Clover
neither simple, nor coherent.
Sayoko was worried about Miss Midnight. First she didn't see her for nearly a month, causing Sayoko to have to forgo the planned March Safari Zone contest. Then when she finally did show, trudging into the Safari Zone headquarters at four in the morning with something like three new pokémon to find pokéballs for, she said nothing in response to Sayoko's questioning about where had she been, did you know how worried you made us, where did these come from, you weren't off playing in the areas for the last few weeks were you? The one thing Midnight had said regarding it all was... "Space aliens! From outer space!" before falling flat onto the administration's couch and sleeping for the next ten hours.
Maybe the stress of running it all by herself had finally made her crack.
It was a few days after the incident. Sayoko and Midnight were lunching on igglybuff-prepared pancakes with pecha berries and white apricorn smoothies. (Although the new addition tried his darnedest to prepare the meals, most everything ended up overcooked, undercooked, overmixed, undermixed... he seemed to get the hang of breakfast foods, though. They'd had eggs and toast for supper last night.) Sayoko was trying to bring the supposed leader of the Safari Zone's attention to the papers she'd written up regarding the upcoming contest, but she seemed to be distracted with praising her new apparent mascot character.
"Miss Midnight..."
"Aww, that was soooo yummy, Len! You're getting better every day!" Midnight threw the pink pokémon into the air, caught him, and rubbed his plushy cheek against hers. The igglybuff wore a smug smile, enjoying the attention. "Don't you think so, Sacchan?" she asked, not even bothering to turn to look at her.
Sayoko resisted the impulse to pull out her silver hair. "Yeah, it was great, but Miss Midnight, this is..."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, the contest," she said absently, bouncing the balloon pokémon on her knee. "This month, we should see who's got the cutest, roundest, most adorablest pokémon in all the land!" She winks at the puffball, adding in a sing-song voice, "I know who would win~"
Sayoko groaned softly, holding her hand to her face. "And this is why you're not allowed to enter yourself..." she mumbled. Spinning the clamped documents to show her supposed superior, she commented, "Look, I was thinking of adapting some of the ideas from last month's - March's, you know?"
"Mhm," she grunted, standing from the table and rolling the depressingly useless baby up and down her arms.
"We were going to do the shamrock, luck-of-the-Irish theme?"
"Yep." Dribbling him like a basketball on the ground, though he giggled and seemed to be hurt not at all.
"Considering April's theme should be something relating to April Fool's Day..."
"'Kay." She looped her arms above her head; the puffball inflated himself to twice his size and soared through the hoop; she clapped.
"I thought we might dance around in our underwear while eating fruit loops and singing the alphabet backwards."
"Sounds like a plan."
"Miss Midnight!" Sayoko jumped up sharply, causing the plates and silverware to rattle and crash against each other. The igglybuff looked up from his games, only to start crying, rolling into full-blown sobs.
Midnight gave the redhead a stern look. "Sayoko! Now look what you've done." She kneeled down and scooped up the baby pokémon into her arms. "There, there, it's okay, nothing's gonna hurt you," she cooed to the wailing plush pokémon. "Here, let's go take a nap in my room, okay? Does that sound good? Yeah." With a weary glance over her shoulder, she mouthed the words, "Be right back."
Sayoko frowned and tossed herself on the couch. It wasn't like it was any of her business what Midnight chose to do when she wasn't around, but she had hired Sayoko to help run the contests, and she couldn't do that without input from the woman herself. The two of them had to make sure they had their act together to gain the trust of the area owners that the region wouldn't be left to rot, that they wouldn't twenty-three skidoo off to nowhere like...
Midnight's brown curls poked through the doorframe before the rest of her. She flumped down onto the couch next to Sayoko.
"Yo, sorry about that." Midnight sighed with a tinge of exasperation. "Man, if taking care of a baby pokémon is this exhausting, I never want to have kids."
Sayoko arched an eyebrow. "I thought you were having fun."
