Sifted Through the Tide

//been 4 years. might post here. thinking about posting on my side blog, @ofthesunne​ tho. 

She let out a noise that definitely didn’t sound like a squeak as the judge spoke to her. “I..ah, I’m, y’know.” Henrietta stammered, hands fiddling with the hem of her shirt. Cotton meanwhile, giggled.

Henrietta sighed, and then nodded. “I…where’s the rooms the contestants are staying in?” she asked, still worrying the hem of her shirt.

“First,” he started, looking around the contest hall. “You’d leave this building, then turn right, then walk down the street to the hotel. We’ve rented out a selection of rooms on the third floor; the staff there will provide you with a key if you tell them your name.”

He bowed toward her.

“The Winter Solstice Festival is coming up! Grab your flyers here!” Why was he out here passing out flyers...?

Oh, right.

“Discrimination!”  Someone call the candy police!

“Oh.  Hehe, yeah, a Vulpix wouldn’t stand out.  I’d go with your Sandile, honestly.  Or even your Litleo if you’d like to play it safer.  If you can pull off a performance with a Sandile, that’s gonna be impressive.  But using a Litleo would be safer just on the moves you can use maybe.  I guess you gotta factor in acting ability.”

“Cute definitely has the most non-move based acting in it.”

Antares was adorable, regardless of whether or not Sayuri’s suggestion was also a soft-spoken neg. 

They were all adorable. That was the problem.

“When it comes to acting cute, Celeste takes the cake,” he mused, flipping to a picture of the Poochyena on her tippy toes, pawing at the photographer’s leg. “I don’t normally see Poochies in Cute contests, either, which-- Look at these precious babies?”

Vulpix, also known as one of the most common entrants in the Cute sphere, next to all the small, pink Pokémon of the world. He couldn’t use Inari anyway. The fox had a moveset that translated better to Cool, and nobody doubted he knew Cool.

This affects the blogs @sunnysojourn, this blog, @hohoholdup, and whatever else I can get to if I feel like it.

[But do YOU want this exposure therapy? I don’t wanna force you into anything you’re uncomfortable with.] She looked back to Anita, and couldn’t help cooing at the Carvanha baby pictures.

“I mean, I see what you’re trying to do, and I get it…I just…the thing is if it backfires horribly, it’ll undo all the progress you already made, y’know? But if you’re still serious…I gotta be the neutral third party and have you work it out with him. If he says yes, sure, we can go.” And honestly, she didn’t mind either way. 

“Nothin’ ventured, nothin’ gained.” The idiom hung there for a few moments, then she followed it with:

“For this to work, it’s gotta be a place that’s got no Milotic in it. It’s terrifyin’ to leave the aura of somethin’ that’s forcibly kept you calm when you knew you had t’be scared.”

‘Yes’ was the wrong answer. For all the good that came of it, for every time he could look at a shark and think of it as a non-threatening presence-- a friend of a friend, so to speak-- there was still... The problem of Milotic.

The absolute worst fish in the ocean.

‘No’ was the wrong answer. For all he wanted human space to expand, he changed his tune by a few notes as of late-- Dome cities under the water was one of his more recent ideas in that thought experiment, but what good would those be if he wouldn’t be able to look out a window?

“Oh, no, the labwork is easy, it’s, ah…” She glanced at Pisces. “I don’t suppose you need to go potty anytime soon, huh…” Okay, focus on that bloodwork - yeah, yeah, nothing out of the ordinary. 

“For twelve, that’s impressive, but he IS battle stock. Those either burn out quick or keep going for ages.” Just like human athletes, she mused. “What I AM unable to do here…” She went digging, asking Noir to deliver the required objects into the bag. “Well, I mean, I could, actually…” She pulled out two sets of salinity tests and ph test strips, handing one set to her friend. “Just as a refresher, because Vaporeon turn into water, they’ve got, like…a range of healthy and unhealthy salinity and PH levels of the water they fuse with. I could do the test now and see the results, but, like…I have no other numbers to compare them to - I’m gonna need you to test the pool or tank or other water container he likes to hang out in - the proper range has individual variations, but because they absorb the water they’re in - and I trust you to know, that if not in a pokeball, they need to be kept moist to begin with - any discrepancies between the salinity and water condition of the Vaporeon and the water condition of the pool is an easy way to detect things early. They’re like cat ‘mons, they don’t like to show illness until it’s progressed really far.” 

This was one of the few ‘mons she had less reservations about with the Refreshers - it was a nice way to get a base, proper water condition number and then work from there, assuming the Vaporeon wasn’t too sick or injured to begin with. “Ah, testing these things can get a little…uncomfortable, though.  And his two options for temperature taking is either in conjunction with the ph and salinity tests, or the mammal way, which…is…” Pisces, she’s sorry, but there’s no way to make this comfortable. “But right now he’s in really good shape, so if you want, I can just show you how to do the water condition tests and then next time you can show me what your pool slash other container numbers are and we can see if it matches? Water is not organic, so I can’t really…do those types of tests - I can tell if things are wrong - Pisces is fine - but some things I do still need hard data for.” 

And... while he knew all of that to be true, there was just one little thing in the way there. “That’s... going to be a problem,” Shin started, petting his little water golem. “I don’t have access to the pool in whatever Caring Sun facility my parents have been living in. At the same time, mother has a PhD in marine biology. She’d know the right levels.”

For all he didn’t trust her with, he didn’t count Pokémon safety among that list.

“Sure thing! Come here, Zosma!” Elijah reached out to gently take the cub, taking care not to touch the other in the process. With an affectionate nuzzle to the kitten, he sat down with the Litleo on his lap. A grooming kit was unrolled, and a pair of clippers withdrawn. They weren’t silver like most, but had a much less intimidating rainbow sheen.

“Are you ready, Zosma?” His attention turned to the trainer. “Have you done this before? Any good or bad experiences?”

Rainbow. Well... sure, whatever. Rainbow was cute enough for a little baby lion. The Litleo let out a little gao noise, to answer the the groomer-- presumably. Whether or not Pokemon spoke a comprehensible language was not the question of the day.

Shin kept stirring his coffee and marveled at how fanfiction-y this all sounded. He needed to stop reading those. “No problem.” The two nonchalant words deflated the puffed-up young lady in an instant. As if he was supposed to fight this, just because Cute was a horrible guilty pleasure he didn’t like people knowing about. Please.

Sayuri took the CD, happily tucking it away to listen to at home.  “I’ve watched a few Cutes live.  They’re all very subdued in comparison.” No beat drops or heart pumping choreography.  Yes, the clothing was cute and the pokemon were adorable, but like the poise and grace of Beauty, Cute appeals just seemed so…not her style.

“I’ll see if any of these inspire me!  Do you want this back when I’m done?”

“Ah, no, this CD uses copies of digital files--” Shin could almost taste the sweat that dripped from his brow. “It’s fine if you keep it.”