Bergamot Gristleborg
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Muddy Girl
Mythstar
Posts: 391
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Chryssa Glasgow
OOC Username: M00K
Arena Points: 37
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Post by Bergamot Gristleborg on Jul 8, 2023 21:59:16 GMT 9
Mechanical (Hard)ZONE A > ZONE B "What do you mean Sarah Lee and Laguna aren't here? They left?"
Morgana stood rooted to the spot, absolutely flabbergasted. She had her blue wig in one hand, her naturally brown hair already bound up and secured beneath a lunchlady hairnet. She'd swapped out her usual long dress for a perky sailor uniform. She had breast pads. She was ready.
"How much did I miss them by?" She stomped her foot, irritated beyond measure, and almost slipped on the icy platform. "What a waste!"
Or maybe it wasn't. With Laguna out of the picture, what was stopping Morgana from completely stealing her identity? Becoming Laguna, so to speak? Usurping a trusted figurehead of the community to serve her own evil, evil agenda?
She'd struck a pose in the middle of the elevator platform, standing on top of her Probopass to really draw attention like a homecoming queen on a float. "Everyone, I am Laguna!" she called seductively, wiggling her fingers. "Watch as I dance and pass my lady buffs to you!"
She struck a few token yoga poses, got bored, and then brought out her hand glider. "Well, toodle-oo! You're on your own now!" she called as she and Probopass lifted off the ground, departing the sordid platform in favor of the club-exclusive Zone D.
"Zapdos, know my name! Know my hair color and general outfit!" Bergamot cried as she flew by with her mustached Pokemon, cheeks rosy pink with cold. "I, Laguna, speaking on behalf of my friend Sarah Lee, want you to know..."
She ripped off her wig dramatically. "...I'm not actually Laguna! Ohohoho! So gullible."
Probopass fired a barrage of Mini-Noses at Zapdos's wingpit/armpit and they moved on, ice forming on the leading edge of her glider. She sent out Guillotine to heal up Probopass's nose as they honed in on their target: the inglorious (and currently exploding) Kath Ulu.
The villainess swooped down towards Zone B, where the ponytailed gardener was currently hanging off Zapdos's big wing, crying. "A-ha! Finally, someone interesting. Are you ready to join the dark side yet?" she called as she swooped overhead. "I notice you're in a pretty precarious position to refuse."
GOAL (ALTITUDE 3): 2834/7815
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Bergamot Gristleborg
•
Muddy Girl
Mythstar
Posts: 391
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Chryssa Glasgow
OOC Username: M00K
Arena Points: 37
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Post by Bergamot Gristleborg on Jul 8, 2023 21:43:34 GMT 9
Pokemon: Pippaluppa Core Ability: Buff Ability Target: Probopass Move(s) Used: water something Move Type(s): Move Target: My Probopass Lol _t6Vh2l8support4support4
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Bergamot Gristleborg
•
Muddy Girl
Mythstar
Posts: 391
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Chryssa Glasgow
OOC Username: M00K
Arena Points: 37
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Post by Bergamot Gristleborg on Jul 8, 2023 21:39:17 GMT 9
I forgot to roll lmao
IatWfet_sweeper4sweeper4
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Bergamot Gristleborg
•
Muddy Girl
Mythstar
Posts: 391
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Chryssa Glasgow
OOC Username: M00K
Arena Points: 37
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Post by Bergamot Gristleborg on Jul 8, 2023 21:38:12 GMT 9
Pokemon: Probopass Core Ability: Recoil Ability Target: Self Move(s) Used: Rock Throw Move Type(s): Move Target: Zappy Dos
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Bergamot Gristleborg
•
Muddy Girl
Mythstar
Posts: 391
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Chryssa Glasgow
OOC Username: M00K
Arena Points: 37
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Post by Bergamot Gristleborg on Jun 29, 2023 17:01:10 GMT 9
"Engarde!" Bergamot twirled in the door, pretending to make jabby-jabby motions at Cygnus with an invisible rapier. "Word on the Steppes is you're selling antique swords. I happen to be a collector. Mind if I take a look?"
It was uncommonly polite for Morgana "Queen Elizabeth" "Dirty" Riddle, who usually depended on conning her Pokemon off of new trainers or kill-stealing during wild encounters to expand her stock. As far as she remembered, she'd never given these so-called NPC Trade Shops a second glance.
