Bergamot Gristleborg
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Muddy Girl
Mythstar
Posts: 403
Trainer Class: 
Player Name: Chryssa Glasgow
OOC Username: M00K
Arena Points: 37
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Post by Bergamot Gristleborg on Oct 15, 2024 17:15:27 GMT 9
ZONE 3
What was an egg?
Was it cage? Was it contract? Was it symbol, or just ceremony?
She had been unable to turn it to gold, back when she'd tried in the Dream World. Did that mean it was alive?
What was a life?
Chryssa believed it was a weapon. The only one you were ever armed with.
So why would she choose to bring one into the world? Why would she Create, like some careless God, seeking the pleasure of the moment with no thoughts of what was to come ahead? It was folly. It was suicide. It was forging the destruction of her own soul, of her own power, of her own integrity.
Life was a curse. Something to inflict. She believed that.
Almost.
She had resolved to not-not hatch the egg.
But this was not the Dream World. Her memories of time spent in that place were hazy, barely-realized, liquid thought slipping between laced fingers. It was always like this. Every time she became not quite herself (or twice herself) it faded like grief, like trauma, as if the WorldScreen itself was conspiring to keep her under wraps. Under control.
Whose control? God's? Nintendo's? Hydance's? Or simply Fate itself with its trailing skein, snipping off loose ends and tucking them back into The Plan?
There was no Plan in mind when Bergamot tucked the Cosmog Egg beneath the wasting Hearteater. No Plan when she sent her Pokemon to revive others at the cost of their own health.
The best outcomes in life were not predetermined.
Hearteater boiled away like smoke as its health bar plummeted into the negatives. The red mist of its sagging form evaporated, drawn into the white marble casket sealed by stake and chain. Left behind was Bergamot's Cosmog Egg: intact, shielded from the barrage by Hearteater's bloated body.
Life out of almost-death. Life out of life-in-imprisonment. What else was an egg, after all?
It shoneā not white, like trapped starlight, but black, like the Boƶtes Void. Bergamot watched with bated breath as the hatching Cosmog rose into the air, shaping its umbral form into the familiar cloud shape from the opening of Sun and Moon. Nebby, the game had called it. Doddering spirit of the duffelbag. A cute, otherwise pointless Pokemon that would someday evolve into either Solgaleo or Lunala.
<Hello, Bergamot!> said the Cosmog, and the villainess immediately felt her skin crawl. There was something wrong with that voice. A recording of a recording, the sound of something playing back from far away. <I'm glad we finally got the chance to meet! I've been looking forward to this day.>
<I don't like this,> said Guillotine. The Piplup and Luxio drew close to Bergamot, instinctively shielding the young woman from the cheerful specter floating above. <Bergamot, that thing is bad news.>
"I have to agree," Bergamot admitted, "Perhaps I shouldn't have used Hearteater to hatch it."
<Oh, it's nothing to do with Hearteater. I would have hatched months ago in the Dream World, had you permitted it.> The Cosmog gave a little twirl, nebulous lines of its body blurring and fading like memories. <You hesitated back then. You almost smashed me, actually. I thought you'd sensed the truth, but here you are! Here we are.>
"I didn't change my mind. I left it to fate," said Bergamot. "I had no idea Lunala would be in this World Event. It was destiny." The word felt hollow now.
<Fate! There's no such thing. Who do you think steered you?> Her mind was going blank. Staticky. All around her, players were celebrating their victory, and she was rooted to the spot. <I've been inside your mind for a long time, now. Ever since we started speaking. I can read you pretty well, now. Almost perfectly.>
Cosmog let that sit. A note of irritation had briefly entered its voice, but it was smoothed away. <But that's ooo-kay! We have time.>
Bergamot's mouth had dried up.
<Anyway, I'm free now! I'll see you soon, Bergamot.>
With that, the Cosmog blurred into a streak of black-and-blue light, zipping up and out of the cavern. It was gone before Bergamot even had the chance to activate her Golden Pokeball. Not that she would haveāa creeping dread was growing in her, overriding the strangeness which the past months had left in her mind like a sour aftertaste.
"Weren't you supposed to catch it?" spat Cell disbelievingly. The blue lion's hackles were on end. "Now that thing's loose out there!"
"It'll be back," said Bergamot with certainty. She felt numb. "It wants me."
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Bergamot Gristleborg
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Muddy Girl
Mythstar
Posts: 403
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Chryssa Glasgow
OOC Username: M00K
Arena Points: 37
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Post by Bergamot Gristleborg on Oct 14, 2024 18:28:42 GMT 9
"What? A three-course meal? Surely you meant a single course of a three-course meal thatā¦" She linked arms with Buzzster Hooperham and Morpheus "ā¦these people are already cooking? Aha, yes, I thought that might be it."
Bergamot was left with the task of making dessert. Leek dessert with a leek.
