ADVENT CALENDAR 2023

hollow's tracker

DAY 1: POKEBALL — 3X Pokeballs to oscar clayton
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Oscar jumped a little when a masked man addressed him by name. Oscar had not seen the man glide onto the rooftop, which made his sudden appearance rather shocking. The former beast would recover almost instantaneously, as this guy was either Shred Zeppelin or a freelance street vigilante. Either possibility was great in Oscar's book, but he chose to believe that this was Shred. His dreams of being a arch-nemesis to a masked hero would have to wait.

Oscar grinned, nodding as he took a pure red pokeball off of his belt. "That's me, and you must be Shred. Fuckin' delighted to meet you. I'd shake your hand but we got better things to do than follow bullshit social conventions." Oscar opened his pokeball to release Genesect Prime, his faithful sidekick. The cyborg jumped to attention, waving at Oscar and then to Shred. Oscar waved back before walking toward the stairway access door on the other side of the roof.

"Remind me what we could expect from security Prime." Prime trotted up to walk alongside its master, letting out a serious of melodic beeps in an attempt to communicate. The duo had been working together to form some sort of 'language' that would allow them to converse--unfortunately with mixed results. Oscar nodded when Genesect was finished. "Just as I thought, this is gonna be easy as pie. Practically a walk in the park." Genesect paused, as what its master claimed was the opposite of what it had tried to report. Oh well, maybe its master knew something it did not.

Oscar made it too the stairway access door and waited until Shred and Prime caught up. He folded his arms confidentially, "This is a pretty cut and dry job. Get in, go to the sixth floor, grab the generator core, get out. Simple and clean. Should take less than an hour. There's security but as long as we move carefully they shouldn't be a problem. Any questions? No? Awesome." Oscar turned and grabbed the doorknob, "Let's do this gang." He opened the door...

--One Hour Later--

Oscar awoke with a start, his head thumping like a metronome set to 125BPM. He swung his head in a panic, having no idea where he was or what was happening. His grogginess was forced into submission by the sound of an explosion, which caused him to spring upright with absolute clarity. He was in the backseat of a truck, looking down on the floor he would notice that they had successfully obtained the generator core. It was a heavy looking ring with several ridges along the sides, yet it had a sheen that exemplified its unique power.

Oscar leered at it for a second before another explosion pulled his attention. Oscar eyes darted to the rear view mirror. Through it he saw that Shred was the driver of this truck, and Genesect was sitting in the passenger seat. Every once in a while Genesect would let out a few beeps before sticking its head out of the window, firing off a series of Magnet Bombs. Were those the source of the explosions?

Oscar finally got the urge to look through the back window, and only now did he see how fucked they were. They were being pursued by an army of voltorb, rolling down the road like a red and white tidal wave. Genesect's magnet bombs would land in the center of their mob, causing a good number of them to Explode, but the spherical hoard would just dash through the smoke and keep up the chase. Oscar smacked his head as he tried to remember what happened. Unable to do so, he finally verbalized his confusion.

"What the fuck happened?"

Shred

Everyone got real serious real quick, and Oscar was a little taken aback. Bryan was no surprise, he was always serious. Howard though, Oscar could not believe how easily he shifted into a professional persona. It was impressive actually, and Oscar's dazzled shock would briefly delay his own shift as his turn came to speak.

Oscar cleared his throat as he tried to focus, shaking his head to throw off his daze as he laced his fingers and leaned forward. "We're trying to establish a permanent research center within ultra space, and believe it or not the Ultra Dessert is the ideal location to do so. This is due to one fact alone that puts the desert above all other ultra space realms: top soil. It is our understanding that beneath the desert's sand is an enormous amount of hidden soil that would be ideal for farming. If we can establish a food source, we have an actual chance to claim the desert for Rocket."

