link name of the post proof will have who the reward goes to, not who completed it! probably.

[XXX] (3x pokéballs) make an ic-post within may.
[XXX] (shard) complete a thread within the event period.
[] (rainbow shard) participate in any forum game thread.
[] (type 1 evo) involve a ground-type move in an ic-post.
[] (type 2 evo) utilize or involve entry hazards in an ic-post.

[] (type 3 evo) teach your pokemon a ground-type move.
[] (sparkling dust) involve one of the following pokemon abilities in a post: earth eater, arena trap, sand force, sand stream, levitate. can be a NPC/wild pokemon.
[] (level tutor) capture/defeat/redeem a ground-type pokemon in a wild, safari, gacha (no trades/gifts).
[] (tm/tr) complete a solo/duo wild or safari thread.
[] (move tutotr) participate in 1 imminent instability swarm or distortion.

[] (move tutor) publish an ic-post in your exhibit or garden.
[XXX] (egg tutor) reference another character by tagging them in an ic-post.
[] (egg tutor) use a gif or image that features a ground-type pokemon in your post.
[] (tm/tr) include music in an ic-post (link or the player code).
[] (incense) use one of these names in a post in any capacity: giovanni, bertha, clay, hapu, rika.

[] (ability capsule) use one of the following words in an ic-post: firmament, demesne, dregs, balance.
[] (starf berry) use the idiomatic noun "run (something/someone) to the ground" in an ic-post.
[] (gacha) complete 1 imminent instability mission.
[] (gacha) complete 2 imminent instability missions.
[] (prem gacha) complete 3 imminent instability missions.

[] (level tutor) post in a communication thread or comment on an HNN article.
[] (ability capsule) post in a plotter or wanted ad thread with a genuine plotting idea, affirmation of a relationship, or a compliment (minimum 100 WORD COUNT).
[] (form change) sell a pokemon to the black market.
[] (ability capsule) buy a pokemon from the black market.
[] (mega shard) reference any of the organizations listed in the local hoenn guidebook thread, or any on-site player-led business.

[] (mega shard) reference information from the hoenn dragonology document created by Crow.
[] (salac berry) complete a thread that features a conflict of any kind with a character in the opposite faction.
[] (devo stone) use mega evolution, terastallization, or dynamax in an ic-post.
[] (honey) use a z-move in an ic-post.
[] (tm/tr) use a sygna suit in an ic-post.

[] (sparkling dust) incorporate a sandstorm (weather) in your post or thread.
[] (level tutor) incorporate a character or a pokemon falling/tripping in your post.
[] (type 1 evo) terastallize a pokemon into the ground tera type.
[] (3x pokéballs) reference or involve a heavy ball in your post.
[] (incense) involve the emotion of fear in your post or thread.

[] (tablets of lutum (mud bomb)) complete 3 total endeavors.
[] (ground tera shard) complete 5 total endeavors.
[] (legendary candy) complete 10 total endeavors.
[] (mega stone) complete 15 total endeavors.
[] (dynamax candy) complete 20 total endeavors.

[attr="class","emapokemonteam"][attr="class","emapokemonteam"][attr="class","emapokemonteam"][attr="class","emapokemonteam"][attr="class","emapokemonteam"][attr="class","emapokemonteam"][newclass=".emapokemonteam"]height:40px;width:40px;background:#2b2b2b;border-radius:100%;margin:0 5px;[/newclass]

Reality hits hard as they awaken from the pleasant, but still confusing dream. Cass wishes to have more answers, but it's just ... confusing. What was this pokémon at the central tower, just before waking up? She thinks back to the tubes, as well, and shudders. No matter what it is ... it's truly terrifying to behold. She barely dares to move upon waking, scared she'd accidentally kick any of her friends of the bed they've somehow managed to triple share.

It's to be anticipated, that they'd be put to work again - however, before that, something else happens. After stomaching some mochi, The Laughing Hour commences. Knight is singled out among others she doesn't recognise, and while her expression is dumbfounded under the mask - there's no way Knight is that stupid, so something else ... - there's only laughter escaping as her Toxic Chain tickles her, the toxin rushing through her veins towards ridicule. She frowns, but still chants, and it feels like she's driven mad by those words that she doesn't want to say, but can't keep inside. Her wound from yesterday's also still untreated, so the strain of forced laughter only adds salt to injury.

"Knight, are you alright?" she whispers then to him as they're working on sorting again. "That's so shit. And for the last-" she lowers her voice even more, barely above a bitter murmur, "It's cheating if you shuffle the boxes yourself."

The hours turn to days - all caught in a routine, all the same, over and over ... with only the dream being something to actually hold onto. And also dreams made manifest ... a vision so starkly different from her current situation, the only wish she's ever had, she feels like. A wish that could maybe come true, as they continue to slave away.