Midnight shrugged. "He's all right, but mostly I'd just like him to get happy enough to evolve." She picked up the papers, flipped through them, then smacked her fist to her palm in recognition. "Ah, right. I wanted to ask you about that Team Rocket strike the other day. Have you done anything to keep them away?"
The young girl replied with a shrug of her own. "They came and went faster than I could do anything about them. There didn't seem to be anything stolen, and I haven't seen any real mischief since then, so..." She frowned uncertainly. "The problem with a police force would be just how expansive this place is. We don't have the funds for either a full team on every area or for enough trained rapidash or dodrio - much less any aerial choices - for a mounted militia."
Midnight sighed. "Well, you have a point. I'm worried about the lengths the local Asber region has gone in the name of justice, you know? One little murder and suddenly everyone's dropping like beautiflies.* Just keep it under consideration, 'kay?"
Sayoko opened her mouth to affirm when she was interrupted by a girl's voice outside the front door.
"Did someone say... consideration?"
The wooden door swung open with a crash, and two girls wearing burgundy outfits with prominent white Rs emerged from an inexplicable fog. They each struck an obviously rehearsed pose.
"If you ask us for our consideration," began the first girl, a small, slight figure with an equally small, unsure voice. The glasses-wearing brunette sounded as if she was doing her best to remember her lines without stumbling on them; she clutched a raggedy mutark pokédoll tightly in her fist.
"We'll tell you society's contemplation," recited her partner, a notably taller and evidently more confident girl. Her shock of pink hair was topped by a tall brown cap, and her tiny shirt and tiny miniskirt barely covered her slender figure. She smirked at the bewildered pair on the couch.
"Protecting the planet from terrible blight!"
"Guarding the world's most awesome light!"
"To prove that truth and love can harm,"
"We'll show you through our grace and charm!"
"Elizabeth!"
"Parker!"
"As long as the stars shine, Team Rocket can't fail!"
"When our future's so bright, we'll always prevail!"
"Kec, kec!" An oddly-colored kecleon made itself visible out of the billowing smoke.
Sayoko and Midnight stared.
The taller girl high-fived the brunette. "Great job, Beth!" she cheered. "I knew we could pull it off! Those were the perfect lyrics."
The shorter girl blushed pink. "Th-thanks, Parker! It was all thanks to your choreography. Oh..." She pulled out a small remote control and fiddled with the dial. The fog suddenly increased in volume, spreading across the floor of the headquarters and causing the Rocket trio to cough; she quickly spun the dial the opposite way and it tapered off. "Phew..."
Midnight and Sayoko stared. Midnight cleared her throat and was the first one to find her voice. "... ... Hi."
"Silence!" Parker cried. "We will be the ones doing the talking here!"
"... Y-Yeah!" Beth said. "This is a hijacking!"
Sayoko blinked. "A hijacking of what?" she asked incredulously.
Parker smirked. "Of the Safari Zone, what else? Now... get 'em, Donnie!"
Before either of them knew what was happening, a floating red ribbon had tied them up crudely back-to-back with a roll of duct tape. The purple kecleon appeared again, sticking out his tongue and pulling down his cheek at the pair. The two yelped and squirmed as Beth and Parker fell in with duct tape of their own to finish the job.
"You won't--"
"Get away with this?" Parker completed for Sayoko as she covered the emerald-tressed's mouth, snickering. "You have no idea what our glorious plan is, so you can't say that - terribly overused cliché, by the way - for sure."
"You can't hijack a region, what are you even mmphmmph nnhrn?!" Midnight managed to say before being so rudely interrupted by tape to the mouth.
"Hey, what part of 'silence' don't you people understand?" Beth stuck her hands on her hips, looking over the two, when she noticed the papers on the edge of the coffee table. "Hey, Parker, check this out!" she said, flipping through them. "It's like blueprints to the greatest heist ever!"