Oscar leaned back, scratching his chin as he revealed the catch. "Of course the soil is not enough. We will need a particular resource to help the food grow healthy and strong--at least for the first few generations. What we need from you is um--" Oscar paused before looking to Howard, hoping he could put their request in a more--digestible light.

bryan delarosa howard slayte

FATHER WINTER THE 2ND
NORTH POLE H0H 0H0
HOENN

Dear Father Winter II,

When I last encountered your predecessor, I was a fractured and dying man. I could have asked for a cure to my horrible disease, but for some reason it never occurred to me. I thought a lot about why, and only after I managed to recover did I come up with an answer. I think I asked for purpose, all those years ago, because I wanted a reason to get better. Fuckin' depressing I know, but I was in a tight spot at the time and could not see another way out of it. But that Wintertide gift, fuck that was the kick in the ass I needed.

Now here I am, finally about to capitalize on the purpose that was given to me. Honestly, I should hate your fuckin' guts. You're undoubtedly a member of the Dark Triad or whatever the fuck, so writing to you might just be a trap. However, I can't help but admire you. You got it figured out, you and the rest of your Triad friends. What do I mean by it? You know, everything. You especially though, you heard my dumb ass request and gave me exactly what I needed. You did not have to do that, and I thank you for it. I wish I could offer something in return, but you probably got everything you need.

So what do I want for Wintertide this year? Well, I guess I want to get a glimpse into your bag of secrets. One day I hope I can have it all figured out too, but until then what I would want most is just a taste. Just a sampling of what it's like to be ahead of the curve, you know? Maybe then I'd be able to figure out how to pay you back.

As for these other questions, fuck I don't know. I guess for my past I'd like my adventure under Bill Anderson's church to have meant something. All I got was my claydol being turned into cloud monster that proceeded to latch onto my internal organs and make my life a living nightmare. Bill did not even stick around long enough to be yelled at. If all of that pain I went through actually mattered, I guess I wouldn't be so bitter about it.

As for my present, I dunno everything is just moving so slowly right now. I wish I had a way to jump forward just a bit, to boost my progress so I could really hit the ground running. I don't know what that looks like, but it's what I want.

Finally for my future, I am just hoping that I end up on top when all is said and done. I want to be able to look down upon the world, shattered or not, and be content that I made it to the finale in one piece. Because if I can have the last laugh, maybe then everything that I've done or will do will feel worth it.

Alright enough of this shit, you have better things to do than read my fuckin' journal thoughts. For what it's worth, I hope you have a good Wintertide this year. Don't work yourself too hard. Here's hoping that I don't have to kill you eventually, or vice versa.

Sincerely yours, Oscar Clayton
New Mauville Power Plant
Mauville, Hoenn

CROSSWORD

SPOILER: Click to show

Oscar finally returned to the mysterious tear on Mt. Pyre once he was satisfied with his research. Surprisingly, he did not bring any scientific equipment with him. Instead he brought a bag containing a a Oscilloscope, and a tuning fork. Alright so the oscilloscope may technically count as scientific equipment but in Oscar's head it was more of a music tool.

Oscar stared at the ripple, satisfied to at least see that it was still here. He wondered if today's experiment would yield any results, after all this was a bit of a stretch even for him. You see, having become convinced that the world of science and logic would do nothing to explain a seemingly magic phenomenon, Oscar resolved to turn to the world of the occult. He was not familiar nor comfortable with the realm of the supernatural, but if it would provide insight into this distortion then perhaps it shall be worth venturing outside of his comfort zone. After going through several aged tomes and new age spiritualism novels, Oscar was certain he had a way to figure out what this distortion really was.

Oscar turned on the oscilloscope and pulled the tuning fork from out of his bag. He first got a baseline frequency by smacking the fork on a nearby grave and attaching it to the oscilloscope. It was a high pitched tune, the standard vibration you would get from hitting a tuning fork against a solid surface. He then approached the ripple, his heartbeat quickening as he drew closer to the mysterious tear. After a moment of hesitation, Oscar would smack the tuning fork against the ripple.