But Honedge was different. Honedge was special. It was more than just a vision of herself-- more than just a fantasy of swords and sorcery, more than just the idea of flailing it around on the Steppes, surely drawing lightning to strike her down (unless any Duraludon were closer).
Chryssa was drawn to this Pokemon with a surety that came from destiny, from bonds and binding, from hidden history she could barely glimpse. Other trials. Other times. It was fate which brought her here, the pull to reclaim the echoes of who she had once been-- even if she didn't fully understand it herself. Even if this Honedge, too, was just a shadow of the past.
"Muir," she said softly, holding the leather sheath in her hands. "Welcome home."
A single eye opened, round and blue as distant worlds, but the sword said nothing.
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Bergamot Gristleborg
•
Muddy Girl
Mythstar
Posts: 391
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Chryssa Glasgow
OOC Username: M00K
Arena Points: 37
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Post by Bergamot Gristleborg on Jun 28, 2023 10:57:44 GMT 9
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Bergamot Gristleborg
•
Muddy Girl
Mythstar
Posts: 391
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Chryssa Glasgow
OOC Username: M00K
Arena Points: 37
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Post by Bergamot Gristleborg on Jun 27, 2023 10:03:36 GMT 9
"Ohohoho. Very clever."
She sat down to wait.
...is what she would have said, but even at the end of the shopping street, things were busy. People pushed past her in an endless sea, faceless. They called out, advertising their wares, searching for their friends and family. Hundreds of voices lost in a tide of noise. Now that she wasn't moving with them, she was jostled back and forth like a pizza dough in the hands of a pizza chef (simile wip). There was no not-moving in this place any more than you could create silence just by not-talking.
But she'd laid the trail of bread crumbs. She'd made that connection she lacked when she'd started this trial. Something different. Something new. Something that might not help lead her to Sneasel, but might lead Sneasel to her. She just had to endure.
But she didn't endure quietly.
"Ugh! Don't touch me!"
"This is growing tedious."
"How dare you step on my foot? I'll have you know I'm the queen of stepping- ow!"
<Sneeeeasel!>
"Don't patronize me, I'll-- a-ha!" Bergamot pointed at the Sneasel that had appeared around knee-level. "One of these things is not like the others! Got you!" She grabbed it like a stuffed mascot animal, swinging it high above her head and above the bustling crowd. Sneasel yelled and flailed its limbs in surprise. "What, you want to stay in this meat market?! Don't be absurd, you'll just end up in a kebab or something." She didn't think that was a stereotype.
Holding the rat weasel over her head, Bergamot quested out with one hand, reaching for the spiderwebby connection she'd woven between each of the shopkeepers. A paper trail of scent-receipts leading her back to where she started. "We're leaving," she enunciated clearly, feeling her way along the invisible wire.
Sneasel stopped struggling. This was just the way things were. Sometimes you got thrown into a pit, sometimes you landed in a meat market, sometimes people dragged you around without asking you what you wanted and they were still right. It wasn't always bad to have other people make decisions for you. Not everyone was in control of their own destiny, but that didn't mean it would be a bad one. It just meant having trust.
Back where she started, Bergamot held up the resigned Sneasel in both hands like a newborn lion cub being shown to the citizens of the kingdom, as if she could tell Seta was watching on the other side of the interrogation-room glass. "Ta-daa! I came, I saw, I conquered! Who said I couldn't win at soul-claiming?"
<Sneeeeeaaaaa...>
"And lucky you, you win too. Because you get to come with me! Bergamot. Riddle."
<....sel.>
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Bergamot Gristleborg
•
Muddy Girl
Mythstar
Posts: 391
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Chryssa Glasgow
OOC Username: M00K
Arena Points: 37
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Post by Bergamot Gristleborg on Jun 27, 2023 9:08:54 GMT 9
...A clue to what?
A clue to the rules of this game.
There was no money, but certain things were real here. Scent. Taste. Have I lost my memory? No, she still remembered how her shampoo smelled, so it wasn't like she was losing anything. More like making a copy, or sharing something she had. Like giving someone a recipe.
But that fact alone wouldn't help her find the so-called "random sneasel" in the busy marketplace. Scent was just a metaphor for experience - the thousand different smells mingling in the air was as overwhelming to the untrained nose as a crowd of people when you were looking for someone.
If Morgana had been the Sneasel's original owner, perhaps she could have found it by scent. Closed her eyes, filtered out the unknown, and just focused in on what was familiar. As a random trial-taker, however, Bergamot was at a disadvantage. She had no idea how Sneasel smelled. She had no bond or connection with it to follow.
