[text / action for Goldenrod / go ahead and make mingley top levels if you want]

[meteorman]

A. Text

To whom it may concern,

This is an invitation to a casual Hanukkah celebration to be held tonight at the Skellington House in north Goldenrod. Food will be provided, though if you wish to bring some to share I'm certain that no one will object.

No RSVP necessary. Anyone who would like to is welcome to stop by*. In strange times and places it pays to be able to find common ground in what little may be familiar.

- Dr. Stanford Pines

*Except for Rick Sanchez, unless he promises to behave himself. There will be children in attendance.

B. Action

[The mansion is hard to miss, partially because it's awfully large and partially because beneath the Christmas decorations the Halloween ones still appear to be up. Add the menorah in the window and the combined light the place gives off is probably visible from space.

As promised there is food: it's not a proper sit-down dinner, considering he figures people will keep trickling in as they have the time, but there are latkes and sufganiyot (he may have asked for Mabel's help with those) along with more Johto-appropriate foods and some things that fall squarely in-between. There are also driedels available, with markings that appear to be painted on in glitter, for people who would like to play or at the very least learn how.

It ought to be a nice night.]

Comments

[sneezelikeakitten]

[She is very delightful if a bit shy. Dipper takes the package and looks down at it.]

Thanks! Is it okay to open it?

[meteorman]

By all means, go ahead!

[Inside is a cloth case complete with pencils, pens, and even a couple of different erasers.

He looks at Dipper with that particular Ford-brand smile. Did he do good?]

[sneezelikeakitten]

[................................................]

This is amazing!

[You get a hug, Ford!]

Thanks! I love it!

[meteorman]

[SUCCESS. He somewhat awkwardly puts a hand on Dipper's shoulder, which is just about as close as he's good at getting to a hug. He's doing his best.]

I felt artistic abilities like yours deserved the appropriate tools.

[sneezelikeakitten]

Wait, you like my drawings?

[AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH THAT'S SUCH HIGH PRAISE THE BEST COMPLIMENT HE COULD GET FROM FORD OTHER THEN METICULOUS RESEARCH]

[meteorman]

I certainly do! With practice and polish you may one day be as good as I am, but I found your additions to my journal very well-done.

[Particularly the biology-accurate dinosaurs. He wouldn't expect that out of most kids Dipper's age. It's that kind of attention to detail that's praiseworthy.]

[sneezelikeakitten]

[Dipper does his best! Being an artist seems to run in parts of the family. So of course detail was closely paid attention to.]

Wait till you see some of the journal entries I've made for this place!

[His Pokemon even help by modeling.]

[meteorman]

[Even Stanley is something of an artist, Ford has to begrudgingly admit. Sure, his mediums are taxidermy (and apparently blimp design and corn statuary?) but Ford's PhD in the Fine Arts requires him to acknowledge that those mediums are still, to a degree, artistic in nature. The Pines family is just a creative bunch. It's genetic, probably.]

I would very much like to see them before we find ourselves on opposite sides of Johto again. We can compare notes. I'd like to see what you make of the progress I have on the Elgyem/Beheeyem code.

[sneezelikeakitten]

That'd be great! [Comparing notes like real scientists!]

I've been mostly studying the Pokemon in my party along with the whole evolutionary line of Eevee's to see if I can crack the specific genetic code as to why they evolve into the ones they do. There's gotta be more than just friendship, stones, and affection at work.

[meteorman]

[FINALLY SOMEONE ELSE AGREES WITH HIM HERE]

I've been thinking along much the same lines. Have you noticed the bright light always involved in evolution? It's an incredible expense of energy and what I would like to know is where exactly that energy comes from. Theoretically it must stem from experience, or friendship, or stones, but how is the conversion made? There must be a universal mechanism.

[sneezelikeakitten]

[NO ONE ELSE WANTS TO HEAR HIS THEORIES EXCEPT A LOST GIRL IN THE WOODS AND FORD]

Well, some of the older stories I've come across mention Pokemon coming from space, which doesn't make much sense compared to the stories about Arceus being the creator. They could all be aliens and this is how they keep their species alive through rapid evolution. The energy expended could be like how our bodies as we get older use more energy to grow. We just don't sparkle like they do. [Still.] There's gotta be some sort of inert energy in those rocks that cause a shift on that massive a scale.

[meteorman]

[WELL THAT'S JUST A CRYING SHAME]

I am inclined to agree with you. If anything I believe that humans are the non-native species in this world; we have a tendency to find our way into universes and establish a flourishing population no matter how adverse the conditions. Pokemon have domesticated humans, not the other way around; we are in essence tickets to faster evolution as well as guaranteed quality of life.

[he will hold onto this theory with both hands tbh until someone pries it from all twelve of his cold dead fingers]

It's something like adding fuel to a fire, I think. Evolutionary stones are the equivalent of pouring on half a bottle of lighter fluid at once.

[sneezelikeakitten]

[ISN'T IT?]

Then that begs the question as to how humans got here. There's no records of it, but then again there's very few Pokémon that have the intelligence to record history. All we've got is hieroglyphic style writing that they haven't dated back at all. So we don't know how or when the earliest humans made it to this world... but I agree with the domestication theory! Humans being around means easier food sources and safer places to just be themselves. Everything around here revolves around Pokemon, not like back home where it's all about humans.

[This is frustrating.]

So the potential is always there, it just needs the right catalyst.