"Oh hoop! Yggy's found an old lady who lost her Stufful!" Big Bee told Rian the Thwackey.

"So what? They're just Stufful?"

"So what!? They're little guys all lost in the woods! How would you feel if you were out there in tall grass, not knowing how to get home?"

"I'd love that. I was born in the forest and I've spent the last year in and out of a Pokeball."

"Oh. Well in that case you can come with me! We're heading to the forest. You're going to love it."

Rian sighed, but Big Bee was already typing out a reply message in the Global Chat.

Big Bee said:

Hey Yggy! I'm omw to Route 1 to help you with the old lady and her Stufful! Be there in 18 minutes lmao!

Message sent, Big Bee headed off on foot with Rian in tow.

Less than 19 minutes later they arrived at the house, and Bee quickly got the lowdown from his friend and the old woman. "Into the woods? That way? Okay I'm on it! Come on Rian!" He bolted off into the overgrown woods and Rian leapt up into the branches, scouting ahead with simian agility.

"I see something up ahead!" called the drumkey (drummer monkey). "Looks kinda like a Stufful!"

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Big Bee ran to where Rian was pointing, and sure enough there was a tiny pink bundle of stuffing just sitting there looking up at a tree. "Don't worry little guy," Big Bee said, picking up the Stufful, "we'll get you back home to your mom."

He turned the Pokemon around to wipe it's tearful face, only to see that it had no face at all.

"Ah! What the FUCK! It's got no eyehoops!" he screeched, dropping the Stufful. It split at the seams, leaking black ichor that crawled across the grass like spilled ants. "Jesus! Get this thing away from me!" Big Bee yelled, stumbling backwards.

Rian swung in on a vine and BOOTED the Stufful away from him.

It smacked into a tree like a bag of soup hitting a telephone pole and tumbled silently into the long grass.

Big Bee shivered. "Terrifying. Do you think they all look like that?" Big Bee was happy to help his lil sis look for a lost cat here and there, but he drew the line at faceless horrors. "Ugh...let's head back in fifteen and just say we couldn't find any."

Truth be told, Kazuki should be staying the fuck away from civilization at this point. And also areas with wild spawns. And other players. Everything.

But he’s in Birchwild Grove instead, during an hour when most players who suit the server’s timezone are actually awake. The spawns are thriving too, but he’s paying so little attention that the pink thing that had approached him could’ve been anything from a Jigglypuff to a football-sized gum. He thinks he hears it wander off somewhere, possibly to horrify an unfortunate, but he’s too busy. So busy that he doesn’t even notice the ping from Global Chat calling people to action.

He’s sitting on a log right now, pondering his orb.

The orb, which is actually some kind of strange black egg he had received from Mother Caterpie after his Buizel tried eating a raw Big Bird a few days back. The thing’s shell bears dim tessellations, taunting him, because he’s only ever hatched two eggs in the months he’s played UNOVR and this one demands the whole nine yards in terms of treatment. Even after skimming the guidebook, Kazuki is still not quite sure what the fuck he’s doing.

Hence, the mulch.

At least it looks comfortable. The log he’s sitting on has turned into a petrified park bench, but you can’t kill what’s already dead, so the mulch is fine, cradling the egg in its woodchippy grasp like a floor nest. “You better enjoy this,” he mumbles, staring at it. “Far as I know, pokemon don’t shit, so this is the best compost you can ask for.”

The egg does not respond, perhaps out of disappointment. A cow pie would be quite a treat for a worm.

There’s a shuffle of bushes nearby, and Kazuki clicks his tongue, setting his fist on fire to deter whatever intends to disturb the mulch spa day.

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What pops out is a football-sized wad of gum. Kazuki’s hand lowers, brows rising as it slowly rolls to his feet. He reaches down to grab it, only for the ball of pink to expand.

Its insides have no depth, or perhaps has infinite depth. It is pitch fucking black, and even under the bright sun, Kazuki sees nothing inside it save for the glint of a hundred small teeth lining its rim, like the mouth of a leech. His hand overshoots the rim for only a second before the entire thing clamps around his arm.

A resounding GET OFF causes birds in nearby trees to fly.