She swung it around. "Engarde!" Well, she was out of ideas.
She had been stripped of her name, most of her clothes had been shredded (except for her unflattering and unremovable Game Underpants), and her tongue was now the color of a Ferrero Rocher wrapper.
Could she feasibly sign off and google 'leek dessert recipes'? Not without Chanda Mama noticing, she thought.
Then again, was it possible it didn't matter?
The cogs started turning. Bergamot had perfect taste. Didn't that mean she didn't have to know what she was doingāshe could just throw any random combination of ingredients together, taste it, and be able to tell exactly what it needed to actually make it enjoyableānayāperfect?
"I'm going to make a really long lollipop," she decided, wisely.
Her Kartana-hands had disappeared along with the previous curse marks, so she had to pick up a real knife and do it by hand. For once, she was practiced at it. Around and around and around, a spiral like a unicorn horn, unraveling the arm-sized onion into a gymnast's streamer. It had to be twenty feet long by the time she was done with it.
"It's really longā¦ isn't it."
But it needed to be dessert. In every Food Network show she'd ever watched, when it came to the dessert round, the amateur chef turned in panic to the ice cream machine. "I'll just put it in ice cream," they said, filling the bowl of sugar and whipping cream with criminy mushrooms or whatever, "Then I'll use liquid nitrogen to freeze it" with four minutes left on the clock, serving up a half-melted sorbetā¦ It never went well.
That's why Bergamot was making a really long lollipop instead.
It was time for a trip to the pantry. Bergamot threw the doors wide open. She found liquid nitrogenāno thank youāand reached past it for liquid lollipop instead.
"Like feeding a really long lollipop to a baby," she smirked smugly as she poured liquid lollipop all over the really long leek. To test that the candied exterior was nice and hard, she fed it over the counter and tried to poke Ruby at the forerunner's workstation. It worked: Ruby was poked, and the lollipop was complete.
"This seemed too easy," Bergamot mused, retracting her really long lollipop by cranking the lever. It telescoped back into itself like a fake lightsaber toy. Something was bothering her: something about poking Ruby. Hadn't she taken a sabotage effect last turn? Hadn't Bergamot taken a sabotage effect, too?
Oops. I forgot.
"We need more L's!" Bergamot declared, returning to the pantry to search for random dessert items to incorporate into her really long lollipop. She found:
"Product placement in my UNOVR?" Bergamot said, swishing it around her mouth and gargling to kill 99% of bacteria. Mint flavor: she could use that. She tasted the lacquer too: it was bitter, unsurprisingly, but paired with the sweet and bright flavors of the lollipop, it could still make a fine shiny coating. It was no different than dark chocolate, in a way.
Bergamot mixed up a second coat of Liquid Lollipop, flavoring it with lemon and Listerine. Surprisingly, the alcohol and acid lifted up the overpowering sweetness, making it surprisingly pleasant. In her last several minutes of prep time, Bergamot found herself sharpening it like one of her swords at home, honing it on either side to a microfilament edge, then buffing it with chrome lacquer.
From the tassel becomes the blade.
"I should probably test it," Bergamot said, looking around for someone that wanted to try swallowing her twenty-foot lollipop sword. "Go, Senga!"
The female Meowstic appeared in a flash of light and immediately reached for the blade. Bergamot swatted her away. "Senga, use Role Play to act like Chanda Mama and give me a really good score."
The feline Pokemon focused, then fell forward on all fours. Feelers of psychic energy formed around her head like ribbons, mimicking the moon spirit's Sylveon appearance.
<Needs more blood, sweat, and tears
Salt this blade with buried fears
An onion clad in silver skin,
Weakened by the leek within.>
"Well. Those don't start with L," said Bergamot huffily, whisking the really long lollipop away, "Return, Senga!" The Meowstic disappeared again, her unflattering opinion leaving a bad taste in her golden mouth.
But Senga was right. It needed something.
ā¦
"Legacy," said Bergamot as she served her dish beside the others. Morpheus had made the appetizer, Buzzster Hooperham had made the entrƩe. "What do we leave behind?"
She wore pure confidence to make up for her mostly-missing clothes and name. "A sword is a weapon, and weapons have a purpose. When you pick it up, you acknowledge your role in the world. Kill, and be killed. Inevitable. So what remains when the blade finally falls?"
The twenty-foot lollipop sword had been broken. It lay in three jagged pieces, nestled in a bed of red licorice. Lacquer lay on its smooth candy surface like chrome leaf, its mint, lemon and leek-layered interior forming a mild white core.
"Legacy," Bergamot said again, and her eyes were steel. "What is broken can be reforged, by those who come later. What dies can live again, through those they touched. A dead spirit becomes my dish becomes your meal becomes my points becomes my story, becomes part of me. And you. So is immortality gained: not through miracle, but through maintenance. Through memory. Through mortality itself, whatever shape that might take."
