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LUSIA LOOKED a bit nervous as the crowd tittered with excitement. They'd signed up for this contest on a whim, thinking it would be a private affair with a judge or two, but it seemed all of Lilycove City and a large chunk of the rest of Hoenn's population had shown up to watch. It was hard to fathom what could be so exciting about watching people partnered with Pokemon cooking up something as simple as bubble tea for so many people; certainly some people had niche interests, but this was a huge turnout for this sort of event, Lusia felt.[break][break]

Specter, the Hisuian Zorua, perched perfectly on the countertop in front of Lusia, eating up the attention and basking in the crowd even as the introductions went down the line and each pair got the crowd's attention one by one. The time was approaching for Lusia to introduce themself and their Pokemon, so Lusia cleared their throat, stood up a little straighter, and adjusted their glasses with a grip around the frames.[break][break]

"..Hello, everyone, my name is Lusia. I'm from Veilstone City in Sinnoh and.. I like tea..." They trailed off, unsure of what else to say, when Specter puffed out her chest and barked sharply to get their attention. Oh, this is Specter! She's a.. Zorua, as you can.. clearly see." It was quite obvious that Lusia was unused to public speaking.[break][break]

Once the all clear was given and everyone was introduced, the participants were told to get cooking, and Lusia opted to ignore the audience entirely and focus on making tea the way they liked best. They started off by grabbing a simple kettle and filling it with water, setting the temperature to 181 degrees, then retrieved the tea ingredients. Lusia preferred matcha tea, so they grabbed the tin of ceremonial grade matcha powder from the shelf, measuring out precisely two tablespoons of the powder and leveling them off before dumping them into their chosen display glass. Too late, they realized they should likely have mixed the drink in a different container to avoid clumping.[break][break]

Once the water was steaming and the kettle beeped that it was ready, Lusia grabbed the kettle by the insulated handle and poured the boiling water over the powder, just a little at first, and mixed it in with a fancy stirrer. Once it looked like the powder was incorporated properly, Lusia drizzled honey inside and kept stirring, adding a bit more hot water from the kettle to help the sugary liquid dissolve.[break][break]

Finally, when the honey and matcha powder were dissolved completely, and the glass was about one-fourth of the way full, Lusia remembered that their Pokemon was supposed to help, and asked Specter to bring them the coconut milk. The Pokemon did so with a flourish, not wanting to forget the watching crowds, and nearly dropped the carton. Lusia snagged it out of the air, earning a smattering of applause from the few people that noticed the near miss, and they topped off the drink with the coconut milk. It turned a lovely pale sage green color. Lusia gently dumped the black boba pearls into the drink, careful not to make it overflow, and placed a pink straw into the glass.

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AFTER A FEW more minutes of waiting, during which a still very grouchy Odysseus kept psychically grumbling about his plight of having to wait a whole entire dumb hour for another person, someone rode into town on the back of a Hisuian Zoroark. The wild tangle of a mane was unmistakeable, and Lusia pushed their glasses up to get a good look at the beast of a Pokemon as it approached, closer and closer until Lusia was nearly convinced it was going to slam directly into them, but it skidded to a halt and someone got off of its back. The 'someone' was a child, a literal child, and Lusia wondered what they were doing here and what they needed from them.[break][break]

They blinked in surprise as the child asked if they were 'Miss Stella', then introduced himself as Absalom, and at that moment Lusia realized that this kid was the person they were supposed to meet with here. Odysseus gave Lusia a questioning look, but Lusia chuckled. Though they didn't mean it derisively, they did think it was quite funny that they sent a child for this particular mission, though they supposed that the power of the Pokemon with the trainer would be more important than the age or maturity of them, but still.[break][break]

"Well.. Yes and no, I suppose. I am Lusia Stella, but I do actually go by they/them pronouns, so it would be 'Mx.' rather than 'Miss', you see." They smiled, a bit perturbed by the misgendering but not letting it ruin their day. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Absalom. You're welcome to call me Lusia, of course."[break][break]

I'm Odysseus. You're very early, surprisingly early. I'm.. glad. Odysseus projected his telepathy to both human parties and the Zoroark, provided a Ghost could receive Psychic signals. He knew Dark-types usually couldn't, but Ghosts were probably pretty hit or miss, if he had to guess.
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A WILD LOUDRED showed up just then, stomping into view out of the tall grass with an uproarious cry. Tungsten fixed it with their single red eye and waited for the inevitable command: "Tungsten, Tackle it."[break][break]

