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{ Please quote if interacting with Mako, or else I won't know. }


He'd worked an extra long shift at the bakery, prepping the dough for the next day, but that wasn't even the tip of the iceberg for the petite trainer... No. The entire day had been an onslaught of customers, from the crack of dawn, to the very end, causing the bakery to work overtime. Due to the lively festivities, everyone was buying the treats that were designed and dedicated to the celebration, as well as for the feasts and parties that were to be had on their own. It was chaos... and Mako was nearly depleted of all his energy.

Slowly, he shuffled out of the building, giving a halfhearted mumbled 'bye..' to the remaining bakers still there, a hand wiping along his face after his glasses had been removed. What a long day... all he wanted was to crawl in bed, and pass out. Dragging his tiny feet, reapplying his glasses to his face, a hand distractedly fussed with his heavy bangs that weren't cooperating, and trying to blind one of his eyes, only poking at his irritated state all the more. But what perhaps made it increase more was the throng of people lined on the sidewalks, and streets, and the incoherent chatter that was buzzing about. Golden eyes veiled heavily, a very unamused expression plastered on his pretty face, watching the joy and happiness that was spread amongst the crowds flooding and surrounding the point of interest; Bellsprout Gardens. While he was interested in seeing it for himself, with all these... loud, and obnoxious people around, and how drained of HP he was, mingling in a possibly reactive and hyper group of people didn't sound ideal.

But his apartment was down that way...

So he'd have to go there regardless.

Sighing with vocalization, his arms folded tight across his chest, as he marched ahead to brave the palpable excitement.

Alexa had flown in on Stribog for the opening of the Bellsprout Gardens in Katarina. She had heard about it from her brother Corbin who was supposed to meet her here at some point. She only agreed to meet him here so he would finally stop pestering her. She readjusted her Banette hat before focusing on her pokemon. Immediately she sighed and went running after her giant dogs.

"Vincent! Settle down! FARVARDIN CHILL OUT!" She yelled as she raced after the two hyper active dog pokemon. Vincent was running about barking his joy to be in such a pretty place at night (never mind all the people suddenly moving out of his way) while Farvardin was going straight up to the people with pokemon out. Clearly she was checking them out to see if they wanted to fight but the people were creeped out by the big Cerberex.

With a glance around she noticed security was eying her and she quickly recalled her two more problematic pokemon. "Next time guys.... when there are less people." She muttered. She didn't get far before a few of her other pokeballs popped open. Apolla, Chic Ken Pox, and Nuka all appeared in a flash of red. Alexa sighed in relief as they were all non-troublemakers. Or at least Apolla wasn't and the other two haven't shown signs of being troublemakers. "Okay guys you can stay out but behave!"

Pox gave a chirp to show he understood and looked about. He climbed up on Nuka who was becoming a favorite perch when one of the bigger pokemon wouldn't let him up. He looked around and caught a flash of a familiar human. He gave a quick squawk and hopped down. He began rushing towards the other human with Nuka in tow.

Alexa noticing Pox's behavior followed after him muttering about strange pokemon. She then noticed the person who Pox was heading for and grinned. It looked like someone she sort of knew. "Hey! Niko!" She called out.

((Quote me if you want to interact with Alexa or her pokemon. I'll also be tossing in Corbin a little later))

"Fireworks, Pheonix! Look!" called Emalthya, looking at a poster for the festival. "That would be marvelous! Let's go!"

Pheonix grumbled. He wanted to go back to the coast, or at least go somewhere with water so Saphire could join them. Things like fireworks and delicious carnival food were not half so good when they could not share. He felt like he was taking advantage of being able to fly and walk on land.

Emalthya pressed her lips together. "We could find a pool somewhere and watch with Saphire, but it would be a poor view for us all," she said. "I was thinking if we get a really good seat we can film the fireworks and play them for her."

Pheonix grunted. Fireworks on a teeny screen were not as good as the real thing.

"And I thought if you got really close, you could maybe learn some fireworks moves and do them for her. On the water. At night."

Pheonix brightened instantly. He could do that, he could learn to do fireworks, why weren't there fireworks now?

Emalthya laughed. "I thought you'd agree. How about we go see if we can't get a good spot?"

Potatobi, the breloom, was a fighter. The discarded product of Smart contest breedings who just hadn't made the cut, she'd instead taken to putting her heightened awareness to work in battle... her lifestyle consisted of helping her human manage the household and accompanying them on hikes, where all of her personal time was devoted only to one thing: more training than you could shake a Gurdurr's girder at.