As he predicted, the tuning fork hit the ripple as if it were a solid surface. The vibration it made was obscene, the pitch of the tune being so low that it almost sounded like a horn. Oscar quickly attached it to the oscilloscope, and the frequency it read was similarly bizarre. The little screen that displayed the frequency signal was going wild, with the transverse wave spiking at the edges of the signal graph. Usually a spiked frequency would create less cycles on the meter, but there were countless cycles filling the screen. This would make it difficult to measure, but Oscar would attempt to do so anyway.

First he began messing with the knobs on the oscilloscope to make the wave more manageable. He then took out a pure red pokeball and released Genesect Prime, who waved happily at his master. Oscar began hooking up the oscilloscope into Genesect's head ports--taking a brief pause to wave back. When it was all hooked up Oscar asked, "Hey can you translate this frequency into binary?" Genesect nodded, letting loose a melodic beeping that Oscar had come up with to allow Genesect to 'speak' in binary. Oscar waved his hands frantically, "Wait until I can jot it down, doofus."

Oscar got his phone out and Genesect would begin reciting the code. Oscar got it all down, up until Genesect began looping the message. "That's all. Let's get back to the office and see what we got." Oscar flew back to his office on Genesect's hoverboard form, his mind storming with what this code could possibly say. Was something trying to send a message to their world? Could this minor fascination bring about a much larger discovery? Oscar's excitement continued to build as he made it to his office, and he would hit his floor running as he jumped off of Genesect. Genesect watched its master, already knowing what the message said and having no idea what it was supposed to mean. Perhaps Oscar could figure it out.

Oscar typed the code into a binary translator on his computer:

SPOILER: Click to show

01000001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01101100 01101111 00101100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100100 01100101 01100101 01110000 00100000 01110110 01101111 01101001 01100011 01100101 01110011 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100001 01100010 01111001 01110011 01110011 00100000 01100011 01110010 01111001 00100000 01101111 01110101 01110100 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01100001 01100111 01101111 01101110 01101001 01111010 01100101 01100100 00100000 01100011 01101000 01101111 01110010 01110101 01110011 00101110 00100000 01001100 01100101 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 01101001 01110010 00100000 01110011 01101111 01101110 01100111 00100000 01100100 01110010 01101111 01110111 01101110 00100000 01101111 01110101 01110100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 01110010 00100000 01110010 01100001 01101110 01100011 01101111 01110010 01101111 01110101 01110011 00100000 01110011 01110100 01110010 01110101 01100111 01100111 01101100 01100101 01110011 00101110 00100000 01000010 01100101 01101000 01101111 01101100 01100100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100011 01101000 01101111 01101001 01110010 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100100 01100001 01101101 01101110 01100101 01100100 00101100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 01101001 01110010 00100000 01110010 01100001 01110110 01100101 01101110 01101111 01110101 01110011 00100000 01101101 01101111 01110101 01110100 01101000 01110011 00100000 01100010 01100101 01100111 01100111 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110010 00100000 01101110 01101111 01110101 01110010 01101001 01110011 01101000 01101101 01100101 01101110 01110100 00101110 00100000 01000011 01101111 01101101 01100101 00101100 00100000 01101100 01100101 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 01101101 00100000 01100110 01100101 01100101 01100100 00100000 01110101 01110000 01101111 01101110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100010 01101100 01101111 01101111 01100100 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01110100 01100001 01101001 01101110 01110100 01100101 01100100 00101110 00100000 01000011 01101111 01101101 01100101 00101100 00100000 01101100 01100101 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 01101101 00100000 01100110 01100101 01100101 01100100 00100000 01110101 01110000 01101111 01101110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100110 01101100 01100101 01110011 01101000 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01110000 01100101 01110010 01101001 01110011 01101000 01100101 01100100 00101110 00100000 01001100 01100101 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 01101101 00100000 01100110 01100101 01100001 01110011 01110100 00100000 01110011 01101111 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01110100 01101111 01101111 00100000 01100011 01100001 01101110 00100000 01110011 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 01101001 01110010 00100000 01110011 01101111 01101110 01100111 00101110

After a few suspenseful minutes, the translation would be revealed. What Oscar read was almost too insane to be real.