...Fine. We'll do things the hard way. She would just have to stumble upon it.
So she did.
How did you find a needle in a haystack? If you didn't have a magnet, if you didn't have a trick up your sleeve, you sat down and looked for it, straw by straw, stick by stick.
Perhaps Seta had been counting on Morgana getting bored. But this was hardly boring. She ate foods she'd never heard of, but tasted too real to be anything but. Some developer had lovingly rendered these foods and spices, longing to share something the rest of the world had never known. Bergamot drank it in. She flounced from stall to stall, searching for Sneasel, leaving traces of herself behind in lieu of payment.
Sterile hospital rooms. Fresh bedsheets. Snow. Steel polish. Sparkling water. Taxidermy animals. Old books. New books.
She didn't have much to give. Less than the average person, that was for sure. But the vendors accepted her offerings gratefully despite their mundane nature, and Morgana began to wonder whether there was more going on. She had planned to make her way from one end of the market to the other, but it seemed to be expanding. There was always one more stall. There was always a little bit more to the crowded street. Where did it end?
Did it end with Sneasel?
Or did it end with her?
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Bergamot Gristleborg
•
Muddy Girl
Mythstar
Posts: 391
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Chryssa Glasgow
OOC Username: M00K
Arena Points: 37
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Post by Bergamot Gristleborg on Jun 22, 2023 22:49:47 GMT 9
Surprisingly, her teammates came to help her. Perhaps if they'd known the Red Beam she'd been hit by was just placebo, or that she'd just changed her display name to Bergamot Gristleborg, they wouldn't have bothered. Regardless, Bergamot was touched. Her whole life, people had bent over backwards to stop her from ever getting hurt. Keeping her out of danger. Treating her like something that could break at any moment. But when something did happen, who was there to help her back up?
"Friendship is real!" Bergamot exclaimed, dusting off her skirts and looking around for her hand glider. She saw it a few meters away and put out one hand like she was making a stop motion. There was a magnetic hum moment of concentration, then the piece of cloth and metal came flying into her hand with a thwonk. "...But this doesn't change anything between us! I am still far too evil to play for the good guys. Ohohohoho!" She put her blue Laguna wig back on to demonstrate.
But Morgana seemed to have had a change of heart when they next rose into the air. "I have an idea," she announced. "I propose we use our Trainer Subclass powers to great visual effect. As you know, I am a Swimmer--" Which allowed her Pokemon (N/A) to fly and caused water (N/A) to repel off her body. "...but you two aren't. Surely you can make some... pizazz happen."
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Bergamot Gristleborg
•
Muddy Girl
Mythstar
Posts: 391
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Chryssa Glasgow
OOC Username: M00K
Arena Points: 37
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Post by Bergamot Gristleborg on Jun 18, 2023 21:59:29 GMT 9
To tell the truth, Bergamot had made no attempt to pass through the ring of Ducklett with the other Women's Suffering activists. She had made no attempt to fly at all so far, in fact, and had instead been combing the ground level, fishing for compliments.
"Oh, look at me," she said, showing one of the Mythstar NPCs her arm, where she had rubbed a smear of dirt. "Aren't I ever so... what's the word. It's on the tip of my tongue..."
"Does anyone have a word to describe my current state? Preferably five letters, beginning with D," she said to one of the Creed goons, pointedly.
"Might there be..."
Morgana saw Laguna and Sarah Lee pass overhead on Laguna's surfboard. passing perfectly through the Ducklett ring and headed straight for the green Training Beam. "Oops! Looks like my ride's here. Gotta gooo!" she said, raising her hand glider into the air with one arm like someone trying to estimate the height of an NBA player.
She hadn't bothered participating in the second round because, unlike the rest of these n00bs, she was basically a pro at flying already. She'd massively abused her Swimmer priviliges at the start of Beta to skip Challenge Tower levels, fly between areas of Beta Island, and make dramatic entrances/exits at the drop of a hat.
This hand glider was no Guillotine, but it would do. (Guillotine was a Piplup, not an execution device).
"TA-TA-TAAAA!" she announced herself gloriously as she kicked off from the ground. The hand glider buzzed in her hand like a model plane, wings unfolding with a satisfying click as the wind caught them. They snapped out at clean angles, cloth and metal working together to create incredible lift and stability. It was a miracle of modern science.