Bergamot twirled a strand of licorice between her fingers, then bit it in half. A red twizzler of fate.
"Anyway, here's a really long lollipop." DESSERT: TASSEL OF THE BLADE |
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Bergamot Gristleborg
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Muddy Girl
Mythstar
Posts: 403
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Chryssa Glasgow
OOC Username: M00K
Arena Points: 37
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Post by Bergamot Gristleborg on Oct 11, 2024 11:31:06 GMT 9
ZONE 3: HEARTEATER
Chryssa found grief a curious thing.
Not anger. That, she understood. Anger at fate, at God, at the cruel world which tosses and mixes mortal lives on the back of its changing tides like flotsam. A side-effect of existence. She understood revenge, spite, resentment.
Chryssa wondered if she had ever experienced grief. She was always the one people were grieving for.
What did people feel, when their Pokemon fainted? Nothing rational. Bergamot felt nothing in particular. It was a game mechanic, nothing more painful or unusual than consuming a single-use potion or using your 'get out of jail free' card in Monopoly. Surely instant oblivion was more pleasant than surviving the hit, assuming they revived.
Then again, she remembered what it was like to die. To have your head served (or surfed) on a platter, to see the light in someone's eyes vanish, never to exist again. The panic. The seconds, ticking down. Knowing (but not knowing) whether you would wake up again on the other side of that final screen.
ā¦
Still, she suspected it was not empathy for their Pokemon which drove people to kneel by their bodies, cradling them in their arms. Some players shed tears. Some bellowed fury. Wretched emotions rooted in past trauma, manifested by the WorldScreen in each player's personal reality.
There was something beautiful in the way each person experienced UNOVR. This world was different than the one outside. That world was designed to hurt them. Through indifference, through isolation, through accidents and rare disease and bitter twists of fate that left you mouthing Why?
Why me? Why us? Why them?
Not this world. Everything was planned. Everything was intended. And at the end of the day, it was intended to make Morgana happy.
She wondered why people always forgot that.
ā¦
"One Max Revive, coming right up~!" sang Morgana cheekily, twirling around. Her eyes were a little colder than usual, a little sharper. She had lost two Pokemon in the Eat the Rear assault, and her once-plentiful bouquet of battle options were dwindling like petals on a wishing-daisy.
Krony 2012 the shiny male Salandit, who had been sent out when Kartana fainted, scurried forward, healing Alicia's Hydrapple and Coalossal as he did with a squirt of sweet-smelling liquid. The lizard seemed relieved to have the chance to leave the battle early, perching on Alicia Westfield's Bayleef's shoulder with his tail twitching excitedly.
"You know I'm an Alchemist, right?" Morgana asked, stretching her fingers out in front of her. The knuckles cracked. "Let's just call this an expensive revival. Bippity! Boppity! Boo!"
BONGG.
A deep bell-tone resonated across the battlefield as Krony's tail stiffened, he and Tikani suddenly frozen in a monument of perfect gold. The gleaming statue of the Salandit and the Bayleef stayed for just a moment before the gold shattered in red light as Krony disappeared, recalled to Morgana's Pokeball. Bits of gold fell away like eggshell to reveal the restored Bayleef, conscious once more.
"I'll be back to collect the favor," said Morgana, distracted, turning away. She was already scanning her minimap for more red skull icons. They marked the respawn points of fainted players, and there was one a short distance away marked Kyukon. "Jack, you remember what that Team Apex Guillotine boy smelled like, don't you?"
<Peep! Uh, yes.>
"Good. Would you mind reviving him? I haveā¦ something to do."
While Mudkip bounced away, already trailing drooly Protect bubbles (some of which popped on orioncayge's Buzzswole as he passed) Bergamot turned to HEARTEATER.
The grotesque bat was seated on a white marble casket, almost completely hidden beneath the drooping folds of flesh and skin. Bergamot crept up next to it. Hearteater was busy tormenting randos with personalized alien dialogue snippets: it had no idea she was there.
"This is it," she whispered, opening her inventory. Her glossy eyes reflected stars and void as she lifted up her Cosmog Egg, missing only a single requirement to hatch. Expose the egg to a relevant item, element, or location.
What better than a Lunala?
Sneakily lifting up Hearteater's tail flap, feeling like Indiana Jones swapping a bag of sand for a bag of gold coins, she slipped the egg into the boss's fleshy pouch. "There you go. Should be nice and comfy in there," she whispered, "Assuming Hearteater doesn't crush you."
But she had a feeling it wouldn't. Fate worked in strange ways, but even the fattest Lunala wouldn't smash its own species' offspring by mistake. Like giving a lost kitten to a nursing mother cat, like a cuckoo chick hatching in a foreign nest, Hearteater was made to incubate this egg.
It was destiny.
[tangent=...WHAT ARE YOU DOING?]...āāāā āāā ā¬āā ā
āāāā?[/tangent]
"Nothing, goodbye~"
{CYCLE 5 OBJECTIVES}Copy+paste this section from the person above you!
