"Here. I'll show you the pictures I took while we did our amature investigation." Seymour showed Joe the evidence he had collected.

"While you call Sanford, I think I am going to head out and call it a night." Seymour was not at all comfortable wedging himself into the middle of all of this foreign election drama and crime, and was looking for a good way to remove himself from it all. "You can stay if you want, Faulkner. But I'm going to go catch some Z's with a master ball. Call me if you need anything."

Joe looks curiously at the picture. "Drugs? Like... medicine? Why would anyone smuggle that in? No one in their right mind would buy medicine on the black market." He shakes his head. "Sanford never asked me to get something like that, just souvenirs and foreign media."

As Jake looks around, his gaze is drawn to the Galar magazine Joe was holding. Aside from the picture of the champion, there's also a mention of an article inside about "Chaos in Ryme City's Carnival, why are pokémons rebelling?"

Jake decided to stick around just a bit longer. He trusted the pirate's response and waited for him to finish the call to figure out how the situation was going to resolve that night. If it was going to be ongoing, he would probably just go back to the hotel anyway though. As he paged through the magazine, he was mostly reading for the pictures... but he tried to read an article that looked like pokemon being crazy. Rather than trying to read the entire thing with his less-than-fully-literate eyes, he showed it to the pirate,
"Look, there are crazy pokemon in other places too!"

"Hmm? Oh, yeah. I think it was written off as a disease or something... Hello? Sir, it's Joe... I know, but it's important..."

While Joe focuses on the call, Jake reads the article. The details are a bit sparse, only mentioning a series of incidents where pokémons went berserk, attacking everything around them. There's some 'expert' debating if it's entirely caused by something called R, or if it's a latent anger the pokémons had that was brought up by the drug.

"...I... I understand, sir. I will... I guess I'll have to leave for a while... At least until the elections are over..."

After Joe wrapped up the call, Jake decided that he helped out enough for the day and decided to head back to the hotel after getting Joe's travel plans and phone number.

Jake joggled lightly back towards the hotel, aiming to catch up to Seymour, whether he caught up with him on the street or met with him back in the hotel he explained the potential shortcut,
"Hey, Joe is planning on running off in his boat for now and can take us with him to Herenport. It should speed up the trip and makes sure we don't get stuck in a spooky swamp. Plus, our water pokemon can be in their normal place, in the water. If you don't wanna go on the boat, we can just meet up again in Herenport when you get there on foot."

Seymour wasn't sure how to reply at first. On the one hand, Joe seemed like a nice guy and it would be nice to shorten their trip. On the other hand, Joe was an admitted criminal. And Seymour did not want to have his stay in this region cut short because of his association with Joe. Eventually the thought of another day out on the water won him over.

"I guess it couldn't hurt if we hitch a ride, if he is willing to give us one. I'm not going to help do anything illegal tough. If he plans on doing anything illegal, I guess I'll walk. I would like to keep my record here as clean as possible in Cadien."

---

The only thing Seymour still plans to do before going to bed is to retrieve Lotad.

The night passes without issues...


You get a quick breakfast, before heading back to the beach. As you cross town, passing in front of a small alley, you notice a very brief flash of blue-white light behind a garbage container.

OOC: Seymour has his Lotad once more. You're also fairly confident that Joe's not planning to do anything criminal. From what he said, he's little more than a mule, grabbing packages left underwater by the real smugglers, and handing it over to his boss.

Jake seemed a bit distracted that morning. Still, whatever was distracting him was not enough to make him miss the flash in the alley. He turned to Seymour,
"Hey, wassat? Did you see that flash? Maybe it was another Lacconey!"

He didn't wait for Seymour's response before letting out lackey and heading towards where he saw the flash,
"Hey buddie, we may have found another one of your cousins!"

Looking behind the dumpster, you see a pair of cream-colored bunnies with blue ears. It's not clear to you why, but one of them seems rather angry at the other, attacking with electrical sparks.

"Another Laconney?" Seymour replied to Jakey. It seemed unlikely considering how far the two of them had traveled, but Seymour followed Jakey into the alley regardless. To Jakey's credit the pokemon they discovered was rabbit-esque, like a Laconney, but it was definitely not the same.