Parker glanced over her shoulder, then grinned twistedly. "Hey, this is gold!" Addressing the incapacitated pair, "We were just gonna ransack this place, but this is a great way to get all the pokémon we could want to come to us! Thanks, guys!" The two winked and threw victory-sign poses, then escaped out the front door. From outside the window, they could see the Team Rocket duo pedaling away on high-speed bikes, the kecleon following on what appeared to be, absurdly, a custom-fit tricycle.
Sayoko and Midnight stared in mutual disbelief until they biked out of sight.
Maybe the stress of running it all by herself had finally made her crack.
It was a few days after the incident. Sayoko and Midnight were lunching on igglybuff-prepared pancakes with pecha berries and white apricorn smoothies. (Although the new addition tried his darnedest to prepare the meals, most everything ended up overcooked, undercooked, overmixed, undermixed... he seemed to get the hang of breakfast foods, though. They'd had eggs and toast for supper last night.) Sayoko was trying to bring the supposed leader of the Safari Zone's attention to the papers she'd written up regarding the upcoming contest, but she seemed to be distracted with praising her new apparent mascot character.
"Miss Midnight..."
"Aww, that was soooo yummy, Len! You're getting better every day!" Midnight threw the pink pokémon into the air, caught him, and rubbed his plushy cheek against hers. The igglybuff wore a smug smile, enjoying the attention. "Don't you think so, Sacchan?" she asked, not even bothering to turn to look at her.
Sayoko resisted the impulse to pull out her silver hair. "Yeah, it was great, but Miss Midnight, this is..."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, the contest," she said absently, bouncing the balloon pokémon on her knee. "This month, we should see who's got the cutest, roundest, most adorablest pokémon in all the land!" She winks at the puffball, adding in a sing-song voice, "I know who would win~"
Sayoko groaned softly, holding her hand to her face. "And this is why you're not allowed to enter yourself..." she mumbled. Spinning the clamped documents to show her supposed superior, she commented, "Look, I was thinking of adapting some of the ideas from last month's - March's, you know?"
"Mhm," she grunted, standing from the table and rolling the depressingly useless baby up and down her arms.
"We were going to do the shamrock, luck-of-the-Irish theme?"
"Yep." Dribbling him like a basketball on the ground, though he giggled and seemed to be hurt not at all.
"Considering April's theme should be something relating to April Fool's Day..."
"'Kay." She looped her arms above her head; the puffball inflated himself to twice his size and soared through the hoop; she clapped.
"I thought we might dance around in our underwear while eating fruit loops and singing the alphabet backwards."
"Sounds like a plan."
"Miss Midnight!" Sayoko jumped up sharply, causing the plates and silverware to rattle and crash against each other. The igglybuff looked up from his games, only to start crying, rolling into full-blown sobs.
Midnight gave the redhead a stern look. "Sayoko! Now look what you've done." She kneeled down and scooped up the baby pokémon into her arms. "There, there, it's okay, nothing's gonna hurt you," she cooed to the wailing plush pokémon. "Here, let's go take a nap in my room, okay? Does that sound good? Yeah." With a weary glance over her shoulder, she mouthed the words, "Be right back."
Sayoko frowned and tossed herself on the couch. It wasn't like it was any of her business what Midnight chose to do when she wasn't around, but she had hired Sayoko to help run the contests, and she couldn't do that without input from the woman herself. The two of them had to make sure they had their act together to gain the trust of the area owners that the region wouldn't be left to rot, that they wouldn't twenty-three skidoo off to nowhere like...
Midnight's brown curls poked through the doorframe before the rest of her. She flumped down onto the couch next to Sayoko.
"Yo, sorry about that." Midnight sighed with a tinge of exasperation. "Man, if taking care of a baby pokémon is this exhausting, I never want to have kids."
Sayoko arched an eyebrow. "I thought you were having fun."
Midnight shrugged. "He's all right, but mostly I'd just like him to get happy enough to evolve." She picked up the papers, flipped through them, then smacked her fist to her palm in recognition. "Ah, right. I wanted to ask you about that Team Rocket strike the other day. Have you done anything to keep them away?"
