, why did he know that she was going to bring her favored mount along?

“The moment I heard Ethan exclaim at the sight of the Beedrill, I knew it was you,” he greeted her while a Flygon looped around him before coming to a hover near him.

“For the record, he was the first to get a score of zero out of this entire course. Hopefully you won’t fall by the wayside, eh?” he cackled.

One minute Ethan was trying so hard not to laugh at the quip, the next he was holding a bucket before making a run for it to safety—he knew that when Alex gave anyone that knowing look of his, something was up and they had to clear out from where they were.

(And he knew to pass the message on to Claire, who would immediately run toward the security room to keep an eye on things.)

Now that they were alone, his lips were drawn into a thin line, before he sighed.

“You’re too easy for me to read, N—Temp,” he backtracked, knowing how much the other disliked his birth name.

“Still easy to read… especially when you asked me that one time about what drag was, and how I showed you that world,” he continued quietly.

“With the makeup and everything. I know you brought up the difference of how makeup for your culture meant alongside how with drag, makeup completes the look a queen… or a king pulls together before they step out for the evening.”

(He hoped that Ethan would alert Guillermo Marceliño at the least, because he was more than certain Claire was already at the cameras keeping an eye on them.)

“What is it, then? Do you want the badge? Or is it something… else?”

He then moved to go outside, and if the other were smart enough to pick up the cue, follow him outside where the open-air arena awaited.

It just so happened the receptionist at the counter had to recheck the name a few times because…was Ethan seeing this right?

“Wait, this can’t be real,” he backtracked, double-checking the name before he made sure that he had the right person in front of him.

“Are you going to toss me in your locker?” he couldn’t help but crack the joke! Goodness gracious, he idly wondered how many times the other man might’ve gotten that crack from people who saw the name and the ID.

Either way, he sent a message, and it took more or less five minutes for the man of the hour himself to show up carrying an empty bucket (where he’d thrown the bird-handling gloves into) before getting a good look at his challenger for the day…

“Uh. Ethan? I’ll take it from here,” he said quietly as he handed the other man the bucket, with a glance towards the left-side door for him to book it out of there; which said receptionist mercifully did.

This therefore left him alone with the challenger… and unless he was seeing things…

“…been a while,” he began quietly, looking past the freckles. And the hair.

He was sure of his suspicion.

Oh, djinni.

Ever since the Funtasia Faire had ended, he was… he was still working on the large jar of six hundred and ninety jellybeans. To his mild surprise, he realized that said jellybeans in the jar were a mix of all the nice flavors a certain brand sold.

So yay for him!

(Though, the gay Spanish Paldean panic he got from Guillermo Marceliño when he brought home the jar was… hilarious to say the least.)

It wouldn’t take long for the man of the hour himself to arrive—and him actually having to send Claire off for some errands (thanks lovely receptionist) so he could escort the guest of honor herself to the back.

“Bonjour, mademoiselle,” he greeted back with his curling Russian Unovan accent, cheeky grin on his face as he even reached for her hand and gave it all the proper French Kalosian flair and ooh-la-la greeting.

“I’ve been doing great, and… well, you guessed it. My partner almost had an aneurysm at the sight of the jar of jelly beans! He asked me where the hell I got it from so I just pointed him to the Funtasia,” he added with a cackle once he straightened up—

Aww! The giant Delcatty plushie was travelling with them!

“Meow-meow busy making biscuits with the Delcatty I see,” he cracked a few moments later.

“You know, sometimes I will never understand why there are variants,” he said with a sigh as his Farfetch’d continued to walk around the grumpy ol’ man with the gigantic leek.

“Also, do the Galarian variants really have those wicked eyebrows?!”

It’s true! For him, the Alolan versions were cute (hell Exeggutor suddenly going all long-neck made him guffaw so hard) but even here, in his boyfriend’s home region?

Where all the Corsola were dead?!

“It’s cracking me up!” he added, unable to stop the peal of laughter from escaping him at that point. It was just so much already!

For a split-second, the Greninja’s visible, before disappearing back under the rocks. That was good!

(And he was sure that Hera was getting pissed inside the Dive Ball. His gut screamed at him because it was so.)

We’re on the right path, we just have to outspeed and corner— before his train of thought was interrupted by the Sneasel that had come leaping from the ground; and then he realized it was a surprise attack!

Even though he was rattled, the Noivern less so—being used to most antics back home in the air at Fortree. Without changing direction or bucking off his rider, the bat-draconid reared up before flapping his wings quickly and releasing an Air Slash at the Sneasel!

(Never mind of there were noises of disgust coming from the Noivern at the sight of the Sneasel’s frost-tipped claws.)

