video, about a week after prom

[fingersandteeth]

[Usually when Steven does a video post or message on the pokegear--getting more and more common as the weeks go on as he gets used to his old (if definitely older-looking) face again--the background is a finished basement, which slowly but surely becoming filled with more and more ghosts.

Not this time. This time Steven's in what looks like some kind of... well. Drinking establishment. One that's in the process of being refurbished. He gives the camera a friendly smile.

As usual with him, the video is captioned.]

Hi. I'm Steven Durante, which I suppose some of you might already know. I'm here to talk about... well. Employment opportunities for people. My friend Tyler Huang and I are going into business in Goldenrod in the upcoming months with a combination drinking establishment and underground fighting establishment. [Brief pause.] Literally underground, that is. It'll be taking place in the basement. Hand-to-hand, of course, since that's really the only option here.

Tyler and I already have financial backing sorted out. We're now looking for other people to work here. We need bouncers and bartenders primarily. It's steady work with regular hours and a competitive wage, which we intend to keep pace with cost of living increases. And, of course, there will be an employee discount. Besides that, we're all otherworld transfers, so we understand when... incidents happen.

[Another brief pause.]

Also, Lydia wants me to tell people that she's also hiring for a business venture of her own in Ecruteak. Since she's opening up a nightclub, she'll need much the same when it comes to having bartenders and bouncers, but she's also looking for professional or skilled amateur dancers willing to turn professional in order to provide the entertainment.

All of us are advertising in the normal public jobseeking channels, of course, but we wanted to make sure that our fellow otherworld transfers are specifically informed. And also, I suppose, to create some anticipation when it comes to the fighting establishment aspect.

Anyway. If you're interested, please leave a message here; we're all keeping tabs on this one. Otherwise, please direct message me, Lydia, or Tyler. Text is preferable for Tyler. Lydia and I are fine with whichever format.

Comments

[meteorman]

So long as that doesn't conflict with the treasure hunting expedition I'm planning to go on, absolutely.

[He has priorities. A treasure hunt isn't a long-running sort of thing. You have to get on that while the getting's good. A fighting ring, meanwhile, is likely to last until the Jennies decide they don't like it.]

I'd love to see you at Horizon either way.

[fingersandteeth]

Oh right, that one Korra announced. I kind of wish I had the free time to go on it too, but we've got so much to do here to get the fight club and the dive bar ready in time--especially if we want to be ready by the end of May.

Oh well, at least I got to do a little treasure hunting at prom--I found the most amazing statue of a gengar, posed like a medieval gargoyle. A gengargoyle, if you will. [He laughs, shaking his head.] My boyfriend hates it, so I've had to keep it in the basement with the rest of my ghosts.

[Not even a bit of hesitation on 'boyfriend' this time. Maybe it's minor, but he's proud of himself.]

I'm definitely going to Horizon, though--you've got a museum attached to your gym, right? The review I read sounds fascinating. The only question is 'when.'

[meteorman]

[At least he's casually coming out to the right guy. Ford doesn't even acknowledge the use of the word, or at least, he doesn't seem taken aback by it. You can't be straight in space. It's fine.]

It's more accurate to say that the gym is attached to the museum. More specifically, it's up top.

[It's in the big dome. He couldn't not put a big dome up there. It can even open for aerial battles!]

I'd be very interested in pictures of your gengargoyle. If I couldn't attend then I have to live vicariously through the people that did.

[fingersandteeth]

[It really does get a little easier each time he casually comes out to people. It's nice.]

Give me a moment. I've got some pictures of it stored on the 'gear--I'll send it to you.

[And sure enough, less than a minute later, there'll be a ping notifying Ford that the photos of the gengargoyle in question are there. Though, ah, the presence of the secret compartment is not documented in these photographs.]

Isn't it beautiful? I found a spell tag too and a fossil--though I haven't revived it yet. I wasn't exactly very lucky with my first fossil experience.

[meteorman]

It's stunning.

[He means that. Ancient artifacts are a particular special interest of his, and that looks... may not ancient, exactly, but finely aged. It's in remarkably good condition. He is absolutely going to try and see it in person at some point if he can. He's already trying to puzzle out what purpose it might have served (protection of the dreams of those sleeping within?) when Steven says something about fossils. Oh, right. Conversation.]

Unlucky? How so?

[fingersandteeth]

Oh God. So I was out walking with my boyfriend—this was a couple months ago, just after we officially got together—and this muddy woman in a lab coat comes up to us and presses these equally muddy Pokeballs into our hands and just— runs off. So we open them, right? And inside, well—

Let me just show you the pictures.

[Oh look, it's a Dracozolt and an Arctozolt, the first of which looks pretty cheerful despite its mismatched halves, the second of which looks cold and miserable.]

Those are Piltdown and God's Mistake, respectively.

[About half the story, by the way, is a lie. The muddy woman definitely did press equally muddy pokeballs on them and just fuck off, but it wasn't while they were out walking.

It was in the middle of Dirk's museum heist and it was almost certainly a bribe so the Rockets on the scene didn't mention that the mysterious C. Liss had been sneaking around the Pewter Museum fossil storage facility.

For some reason, the admins decided keeping the fossil abominations was a good mission reward.]

[meteorman]

Oh. Yikes.

[Thirty years in the multiverse means he's seen his share of teleporter accidents or mutant abominations. These look kind of like that. Less viscera, but the unfortunate silhouettes are the same.]

Fascinating, but yikes. It reminds me a little of early paleontologists simply smashing bones together to see what stuck.

[That's a very simplistic way of putting it, but listen, none of his PhDs are in paleontology.]

[fingersandteeth]

That's what Dr Spengler thought when we showed them to him--ah, that the woman had smashed some bones together and reanimated them that way. 'C. Liss,' we're calling her. That's the name that was embroidered on her coat pocket

Evidently she thrust another one like God's Mistake on Steve Palchuk--you know, that high school kid that travels around selling candy?--when he was in Pewter. That's how we found out that it hadn't just been just us, because Steve posted some footage of his on the 'gear. And she's probably given them to God knows how many people from this world too. Either her or someone mailed one like mine to one of the guys who's really into fossils. I want to say his name's Diego? Yeah, Diego.

And my friend Carly did a blind trade on the Cycling Road with someone from this world and she got another fossil chimera too, only hers had a bottom like Piltdown and a head like neither of them. Which means there's probably a variation out there with a head like Carly's and a body like God's Mistake.

[Steven sighs.] Well. After that I'm a little leery about fossils in general.

[meteorman]

[Ford doesn't know that high school kid that travels around with the candy, but he nods as though he does. He's been out of touch for several months and frankly doesn't keep very strong tabs on the 'gear even when he's not. He's got books to read and scathing scientific journal opinion pieces to write.]

Interesting. So despite their haphazard nature, there are set combinations. Either someone is delusional enough to think these configurations are correct, or these are the only configurations that are able to successfully resurrect to begin with.

I'm sure there are scientists who would be very interested in getting a look at them. My specialty isn't in fossil resurrection or I'd count myself among them.

Are they, uh... happy?

[That's the important thing, really. If they're able to survive with their strange bodies then that's very different from if they're constantly in pain. That's about how he feels about his Silphally, too. MIPS may glitch but it doesn't reduce his quality of life.]

[fingersandteeth]

I mean, just from my brief encounter with her, I'd suspect it's the former.

[Steven does not have a high opinion of C. Liss.]

And-- Piltdown's pretty happy. Carly's chimera is pretty happy. Poor God's Mistake, though, spends a lot of his time shivering.