A Week has passed since the raid on the Team Flare hideout outside Alfronda. And it was time for the League to have a meeting to discuss what had come up from their swift investigation into the events, and how they would handle it moving forward.
A meeting like this was bound to happen sooner rather than later.
"Where is he?" A young woman in her late teens groaned tiredly as she leaned forward in her chair, resting her chin in her palms as her elbows lay on the table before her, "How much longer do we need to wait before we can start this meeting already, like, hasn't it been an hour already?"
"Have patience, Rika, it'll only take a few more moments," An older man with long blonde hair told her. "Why, it's basically tradition at this point, needing to wait for him to arrive before we start our meetings! Isn't that right, Larry?"
"No comment." The other man in the room said, with a blank expression on his face as he stared dead ahead at the wall.
"Like, I get that this meeting is kind of abrupt, but we still sent the notification like two days ago, how come he's not here yet!?" Rika complained, heartbroken that her second-ever official meeting as a member of the Paldea Elite 4 was going to start late.
"Just give him some time, Rika." The young woman perked her head as she heard the only other woman in the room speak, "We can't start our meeting without him."
"..." Rika looked at the woman who spoke before she straightened her back and sat upright, "Yeah... Sure, La Primera..." She said before averting her gaze, ignoring the smile Hassel gave her from across the table.
"Please, I already told you to refer to me as Geeta, calling me La Primera in these meetings makes it feel a bit too professional, right?" The Newest Top Champion of the Paldea League said with a soft smile on her face.
"Eh, Yeah... Sorry, Geeta." Rika said, her eyes staring at the door to the meeting room, hoping it would open and their fourth member would arrive so they could begin already.
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Tulip hummed a soft tune as she looked at herself in the mirror, carefully applying the makeup on her face in preparation for the photoshoot.
It's been a rough few days, having to move out of the Battle Hotel and into her Grandparents' house, where the internet connection was slow and the commute to work was slower.
"Only two more weeks..." She whispered to herself as she applied the finishing touches on her face before smiling at the beautiful sight in front of her eyes.
"Flittle~" Her Pokémon chirped, telling its trainer how beautiful she looked. Eyeing the carefully applied eyeliner above her lashes and the delicate touches of blush on her cheeks, the eyeshadow that gave her an almost ethereal look, finishing off with the wonderful purple lipstick that went amazingly with her hair.
Cleo had very few things that made her so happy to be a Trainer's Pokemon, one of which was teasing a certain white Salandit and watching her reactions, the other was knowing that her Trainer was such an exceptional beauty.
"If only she could keep this beauty forever~" Cleo thought to herself, knowing full well that once her trainer gets home and enters her room, she's washing all of her beauty into the sink, changing from her stylish yet elegant outfits into an oversized t-shirt and a pair of shorts, dropping her wonderfully sculpted body onto either her bed or her couch like an oversized bag of potatoes, and spending the few hours before dinner playing those stupid video games or watching those sappy shows about fake romance between cartoon teenagers on the other side of the planet.
Cleo loved her trainer. She doubts that will ever change, but that doesn't mean she couldn't wish her trainer would keep looking beautiful even when she's not working.
"At least there'll be another fashion magazine with her face soon..." The small psychic thought to herself as she floated after her trainer, preparing to sit through her newest photo session advertising some fancy brand.
"The things I do for beauty..."
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In the city of Levincia, a middle-school student was making her way back home, a can of lemon soda from a nearby vending machine held in her hand as she kept her head down, hoping nobody from school would recognize her.
"Misdreavus..." Her partner told her, trying to cheer her up, to little success.
It wasn't Iono's fault that all the other kids at her school didn't have good taste! She thinks her hair is adorable. Just because it's colorful doesn't make it weird, and it's much less boring than having the same black hair as her mom!
"Stupid school..." Iono grumbled before taking a sip of her soda, hoping to finish the drink before reaching her house.
Noticing a nearby trashcan, Iono began to focus on the bin, holding the mostly empty can of lemon soda like she was some sort of professional basketball player preparing to toss the match-winning shot.
"Luxio!" Iono yelped as one of her Pokémon popped out from her ball, causing the young trainer to drop the can from her hands as she jumped in surprise, her eyes wide open watching as if in slow motion as the can of lemon soda landed on the pavement, the metal container bouncing once as if mocking her as it sprayed the little soda it had left onto her exposed leg, before rolling off the sidewalk and into a nearby storm drain, leaving Iono to stare helplessly ahead as a sweetly-sticky liquid clung to her leg.
