[ti]megathread[/ti] PARK OF DOGS

Eddie stared down at the panting growlith, a goofy grin on his face as he squatted down.  "Well hello there buddy."  He purred, slipping from his character for a moment.  Carver, perched on his shoulder was mildly less impressed, both as a grass type AND a cat he was naturally disinclined to be buddy buddy with the new baby that had taken the spotlight from him.

"HELLO!"  The growlith barked, tongue drooping from his mouth.  "ARE YOU MY NEW FRIEND?"

"Twould seem so," Eddie replied coolly, lavishing some loving earscritches over the fluffy friend.  Back home he'd always wanted a dog, but his mother was allergic and they didn't have the space or time to take care of such a big responsibility when juggling both the restaurant and family obligations.  He'd made do with digital similacrum in the past, Neopats and Tamagotchi's and whatnot (something Orion busted his balls about to this day) so it made sense to scratch the itch with a very real fakedog.

"You wanna help me find some more balls for the bigger dog?  We can make some more friends."  Eddison explained.  "But first you need a name..."

"Name!"  The dog barked, "Name!  I needa name!" 

"Doofus."  Carver offered coolly. 

"Darby."  Eddie countered with a smirk.  "For George Andrew Darby, one of the first inventors of the smoke detector.  Makes sense for a firedog no?"

"Clever," Carver quipped with a flick of his ear.

"DARBY!"  The dog cried out, "MY NAME IS DARBY!"  With another joyous bark he took off after an icy spheal at breakneck speed, pouncing upon it and bringing it back posthaste.

"Fucking!"  Carver hissed slightly.  "Holy shit he's fast."

"I'm telling you buddy," Eddie purred, taking the ball from Darby and patting his head.  "Just like Rion, everyone has their uses and skills.  You two don't gotta be the best of friends, but I will not tolerate any interpersonal conflict on my team.  The three of us are gonna learn how to be a well oiled kitchen, capiche?"

"Capiche."  Carver mewled.
"CAPICHE!"  Darby barked. 

Eddie could see why his cousin liked this game so much already. 

There he was again, the guy from the canopy fire, and there was no mistaking the language he was murmuring to himself in this time. While the odd foreign word didn't mean anything - lots of people peppered their ordinary vocabulary with snippets from elsewhere - a full sentence like that was unlikely to just be a coincidence. How strange to come across another Italian on this very American server? Was he trying to hide from his peers too? Not that Nero would admit that was why he was on this particular server if he was asked... and he may well be asked, so he'd have to come up with an excuse at some point soon.

For now though, he thought about introducing himself to the other player, but the usual cowardice flared up in him at the idea of just talking to a stranger out of nowhere like some kind of lonely kid on a playground. No, he couldn't do that, but he could manage a teasing little comment based on what he'd just overheard - one that would give this ' Alkaid ' person (judging by their floating name tag) the same little nod of familiarity that Nero had just gotten from their own speech. [tangent=“Calm down, bro,”]“Calmati, fra,”[/tangent] Nero [tangent="It's just a game."]"È solo un gioco."[/tangent]

Anyway, enough of that: the dogs of the park had made another request, and completing it would earn him another valuable team member, so he'd better get to wortk. Slippery balls of Spheal were on the menu today it seemed, and from looking around, the other players seemed to be struggling with actually gripping the happy little ice types. No problem: Nero knew just what to do about that.

His Yanmega came buzzing out of her Pokeball, taking to the sky and turning to look back down at Nero once her wings were settled and she was able to hover like the bug-themed helicopter she truly was. A few quick gestures and instructions on what to do later, and the Yanmega was beating her wings and sending an Air Slash at the nearest Spheal, using the force of the gust to send it rolling back towards the park entrance. There. Slipperiness wasn't a problem when you used their rolling forms to your advantage.

PROMPT #86: [Tower]czEie7mI1-50

Arthur had avoided the tower until he made sure he secured the title (and also, he was running out of box space). But having more dogs seemed cool, and if nothing else, it would make for good trade fodder now that he was aware that the shops exist. Ignoring the dogs enjoying their balls (well, one of them was enjoying themselves), he went back into the park to find that people were getting close to clearing this particular floor, which was cold (once again, how did he keep finding himself in cold places?) and full of...Spheals, was it? Arthur could acknowledge cute things, even if he didn't really say it out loud all the time, but he made an exception for Spheals, which were really fucking cute.