The egg continues to chill, baring no reaction as the giant moron in the background struggles to rip off the thing from his arm as if he’d stuck his hand in a carnivorous Pringles can.

Okay, so, she'd been doing a bad job of keeping an eye on her dad as of late. To be fair, she was trying to get back into classes, and... at first things had seemed fine. But as of late, her dad had been almost obsessive and stressed about it, so-

Here she was.

Red Vel stretched as he stood in the grass, looking around. There'd been a message about lost pokemon, so he figured if the old man would be anywhere... it'd be here. But there was no sign of him, or the missing stufful. Which... sure. Things couldn’t be that simple, right?

He moved under the canopies, Ghost Pepper eagerly waddling at his side. Her eyes were bright, and on Stufful Watch. Something flicked in the grass, and Red Vel thought he saw a flicker of pink. "Hold up," He murmured, crouching and slowly easing into the grass.

It had to be a stufful, right? Slowly, Red Vel moved to pick it up.

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The stufful kicked as they were picked up, squeaking. "Hey- hey, you're alright." He soothed, petting its little face until the pokemon calmed down. Poor thing...

『Red Velvet』 said:

got one

『Red Velvet』 said:

heading to the shrine too ig

Typically, Rhaenyra wasn’t a social creature. Both in game, and out of game. Expect, when work or being forced to go to social occasions called for it. Yet for some reason, the wolf hybrid found herself peaking at the unovr global chat every now and again. After all, one could never know if one day something useful might be said.

Surprisingly enough, a player by the name of Yggy Br00ks asked for assistance in finding some lost stuffuls. Already, many other players online have answered the call and as select few already found a few. Rhaenyra took a moment to think about it, unsure of what she was going to do in the game today. Guess, this would give her something to do.

Sighing to herself, she typed the message in the global chat…

Wolf said:

Sure sure.

Enter. It was off to route 1.

It didn’t take her long to get there and soon, the hybrid and her Braixen were out searching for these run away Stuffuls. “Keep an eyes out for pink bear with brown legs,” the woman mumbled to her canine companion, moving through the thick forest slowly to be sure they check every little hiding spot, “Oh and if you see a place that looks like one could fit in, check it. They could be hiding as well.” “Right,” the second stage starter replied, spotting a hollowed out hole in a tree trunk, “I’ll look in here.”

The braixen shoved her whole face into the hole, gaze swept the old den of a pokemon before she pulled her head back out. “Nothing here,” she shouted back to her trainer, scurrying to catch back up with her. Rhaenyra hummed in deep thought, pale golden orbs shifted over the area. “If I was a sneaky little stufful, where would I hide?” She mumbled to herself, brain storming ideas of an ideal hiding spot in the woods.

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Just as she spoke, the wolf woman noticed a large bundle of dried leaves at the base of a tree up the path. Her brows scrunched, eyes narrowed at the suspicious looking den. It seemed to obvious. It was in plain sight, clearing build by a pokemon with a small dark hole in the center for critters to go in and out off. Even the dirt before the entrance way, scratched up and worn down. This had to be a trap or something. The woman hasn’t played to many games other than pokemon, but this felt like the classic trap. However, it didn’t hurt to check.

“Izumi,” the woman spoke up in her normal mumbly tone, the fire fox turned to face her trainer after she checked behind a near by tree, “Look at that up there. Seems strange, right?” A hand rose, long pointed nail pointed in the direction of said den. “It feels like a trap, right?” The braixen rushed to her side, peering at the hole. Her long ears straightened, moving towards the den as she spoke. “I doubt it. Besides, who would lay a trap out here?” “Be careful,” the woman warned, rushing to follow after her pokemon.

The standing fox stopped in front of the hole at the base of the tree, shifting to get down on her kneels to look into the den. Rhaenyra stood by her side, arms folded over her chest with a skeptical expression. And as the fox lean into the hole to force her face in there, a loud hiss erupted from the darkness of the den.

The hiss startled both the player and pokemon. But while the player simply took a step back, the angry hiss frightened the braixen enough to force her to stumble back and land on her rear end. Her eyes widen, scrambling to get some distance between her and whatever was mad at her. A set of dark red glowing eyes glared at them, still hissing loudly and very aggressively at them. “Back up Izumi,” the woman called out, sensing that whatever it was, was about to spring, “Quick!”