Knight Naito Thea Naito
tl;dr dummy ward
- perceives azelf but is just more confused, wakes up with the trio being canned sardines
- talks to knight after his laughing hour
- short summary of the general days passing (implying her vision: a world in which she doesn't have to be/isn't scared), main action & rolls will be in next post!

[attr="class","emapkmn"][attr="class","emapkmn"][attr="class","emapkmn"][attr="class","emapkmn"][attr="class","emapkmn"]

Cass puts down the café menu after they've both ordered and smiles at Thea. A new café has opened up in her hometown - the green forest scenery considered more home than her birthplace in Kalos - so she's of course had to try it out with one of her best friends! "I'm really excited to see what this tart is going to be about ... it's definitely an interesting combination, to put cucumber and caramel, salted, together ..." And one she'd be up for - she's really adventurous when it comes to food.

"But you also mentioned you have a gift?" she says, not able to contain her curiosity as she does her best not to look around, see where Thea could have hidden a present ... well, her bag's a good start, for sure. But what could be in there ... "I actually have one for you, too!" she then adds with a grin, revealing her card now at last, too. It's ... honestly something she just grabbed on her way, but it's still fairly pricey and high-quality to count as a valid gift, she thinks. And it's also on-theme with the season! Hah!

As always, Jon is seated on the table on Cass' side, enjoying a glass of lemonade just like Martin who's sit-floating next to Jon. The Trubbish is waving at Thea's pokémon, but Martin seems to engage more with them while Jon is in the background. Glimmer, the Glimmora, is also chatting up whoever would be up for it, while Dermot is fully engrossed in the cookie that Cass has already gotten for him. It's one large cookie and thus has to be treated with the utmost care, else it would vanish into tiny pieces before its time ...

Cass' Furfrou Kordel has stepped a bit away from the table, with the Silcoon Philomena fashioned into her hairstyle today. The dog-pokémon is showing the bug-type around, walking around the outdoor café area idly with the Silcoon wrapped up on her head fur like some really strange, but oddly fashionable headpiece. (The first time Cass has found Philomena in Kordel's hair, she's been dead-worried she'd have to keep those seperate forever, but gladly, it seems that when there's intent in Philomena getting all tangled up in Kordel's fur, the two actually got along super well.)

Thea Naito

• player/ooc name: ema
• character tags: Cassandra Kubrick Lutgarde Dijkstra Fenelle Miller
• dropped characters' tags (if applicable): ---
• ic posts for characters: cass, lutgarde, fenelle
• are characters in directories?: Y
• any notes/comments: thank you so much for your hard work, shiv, spiral and crow !! and thanks as well to the amazing community of writers here <3 looking forward to what's to come!

[attr="class","emapokemonteam"][attr="class","emapokemonteam"][attr="class","emapokemonteam"][attr="class","emapokemonteam"][attr="class","emapokemonteam"][attr="class","emapokemonteam"][newclass=".emapokemonteam"]height:40px;width:40px;background:#2b2b2b;border-radius:100%;margin:0 5px;[/newclass]

Cassandra blinks as she looks around at futuristic lights, a city so vastly different from everything she knows in her day-to-day. But, given her father's disappearance, she is not a stranger to it entirely - it seems to be Megalopolis, the origin of their guards. However, the texts that she's read on it ... this is a thriving version of it, and ...

Is this a dream? At least here, she's not chained, and her clothes are not this prison garb either. Her hair still feels like a wet, air-drying mess, but at least it's not that bad.

"What the ..." she murmurs, looking around. "Huh," she says in surprise, then waves and approaches a familiar figure - Thea. "Hey, Thea! Are you... Thea?" This is a dream, after all. ... PROBABLY a dream. Are they dreaming together, or is this just a fragment of her imagination?

Thea Naito

[attr="class","emapkmn"][attr="class","emapkmn"][attr="class","emapkmn"][attr="class","emapkmn"][attr="class","emapkmn"]

After hearing that there's a space-time distortion, Cass immediately has been on her way, hoping to still catch it in time. There's almost no hesitation as she enters the dome, this weird space distorting reality in inherently violent ways - or inherently natural ways. After all, the state as everything must be is chaos ... and as everything returns to. Order is something to be maintained, and it is such a fragile thing ...

But she isn't here for anything philosophical today - she's looking around, desperate to find any hint of ... something that might give her any information on where her dad might be, has been, will be. She's surrounded by her pokémon that brave the storm with her. She's looking at Sona, fighting with unusual bravery against the other pokémon, her hammer swinging endlessly. She also feels something shift slightly to her right-

"Oh fu-" she starts swearing, but her sole's actually not pierced by the familiar three hairs anymore. Instead, there's a whole wig of hair it seems, still hard as steel, but ... "You evolved!" she comments, and smiles faintly as she looks at Rina. Rina who has come with because Sona would never say no to more people on a dangerous mission. (Cass wonders why she hasn't declined in the first place; this isn't exactly up her wheelhouse, but there's been some changes recently ...) "Now I won't have to fear for my feet anymore," she grins vaguely, before her steel type's battle cry catches her attention again.