HEARTEATER: 3483/7100 (This total is counting DOWN from 7100)
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Bergamot Gristleborg
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Muddy Girl
Mythstar
Posts: 403
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Chryssa Glasgow
OOC Username: M00K
Arena Points: 37
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Post by Bergamot Gristleborg on Oct 11, 2024 11:14:49 GMT 9
HealPokemon: Mudkip Core Ability: Max Revive Ability Target: Kyukon (Player) Move(s) Used: Protect (Never Normal) Move Type(s):  Move Target: Buzzwole ( orioncayge) JIe_HVN7support5support5 |
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Bergamot Gristleborg
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Muddy Girl
Mythstar
Posts: 403
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Chryssa Glasgow
OOC Username: M00K
Arena Points: 37
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Post by Bergamot Gristleborg on Oct 11, 2024 11:12:30 GMT 9
HealPokemon: Salandit Core Ability: Max Revive Ability Target: Bayleef ( Alicia Westfield) Move(s) Used: Sweet Scent (Never Normal) Move Type(s): Move Target: Hydrapple, Coalossal ( Alicia Westfield) Jkm7h2eesupport5support5 |
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Bergamot Gristleborg
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Muddy Girl
Mythstar
Posts: 403
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Chryssa Glasgow
OOC Username: M00K
Arena Points: 37
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Post by Bergamot Gristleborg on Oct 8, 2024 23:31:17 GMT 9
Basic AttackPokemon: Piplup Move(s) Used: Swagger Move Type(s): Move Target: Solgaleo Pokemon: Probopass Move(s) Used: Magnetic Flux Move Type(s):  Move Target: Solgaleo |
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Bergamot Gristleborg
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Muddy Girl
Mythstar
Posts: 403
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Chryssa Glasgow
OOC Username: M00K
Arena Points: 37
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Post by Bergamot Gristleborg on Oct 6, 2024 19:04:56 GMT 9
ZONE 2 > ESCAPE TO ZONE 3
Inhale. Bergamot breathed in the dead rot of Hearteater and let it flow back out her mouth and nose like red wine vapor. Exhale.
The stench of blood. Not her blood. Blood mixing with saliva, foam tinged with red. Her cheeks and tongue wept, the victims of chattering teeth that had swung like guillotine blades through her soft palate.
"Chryssa, you're having a seizure. It's all right. The paramedics are already here, we're going to lay you on your side now, okay?"
Nothing out of the ordinary. Another surreal episode, another blackout. She'd bitten her tongue this time, though she could barely feel it through the tingling. She could see someone's face above her. They weren't important. Just a NPC. A caricature created for that moment, there to ape lines of supportive dialogue at the poor victim.
Poor girl. Poor Chryssa.
Poor world, Chryssa thought fervently. She couldnāt tell if her mouth was open or closed. There was no feeling in her body, only one of detachment. Absence. Darkness drawing curtains around the corners of her eyes, smudging away the half-drawn sketch of reality. All was erased, leaving only blinding clarity. Poor you. Poor you.
Poor you.
"Why's she saying that over and over?"
Fuck you.
"Oh, it changed. So she can hear us?"
"Try to speak calmly to her. She's probably panicking inside. Chryssa, can you hear us? We're trying to help you, okay? Chryssa? Watch out, she'sā¦" <ā¦she's touching it. Yep.>
<Bergamot? What are you doing? They're all being controlled, remember?>
She came back, fingers wrapped around Celesteela's throat. Not tightly. Two fingers against the jaw, delicate and deadly, like taking a pulse, or holding a long-stemmed glass of wine.
"Oh my. I seem to have lost my head for a moment there," Bergamot said, withdrawing her hand. She'd magnetized to the creature's steel body twenty feet above the pitā she wondered how she'd gotten up here to begin with. Her water-type Pokemon floated around her anxiously, treading water midair. Had she used them like a staircase?
She spied Arran hovering nearby and thought the Probopass was a more likely culprit. It was practically a floating elevator, though she would have had to leap the last ten feet on her own. Fascinating. It was certainly the most athletic episode she'd ever had. Of course, all of that hadn't been real, had it?
Or had it?
Movement from below caught her eye. The red mist of the pit was rippling, expanding, forming claws that reached for nearby players as if to draw them down into Hearteater's Lair. Players slid down the sands, mingling with useless treasures and Corruption as all were mindlessly, indiscriminately funneled down.
Down. Down, down.
"Are you ready?" Bergamot secured her skirt, making sure it wouldn't balloon over her head when she jumped. "Some of you may not make it out again."
<I don't like this plan...>
<Peep, peep!>
"Well, you can stay here then. I only need loyal, cool Pokemon," Bergamot said, flipping her hair. "If you're going to be n00bs, you can stay behind with Uncle Buzzster." She pointed at the unconscious player, who had just arrived after having been pushed into the zone by mysterious forces. "Well. Ta-ta!"