And rolling. Rolling away from the park entrance in particular, which would not do. The prompt said to use a Fairy type move though (he often forgot that was a thing now, as the type had only been introduced in the later generations. He remember seeing it in the trainer classes and when he picked up Buru the first time, but he still couldn't wrap his head around it. What do you mean dragons were beaten by fairies?!) Unfortunately, Buru was also the only Pokemon he had that had a Fairy move, and it wasn't even an attacking one. Well, it should clear the prompt at least.

<Am I gonna bite stuff?>

❝No, you're gonna Charm them.❞

The pink dog let out a rumble that sounded like disappointment, but then she realized that charming meant she was cute, and she liked being called cute. <Who do I act cute to?> she asked with her butt wagging a little bit. Her eyes were sparkling.

❝Uh, to the ones rolling down. Gotta make them follow you to the door.❞ he had to stop himself from saying he had to "out-cute" them, because he felt that was going to piss the dog off. The instructions seemed to be enough for her to work with, so she ran up to some of the slower moving Spheals (or those that were taking a break from rolling to chat with each other), and turned up the Charm. Soon, she had at least a few Spheals rolling after her with grins on their faces, and honestly it looked like they were just playing a game of tag.

<< Party >>

          

Buru the Snubbull used Charm! (Fairy move)

FLOOR 10: FREE FUR A GOOD HOME

Zamazenta leaps onto one of the Spheal, squashing it with his body only for the rubbery Pokemon to spring back into shape! Zamazenta is flung high into the sky and comes crashing back down a moment later. He lets out a howl of excitement and repeats the process a few more times.

The park is well past closing now, and the lights have been turned off. The world is dark, aside from the distant stars in the sky above.

"Ball! Ball!" barks Zamazenta, his eyes twinkling with reflected starlight. The Spheal are long forgotten. He wants a star ball.

"Not everything is a ball," chides Zacian.

Ten distant stars drift from the sky, bursting through the atmosphere and crash landing in the park. They punching holes in the turf, throwing up chunks of rocky exterior as they reveal the multicolored lights inside.

"Ball! Ball-Ball!" Zamazenta barks urgently. He paws at the gate, whining. "Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball!"

Zacian narrows her eyes at the ten Minior now floating peacefully around the park. "My brother requires these star balls. Bring them to him."

You have collected 90 Balls and unlocked Poochyena (C)!
The next reward (Furfrou) will be unlocked at 100 Balls.

Josh Devlin Cardinal Glace Kyukon Wolf Alkaid Nero Alicia Westfield Shalin Nariya eddiecayge Will
Poochyena has been added to your box!

The sight the hybrid just witnessed was something she never really thought she would’ve seen in her lifetime. It was comical watching the zamazenta pounce on that poor little spheal, only to be launched skyward before landing on its feet and repeating the process all over again. It was something else, that’s for sure.

But just as the canine seemed to be really enjoying himself, time had shifted once more and the light began to dim. Pale golden orbs followed zamazenta’s cry for ball, spotting the twinkling stars in the night sky. And for a brief moment, the hybrid was puzzled. Then, it all came crashing down. Literally.

Objects crushed into the ground, craters into the parks turf and kicking up dust and dirt into the air. The player was quick to cover her mouth, thought still coughed. Her gaze narrowed at the floating miniors, sighing as she plucked out another creature and returned the former. “Hey Jethro,” Wolf mumble behind a shielded mouth, “can you knock down a minior or two? They want to play with them.” “Of course,” the happy go lucky marshtomp replied, smiling all the while. He turned to the nearest one, sucked in a bunch of air, then hurled a stream of WATER at one. Not only did he effectively knocking it down, but cleaning it off too!

MASHTOMP USED WATER GUN

Using a move with exactly zero power, huh?

The ticker flashed across his screen—and he figured, he had one Pokémon he… no, wait, he couldn’t use Max! Okay, time for Plan B. Luckily he caught himself in time to realize he was about to make a mistake, so there was that.

And hilariously? The same Pokémon he had out, had exactly one move that could hit the prompt! No need to swap out, too, so there was that as well!

He would look down at the bewildered Water-type, who’d already skidded back towards where he was waiting.

“Alright, so… yeah. Can you focus your energy for me?”

At least it wasn’t going to hit any of the Minior, though…

The Water-type would let out a ‘QUACK!’ before staring very intently at one of the colored ‘specks’ (which was actually a Minior); Focusing their Energy in the process.

Quaxly used Focus Energy (0 power move prompt)!