The Loudred looked alarmed as Tungsten lunged at it, and it tried and failed to move out of the way of the blue metal creature, and was struck in the face, which was admittedly most of its body too. The strike looked like it hurt, and the Loudred made a louder cry and retaliated with an Echoed Voice, knocking the Beldum back a few feet. Tungsten was able to regain control and hover where they wanted again before another Tackle command was given, and Tungsten relentlessly did so, crashing into the wild Pokemon recklessly.[break][break]

The Loudred cried actual tears with its next cry, and it turned its cry into another Echoed Voice, so loud that Lusia backed a few steps away and covered their ears. Tungsten didn't wait for another command, just flew at the Loudred once more, striking it critically hard and causing it to flee.[break][break]

Before the wild Pokemon was fully out of sight, a bright light enveloped Tungsten, glowing white all over until they nearly appeared to be just a huge round white space floating in the air. When the light dimmed, the Tungsten that floated there was significantly different, with a disc-like body and two clawed arms and even two eyes peering out of their face instead of just one. The Beldum had evolved into a Metang.[break][break]

"Oh. According to my calculations, you shouldn't have evolved quite yet, that's quite interesting." Lusia already had their nose in their tablet, looking into their research on Beldum and Tungsten in particular. "That's spectacular. Good going, Tungsten."[break][break]

If a metal disc creature with spikes along its midsection could look happy, Tungsten did a pretty bang-up job of it. Tungsten did good?

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LUSIA and their Gardevoir stood waiting in Fallarbor Town. They had shown up early, but it was for good cause; the League had asked Lusia for assistance in stopping a hidden laboratory in Fallarbor from doing awful experiments on living Pokemon. The conditions were horrible and the methods were violent and wholly unnecessary; Lusia knew personally that Pokemon were living, thinking, breathing beings that deserved care and dignity, and there was no excuse for mistreating them, even in the name of science or discovery. They felt so strongly about this that they showed up a full hour before the appointed time to meet with their assigned partner.[break][break]

Even Odysseus thought this was overkill. His annoyance came off of him in waves, occasionally striking Lusia's mind with a slight tremor, slowly giving the scientist a mild headache. This is stupid. I know you want to help, but we shouldn't just have to stand here for an hour.[break][break]

Lusia frowned, glaring at their Pokemon. "If my partner gets here early, I want to be here to help the moment they arrive. The sooner we help those poor Pokemon, the better, you know that." It wasn't that Odysseus didn't care, or was too lazy to stand, it's just that he hated wasting time. He thought this time would be better used to prepare, while the time that Lusia had previously used to prepare could have been used for a meal or some rest, but no, they were just standing here looking like fools instead. Another wave of annoyance struck Lusia, who was a bit more sensitive to it than most due to knowing Odysseus since he was just a Ralts.[break][break]

"Look: if the partner doesn't show up soon, we can go.. I don't know, grab a snack or something, and come back before the given time. But you know, this is.. it's important to you too, or it should be." Lusia didn't show much of it on his face but he was supremely irritated by Odysseus's obstinance in this regard. After all, Odysseus himself was a Pokemon too, and wouldn't he want to be saved from an awful lab like this as soon as possible?

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IT TOOK some time, a few days' work, but Lusia's Beldum finally seemed to be getting the hang of battling. It helped that the wild Pokemon encounters between that first wild Dusknoir and now, on Route 116, were able to be hit by Normal-type attacks, since that's all Tungsten could use until he learned something else. [break][break]

Today's training would, hopefully, push Tungsten to the next level so that he could stand alone all the time; Odysseus had needed to step in a few times to help keep the Steel-type from being knocked out on previous days, but hopefully beyond today they'd be able to handle things on their own all the time. Odysseus didn't mind, the Gardevoir didn't mind much of anything really as long as Lusia was good, and Lusia had done their best not to push Tungsten too hard again. [break][break]

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LUSIA thought it might be nice to stay a bit longer, even with Tungsten's unfortunate status, just to take in the fresh mountain air. They didn't always get out as often as they probably should, and they were probably in need of some sun and fresh air. A chilly breeze blew past as though encouraging this attitude.[break][break]