She leaned back and dove like a swan through the eye of the hourglass.
Bergamot landed on her feet, aided by the game-assist to not break her neck on landing. Next to her, Guillotine and Cell touched down next, squinting their eyes through the crimson gloom.
"What?! Jack and James didn't come? Those traitors..." Bergamot fumed seconds before the Support duo landed on her other side. "Oh, there you are, my healing Support angels. I knew you were all cool and loyal, as the prophecy foretold."
[tangent=She is here]"āāā āā āāāā,"[/tangent] sawed James the Kartana, sounding haunted. [tangent=The Mother of us all. This one and its brothers are slain already for coming hereā¦]"āāā āāāāāā āā āā āā°ā°. āāāā āāā āāā
āāā āāāāāāāā āāā āā°āāā āā°āāāā
ā¬ āāā āāāāāā āāāāā¦"[/tangent]
Objectives loaded in and Bergamot scanned the field for anything she could make out through the haze. Her heart dropped at one name. Sarah Lee. Her Player Rival since nearly the beginning of the game, absent as of late due to unknown circumstances. Had she been down here with Hearteater this whole time? Who was to say she'd be the same again when she got back out?
"Stakataka, stat!" Bergamot spied the walking fortress through the mist and ran towards it, possessed air cold and heavy in her lungs. "Sarah Lee, come out here immediately!" she paused, thinking, and added "The network wants to film an exclusive POV!" to sweeten the pot. Sarah never could resist the limelight.
It was not to beā the moment she took a step towards the black-haired Kindler's prison, a massive, braided bundle of cords slammed down like a falling sequoia in her path. Bergamot staggered from the impact, looking up at the sparking white head of a giant Xurkitree.
"Get out of my way!" Bergamot exclaimed, heated, then pointed indignantly at the electric-type. "Guillotine, Celine! Take this clown back to the Blacephalon level!"
As her Shinx ran towards the Xurkitree, its strides lengthened, and it stopped to give a mighty roar as if he could sense the colorless Solgaleo on the other side. Light exploded around his neck in a grand mane, cooling to a deep, coaly black.
<I am Luxio!> he roared majestically, flexing his claws, then added <Stand down, dipshit!>
"So beautiful," Bergamot said, wiping away a tear, "Now, Guillotine, deliver the final blow!"
The Piplup didn't move. <I'm a Support,> said Guillotine.
"You're shitting me. No you're not, I had you in Sweeper. Didn't I?" Bergamot frantically scrolled through her Upgrades list, finding the Piplup very clearly equipped in Support. "What? When did I change that? You're telling me I only have one Sweeper?!"
<That is correct.>
<Peep peep!>
...
Bergamot looked around-- over on the other side of the Zone, it looked like they'd just finished restoring colors to Solgaleo. "Well, at least use your Basic Attack, then. Bring Arran with you!" Guillotine headed off to help charge Solgaleo, shadowed by the hulking figure of the Probopass.
Neither of them wanted to hurt their Legendary Ally. Arran focused his Magnetic Flux, helping to concentrate the SolarBeam in a single place, while Piplup used Swagger to heighten the intensity of Solgaleo's attack. Even from just their efforts, they could feel the heat building, the cavern brightening.
What would happen next?
{CYCLE 4 OBJECTIVES}Copy+paste this section from the person above you!
XURKITREE HP: 2354/4000 (Total is counting DOWN)
SOLGALEO COLORS: Fire Fire Fire Fire Dragon Water
SOLGALEO HP: 661/700
SOLARBEAM CHARGE: 0*
*AFTER all Solgaleo's colors have been cleared, please add +1 for every damaging hit on Solgaleo (not heals). If he faints from damage, the charge will be reset to 0.
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Bergamot Gristleborg
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Muddy Girl
Mythstar
Posts: 403
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Chryssa Glasgow
OOC Username: M00K
Arena Points: 37
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Post by Bergamot Gristleborg on Oct 6, 2024 18:41:16 GMT 9
Fast AttackPokemon: Luxio Core Ability: Escape Ability Target: Self/Morgana Move(s) Used: Roar (Never Normal) Move Type(s): Move Target: Xurkitree Sumsbf|Xsweeper5sweeper5 |
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Bergamot Gristleborg
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Muddy Girl
Mythstar
Posts: 403
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Chryssa Glasgow
OOC Username: M00K
Arena Points: 37
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Post by Bergamot Gristleborg on Oct 6, 2024 17:53:12 GMT 9
VhukD_sM1-6
Bonding attempt: Celesteela1-6
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Bergamot Gristleborg
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Muddy Girl
Mythstar
Posts: 403
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Chryssa Glasgow
OOC Username: M00K
Arena Points: 37
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Post by Bergamot Gristleborg on Oct 3, 2024 11:29:27 GMT 9
HealPokemon: Kartana Move(s) Used: Laser Focus (Never Normal) x2, Night Slash, Razor Leaf, Night Slash, Detect Move Type(s):    Move Target: Nero's Yanmega, Alkaid's Kartana, Alicia Westfield's Coalossal, Torino's Lilligant, Josh Devlin's Mudsdale x2 4qa_8gL2support5support5 |
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Bergamot Gristleborg
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Muddy Girl
Mythstar
Posts: 403
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Chryssa Glasgow
OOC Username: M00K
Arena Points: 37
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Post by Bergamot Gristleborg on Oct 2, 2024 18:47:59 GMT 9
ZONE 2 > ESCAPE TO ZONE 1 > ZONE 2
"Guillotine, ew, don't touch that," Bergamot said, hefting the Piplup above her head as they passed back through the Corruption Chamber on their way back to Zone 1.