The festival was in full swing. Soon, the martial arts competition matches would begin, pitting humans against human, pokemon against pokemon, and humans against pokemon as well.

She looked up to the sky, momentarily distracted by the fireworks. They were certainly nice, but the grass/fighting type had other matters to attend. After blinking them away, a frown of determination returned to her face as she got back to wrapping bandages around her shins.

It may be a game, but she was going to take it seriously, of course. She always took her interests seriously. The Breloom smirked in anticipation. Meanwhile, some of Bellsprout Co.'s landscaping ground-type pokemon were setting up the ring...

Magnolia stood on the outskirts of the festival, drawing a deep breath with a large smile creased on her face as she took in the smell of sizzling, greasy foods, the clop-clop of wooden sandals from a myriad of feet pacing the lane stretched out before her, the cacophony of voices, and the aftertaste of burnt cooking oil in the air. Asphodel the Kirlia beside her mimicked her actions; the emotional sensors atop her recently evolved head thrumming from the enthusiasm of the festival and almost drawing the complete opposite out of her had she not repressed it. Being gifted with the quirk of taking on the complete shadow of another emotion had been the bane of her existence as a Ralts, but now that she was a Kirlia, she could dance freely upon her two, longer legs and stay in-character without wholly getting on her owner's nerves.

"Kirl, Kirlia!" Asphodel cried as she twirled at Magnolia's side, clapping her hands together upon stopping and looking up to her trainer.

The lavender-haired teen beamed down to her, sharing the same excitement she had. "Oh, Asphodel!" she said in return, the sleeves of the kimono decorated in her namesake fluttering like flags in a sudden gust as she waved her arms about; shooting her gaze this way and that at all of the items that interested her. "I can't to try out everything—"

The fourteen year old's voice was cut off momentarily at the sudden pop and crackle of fireworks illuminating the sky. Both trainer and Pokemon snapped their attention to the sky as the bright burst of color smeared itself across the star-speckled heavens for what seemed like an instant of beauty before fading before them, only to be replaced again. The awe that etched their features was only torn by Magnolia reluctantly tearing her attention from them.

"C'mon, Asphodel, let's go!" Magnolia said, encouraging the Psychic-type with a beckon. Absently touching a hand to the mega stone flower fixed to the side of her head as a fascinator, she added, "We have a lot to check out, so we shouldn't stand around all day!"

"Kirlia!" Asphodel replied in agreement.

With that and a spike of enthusiasm that was once unknown to the young teen, Magnolia and her Kirlia descended into the throng of festival-goers with a certain pep in her step. She wasn't sure what she was going to try first, but if this was anything like the festivals in Unova honoring their own timeless legendaries and celebrating all that they've done, then she was positive it had a ton to offer.

Behind her, a certain Mew peeked out from one of the booth offering festivities, watching the tiny back of the only human he knew descend. A look of unamusement overcame his features as he stared on in abject disdain.

Oh, you silly human! he thought. There was to be this... congregation of... celebration occurring and you gave me absolutely no word of it?! How am I to continue my studies? How am I to find out more about you odd, upright-walking embodiments equal to us Pokemon? We have a deal! A deal! The Mew harrumphed inwardly. Well, if this is the game you must play, thrusting out this pawn into battle, I will make it across the board as a queen!

Using Transform, the Mew took the form of a Chingling — something more suitable for the festival — and clambered onto the booths, hopping from them one by one, to follow the lavender-haired girl. However, a misstep caused him to fall, and he thunked right onto a pedestrian or Pokemon's head; much to his chagrin.

This is going to put a damper on my plans, he mentally sighed. Ah, Arceus, why can you not make my ventures easier? I've never wronged a soul, how can you?!

(( As always, quote if you want a Chingling falling on your head or you happen to notice/know Magnolia. n . n))

Quinn felt like he was seeing the Okami gods themselves as dizziness overcame him. Had he not shaken himself to his senses, he never would've heard what the Darkrai had to say. The Mew opened his mouth to reply, but the only thing voiced was the little chime of bells, so he hopped up and, in a glow of white, transformed back into his original form. Floating above his fellow legendaries, touch, he folded his paws across his chest and nodded his head.