PSEEEW!
The Red Beam cut her down like a clothesline, sweeping the airspace with the laser-accurate brutality of C0D13. Bergamot went down with an indignant squawk, her only saving grace the fact that her bell-shaped skirt formed a kind of frilly blue parachute as she fell.
Laying in a heap in the dirt, Bergamot managed to raise her head and croak "Can anyone... think of... something... to call me..."
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Bergamot Gristleborg
•
Muddy Girl
Mythstar
Posts: 391
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Chryssa Glasgow
OOC Username: M00K
Arena Points: 37
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Post by Bergamot Gristleborg on Jun 13, 2023 12:08:21 GMT 9
Morgana was training her Pokemon today?!
"Go, Rainbow! Use Iron Head!" she ordered, spinning streaks of anime light behind her (in her mind's eye).
Her Gyarados shot past her, its colossal cranium aimed at the target. But just before it reached the bullseye, the glowing white light faded and cooled. Rainbow bonked harmlessly off the target like a balloon off a barn door.
Morgana shook her finger. "Tsk! Tsk!" she said. "No, but really, that wasn't it at all. Do we need to re-watch the TM?"
She wheeled in the monitor and put the Iron Head TM back in the DVD player. She and Rainbow crowded around the screen, basking in the faint light. An instructional video came up. It looked like it was from the 90's: a bald man with a goatee in a green T-shirt smiled placidly at them, superimposed over a friendly green screen background.
"Hey trainers! Here's a little move you can do with your favorite Pokemon!"
The man's supposed "companion Pokemon", a child dressed up in a Cubone costume, appeared on-screen. "Cubone, Cubone!" the child said. The bald man laughed. "That's right, Cubone! Iron Head! It's so easy even a baby can do it!"
"See, Rainbow. It's so easy even a baby can do it," Bergamot repeated, turning to face the Gyarados's giant head. The fish was frowning. Was it depressed, or just skeptical of the video's terrible quality? "Watch carefully now."
There were some bad special effects as the child in the Cubone suit demonstrated the move, complete with KA-POW! text effects like a comic book. It was a great video. Bergamot laughed heartily afterwards and turned it off. "Anyway, you should definitely be able to do it now, so let's try again."
<Aaaargghhh...> Rainbow muttered, but obediently undulated after Morgana back to the practice field.
GYARADOS IS NOW VERY RARE (+15)
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Bergamot Gristleborg
•
Muddy Girl
Mythstar
Posts: 391
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Chryssa Glasgow
OOC Username: M00K
Arena Points: 37
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Post by Bergamot Gristleborg on Jun 13, 2023 11:47:29 GMT 9
"I can't believe I'm doing this for a random Sneasel," Bergamot said loudly, slamming her empty glass down on the counter. "...Another mango lassi, please."
The NPC behind the stall nodded sagely, filling the glass back to the brim with frothy, pale orange liquid. Bergamot snatched it and drank it up, trying to let it sit in her mouth to cool down the burning. It helped, but the burning, itching feeling came back a few moments later, as if her body had absorbed the memory and continued to re-play it on a loop. "My ears are popping!" she announced, as if this was a great triumph for her instead of an immense overreaction to a mild spice mix.
Chryssa was a sheltered white girl who subsided on tasteless health foods and whatever other bland dishes her father's cooking staff decided to make for her. She had no experience with spicy foods. The strongest she'd ever experienced in her life was black pepper, and even that sometimes made her cough.
She enjoyed this new pain. It made her feel real.
"Tell me if you see it walk by in the background or something," she told the NPC, voice raspy. "Do I have to pay for this, by the way? I don't have any money." What would happen if she dined and dashed? Would spicy guards pursue her through the crowded marketplace like an Indiana Jones chase scene? That sounded exciting.
The NPC nodded, still not speaking, and extended his hand. "Whoops," said Morgana, pushing off her barstool and getting ready to dash away, but then something strange happened.
Near her ear, he grasped something. Something invisible. Something that took shape before her eyes like a shimmer, a heat wave, a thread of spun light. As it flowed away from her head, Bergamot smelled it distinctly. It was so at odds with the rest of the scents in the bazaar that it caught her off guard. My shampoo?
It filled her nostrils, the stench of chemicals and flowers, of steam and wet hair. It drove back the spice that still burned at the back of her throat as it flowed away from her mind and into the NPC's hand, coiling there like a snake.
