Back in the previous bed of one of the world's darkest secrets-now turned Avali base, the Black Isle, it was time for something education to occur. Mattias wanted to be the one to come here but he has been busy, so instead another human was sent in his place. He is currently walking down a hallway to the room where he is supposed to give a demonstration for the Avali pack that have taken over this structure. One of the cleaning drones passes by his feet and he tries not to step on it. He is also being followed by something else...something mechanical that is walking on all fours. When they get to the door they both stop and the man speaks. "I will go in first, I will introduce myself, then you can come and I will introduce you. Do you understand, machine?" He looked to the pixelated yellow-cyan pupils being displayed on the mechanical creature's eyes It responded with a simple nod. "Very good then." The man looks forward at the door in front of him before reaching a hand to the button on the wall beside it to make it slide open, then he walks into the room. He looks around to confirm the presence of the Avali pack.
The Avali are indeed there. Nezami is sitting at one of the consoles, but it appears as if she isn't doing much, while the rest are either sitting on the chairs or laying about in the strangely ornate hammocks. "Ah, there you are." Nezami greets him. "We've been expecting you."
"Greetings." The human proceeds to introduce himself. "My name is Mason, Age 350. Campbell family generation number #15-A. My work involves testing new exotic inventions but I am currently standing in for a colleague." The door that the human came in through opened once again and a large robotic reptile walked in. Most of its body is violet in color, although its face, claws, abdomen, and tail are gray. Its head has a dark purple casque, circular purple cheeks, two pairs of antennae, and black eyes. The eyes have a pixelated display, showing yellow-cyan pupils. The robot sat down beside the human, looked to the Avali and lifted one of it's arms to wave to them. "And this is what I am currently testing right now. One of our most recent creations. So far it's name is currently settled as 'Miraidon'."
"Ah. You're talking about Boris's boss I presume?" Nezami replies. "So this Miraidon... what is it and what does it do?"
"It's my assistant. This isn't a mon we will be talking about in detail. Miraido is just to demonstrate to me if it can assist and do simple tasks." Mason snaps his finger and points to the door on the other side of the room, he is expecting something to come through it...it doesn't. "...I should have expected that. Miraidon, go fetch the subject, now." Obey the command, the robotic reptilian moves to that door the man ordered him to go through, making it's way through when it slid open to allow access through the doorway. When it came back it brought something in its mouth, a pokemon...looks like a pink mammalian with a tapering tail. Miraidon places this pokémon the floor and goes back to sit beside Mason. "Yes, this is what we will be talking about, the Slowpoke." Mason points to this pink pokémon. This creature, the 'Slowpoke', slowly sits itself. Its eyes are vacant and don't look like they are looking in two different directions even. The pokémon sits there with a dopey smile. "Now..." The man looks to Miraidon. "Start giving the basic explanation about it from the database." Given permission to speak, the robot does so. "Incredibly slow and dopey. It takes 5 seconds for it to feel pain when under attack. It lazes vacantly near water. If something bites its tail, it won't even notice for a whole day."
"Still faster than an Occasus APC". Nezami chuckles, and she is joined by the shared chuckles of her pack. The chuckle soon subsides though, and she motions for him to "Continue."
Mason paces around the Slowpoke as he explains. "It has psychic powers, but it has a notoriously dim intellect so it's hard to notice. You also be upfront of the fact that this subject has simply been taken from his home, that is to say, a group of Slowpoke, they are one of the few species that remain rather primitive compared to the world around them because of their mental capacity. This one won't miss his group, I can guarantee you it does not know what its situation is right now...it probably even forgotten it was part of a group, it forgets everything easily." He proceeds to grasp one of the Slowpoke's curled ears to make it look up at him. "You do not remember anything, do you?" The dim witted pokémon just looks up at with that dopey smile and vacant eyes, he is just short of drooling, like he isn't even mentally 'there' so to speak. "...f....fuuud." It might be hungry though. The human let go of it and continues. "Slowpoke tails are considered a delicacy, and can be eaten by itself or used as an ingredient in a number of dishes. It is one of the very few meat items that you probably wouldn't consider 'immoral' to eat, especially considering the fact their tails can grow back."
"Well.." Nezami looks over to the side awkwardly on that last comment. "It's not really about whether or not it grows back. That's all fine and good, but it's more about whether it hurts them, and whether they need it." "I mean, imagine if your limbs grow back. It's a bit like us sawing off your leg because it's a 'delicacy'. Not a pretty picture, no?" Rhaun looks at Mason with a somewhat angry stare. "Yeah, at least the USCM freaks that used to run this place killed their subjects before dissecting and eating them." Kasala says with disapproval. "Though not before torturing them before that." Nuko adds in. "And then said carcasses were drenched in god knows what for preservation before they dissected them." "Anyway, I do suggest we change the subject." Nezami says, attempting to defuse this topic before it becomes a problem. "Yeah, before the ghosts around here hear you talking about chopping limbs off of mons to eat them." Nuko adds in. "Let's just say they wouldn't take too kindly to that kind of talk, to put it lightly." Kasala adds in with a tone thinly veiling a threat. "Especially from a human." "Actually, that reminds me, didn't Lowie say he was a slowpoke at some point?" Rhaun remembers. "And didn't he have something similar happen to him..." "Couldn't tell nowadays, but yeah." Kasala confirms. "It's ironic, now that he's a haunter he's a motor-mouthed speed demon." "As. I. Said." Nezami once again tries to shift the topic away, especially before one of their hosts notices what they're talking about. "Moving on."