Shall we go back? You didn't bring any Revives, so Tungsten will be out cold until we get back into town. Odysseus didn't seem much concerned, just stating a fact. "Soon, yes. Not quite yet, though. It's peaceful out."[break][break]

Indeed, the mountainside was near silent, save the wooshing of the breeze through the grasses and an occasional distant bird call. Anyone else might have been spooked by the quiet, but Lusia quite liked it this way. The brand new tablet they picked up from Lilycove just a day prior came out of Lusia's crossbody bag as they entered a bit of information about the encounter that had just occurred; recording the weather, time of day, day of the week, and a few other minute details that others may have overlooked. They weren't writing a whole new Pokedex, however they did like to keep meticulous track of anything they could pertaining to Pokemon, between habits and unusual behavior and things like that. They noted how unusual it was to see a Ghost-type of any variety during the day, and how it was even more unusual to find something as rare as a Dusknoir without looking out especially for something like it. [break][break]

Though Lusia didn't believe in luck, as a rule, it was quite an anomaly to run into a Pokemon that was both on the rare side of things and also out during a strange time of day. They wondered if it might be the cooling weather, musing about different facts and scrolling back through other entries where they'd recorded encounters with Ghosts, when suddenly from the corner of their eye, they saw a Pokemon hovering nearby.[break][break]

"Oh.. You nearly frightened me. A Lunatone, are you?" The rock Pokemon didn't look aggressive, and Odysseus didn't seem to sense any ill intent, so Lusia was fairly calm, though his skin had jumped a little at the sudden appearance of the Pokemon. The Pokemon, indeed a Lunatone, fixed Lusia with one of its bright red eyes and stared for a while, then blinked at them. It made a sound like a quiet, gravelly howl and moved closer, as if trying to see the tablet screen.[break][break]

Lusia was already putting in the entry for meeting this wild Lunatone, noting that it seemed curious as it stared unblinking at the screen. It blinked a few times and rocked itself forward and back on its curve, almost in a dancing motion. Lusia noted this as well, smiling despite themself.[break][break]

"You're a curious sort. Would you care to accompany us?" Lusia had never dreamed of simply asking a Pokemon to join them, and yet here they were, just hoping that the Pokemon might say yes. Or, what approximated to a yes in a unique Lunatone way, at least. After what felt like quite a long moment, but was only seconds, the Lunatone bobbed up and down with a smile in its eyes, and Lusia tapped it with a Poke Ball to add it to their team.[break][break]

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"WELL? Go on, Tungsten, give a battle a try." [break][break]

Tungsten turned their body towards the movement and floated in that direction, almost seeming hesitant despite showing no emotion on their eye or body, and the flicker of movement manifested into a bright red eye, then two more yellow ones with a large, jagged mouth. The being in the shadows revealed itself to be a Dusknoir, a fairly rare thing to see in the wild, or so Lusia was led to believe. They were convinced that the Pokedex was more than a little off in some of its descriptions, but that was neither here nor there right now.[break][break]

Tungsten floated in front of the Dusknoir, who hadn't moved, staring straight down at the metal Pokemon with no emotion on its face. The Beldum moved forward just a little more.[break][break]

Somewhat impatiently, Lusia spoke up again. "Tungsten, you have one attack. Try using it."[break][break]

Dusknoir waited patiently, and its patience was rewarded by a solid Tackle attack going straight through its body and smacking into a stone wall instead. A small dent crumbled away, a chunk of a mountain weathered away by a useless attack.[break][break]

Now that the Beldum had finally made a move, Dusknoir gave a low, echoing growl as it charged up a shadowy energy around its fist, and it turned to swing the fist at Tungsten. The Beldum didn't have time to react, and was knocked away, slamming into the mountainside harder than the previous Tackle. They sunk to the ground, defeated by a single Payback attack.[break][break]

"Ah.. Perhaps that was too strong for you to start with, Tungsten. My apologies." The trainer returned Tungsten to their Poke Ball with a resigned sigh. "Ah well. Odysseus? What do you think?"[break][break]