"Hey!" Seymour yelled at the Minun picking on the other, even as he pulled out his pokedex. "Can't you see you're scaring them? They're terrified. Stop that!" Considering he saw electrical sparks, Seymour called out Glumpy for a bit of extra protection. He figured the naughty Minun might need a little Stun Spore time out if it decided to be aggressive.

---

Seymour will check out Minun's pokedex entry. He will have Glumpy use stun spore if it gets aggressive. It doesn't look like it is being affected by the same thing as the rhyhorn, does it?

It's clearly lacking the glowing red eyes that the Ryhorn had, but it seems very angry at the one you're holding. The...

Minun, the Cheering pokémon
Minun is more concerned about cheering on its partners than its own safety. It shorts out the electricity in its body to create brilliant showers of sparks to cheer on its teammates.

This one isn't cheering, though. Instead, it screeches and tries to attack again. Glumpy stands in the way, releasing a cloud of spore at the same time... but the Minun seems to just ignore them.

Meanwhile, the Minun in Seymour's arms is so scared, it's wetting itself...

OOC: The stun spore seemed to have no effect on the Minun.

Seymour probably would have been upset about the Minun in his arms wetting him, but he currently had larger problems to deal with. Especially since he had forgotten that grass and electric types were naturally more resistant to Glumpy's stun pore. "Looks like this will be an old-fashioned battle then," Seymour commented, mostly to himself. "Glumpy, see if you can drain it. Mega Drain!"

Seymour spared a quick glance over to Jakey to see what he and Lackey were doing. If Jakey had a stronger strategy idea, Seymour would be more than happy to let his friend take over the battle.

---

Jakey, feel free to hop in and take the reigns if you were hoping to catch a Minun. I don't mind.

Storyteller, I was just noticing that Glumpy's Absorb and Mega Drain attack are identical. Is that an error?

Minun showers the area with sparks, but Glumpy ignores the electricity and replies with his own attack. It looks the little rabbit has more energy than your companion can absorb though, as it continues to attack without pause.

OOC: I think I rated Absorb's damage on it's Let's Go stats, but rated Mega Drain on it's SwSh stats. I've increased Mega Drain power by one step, instead of dropping Absorb.

Jake was surprised that it wasn't another Lacconey, but was ready to fight after realizing that a fight was going to happen. He didn't have a great plan and his words to Seymour reflected that,
"I guess we can stop the bullying brother!"

He then directed Lackey to jump into the battle,
"Alright Lackey, lets cool off that minun with a powder snow! And don't let the lightning get you!"

Jake didn't seem too interested in catching either of the Minuns, but might do so depending on how everything played out -- after all, he had yet to catch an electric type and there was one right in front of him. Though the attacking Minun was a bit too sassy even for Jake's taste.

Unlike Glumpy, Lackey isn't as resistant to the Minun's electricity. It breaks your Laconney's concentration, leaving the snowy assault to spread too much to cause damage.

Meanwhile, the second Minun slips from Seymour's grasp. When you look down, you see a confused Glumpy standing next to... another Glumpy?

"Uhh..." was all Seymour managed to say as the second Glumpy appeared. He pointed his pokedex at the second Minun/Shroomish. "Tr- try a leech seed," he managed to say to Glumpy. But he had to admit, he had become quite distracted.

Glumpy shakes off his surprise, and covers the Minun with seeds. They slow the hare enough that Lackey lands a hit with his snow, knocking it down.

With the electric threat out of the way, every eyes turn back to the second Shroomish. The attention seems to worry it, and it backs up as Seymour's pokédex speaks.

Shroomish, the Mushroom pokémon
If Shroomish senses danger, it shakes its body and scatters spores from the top of its head. This Pokémon's spores are so toxic, they make trees and weeds wilt.

That sounds perfectly normal... but where did it come from?

OOC: Seymour, you notice you're not actually wet, despite the impression you got earlier. Jake, do you want to throw a pokéball at the Minun before it passes out?