Mason just looked at them with a poker-face as they spoke. Truth be told it was a slightly incensing response to him him overall, he didn't expected supposed 'predators' to be so adamant about not eating meat from what he sees doesn't have the mental capacity to even care, such bleeding they must have. But he understands that maybe, just maybe they are trying to appease the ghosts as much as possible? No, that decision of theirs clearly came to from sentimentality for those spirits. But it's not his place to care about this, if that's their decision on the matter so be it, not like it's getting the way but to Mason's cold calculating mind it just seems a little bit inefficient. But this isn't the backbone of what he wants to show them, the denial of a possible source of food is just a minor, irrelevant miscalculation. "You aren't wrong about the fact that he would feel his tail was cut off, eventually..." The Slowpoke slowly leans back until ends up falling on it's back, having fallen down because of his dimwittedness. a good few seconds later he began rolling on his side trying to reorient himself. "So, that is the Slowpoke. It really lives to his name. Doesn't it?" Mason looked at the pink pokemon loafing around before turning to Miraidon. "Bring in subject number 2 now." The the robotic lizard went to fetch the next 'subject', whatever it might be. It turns to be some sort of mollusk encased within a spiky, blue-violet bivalve shell. It has two eyes and long tongue sticking out of the darkness inside that shell. "Careful! Careful! you are moving too fast!" It spoked, sounds like it's a female too. She's a agitated from being carried by jaws, even if they aren't putting crushing force on her. Only when she was placed down did she calmed down. "Now here is subject number 2, she willingly agreed to perform symbiosis with subject 1." He stated so the Avali know she isn't here against her will. "Miraidon, data on number 090, Shellder, if you would." Miraidon begins speaking again to explain what this new pokémon is. "It swims facing backward by opening and closing its two-piece shell. It is surprisingly fast. Grains of sand trapped in its shells mix with its body fluids to form beautiful pearls." That Mollusk in her shell looked at the Avali with her wide eyes, she blends very well in the darkness of her shell and only her eyes and tongue are things that can clearly be seem. "Uhhhhmmmm, hello."
"Aww, hi there sweetie." Nezami replies sweetly to the little shelder. The others give a small friendly wave.
The Shellder then looks to the Slowpoke. "So that's the guy i'm gonna do the thing with?" She sounds disappointed. The pink pokémon's slowness dopiness being not impressive to her. "Really doesn't look like much..." "Do not worry, you will be given what was promised, possibly a more permanent home with a steady flow of nourishment. There no down sides otherwise, you just need to follow my instructions." Mason said to the Shellder. He then shows to everyone present something in his hand, it looks like a crown made from rock, it looks very old. He grasp the Slowpoke by the head to have it sit instead of just lying down before placing the object on top of his head.
The dimwitted pokémon looked like he was about to fall over again until the man pushed him a little to the right so he has something resembling balance as he sits there. "And now...let's move on to the most important part. Subject 2, assume you are ready?" "Well, okay...can't get any worse, right?" She said, pushing aside her worries. Mason slowly reached on her shell's sides to lift her up. "Good, i will give you one simple instruction very soon. I just need confirmation that this process will be seen clearly..." He said as he looked over to the Avali.
"Alright." Nezami nods. "Continue."
The Shellder is placed down mouth first on top of Slowpoke's head, going right on top of that rock object that was placed on his head. Then both of the pokémon began glowing brightly in that familiar phenomenon: Evolution. But what could this unusual method of evolution result in? They could make out Slowpoke standing up as it got taller, and the Shellder's shape becoming something else on his head. When the light faded they could see the end results. For what was once the slowpoke it didn't look like the changes were all that serious other than some growth, a spiny ruff around his neck with alternating red and white stripes and a scaled belly. At first glance it looks like he just grew up. The shellder on the other hand, looks like it went through the most radical change, her shell not resembling anything close to it's previous bivalve shape, has a spiral shape with two horns near the base and a gem at the center. The shellder seems to have transformed into a shell. "Where am I?! Who are you people?!" The evolved pokémon spoke, fluently. He expressed alarmed as he stepped away from the human, before he could walk back to fall he noticed the Avali though. In a surprising twist, this pokémon who was once so dimwitted to the point of being completely unaware of surroundings is now very much conscious and lucid.
There are murmors and confused chattering among the group of Avali as they witnessed what just happened.