The young girl replied with a shrug of her own. "They came and went faster than I could do anything about them. There didn't seem to be anything stolen, and I haven't seen any real mischief since then, so..." She frowned uncertainly. "The problem with a police force would be just how expansive this place is. We don't have the funds for either a full team on every area or for enough trained rapidash or dodrio - much less any aerial choices - for a mounted militia."
Midnight sighed. "Well, you have a point. I'm worried about the lengths the local Asber region has gone in the name of justice, you know? One little murder and suddenly everyone's dropping like beautiflies.* Just keep it under consideration, 'kay?"
Sayoko opened her mouth to affirm when she was interrupted by a girl's voice outside the front door.
"Did someone say... consideration?"
The wooden door swung open with a crash, and two girls wearing burgundy outfits with prominent white Rs emerged from an inexplicable fog. They each struck an obviously rehearsed pose.
"If you ask us for our consideration," began the first girl, a small, slight figure with an equally small, unsure voice. The glasses-wearing brunette sounded as if she was doing her best to remember her lines without stumbling on them; she clutched a raggedy mutark pokédoll tightly in her fist.
"We'll tell you society's contemplation," recited her partner, a notably taller and evidently more confident girl. Her shock of pink hair was topped by a tall brown cap, and her tiny shirt and tiny miniskirt barely covered her slender figure. She smirked at the bewildered pair on the couch.
"Protecting the planet from terrible blight!"
"Guarding the world's most awesome light!"
"To prove that truth and love can harm,"
"We'll show you through our grace and charm!"
"Elizabeth!"
"Parker!"
"As long as the stars shine, Team Rocket can't fail!"
"When our future's so bright, we'll always prevail!"
"Kec, kec!" An oddly-colored kecleon made itself visible out of the billowing smoke.
Sayoko and Midnight stared.
The taller girl high-fived the brunette. "Great job, Beth!" she cheered. "I knew we could pull it off! Those were the perfect lyrics."
The shorter girl blushed pink. "Th-thanks, Parker! It was all thanks to your choreography. Oh..." She pulled out a small remote control and fiddled with the dial. The fog suddenly increased in volume, spreading across the floor of the headquarters and causing the Rocket trio to cough; she quickly spun the dial the opposite way and it tapered off. "Phew..."
Midnight and Sayoko stared. Midnight cleared her throat and was the first one to find her voice. "... ... Hi."
"Silence!" Parker cried. "We will be the ones doing the talking here!"
"... Y-Yeah!" Beth said. "This is a hijacking!"
Sayoko blinked. "A hijacking of what?" she asked incredulously.
Parker smirked. "Of the Safari Zone, what else? Now... get 'em, Donnie!"
Before either of them knew what was happening, a floating red ribbon had tied them up crudely back-to-back with a roll of duct tape. The purple kecleon appeared again, sticking out his tongue and pulling down his cheek at the pair. The two yelped and squirmed as Beth and Parker fell in with duct tape of their own to finish the job.
"You won't--"
"Get away with this?" Parker completed for Sayoko as she covered the emerald-tressed's mouth, snickering. "You have no idea what our glorious plan is, so you can't say that - terribly overused cliché, by the way - for sure."
"You can't hijack a region, what are you even mmphmmph nnhrn?!" Midnight managed to say before being so rudely interrupted by tape to the mouth.
"Hey, what part of 'silence' don't you people understand?" Beth stuck her hands on her hips, looking over the two, when she noticed the papers on the edge of the coffee table. "Hey, Parker, check this out!" she said, flipping through them. "It's like blueprints to the greatest heist ever!"
Parker glanced over her shoulder, then grinned twistedly. "Hey, this is gold!" Addressing the incapacitated pair, "We were just gonna ransack this place, but this is a great way to get all the pokémon we could want to come to us! Thanks, guys!" The two winked and threw victory-sign poses, then escaped out the front door. From outside the window, they could see the Team Rocket duo pedaling away on high-speed bikes, the kecleon following on what appeared to be, absurdly, a custom-fit tricycle.
Sayoko and Midnight stared in mutual disbelief until they biked out of sight.
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