They'd found the Boss Room, so Morgana was doing the smart thing and heading back to tell everyone else instead of leaping in on her own to steal all the glory. Of course, she could have just sent a message on Global Chat, but she had another reason for coming back so quickly.
They'd found Corruption, they'd found more Ultra Beasts, they'd found lootā but they hadn't found her Probopass.
Which meant it was back the way they'd come. Double ugh!!
<I feel more powerful now,> said Guillotine, charging up a beam of infinite blackness.
"Don't do that," Bergamot said, distracted. She held up a seal that shone with starlight, admiring the way it twinkled even in the dark. "Excellent find, Celine, I can't wait to equip this on someone."
"No problem. Just risked my fuckin' life to get it," said the Shinx, jumping over a blackened tentacle. "Are we almost there?"
As she re-entered Zone 1, she waved the starry cosmetic item above her head enticingly, trying to draw attention to herself. "Everyone, treasure!" she called alluringly, "In the next zone! Gold and riches beyond your wildest dreams!"
<What are you doing,> her Piplup asked, deadpan. <Why are you trying to make everyone go down there?>
"As opposed to what, staying here waiting for even more colorless Pokemon to show up? Once they've got everyone, they should move on! It's simple enouā"
She caught sight of Arran and paled, looking almost like a colorless Pokemon herself. Having arrived late to the battle, Bergamot had been spared the traumatic sight of her Piplup and Shinx bleached white as daikon radishes, tearing into their opponents like mindless puppets.
"Oh no... my poor, sweet Probopass..." she whispered, watching the big mustached rock firing its pale mini-noses into sad trainers. "What have they done to you?" His big blue eyes... his little red hat... his big red nose... they were all horrible white, just like a parsnip!
<Does Arran even talk? I've never heard him talk,> said Cell, cleaning a paw. Bergamot whirled on the Shinx. "Of course he talks," she said, wondering if she'd ever heard him talk, "Don't be rude. Arran, it's me, Bergamot! Cease this tomfoolery and come back to the right dark side."
She tried to lay a hand on one of the Probopass's turnip-white nostrils, but it spun away, snorting out a trail of scarlet mist. "Well, we tried!" Bergamot said, looking around for Kyukon. "Where's that n00b from Team Apex Guillotine who you said helped you earlier?"
<Excuse me?> asked Guillotine.
"There he is! Jack, go! Deliver the wet heals of gratitude and then we're leaving!"
Jack trundled off towards the white-haired trainer and his Granbull. <Peep peep,> he said when he arrived, wagging his fishy tail. A shimmering, liquid Protect shield formed in the Mudkip's mouth like a giant bubble, then floated towards the bulldog before popping in a delightful shower of drool.
Something bumped Morgana from behind as she stood watching Jack return from his errand, and she turned around to see her Probopass, fully restored. "What? You're free now?" the villainess asked, looking around. "Who did it?! James, send a token of my gratitude!"
The Probopass hummed and pointed its giant, right-angle red protuberance towards Nero and Alkaid. Bergamot turned to her Kartana and shooed it towards the two male trainers. "You heard Arran! Go, go!"
Kartana had no idea what the human in the blue dress (or the silent Probopass) was saying. But it had seen Nero before, so it flitted that direction. It scanned the teen's Yanmega with its Laser Focus, silently repairing the damages, then saw something which immediately drew its attention: another Kartana.
Approaching the tattooed human (making it clear it came in peace) James floated around the drooping Kartana on Alkaid's shoulder, inspecting it with an air of distress. Its body crumpled and un-crumpled, agitated.
[tangent=Mother of the Mists, your children are dyingā¦ but you do not care for us, this one knows.]"āāāāāā āā āāā āāāāā, ā¬āāā āāāā°ā
āāā āāā ā
ā¬āāāā¦ āāā ā¬āā ā
ā āāā āāāā āāā āā, āāāā āāā āāāāā."[/tangent]
Something was building in the papery Ultra Beast. It folded and unfolded, agitated. It scanned Alkaid's Kartana again with a bright blue beam of Laser Focus, analyzing it, healing it, then the light turned off.