"Huh-" Sona's swinging her hammer again, but instead of a fiery dragon spirit possessin her, the temperature drops amongst the relentless storm winds. She whips up something cold and frosty, using Ice Hammer for the first time ever. "How do you keep picking up those moves?" Cass asks, baffled.

rewards
- 1x green shard
- rina the alolan diglett evolves to alolan dugtrio
- sona the tinkatuff forgets sweet kiss and learns ice hammer

[attr="class","emapkmn"][attr="class","emapkmn"][attr="class","emapkmn"]

Cass isn't really actually painting the egg - it's Pic next to her, who swiftly has taken the new canvas in his hand without even giving Cass a chance to draw. She doesn't really mind, however, instead watching Pic at work - a rare opportunity, actually, now that she thinks about it ...

"Are you finished?" she asks then, as Pic proudly almost rubs the egg into her face. "Woah, woah, I can't see aynthing like this, hang on ..." she laughs, bringing a bit of distance. The lines are odd, she thinks, as she takes a look, before ...

"What the hell. That's not a flat surface, but ... if you look at it from here ... what the hell Pic?" A simple, nice rose motif made by straight lines only, and also a drawing that looks entirely flat if you look at it from the front.

[attr="class","emapokemonteam"][attr="class","emapokemonteam"][attr="class","emapokemonteam"][attr="class","emapokemonteam"][attr="class","emapokemonteam"][attr="class","emapokemonteam"][newclass=".emapokemonteam"]height:40px;width:40px;background:#2b2b2b;border-radius:100%;margin:0 5px;[/newclass]

Cass somehow musters a smile at Thea's compliment, even if it also turns out grim, the concern and worry not quite fading. It'd take some time longer for the apathy to stop clinging to her, but maybe- maybe it'd be better that way, too. "I can't ... it's hard seeing it like this," she replies, before it's time for work- and then for a shower.

She'd get to Knight's hair first, smiling faintly as she sorts it out neatly, "Now it's all flat like a bob," she comments with a quiet laugh that gets drowned out by the water pouring down on them. Then, it's Thea's turn, and she gets focused on her friend's hair, too - laying it out flat and neat, with nothing else but water and oil sticking to it (she couldn't do anything about the grime-grime until they've maybe gotten shampoo ... but probably not).

It's a few moments of normalcy that she indulges in, figuring out for a moment that there's a whole person inside of her. It's scary, now that she thinks about it, how quickly she's come to compartmentalise, but ... nothing surprising. (Everything to survive.)

Walking back with Thea and Knight by her side, she feels herself slip away again, but it's nice, knowing and feeling these two close. She's walking close to Thea, welcoming the embrace, while also holding out one hand to grasp Knight's hand somehow. A pile of three, with her eyes fixed on these fleshy tubes ... She turns to Thea, swaying slightly as if indecisive. "But maybe it'll be better to know ..." she says, but does as Thea says - most of the time. Her gaze is still drawn to the tubes, until they reach the end of the hallways.

She looks back again, but is quickly lured away by fresh clothing. "I think so too," she agrees with Knight, frowning slightly. "I'm not sure I'll like them much after this ..." For now, it's nice, however, and she changes clothes. Almost feeling clean and alright, but the wet mess of her hair reminds her of the dire situation. They're also quickly herded back to the cells.

"Will it really be alright?" Cass murmurs, despite also already taking place on the bed. "Maybe we can figure out to squeeze us three up here?" she suggests, but ... yeah, it's a tight fit. "We're not that tall, after all ..." And it's a horrific time. While she wouldn't want to give up a bed if (most likely) both of her friends offer, she also doesn't want Knight to be cold and have an unrestful night ... whatever this night might be.

Ultimately, she'd be too tired to argue or think on much, and she'd drift off to sleep soon enough. Her arms are wrapped tightly around whoever's sharing the bed with her (whether it's one or two), recovering from the ice shower and the tiring, exhausting day.

She wishes for a dark, black dreamscape, but instead ...

A city?

Knight Naito Thea Naito
tl;dr dummy ward
- washes knight & thea's hair
- walking back through the hallway, upon thea's insistence, she'd not stare at the fleshy tubes too much (but she still stares)
- changes clothes, gets back into the cell
- ultimately takes a shared (with thea and/or knight) spot on the bed and falls asleep
- (dream city time, but she's not gonna ask anything of importance)

[attr="class","emapokemonteam"][attr="class","emapokemonteam"][attr="class","emapokemonteam"][attr="class","emapokemonteam"][attr="class","emapokemonteam"][attr="class","emapokemonteam"][newclass=".emapokemonteam"]height:40px;width:40px;background:#2b2b2b;border-radius:100%;margin:0 5px;[/newclass]

"Yeah, I've seen it in one of those RKS simulations I've done-" Cass replies to Knight after Thea's been tackled. She thinks back on the memories she's made with this creature back then, and ... she just couldn't believe it. She throws herself in harm's way, wishing for them not to harm any more, but it's only her who ends up motionless, knocked out.

