[attr="class","dragomirpt"]

Seriously?
[break][break]
He could almost swear he had picked something else, but nooooo. He had to watch the avatar make the execution. What the fuck was wrong with these people? This was some cartoon edgelord villainy right here. But why didn't the avatar do what he typed down? That was when he noticed the meter above each choice with a percentage... Oh.
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Upon realizing that this did in fact work on majority rules, Josh shot the app a look which made it clear that this dad was disappointed in all of you.
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"Savages."
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Next scene came, and Josh was slowly realizing what this game was about. The next choice however, seemed frivolous. So commit murder and then go and get some entrees. This really was cartoon villainy. Amor Rose would get a kick out of this and think Rocket sounds stupid.
[break][break]
Right?
[break][break]
He was going to go with the Mimikyu one however. Edgy drink for a bunch of edgelords.
[break][break]

[attr="class","dragomirpt"]

Another meeting. After how much of a raging disaster the last one had been, Josh had considered giving this one a miss. Izumi was the Ranger Captain after all, surely she could handle this, right? He'd just hear how it went when she got home. Unfortunately, something went awry at Izumi's mother's restaurant... Which meant she then had to give the meeting a miss. Which now meant that not only did Josh have to attend, but also do so in Izumi's stead in representing Lavaridge.
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Shit.
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Well, he'd just have to bring something nice and maybe hope they could keep things cordial this time. He didn't know how many more awe-inspiring, wildly charismatic speeches he had left in him for this lifetime after last time. Josh had been quite busy lately, between the whole meteor business, its aftermath, and working at keeping his promise to ensure that the funding from the Rangers got their variant of the eyepieces made at an expert level of quality. It was a lot of work, and Josh was at the forefront of the latter instead of letting everyone else do it. If you wanted it to be done right, you did it yourself. So he was just a tad tired with all that put together, but he'd just have to suck it up and pretend he wasn't tired as could be.
[break][break]
So he put on a nice suit and got to it.
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"Ranger Josh Dragomir. Acting for Lavaridge Captain Izumi."
[break][break]
Introduced himself to security, then he was in. He'd brought some burgers, even grilled them himself! Unfortunately, someone had beaten him to it. Muttering a curse under his breath, he placed them next to the other burgers and hoped that people really enjoyed those. This time, everyone seemed far more somber. Considering the disaster of last time, he wasn't too surprised. Question is, what matter of calamity had called them in this time? Was it Puddles the Magic Tirtouga causing trouble again? Or maybe the Holy Cheese Wheel of Arceus? It definitely wasn't his inventions this time, Josh was still working on that.
[break][break]
He recognized Josh Devlin but once again the boy was as popular as ever. Probably best to leave him alone until later. He did however, shoot a wave to Elinor Anderson who he did recognize from a previous mission.
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He missed Thomas. He was always riveting conversation.
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[attr="class","dragomirpt"]

Here they were. The home stretch. This was it. He knew that most likely, Buddy had one more Agility left in him before the stamina they had saved up would begin to be spent. But it was that conservation and keeping them safe up until this point that Josh had been counting on. While he hadn't entirely planned it from scratch at the very start, it was an instinct of his to prioritize his Pokemon's safety, no matter what. But he began to realize as the race went on, odds were the final frontier would be something like this... That was when the plan had begun to come into place.
[break][break]
Now it was time to put that plan into action. Josh scratched behind Buddy's ears, the fire in his eyes roaring like the Flamethrower in the Arcanine's belly, and the fires in both their hearts. He didn't have a lot of hope for winning this race, but he knew that if he believed in Buddy, anything was possible. He could feel himself becoming fatigued as well, especially after the last obstacle. But he refused to give up. Buddy had been pushing so hard for them both, he had to hold on himself too! The veteran trainer was stubborn to a fault, even if that meant pushing himself to be as strong as his Pokemon were.
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"BUDDY, ONE LAST TIME!"
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The roar came out like a war cry as the Arcanine used Agility with the last of their conserved stamina to push them as far as humanly possible. This was all of their heart, their soul, all that their shared bond could muster... It was all for this moment.
[break][break]