[tangent=This one will die, too. But not for you.]"āāāā āāā āāā°ā° ā
āā, āāā. āāā āāā āāā ā¬āā."[/tangent]
The Kartana burst into activity. A flurry of slashes hurled through the air, bleeding umbral light as they impacted into a slowly-darkening Coalossal. Razor-sharp leaves peppered the field in a storm, driving emerald green back into a Hisuian Lilligant. Kartana zoomed back and forth, maddened, radical, doubling down on a Mudsdale whose body was marked with huge white patches like an appaloosa.
"What's he doing out there?" Bergamot asked, shading her eyes as she caught glimpses of her Kartana flashing around the field. It was moving so fast it almost seemed to teleport, driven by some new madness as it scissored away one-by-one at Hearteater's remaining threads. "It's a good thing I put him in Support. Imagine if he'd been a Sweeper!"
{COLORLESS POKEMON}Please delete Pokemon and move types from the list as they are completed! Copy+paste the updated list from the person above you. ZONE 1 UNEVOLVED PLAYER POKEMON ā Buzzster's Surskit - (100/100 HP) Buzzster's Varoom - Steel (68/100 HP) ā Buzzster's Shuckle - (85/100 HP) ā Shalin's Galarian Ponyta - (27/150 HP) Laguna's Squirtle - Ground (100/100 HP) ZONE 1 EVOLVED/SINGLE-STAGE PLAYER POKEMON Torino's H. Liligant - Fairy Bug Grass Electric (250/250 HP) Bergamot's Probopass - Fighting Water Flying Dark (100/100 HP) Josh's Mudsdale - Fire Fighting Ground Dark (300/300 HP) Alicia's Coalossal - Dark Dark Dark Fire (300/300 HP) Alicia's Hydrapple - Fire Bug Grass Electric (300/300 HP) Orion's Golisopod -  Poison Steel Dark (500/500 HP) Shalin's Pheromosa - Normal Normal Normal Ground (300/300 HP) Respiro's Dodrio - Rock Ground Psychic Fairy (200/200 HP) LOOTED A seal that shines with starlight |
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Bergamot Gristleborg
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Muddy Girl
Mythstar
Posts: 403
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Chryssa Glasgow
OOC Username: M00K
Arena Points: 37
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Post by Bergamot Gristleborg on Oct 2, 2024 18:06:32 GMT 9
HealPokemon: Jack the Mudkip Core Ability: Escape to Zone 1 Ability Target: Self (Morgana) Move(s) Used: Protect (Never Normal) Move Type(s): Move Target: Kyukon's Granbull GlFrTWnrsupport5support5 |
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Bergamot Gristleborg
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Muddy Girl
Mythstar
Posts: 403
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Chryssa Glasgow
OOC Username: M00K
Arena Points: 37
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Post by Bergamot Gristleborg on Sept 30, 2024 23:42:33 GMT 9
SUNDIAL ENTRANCE > ESCAPE TO ZONE 1 > ZONE 2
In the process of abandoning her unconscious Uncle Zac, Bergamot turned, nostrils flaring. A greedy expression flitted across her face. Almost supernaturally, like a vampire who fed on bothering people, she sensed a victim.
"You there! With the dark trenchcoat and the anime hair. Do you want to know a secret?"
Anyone who so clearly wanted to be left alone was practically asking for someone to come spice up their day. Bergamot hiked up her skirts and tagged along behind Nero, breathless. "You know who the real villain of the raid is, don't you?" She flipped her hair smugly and stopped in the middle of the tunnel for dramatic effect, almost stepping on Krony 2012 the shiny male Salandit. "Tis I."
Bergamot didn't wait more than a beat before she launched on. "Ohohoho, that's right, yes! I am the true mastermind behind the Heartbeater," she told Nero, eyes gleaming. "Twas only at my command that the Bloody Bat took control of all the Ultra Beasts, kidnapped all these poor pale Pokemon, and such. You are looking at the true villainess: Bergamot Gristleborg!"
She tried to say her actual name, but moon-spirit magic caught her words in her throat, puppeting her tongue, twisting her vocal cords like candycane stripes.
Her face soured. "Bergamot Gristleborg!" she tried again.
This was outrageous. She couldn't even get credit for her fake villain monologue backstory.
"Ugh! Never mind. Help me find my Pokemon, then," she ordered Nero, typing away at her Global Chat. Alicia Westfield was practically begging for the Heals that only the gracious and benevolent Bergamot Gristleborg could give her. "There should be a Piplup, a Shinx, and an Eternatus. Oh, sorry, I meant Probopass. Probably."