Izumi shuffled back faster, only for something to spring out at them. The bosky tailed creature growl and hissed at them, mouth opened wide to bite down on the fire fox with its buck teeth. “Psybeam!” The braixen didn’t think, only acted. Her mouth parted, pink and blue sparkles of energy gathered within seconds. A sphere formed, firing a beam at the attacking creature that was just inches from biting her face. The Psybeam blasted the wild pokemon back several paces, disappearing behind some thick bushes before it crash landed.

“Get up Izumi,” the woman growled darkly, glaring at where the pokemon vanished too, “It might come back.” The braixen did so, quickly getting to her paws, plucking her stick out of her fluffy tail and taking a fighting stance. She snarled, lips lifted to bare her own set of pearly whites. However, several minutes passed with no sign of the creature coming back. The pair kept on their guard, watching and waiting.

But after a few more minutes, it was Rhaenyra who let out a breath of relief. “I think it’s gone.” “What was that?” “It looked to be a skwovet but…” the woman paused, looking almost confused by her own words, “something was different about it.” “Different. How?” The wolf woman took a moment to think, trying to think of the right word for phase. But, she couldn’t find it. “I don’t know. Not normal.” “Oh…” The braixen mused, putting her stick back in her tail. “It seemed really aggressive towards us.” “Exactly. Too aggressive.”

Silence filled the air between them, pale golden orbs watched their surrounds for a moment. And in that moment of silence, Rhaenyra still tried to think of an explanation for its erotic behavior. However, the silvery grey haired player gave up and shrugged her shoulders. “Let’s keep looking for the stufful. But, keep an eyes out. Who knows if we will run into that or another one again.” “Right.”

Genesis wasn't the most social of players, sure, but they still monitored the global chat now and then, though they lurked a lot more than they actually posted.

Missing Stufful, someone said? Not the most exciting quest prompt, perhaps, but promising enough just the same, and a good excuse to explore the area and do some training, if nothing else. Not like Genesis had had any more pressing plans for how to spend their time in-game today. This would certainly do the trick.

Getting to Route 1 didn't take long at all... but then, Genesis had to figure out where to search. Birchwild was practically teeming with hiding places for small Pokemon, and it was hard to know where to start... especially when they were far from the first user to respond to the chat message, so any Stufful in the more obvious locations had probably been found already. But were the remaining ones hiding up in trees, or inside of bushes, or...?

Genesis ended up alternating between glancing up at the tree branches looking for a telltale splotch of pink, squinting at bushes to see if anything was hiding within them, and kicking any leaf piles they passed by until they were well and truly demolished.

Though when one of the leaf piles started shaking right as their foot collided with the outermost leaves, Genesis realized that perhaps that last part of the plan could have been thought out a bit more...

There was only a split second of shaking before Genesis' foot collided with something soft but solid and a pink blur ran out of the leaves and darted into the nearest bush.

"You alright?" Stupid question, really. They just kicked the Stufful. While it was trying to hide, no less. Of course it wasn't alright.

Genesis cradled their head in their hands for a moment, bemoaning their own recklessness, before crouching down next to the bush where the Stufful had retreated to, making sure their voice was softer than before.

"I'm sorry about that. Really. I wasn't thinking, I didn't mean to hurt you."

The Stufful kept shaking, its movement energetic enough that a few leaves fell off of the bush it was hiding in and onto the ground below.

"Your owner's concerned about you, though. She wants to make sure you're safe. I was just trying to find you for her sake. Don't you want to go see her again?"

The Stufful's shaking subsided a bit, but it still stared back at Genesis with wary eyes.

"How about I take you back so she stops worrying about where you've been, hmm?"

The Stufful kept staring at Genesis with those wide, scared eyes... and Genesis thrust their hands into the bush, grabbing the Stufful (man, that fur was soft) and keeping a tight grip on the Pokemon even as it squirmed, unamused and trying to escape their grasp by any means possible.

"Weren't expecting me to make a move that fast, were ya? Now, let's go get you home, little guy..."

Genesis said:

Found one! Though it's, uh, not exactly a happy camper at the moment.