I think we may have pushed them too hard in this case, and we should go somewhere with Pokemon Tungsten can actually hit next time. As the voice reached Lusia telepathically, Odysseus stepped forward to take Tungsten's place in the battle, starting off by using Calm Mind, glowing a pale pink color and raising his Special Attack and Defense. The wild Ghost-type used Foresight, trying to keep the Psychic- and Fairy-type from dodging its attacks easily. Odysseus followed up by raising his arms and gathering bright pink energy into a ball, then launching it at the wild Dusknoir in a powerful Moon Blast attack. [break][break]

Though this didn't knock the Dusknoir out cold, it did look a little frightened and decided to flee, leaving Odysseus and Lusia alone again on the mountainside.[break][break]

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TODAY was a lovely day for a walk, and Lusia with their Gardevoir and Beldum in tow felt like taking a stroll through Mt. Pyre to look for a bit of training for Tungsten the Beldum. The poor thing wouldn't learn any new attacks but Tackle until they evolved, and though Lusia wasn't very into the trainer thing, it wouldn't do to rely on Odysseus alone to deal with every possible threat or battle that arose.[break][break]

"Ghost-type Pokemon won't be the best to encounter for fighting, I suppose, but it would help you develop your Tackling ability even if it never actually connects." Lusia's matter-of-fact monotone voice echoed in the empty tiled lobby as the trio approached the cavern-like tunnel to the outside of the mountain. Tungsten blinked their singular bright red eye at Lusia, but made no movement to betray any thought or feeling.[break][break]

Lusia liked to think that the metal Pokemon could understand perfectly well, but suspected otherwise. Odysseus seemed to have trouble reading Tungsten's mind due to some circumstance or other; it was possible that the metallic body neutralized his power due to Odysseus's Fairy half having a rough time with Steel-types, or it could be that the Psychic-type they shared made it difficult to read one another, or it could be that Tungsten was consciously blocking Odysseus's telepathy and chose not to respond in kind. None of them were quite sure, least of all Tungsten.[break][break]

I think I hear something over there, Lusia. Regardless of metal body, Odysseus gave the other Psychic-type a gentle shove with his telekinesis in the direction of the sound, encouraging them to ready themself for battle.[break]

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LUSIA and their Gardevoir chose the wrong day to peruse the Lilycove Department Store for a new field research tablet, unfortunately. The previous model was several years out of date, and despite Lusia's constant attention to detailed cleaning and protecting the tablet from the elements, it appeared to be grimy, scratched, and it wore a case with a significant chunk knocked out of it on one of the corners, rendering it near useless unless one held it in place.[break][break]

Around the human and Gardevoir, a normal assortment of people shopping for electronics bustled about. It seemed to be a slightly busier day than usual, perhaps due to some sort of sale? but the other people were your usual assortment of young and old and in between, with people that looked like they knew more than the underpaid retail workers about their products to people that looked like they couldn't pick a computer out of a lineup of square rocks.[break][break]

As Lusia browsed the array of tablets with Odysseus, where either of them might pick up a model, take a look at the specifications on the back of the device box, and put it back. "Hm.. I believe I am between either this model here, with the larger screen and optional keyboard, and this Samsung-"[break][break]

Mid-sentence, Lusia was interrupted by a strange event; the tablet in front of them suddenly made a sound like a quiet 'zap!', then sprouted bright lightning bolt-like arms and displayed a closed eyed face. The eyes on the face opened, then the mouth gave a toothy grin, then the tablet began to float away from the display stand, tugging the alarm wire and power supply free as it flew up into the air.[break][break]

All around them, chaos erupted as, presumably, similar things happened to the other electronic items and people shopping. Screams, shouts, electrical sounds, and shattering noises flew through the air as Lusia surveyed the area, unable to prevent their jaw from dropping and their eyes open wide in alarm.[break][break]

"Well.. it looks like today was an awful day for this." Lusia looked to Odysseus, who was warily watching the creature possessing the tablet. Quite.. I doubt the shop keepers would appreciate my fighting in these close quarters, however. Any ideas?[break][break]

Lusia sighed as they resigned themself to the only other solution that came to them; attempt to capture at least one of the errant Pokemon tearing the shop apart and terrorizing the shoppers. They chose the tablet creature as a target, then lobbed a Poke Ball in that direction, hoping for an easy capture so they could perhaps flee and actually purchase one of the items at some point today.

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