"Of course I will, as long as you agree to the same conditions," he said. "Studying humans in their natural habitat takes first priority currently and I'd rather not have them disturbed by the sight of either of us. I'll agree to keep your identity shrouded in, heh, shadows if you too don't out my identity. Both of us would surely garner attention just by appearance alone and having humans stare in awe breaks them of their natural cycle for some reason or another. While I would like to press my studies further here, this isn't the time nor the place."

Parn had been clinging to the tarp of a game booth, peeking right over the edge to observe the Pokemon playing it. It was a simple game; you pull one of hundreds of strings draped into a curtain, thus lifting the prize attached to the other end. Which string is connected to which object? Anyone's best guess, really- since each thread led into a system of criss-crosses and were laid about in a rather disorderly fashion.

Almost half of the threads led to nothing except for the host's announcement of 'try again!' - but there were many types of prizes to appeal to anyone. Among them, fancy pokeballs, tickets to cruises, various plushies, clothing items and knickknacks, even small, useful devices and an evolutionary stone. There were, however, more bookmarks than anything else.

The odds were against you, except if you were Parnérique Jocelin Xavier Faustine d'Astel-Vivienne Syzygy. Silly human. Didn't they know that there was a fundamental flaw to their game? For a spider pokemon such as herself, it was child's play to recognize vibrations. After squatting and learning the signatures of pulleys for awhile, Parn was confident that she could get any prize she wanted. And she was going to go for the jackpot.

If only that pathetic Dedenne, the current client, would stop trying to pull up the Thunder Stone on the other side of its thread, it'd be her turn already. It had paid its fee with a couple Big Mushrooms, which it should have held on to until after the game for the extra gravity assist, from the looks of it.
"Dedenne! Denne!" it pleaded, only to be met with a shake of the booth owner's head.
"If you can't pull the rope, you can't get the prize. Better choose another rope."
Ah, yes, thought Parn. Of course, so many of the threads led to no prize, and just as many to much cheaper prizes, that'd probably work out well for him wouldn't it?

...Well, she was bored of watching the critter struggle. She had a measure of sympathy for the tiny, having once been a diminutive Bachuru herself. With a chittery noise that almost resembled a sigh, Parn scuttled down one of the booth's poles to assist the small hamster pokemon. The Dedenne seemed frightened, eyes widening. She pulled the thread, and up went the prize.

The booth owner's face fell as he handed over his most expensive prize. Suddenly glittering all over with gratitude, the Dedenne piped a happy , stuffed the Thunder Stone into a cheek to carry it, and then stumbled away awkwardly due to the unbalanced weight.

She turned to the human. It was her turn. Ohhh, yesss.

====

A show of mighty "luck" later, Parn was loaded. It had taken 7 consecutive wins before she was banned from the booth. She felt rich, too, with her spun spidersilk bag of prime loot, carrying it on her back so that it wouldn't be mistaken for an egg sac. That'd be embarassing, and she'd have to run from all of the humans and pokemon who are violently phobic about the impending birth of thousands of spiderlings. Just thinking about it got her into kind of a vindictive mood, and so she savored her goods all the more.

She was about to wander back to Lore and make use of the human's deep, loot-holding pockets, when she saw a... it was a Raikou, but colored differently from any picture she'd seen. A... cloned Raikou, perhaps? Or just rare, like Donut? Two other things became immediately clear, given the reactions and the faces of the humans around it, who were all giving it wide berth:
One, that the Raikou was ignorant of human ways, and as such, had not paid for its food.
Two, that the Raikou was hungry.
The Galvantula pondered how to approach them for all of three seconds before she shot web at the booth and spidered herself over.
"Wh- no! Not another one! Get away from my food, you- oh."
The booth owner had, of course, begun to protest- but stopped short when a brand new holo-caster was laid on their counter. With the tip of a claw, Parn slid it toward them.
"Gal. Galvantula."
"Hmm... well, I suppose this covers the cost. But I'm afraid I still need to call security. Those are the rules if we spot any disruptive behavior, and this wild pokemon is only going to be trouble for everyone."
She supposed he was trying to speak gently about it. With a pop from Parn's loot bag, something rolled onto the counter.
It was an ultra-ball, and also, clearly, a bribe. With that, she swung onto the Legendary's back.
<Come on, Raikou. There are free drinks and barbecue on top of the hill, where there's a fireworks contest. You can eat your fill there.>
For good measure, she added:
<Barbecue is meat, you know. Grilled meat. It is a heavenly smell that you will never forget.>

They had to get away before the human had the time to decide how to react.