Jake opted not to catch the minun, after all, he had a limited amount of pokeballs, so he couldn't go around catching all of the pokemon he saw! Still, he felt weird to just leave the pokemon in the middle of the alley, so he approached it as Seymour figured out how his glumpy was cloned and where the other minun went.

Jake reached out a hand to the knocked-down minun, palm up to show he didn't mean it harm and talked in a level voice,
"Hey bud, you can't just go around shocking everything that makes you mad, your gunna get wiped out all the time if you do that. You gotta keep a cool head."

Jake wasn't sure if the pokemon understood him or if it was going to even stay conscious. If it did end up fainting, he would put it at the edge of the alley where it was less likely to get trampled if anyone else came down the alley and wasn't looking down.

The Minun is unconscious, but Jake easily finds a warm spot to hid it in so it can rest.

Meanwhile, the Shroomish looks curiously at Glumpy, while the latter tries to hide behind Seymour's legs. Or is it the Shroomish that's hiding? Even though pokémons of the same species look quite similar, there's normally enough differences to tell two of them apart. Here... they seem identical.

Seymour scratched his chin as he tried to figure out what was going on. Was the second Glumpy a psychic illusion? A transformation? An odd Double Team attack? "Glumpy, return," he said, holding out his pokeball. It would help to have only one pokemon to focus on so that he could be sure he was addressing the correct one.

Then to the remaining pokemon, he knelt down and offered it a bit of food from his pack. "Don't worry, the Minun won't hurt you any more. I have no intention of hurting you either. I'm a friend." He pointed toward Jakey who was dealing with the KOed pokemon. "He's a friend too."

As Seymour pulls out a piece of food, the Shroomish starts to... melt. It's skin turns purple, then pink, and it's bulbous shape turns into a sort of quivering jelly. The only indication that it's still a pokémon are it's two dot-eyes, and drooling mouth.


Ditto, the Transform pokémon.
It can reconstitute its entire cellular structure to change into what it sees, but it returns to normal when it relaxes.

Seymour's jaw slowly dropped in fascination as the Ditto transformed right before his very eyes. He had heard of Dittos before, but had never met one in person. "My, my. Aren't you just the cutest little trickster! Jakey, check it out. A Ditto!" Seymour let it have its pick of his food. "I don't suppose you would want to come along with us and have some more fun? We'll keep you safe, well-fed, and play lots of games!"

Seymour could see why the Minun may have become upset now. It probably isn't fun to have someone steal your face. Especially when you aren't expecting it.

---

This one was on my list of Favorites! Definitely going to try and convince it to come along on Seymour's journey. I'll use up to the maximum number of favor points to do so too.

You're not too sure how well the Ditto understands you, but it offers little resistance to your pokéball... so little that the ball got into the Ditto before the Ditto got sucked into the ball. But after a few shakes, the ball locks, confirming you now have a Ditto!

OOC: And for only two Favor points! Congrats!

With this little side trip done, you make your way to the beach, with Joe's boat waiting at the dock.

After taking care of the minun, Jake indeed checked out the ditto,
"Woah, I heard of these guys before. They are awfully spooky. Its really cool though. Can they turn into humans, or just pokemon? I never know. I don't want it to look like me, but its super cool anyway!"

When getting to the beach, Jake had a momentary second thought as he changed direction to the bathrooms,
"I never really been on a boat before. I am going to clean everything out so if I get sea-sick, I will be OK."

Joe greets you from his ship's bridge. "Ahoy, matey! Ready to sail the seven seas?" The idea of setting out to sea seems to have raised your captain's spirits enough to restore his accent.

OOC: Unless you have some last minute task to take care of, you can continue your travel in Herenport.

But first...
Both of you gain 10 favors for your time in Windzall.
Glumpy's SA increases to Below Average
Roach can choose one of these abilities:
  Mud Dweller (Pokémon resist Water and Ground moves one step further)
  Oblivious (Pokémon is immune to Enrage, Infatuation, Taunt, and Intimidate)

This message was last edited by the GM at 02:36, Sun 26 July 2020.