"..." Iono let out a tired sigh as she bent down and began to wipe the soda from her leg, ignoring the stares nearby pedestrians were giving her as she used the sleeve of her shirt to wipe her leg, trying her best not to focus on the tears of shame that slowly built in her eyes.
"Drea~" Her Partner cooed softly as she rubbed her head against her back, trying to cheer her up.
"Sorry, gang," Iono said softly to the two female members of her team, "It's just me being clumsy again..." She stood up and resumed making her way back home, ignoring the stares and whispers from those around her.
She walked into her house, took off her shoes, and trudged into her room, throwing her backpack into the corner, not paying mind to the papers and pencils that rolled out, calling out to her to finish her homework.
She sat on her chair, turned on her computer, and pulled her knees up to her chest as she curled up, staring at the screen in front of her. Only softly humming at the sensation of her Pokemon team gathering around her to watch the screen as well.
She clicked a few buttons on the keyboard before opening up a now familiar website, a soft smile growing on her face as she noticed a familiar icon in the corner of the screen.
"-No, Fanny. Don't use torment on the Chewtle, they'll try and bite you and- Don't look at me like that, be the bigger 'Mon, stop taunting the- You can't get angry at being splashed with a water gun after what you did..." Iono smiled softly as she listened to the livestream on her screen, watching an older boy and his partner Pokémon hang out next to a pond somewhere in Cascarrafa. "Okay, come here sweetie, let's get you dried up- See you later, Chewtle~" Iono let out a breath of fresh air at the light-hearted and relaxed video in front of her, a far difference from the many more competitive or loud streams on the website.
This was her comfort moment, the one hour or two every week she could just close off from the world around her and bask in the relaxing atmosphere created by her new favorite streamer.
She may complain at times that the streams were only an hour or two once a week, but maybe their relative rarity was what made them so special.
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Looking at the many flower Pokémon down below, marching in a clockwise direction around the Great Crater of Paldea, a certain Pokémon nodded its head approvingly, its form hiding between the clouds far above the earth, away from any watchful eyes.
And yet, despite the distance between this Pokémon and the ground below, there was something about the nearby town that kept calling out to it, a stench it refused to ignore.
"You still reek of Ultra Space, and the stench isn't washing off at all..." The Pokémon whispered to itself as it focused on a specific spot in the town below it, its eyes squinting as it stared at a certain trainer, "Just what kind of Faller are you?" It gagged weakly, as if the proximity to the figure below was causing it to get sick.
"The Professor would want to know..." It told itself, thinking about the only living Human it currently cared about, "Damn Ultra Space, makes me want to throw up." A sickly groan left it throat as it decided to back away from the trainer below, attempting to cleanse itself from the sickly sweet and somehow sparkling stench of Ultra Space.
"I'll return to keep an eye on you, Faller. Don't you think of trying to evade me..." And with a cough to clear its mind from the nauseating effects of being near the town the trainer was in, the Pokemon that led the March of the Flowers flew away.
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After what felt like hours of waiting, Rika finally perked up from her seat, wiping the drool from her mouth as she shook herself awake, trying her best to act as if she didn't just fall asleep as she waited for the meeting to start as the door to the conference room swung open.
Rika looked on as a tall man with short black hair and a pencil mustache walked in, followed by his Hitmontop companion.
"What are you looking at me like that for?" The final member of the Elite 4 asked, an offended look on his face, "I promise you I have a perfectly good explanation as to why I'm late!"
"You do?" Hassel asked, the art teacher and music composer asked, "I'd like to hear it!" If anybody else asked that question, Rika would have assumed they were being sarcastic, but Hassel was the least sarcastic man she knew, so she knew that despite how it sounded, He was indeed curious as to why their final member took so long to get here.
"My daughter brought home a boy! And he stayed for the night!" And just like that, the little interest that Rika had disappeared into nothing.
"Hernan," Luckily for her, before the Fighting-type specialist of the group could derail the meeting so soon after arriving, the Champion spoke up, "Please take your seat so we may begin."
"Está bien~" The man said with a roll of his eyes as he sat down, and Rika finally let out a sigh of relief as the meeting could finally start.
Only to slam her head onto the table with a groan as the presentation that was prepared began buffering.