As they came into the Zone 1: Hibernaculum tunnels, Bergamot immediately spotted Guillotine and Celine laying on their backs on the ground, looking pathetic. "There you are!" she exclaimed, scooping up Cell under one arm and Guillotine under the other. "Mission accomplished! Jack, deliver the Gratitude Heals!"
As Mudkip pattered off to deliver drooly, watery Protect heals to Alicia Westfield and Laguna's Pokemon (he'd get Kyukon next round), Bergamot looked down at the pair of Pokemon in her arms. Safe. Colorful. Restored.
She hesitated.
It would be all too easy to brush off this moment. To act like Guillotine's absence hadn't affected her, like she hadn't spent months feeling bored in the game because her starter wasn't there to play the straight man, like she hadn't named a whole team in her knockoff fake reality show after the Piplup because she'd missed her so much.
"Guillotine, I have something to show you."
"...Your replacement. James, come out!"
Krony 2012 the shiny male Salandit looked briefly surprised before he was Escaped back into his Pokeball and kartana was sent out. Bergamot jogged backwards a step to strike a pose next to the papercraft warrior, taking a deep breath.
"(I hope this works) Prepare for trouble!"
A ripping, edge-tearing, crumpling silence seemed to stretch out. James shuddered visibly, limbs jerking, mandibles twitching.
[tangent=She knows this one is here. She is inside.]"āāā āāāāā āāāā āāā āā āāāā. āāā āā āāāāā
ā."[/tangent]
"To protect the world from devastation!"
[tangent=...But this one is sorry, Mother of Darkness. Forgive us... we are too afraid...]"...āāā āāāā āāā āā āāāāā¬, āāāāāā āā ā
āāāāāāā. āāāāāāā āā... āā āāā āāā āāāāāā
..."[/tangent]
<It's doing it wrong,> said Guillotine, coughing out red mist and reanimating at last. <Are you deaf? That's not the motto.>
"What are you talking about, it's going great!" Bergamot declared. Despite herself, she smiled at the Piplup. "Usually he attacks me and tries to cut off my clothes. Highly inappropriate. Really, he's gotten much better."
<That can't be right,> coughed Cell, reanimating next. <Damn. That was bad. Where are we now?>
<Still in the invasive species' lair, it looks like,> Guillotine observed just in time to see Jack come trotting back from his errand. <Hello, Jack.>
<Peep peep!> the Mudkip said, then seemed to remember he could talk. <Oh, hullo! I've been, uh, healing people.>
[tangent=Mother, please do not forsake this one for its mistakes... Let this one live...]"āāāāāā, āæā°āāāā ā
ā āāā āāāāāāā āāāā āāā āāā āāā āāāāāāāā... ā°āā āāāā āāā ā°āāā..."[/tangent]
"This is why the two-Pokemon limit is a thing," Bergamot said loudly, putting all her Pokemon on the ground. She did not appreciate being overshadowed by four other random bit characters. "Press on, we're still looking for Arran. Nero should have found him by now. I gave him a perfect description."
{COLORLESS POKEMON}Please delete Pokemon and move types from the list as they are completed!
Copy+paste the updated list from the person above you.
SUNDIAL ENTRANCE
ā All Clear! ā
HARBOR ENTRANCE
ā All Clear! ā
NEXUS ENTRANCE
ā All Clear! ā
ZONE 1 PLAYER POKEMON
ā Buzzster's Surskit - (160/100 HP)
Buzzster's Varoom - Steel (68/100 HP)
ā Buzzster's Shuckle - (85/100 HP)
ā Orion's Carvanha - (72/100 HP)
ā Bergamot's Piplup - (371/350 HP)
ā Bergamot's Shinx - (290/350 HP)
ā Shalin's Galarian Ponyta - (27/150 HP)
Laguna's Squirtle - Ground (147/100 HP)
ā Laguna's Froakie - (40/100 HP)
ā Laguna's Bergmite - (623/600 HP)
ā Alkaid's Grookey - (602/600 HP)
ā Torino's Swirlix - (219/250 HP)
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Bergamot Gristleborg
•
Muddy Girl
Mythstar
Posts: 403
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Chryssa Glasgow
OOC Username: M00K
Arena Points: 37
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Post by Bergamot Gristleborg on Sept 30, 2024 22:45:14 GMT 9
HealPokemon: Mudkip Core Ability: Escape Ability Target: Salandit (Switching Out) Move(s) Used: Protect (Never Normal) Move Type(s): Move Target: Alicia's Bayleef x2, Alicia's Nagandel x2, Laguna's Galarian Mr. Mime x2 3v4G5xsTsupport5support5 |
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Bergamot Gristleborg
•
Muddy Girl
Mythstar
Posts: 403
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Chryssa Glasgow
OOC Username: M00K
Arena Points: 37
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Post by Bergamot Gristleborg on Sept 30, 2024 22:03:11 GMT 9
Control for Kartana (+10)
uy3pdoO91-201-20
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Poison Steel Dark (500/500 HP)