And lo, the deep voices of the abyss cry out in agonized chorus. Let their song drown out your rancorous struggles. Behold the choir of the damned, their ravenous mouths begging for nourishment. Come, let them feed upon the blood of the tainted. Come, let them feed upon the flesh of the perished. Let them feast so that you too can sing their song.

Oscar read the message several times, and after each cycle he felt more and more puzzled. Was this a prank? How could the frequency translate to--this nonsense. Oscar pondered over this revelation, not sure what to make of it. The only we he could proceed past this point was to take the message very literally. Yes, an offering must be given to the distortion. One of rancid flesh and tainted blood. The flesh part would be easy, but what the hell was tainted blood supposed to mean? Well--Oscar had tainted blood kinda. The DNA of that eldritch parasite could still be found in Oscar's bloodstream, perhaps it would suffice.

Oscar returned to the distortion once more, holding a knife in one hand and the rotting flesh offering wrapped in cloth in the other. He approached the distortion, feeling even more uneasy after reading its apparent message. Oscar put the encased offering down and carefully unwrapped it to reveal the head of a Buzzwole he had killed in a different dimension. He had hoped to revive the creature, but alas it was all but impossible. Hopefully this would finally give the morbid trophy purpose.

Oscar then took off one of his gloves and held his naked hand over the Buzzwole's head. His fingers were still blackened from the parasite's influence, which for once Oscar was thankful for. He cut his palm with the knife, allowing his blood to fall upon the head. Once he was satisfied, he pulled out some gauze and bandaged up his hand before hiding it back within his glove. He gently lifted the head and held it out to the rippling distortion.

Oscar slowly pushed it further and further, wincing as the Buzzwole's nose approached the distortion. The nose gently tapped the distortion's surface--and the head disappeared. Oscar blinked, at first thinking he had dropped it. However when he could not locate it, he knew for sure that it had disappeared into the tear. Oscar shivered a little. Nothing really felt different, and yet he could not help but feel as if something had changed. Perhaps he would just need to keep an eye out. Oscar stared into the distortion one last time, as if waiting for something else to occur. When nothing did, Oscar smirked. "Happy Thanksgiving I guess." He turned away to meet up with Genesect nearby and fly off to get on with his life.

--Having Genesect learn Shadow Sneak

Oscar's Power Spot project was in a tailspin. There was no denying it, his attempts to study Dyna Energy have mostly ended in abject failure. Dyna Energy was far more powerful than Oscar had anticipated, and his currently available machinery was unable to properly control the energy in its raw form. Thus the obvious solution was to expand his selection of available machinery.

Oscar sighed as the frigid night air tore right through him. Even with two layers of black espionage garb, Oscar's frail body could not escape the cold. Being on the roof level of a high rise office building did not help, with the wind being far more vicious at this height. Oscar persevered though, after all he would only have to wait a little while longer.

He was waiting for Rocket's newest Beast, Shred, to join him. The two were going to go on a little scavenger hunt within the office building. Oscar did not normally pay attention to the minor tech companies within Mauville, but once he had heard that an experimental generator core made for motors had shown a surprising amount of friction resilience--well Oscar just had to have it. If he could create a bigger model, it could lead to a breakthrough for Oscar's research!

With a former beast and a freshly minted beast working together, stealing this tech should be easier than taking candy from a paraplegic.

Another successful round. As Oscar returned to his workspace he struggled to not feel overconfident. He still had a long way to go, there was plenty of time for things to fall apart if he was not careful. Oscar took a good minute to consider his options, and in the end there was only one idea that stood out to him.

Oscar snapped his fingers, "I need the hibiscus tea mix." Boris nodded and grabbed the designated jar. Oscar prepped the tea to be brewed, and just as before Boris took the initiative to clean out the blender. When everything was ready, Oscar added the tea and a little bit of cream. Then he added the main ingredient: rose water. The rose was his favorite flower, so it made sense to utilize it for this floral tea.

After mixing the concoction together, Oscar prepped a cup with strawberry pearls. The tea was poured into the cup and Oscar would hurriedly transport it to the judge's table. He placed it before them and nodded stoically. "A rose water hibiscus tea with strawberry pearls. Consume."