@tag

[attr="class","dragomirpt"]

Appealing to their field of study seemed like the way to go, and was the one that most appealed to the fact he wasn't a sociopath. But this lady was far too cheerful given she was part of an assassin cult trying to kill people for bonding with a legendary Pokemon. Seriously, who does that? But then suddenly, a bike whizzed by, and then you were elsewhere. Could they do this for real, or was this just propaganda? And why is it so Misty?
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Apparently this was the "Inter Dream Zone". Or more likely, a hallucination derived from inhaling too much gas from Munna and Musharna. So they were assassins addicted to Munna toots. Fantastic. And she was all excited about the prospect of you going over the edge and ceasing to exist, too. So now she wanted you to imagine something. Let's see...
[break][break]
Something ancient sounded fun. Sure, futuristic did too, but ancient moreso. So Option 2 it is.
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[break][break]

@tag

[attr="class","dragomirpt"]

Please don't let this one be weird. Please don't let it be run by sociopaths trying to play propaganda machine for an assassination cult, or for Rocket. Please be something nice that his kids could play, Josh had to practically beg in his head as he switched to the next otome. But to his surprise, he found himself in... Lavaridge? At home? At the hot springs? Josh motioned for his wife Izumi Yamamura to come see this as he took a breath in relief while looking at the holographic display of Lavaridge. FINALLY someone with taste! He hoped. He had been burned once already.
[break][break]
Hey wasn't that the guy who was the groundskeeper he'd seen around Mt. Chimney? Well, this seemed nice. For once. Though the choices were... Well, some were less than platonic. Considering what he had learned of the savages that played these group minigames, he decided to go with Option 2 as his wife began to roar with laughter.
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@tag

[attr="class","dragomirpt"]

Josh had come here after hearing rumors of some kind of croc. What he had not expected to find however, was a Voltorb that looked extremely old and... Made of wood? To say he was confused was an understatement. Also the fact it was still a Voltorb was a concern. Usually these things were quite volatile... And explosive. Josh stepped carefully, not wanting to alarm it as he considered trying to catch it. At least, until he stepped on a branch and realized he was caught.
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To his surprise, the Voltorb jumped for joy and charged at him with glee. Josh was so taken aback by this that he wasn't able to stop the explosion.
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While Josh's trainers gear protected him from the worst of it, he was still picking himself off the ground when a Safari Ball rolled into the Voltorb's fainted form.
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@tag

[attr="class","dragomirpt"]

Not gonna lie, as interestingly addicting as these little phone games had been. That Rocket one had been pretty horrifying. And they let children play this? This had gone from a dad safety inspection to a dad caution-a-loopa. So needless to say, he was pretty skeptical about this next one. But it did look pretty cheerful! The picture on the front looked nice ,and they were going to meet at Cycling Road! That sounded pretty nice, maybe this otome was about a fun, relaxing bike riiiii-
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He was an assassin.
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Seriously?
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And then the choices. The second one just-
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Oh god.
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Oh god it was them. He remembered from Josh Devlin's report... If he still had a phone and wasn't playing this on his HoloWatch, Josh might have accidentally thrown it by now.
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"Zu, you need to see this shit" Josh called to his wife in the other room. But he did have to make a choice here. He didn't know if he'd actually learn anything about the organization from this, they wouldn't be dumb enough to hide classified information in here, would they? So he'd choose Choice Number 3 because he wasn't in fact a psychopath.
[break][break]
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@tag

[attr="class","dragomirpt"]