Something stirs Cass, as she lays motionless after the beating. She's not sure if it's other prisoners or her friends, as she slowly comes to herself, bloddied now and with the numbing pain moving in waves from certain points - her stomach, her shoulder, some more that she can't pinpoint right now. She takes in a sharp breath, before being reminded of the task at hand - clean, clean. Standing cautiously, she turns around, finally snapping back into place.

(Something does, at least.)

"Thea- are you alright? Knight?" she asks, hurrying over to them, before also turning to Andrea Vaneau- "Andrea- Andrea, are you ok-? That was- That was them from the simulation, right? What's-?" she continues her questioning, but ... she really isn't sure what kind of answers she would want. Part of her resigns itself to the clean-up duty again, her movements slow as she's unable to nurse her wounds. Now she's noticing, it's not only mochi remains that they're cleaning up. But, it's ... she finds herself squeezing, and doesn't meet any resistance.

There should be bones.

Are they dissolved- or taken? Turned to dust, and then? She stops the thought there.

It's when the creature is pulled away by chains that she rouses again, alarmed- "WAIT! No- don't!" she shouts, trying to grab the Ogerpon- but of course, she's way too far away, and her own Toxic Chain restricts her movements too much to do anything. She only watches in horror as they're pulled away to arceus-knows-where. (Or maybe Arceus doesn't.)

Her mind's then immediately caught in the icy bath, focusing everything back to her, but there's no escape from the water. She shivers uncontrollably, but she feels the piercing water clean her wounds, her general body from some grime by sheer force. After getting used to it even just a little bit, her now cleaned hands rise to grab her hair. She obviously doesn't have shampoo, but she massages it, gets out loose bits and oozes that's been caught in her hair over the course of the past hours.

"It'll take ages to have it recover from all that ..." she murmurs, finding a piece of herself amongst nothing. A thought for another day that's normal; that's not here, imprisioned. But for now, she taps her friends to get their attention, rubbing their shoulders a bit for some warmth to be immediately taken by the freezing water. "Do you want me to help wash your hair, too?" she asks, disregarding the fact that there's no shampoo here - she'd just be sorting it out a bit, removing the dirt that's clinging to it. But better than nothing, and it's just ... a moment to breathe in icy mist.

The prison routine continues on as they're herded back. She can't help but look back - then shudder.

The creature is back. They've released it again, and it feasts on the things they've cleaned up. She winces, not because of the grotesque scene - she is once more reminded of the absence of her Trubbish, and averts her gaze again. At least the creature won't starve, for better or worse.

The grotesque continues on as they walk through seemingly endless hallways. She'd lean on Thea or Knight for support, and also to support - she eyes Thea worryingly, knowing that she's been dealt a really hard blow as well. Her gaze wanders from her companions to ... everything else. Pulsating, fleshy tubes. As if giving birth. Something below here ... something's going on, but she can't tell what it might be. She finds her eyes fixed on some of the tubes, trying to discern what's moving inside - or maybe, she's better off not knowing ...

tl;dr dummy ward
- (callback, answers knight's question, then is hit)
- is knocked "out" for a bit before recovering a bit
- asks knight and thea if they're alright; turns to andrea to ask about ogerpon
- gets to clean-up work, avoids more major injuries, notices the lack of bones or anything solid
- shouts after opgerpon as it's pulled away, tries to follow but her toxic chains restrains her
- gets cleaned up by the icy shower, takes extra effort to clean up her hair
- walking through the hallway back; leans on thea or knight
- stares at the fleshy tubes, wondering, tries to figure out what they might contain

[attr="class","emapkmn"][attr="class","emapkmn"][attr="class","emapkmn"][attr="class","emapkmn"][attr="class","emapkmn"][attr="class","emapkmn"]

Upon entering the sweltering, pre-historic (pre-written-historic-anyway) heat, Xuan immediately returns to her pokéball despite being the one most curious about this RKS simulation. "And we've lost one," she smiles faintly, calling out her Glimmora Glimmer instead who looks at their surroundings with curiosity.

"I'm Cass, by the way - nice to meet you!" She wonders for a moment if that's a different scenario to before- ah, yeah, no, yep, that scream's still lowkey haunting her, or more the scenario that followed the last time she's been there. She turns to the younger kid, holding her ears closed to mute the sounds just a little bit. "WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO?" she screams, trying to be heard over the not-Jigglypuff's screaming.

Eris Halla