63AaBL8o

The situation was not getting any better, with the ship sustaining damage to the hull and their antenna during the chaos. Oscar hung onto the wall to keep his balance, not wanting to twirl like a pinwheel from the impact of the meteorites. Lulu would request for Oscar to come along, and he would not hesitate to do so. He pushed off the wall and gave Temp and Kepler a thumbs up. "If I die out there, I just want you guys to know that you're awesome. Also don't touch my stuff, PEACE!"

Oscar followed Lulu to the spacesuits, suiting up before making his way to the airlock. He picked up an emergency tool kit along the way along with a heavy square of plated metal. They'll need both to salvage the ship. As the airlock chamber depressurized, Oscar provided a quip to hopefully lighten Lulu's spirits. "Is now a bad time to request a potty break?" Oscar chuckled and clapped his hands together. "Alright, last one out lock the door."

The airlock door opened, allowing Oscar and Lulu to bounce out into space. Oscar pulled himself up to the spaceship's surface, pressing a button on his belt to activate the suits magnetic boots. Now firmly attached to the ship, Oscar began marching his way toward the breach in the hull. Above him Genesect was assisting its fellow pokemon in fighting off the remaining Lunatone. Oscar flinched as a shattered Lunatone bounced against the ship, prompting Oscar to shoot a dirty look upward. Naturally none of the fighting pokemon were paying enough attention to catch it.

At the hull breach, Oscar squatted down and put the plated metal under his armpit. He cautiously opened the toolbox, revealing a variety of astro-tools perfected by Lulu herself. Oscar pulled out a suited up stick welder, and closed the box before handing it to Lulu. "I got the breach, you get the antenna!" Oscar immediately got to work; with his helmet acting as protection against the brightness of the welder, Oscar began trying to repair the breach.

Lulu Flint Tempest Quinn kepler brueshaber

Oscar appreciated Howard's encouragement, even cracking a smile at his receipt gaffe. Yet Oscar's anxiety was hard to ward off. Oscar was usually pretty good at this personable shit but Bryan was--different. He was like cold steel, absorbing Oscar's warm whimsy and expelling a chilling intimidation. It was like being friends with a loaded gun and not knowing if the gun will get bored with you and go off mid-sentence. This request? It might be too much nonsense for Bryan to tolerate.

Oscar ran out of time to be anxious though, as Bryan would soon arrive. Oscar closed his notebook, standing up to greet Bryan with an open-arm gesture. "Bryan! Hey man, you look great! Thanks for comin'!" Bryan's recollection of the tinkaton incident caused Oscar to chuckle nervously, "That was a hell of a night! I still have nightmares--HA!"

Oscar sat down as Bryan fumbled recognizing Howard; Oscar had a hard time telling if it was a power move or if Bryan was just being absent minded. "Ah yeah, Howard this is Beast Delarosa. Bryan, meet Admin Howard." Howard could take it from there.

howard slayte bryan delarosa

Oscar did not answer right away, instead taking a moment to organize his thoughts with the new information Zev had shared. Tera Crystals were like little parasites that popped up wherever there was energy. It was a huge pain in the ass, but they were usually easy to clear. Did the crystals themselves evolve to become more durable?

Oscar decided to put that train of thought on the shelf and finally provide a response. "I used Genesect Prime. Its claws could rip through steel, and they've cleared normal Tera Crystals in the past. This time they did not even leave a dent. It took Genesect terastallizing and utilizing a steel-type techno blast to remove the crystals--but the power spot itself was heavily damaged."

Oscar sighed, sliding his fingers through his hair before clapping them together. "So basically we gotta be strong enough to remove the crystals but not too strong as to damage the power spot. A complete fuckin' shit-show." Oscar paused to let Zev formulate a response, flinching as his hairs stood up on the back of his neck.

He looked behind him and saw something unexpected: an absol staring at them from atop the Sootopolis crater. Oscar raised an eyebrow, wondering what its deal was.

Zev Harcourt