Then the stallkeeper closed his hand and it was gone. He inclined his head, clearly thanking her for her business, and went back to grilling his meats.
Morgana stood, stunned, eyes narrowing as she processed what had just happen. What was that?
She knew what it was. It was a clue.
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Bergamot Gristleborg
•
Muddy Girl
Mythstar
Posts: 391
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Chryssa Glasgow
OOC Username: M00K
Arena Points: 37
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Post by Bergamot Gristleborg on Jun 7, 2023 11:32:16 GMT 9
"I'm not Laguna," said Morgana, taking off her blue wig and obediently inspecting the steampunk belt Sarah Lee had just tried to show her. "It's perfect! I'll take it." She held out a white-gloved hand expectantly, then gasped in exaggerated outrage when Sarah Lee ignored her and clipped it onto herself instead. "How selfish..." she murmured, turning away.
She inspected the table for items of equal stylishness-- if Sarah Lee was going to hog all the altimeter belts, well, Bergamot would just have to fashion her own. "Observe, Laguna," she said to the women's suffrage activist, who'd actually been on Sarah Lee's other side. "As a member of Mythstar, tinkering with such things is but second-nature to me." She spoke quickly, softly, hands moving on the table in front of her in a blur of activity. "And now... voila!"
The canister she'd been holding exploded, spraying her from head to toe with oil.
For a moment she simply stood there, looking like a pelican after the BP disaster.
Then Morgana put both hands on her hips and laughed, convincingly, as if this had been all part of her plan. "Ohohohoho! You see, Laguna," she said, sending out a water Pokemon to hose her off. Water blasted in a six-foot radius around her as a Gyarados blasted her like a fire hose. "I- fssst!- Bllbbt! -Sarah Lee- RSHHHHHHH! -fashion."
Everything was going well, in other words.
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Bergamot Gristleborg
•
Muddy Girl
Mythstar
Posts: 391
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Chryssa Glasgow
OOC Username: M00K
Arena Points: 37
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Post by Bergamot Gristleborg on Jun 4, 2023 22:32:43 GMT 9
Footsteps are indeed nearby, and Morgana's foots were particularly pointy. Her high-heeled Running Shoes clicked on the cobblestones as she approached Saint like a herd of horses. He was fresh meat, and she was a swarm of smug piranhas. "Ohohoho!" she laughed arrogantly behind her hand, peering down at the young man on the ground as if particularly enjoying the vantage point. "You seem like a new trainer! Soon to perish in the mines with the others... shame..." She pretended to look sympathetic. "Of course, I could put in a good word for you if you just hand over your Pokemon..."His words sunk in and she did a double-take. "Hold up! Did you say Onix?"Flashes played before her eyes (helped by the WorldScreen's handy internal memory backups) of Celine Dionix, swaying on her tail of boulders, forming a perfect staircase onto the ice. The stars leaving her dissolving body one by one, swallowed by the Starcatch. Teeth against teeth. Lips. Eyes.And left over at the end, a heart. It was a poor memento. It would not bring her back. And it would not lift the curse. Gray-eyed, gaze vacant, Bergamot's finger moved. She selected a Pokemon from her inventory to offer to trade, barely even looking at what it was. "Yes," she said, simply and softly. "I'd... like that."
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Bergamot Gristleborg
•
Muddy Girl
Mythstar
Posts: 391
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Chryssa Glasgow
OOC Username: M00K
Arena Points: 37
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Post by Bergamot Gristleborg on May 30, 2023 19:46:39 GMT 9
Amazing! Bergamot Riddle was amazing!!
"Catch the QUAXCEE!" she cried, spinning around and letting a Pokeball hurl from a white-gloved hand like a child flying off a ride at an amusement park. It bounced, striking the Quaxly on the head and sinking deep into its feather pompadour.
<Sardiii!> said Sardines as the capsule disappeared. Bergamot stopped spinning, looking distraught. "What?! I paid for that Pokeball! This is just like when vending machines eat your change," she said, clambering over the rocks towards the Quaxly. Having never finished the Catching Tutorial (or any of the tutorials besides the Running Shoes one, for that matter), Bergamot was very invested in what few Pokeballs she had.
But as she reached the duck, the Pokeball finally seemed to make its way to the center of the starter Pokemon's skull, and it swirled away into energy. She waited for three shakes, then scooped up the ball when a little star appeared. "Ohohoho! I had no doubts," she assured Gible.
She'd forgotten all about Shellos. Next time!
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