Josh had been busy as could be as of late. Between helping to stop the meteor and trying to deal with the aftermath effects, he had been balancing this with working on a new project. He had confessed to Amor what his mother had told him -- that it was time for her to test if he was a fit for his position or to even continue working with RaiCorp. If his heart was truly in it. How worried he was that he had been underperforming, and how much he wanted to make this happen. Not just for his mother, or for himself. Or to keep the job for his family. But because he truly believed that after all everyone had gone through, he wanted to make their lives just a little bit better in what way he could. He had the ability, he knew. He just needed to pull it off.
[break][break]
So being pulled from his busy schedule had been a surprise, but when Amor was involved, he would always make time. But this little expedition was strange. Where in the world were they going? He had only even heard of this place in Ranger reports. And Amor's intentions... What were they? His excuse was flimsy, he wanted help to investigate seals. But he gave no other details. Something was wrong here. And while he was not privy to Amor's current goal, there were things that Josh knew that Amor didn't know he knew.
[break][break]
"Amor."
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He'd stopped shortly after Amor had spoken up. This talk of the spirit world... He remembered the glimpse he'd caught at some files a few times he'd been at Amor's manor a long time ago to do with ancient Sinnoh legends, and he'd had his suspicions. But was this it? Was this to do with what he'd seen? He had his guesses. Amor had grieved for his family heavily for years now. Josh understood, he'd gone through the same with his own father. But what was his aim here?
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"Why are we here truly?"
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He let that question hang a moment as he studied Amor's expression at that. "You do know you're the closest thing I have to a brother, right? If something was wrong, would you tell me?"
[break][break]

Amor Rose

[attr="class","dragomirpt"]

"WhATever kInd OF intel dO yOU ThiNk YoU'LL fiND On THe siDewaLk? ceASE yOur NOnSeNsE aT onCe" mocked Josh in his head as he watched this shitshow play out. He was definitely not getting the good ending portrait, and to be frank he wasn't sure if he even wanted it. So he was guided to a scene where what appeared to be a Gym Leader was wrapped up, with claims that the Gym Leader had been rigging his battles. Considering this was Team Rocket, this seemed propaganda as shit. And then a series of disgusting choices were given. Even if they were correct about the Gym Leader, this was far from what should be done by anybody.
[break][break]
The choice was obvious.
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@tag

[attr="class","dragomirpt"]

Josh had heard that some new kinds of Pokemon had been discovered as having been seen in the Safari Zone area. While he had his fair share of occupations nowadays, that long-held curiosity as a Trainer had never quite gone away. That little spark of wonder at the idea of discovering a new Pokemon, or taking them home to raise and train. Sure, he had a ranch full of Pokemon by now. But that was the life of a Trainer. Raise, train, and learn. And as more Pokemon were discovered, that only meant more Pokemon for him to repeat this process with.
[break][break]
So it was that Josh took a deep breath as he plunged into the Safari Zone. Not as a VP or as a Ranger, but as a Trainer once more.
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@tag

[attr="class","dragomirpt"]

Wasn't this supposed to be a dating game? These strange sometimes platonic, sometimes-not sims that his kids had gotten into, had concerned Josh into checking them out. This, however, was not what he had been expecting. A city that he recognized from travels years ago as Celadon was now burning. He could hear shouts, and honestly he wasn't sure what to do at first... At least, until the Earthquake hit. When Josh's avatar came to, someone stood over him, calling him Grunt.
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That uniform was easy enough to recognize, and that was when he looked down at himself to see he was wearing the same thing. Josh emitted a low growl as he realized what this game entailed. Yeah no, his kids would definitely not be playing this.
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"I tripped" he muttered in unison as he picked the second option. Rocket wasn't getting anything more than sarcasm, even in a game.
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@tag

[attr="class","dragomirpt"]

A routine incident was marked by the discovery of a new Pokemon. Were those...
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PASTRY DOGGOS?
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Where had they been all of his life? Josh didn’t know. Josh wasn’t sure if he cared. But this new pokemon species was deliciously adorable and the softer side of him yearned to take one home. But that’s the thing about these swarms. Everyone wanted to take home a scrumptious puppy of their own. And there were only a few that would actually go to homes. He knew luck wasn’t on his side, but he was definitely going to try.
[break][break]
Needless to say. He needed to get that bread.
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@tag