He then rubbed the back of the Noivern’s neck in a reassuring ‘good job’ gesture as he continued to squint ahead into the gloom, wondering if… how much of the place could he wreck? Not even the mightiest rock would stand up against a powerful wind, right?

Right?

Funny how he was on the other side of the challenge now…

Easy, I’ve dealt with worse shit than this! he thought; though the artificial stench of the fog machine made his nostrils sting. Why did it smell like musty socks?! Gross!

“Fen,” he whispered so low only the bat-dragon could hear, “…time to show what we’re really capable of!”

(They’d flown in worse weather than this.)

Skimming as low as they could, a singular soft whistle made the Noivern halt on a dime in mid-air, before pulling something out of his pockets just in case he had to pop them in…

However it may not have been needed, because a galeforce Hurricane came from the Noivern’s wings; an attempt to dissipate the fog (and maybe scatter the icicles) before a second quiet whistle made the Noivern suddenly take a breakneck dive—they were still on the hunt for their missing team mate!

(He was more than certain Hera was going to be pissed when they got to battling later…)

Maybe it was a good thing he wasn’t scared of being underground just not deep water so he could only gape at the structure they’d arrive at.

Damn. Sometimes it really did help having access to the government’s drip (in his case it was just the permits to run the gym since the Sanctuary was his and his alone) to set up something like this…

What Navy didn’t know was that despite him being a man of the skies, he also had sharp vision… sure helped being one with the sky, hm?

“Lord, you can call me Alex, nobody’s called me by my surname in… ages,” he mused as he picked up the Dusk Ball and popped it open, watching as his Noivern emerged, stretching his wings and ready to cut a bitch fly.

Time to watch me fly, he continued to himself as he pocketed the Dusk Ball and hopped on his Noivern’s back. With a gentle touch to the back of the dual-type’s neck, they were off in the general direction he last saw where the Greninja had run off to.

Sometimes I think it’s better to show what I can do rather than give it all away, he cackled to himself in the back of his mind as he leaned forward, another touch directing the Noivern to fly as low and as close as possible towards the difficult terrain.

So he now he had a one-in-two chance of picking the Greninja’s Pokéball, all things considered. Yikes. How was he going to do it?

Considering that he brought two Flying-types to this challenge, he was torn—he wanted to get Hera’s Dive Ball back because she was a temperamental monster.

However, Fenrir, who had actual wings would be more useful in this regard (not to mention actual limbs as well, because Gyarados had neither of those and was just a big-ass serpent)… at least in this situation.

Going on a whim, he hoped he would be picking right, looking between the two…

It’s a fifty-fifty chance if I get this right or wrong… he thought as he creased his forehead, frowning as he slipped into deep thought.

“I’ll pick the Sneasel.”

And hoped he wouldn’t be in for hell of a time.

“Wha—hey!” he exclaimed as he barely noticed two shadows streaking by, making off with the shrunken-down Dive and Dusk Balls he’d already pulled out of his pocket.

Instinctively, he reached behind him as if trying to grab an arrow from a holster, but then realized he had no weapons… he had nothing on him! Well, nothing usable at the moment.

“Well, first things, first, I’d scream ‘get the fuck back here with my Pokémon,’, otherwise they’d know if I wasn’t the one holding their Pokéballs. Well, either me or my partner, considering that we both have joint custody over certain ‘mons we own…” he trailed off.

Tsk. How was he going to get out of this, indeed?

“Unless I can signal from a distance and have them attack from their current location? But I’m not sure, really…”

It painfully, clearly showed that he was. Clueless to this sort of thing.

“Ask stupid questions, get stupid answers,” the not-Carina snarked from beside him.

He had to resist the urge to roll his eyes because holy hellballs on a stick, why was his companion this sassy?!

“You’re not helping!” he couldn’t help but sass back to his companion, before biting his lip and internally rolling his eyes at his companion. Not to mention internally screaming, too, but that was for another day.

Didn’t this one already kinda answer the ques— he thought, biting his lip even harder now because what was his luck?!

He noticed the other one looked in a specific direction, but he would shelve that for later.

“Well, one thing’s fo’ sure, they’re not lying, though kinda rude…” he heard his companion’s voice continue before he shook his head vehemently and made shushing noises to quiet the other!

“Err… sorry if they’re being sassy. That was not my intention!” he apologized, bowing so low he was almost halfway to the ground before he straightened up again.

“Anyway… I’m a human,” he tried again.

“Are there any particular fae we have to watch out for while trying to get out of here?”

That was the next essential question he remembered to ask, since some of them were undeniably going to try to get him permanently lost in this space.