"You do not have to worry, no one here is going to hurt you. Though I understand that getting awareness so suddenly can be confusing at first." Mason speaks calmly to the Pokémon, so he doesn't get any more alarmed. "You will probably put the dot's together very soon. But let me explain to our friends over there. Miraidon, give the basics on 199." The robot nodded and went ahead with that without delay. "When its head was bitten, toxins entered Slowpoke's head and unlocked an extraordinary power. Being bitten by Shellder gave it intelligence comparable to that of award-winning scientists. It is now called Slowking." Slowking is indeed already picking up on what's going on here, his memory of the past is very foggy, he didn't have the capacity to remember very well at all but he does remember that he wasn't exactly smart until whatever that was that happened just now that changed everything. And he was used to demonstrating that. "Hhhhmmm, hello. I'm not sure I have a name to begin with, unless you wish to call me Slowking, but I suppose it is nice to meet you all."
"How about we knock it down to 'King'? Rolls off the tongue easier." Rhaun suggests in regards to the name.
The Slowking smiles a little. "Yeah, that sounds way better to be honest. What happens now?" "That is for them to decide..." The human looks to the Avali, wondering if they will let this pokémon stay here with them or send him away.
"You're asking us?" Nezami asks. "Would have been nice if we had heads up about that...." They look at each other and look back at the slowking. "Well Alright. For the moment I suppose you can stay with us."
"Oh do not fret, this one you call 'King' might not be a burden to you. I calculated a 80% percent chance that if he is given less than 168 hours he could certainly learn enough of your technology and sciences to fit right into your society. Though it would only be fair if King had a say in this as well, correct?" He paused as he turned to the Slowking. "What do you say? Would you like to remain here and comprehend the future...or would you like to be released?" These people around him are the closest thing King has that can be considered 'friends', the human less so than the Avali. "If it isn't a problem for them, I do wish to stay. if it's going to be good as you are implying." "And there you have it." He looks to the Avali once more. "Are there any questions you would like to ask before we proceed to the end of this?"
"Well... a lot, but not nothing that's coming to mind right now." Nezami speaks for her pack. "Please continue."
"Alright. King, i ask you to vacate the room now, i must move on to the next topic. Please just step out through the door." "Okay." The Slowking turned to the Avali one last time to wave to them. "Until next time, right?" He walked towards the door, briefly slowing down as he pondered how he was going to open it, but it just did so on it's own, how neat. He walks through the doorway and the door closes behind him. "Now..." Mason starts speaking to the Avali pack again. "I was told that this next one would probably come as a big shock to you. You firmly believe that life originates from living, organic matter with flesh and blood, correct?" That is a very odd question, is it not?
"Well there are the Glitch" Nezami responds to that. "But they're the creations of some long-gone civilization meant to simulate societal collapse that went wrong and got stuck in the middle ages except for a few..." "You could say it's a glitch within a Glitch." Nuko laughs. "Not to mention the Novakids." Rhaun adds in, not really laughing at Nuko's attempt at a joke. "No one knows how they work, least of all the Novakids themselves."
Mason doesn't think these 'glitch' are all that different from Miraidon. "I am now aware that you do not want to accept new faces out of the blue, but someone left sugary contents exposed to open air in the kitchen and this formed as a result." He dropped a plastic bag on the floor, it looks like it's filled with liquid and it began wobbling fiercely until what was stuck inside of it got loose and began flying around while...giggling?
"Oh hi there little guy!" Nezami greets back. One might be surprised at just how easy they accept the fact that there's a sentient ball of liquid. Until they realize that they are posted to a former human military base with even less physically consistent mons of the living-impaired running around.
Said sentient ball of liquid harmlessly tackles Nezami to give a hug. "That is good." Well, if they are getting used to such a thing already, then that's good. It was expected that pokémon like these were going to be the strangest things, curveballs so to speak, so it's a bit of a surprise that the Avali aren't freaking out too much. "Miraidon..." The human didn't need to elaborate alot, the mechanical pokémon already knew what to say. "This Pokémon was born from sweet-smelling particles in the air. Its body is made of cream. They say that any patisserie visited by Milcery is guaranteed success and good fortune."
"Woahhoho!" Nezami is taken aback, as are the others. In fact, they just barely listened to the mechanical pokemon while they watched the liquid pokemon's antics.
It would appear that this flying cream likes the Avali, given how it's affectionately hugging Nezani, might leave some milk on her feathers though. Mason just decides to wait until they are done playing with it, as it looks like they are very focused on it at the moment. "So I assume you don't find any issues with that?"
"No, none at all." Rhaun says. "We have seen weirder out there." Nuko adds in.
"In that case, if you accept this pokémon as one of your own, I would advise that you help it evolve." Mason explains to them. "She can be capable of producing sweet cream...at no risk to herself physically or mentally." He said that the last part was like he put it there because of the whole 'meat eating' thing. "However, it can not evolve on its own, it has certain requirements that set it apart from all pokémon."
"You give it a strawberry and spin with it." He simply stated. "...Our science still does not properly understand the inner workings of this process, only that it works like that."
"Ummm okay then." Rhaun says, scratching his head. "You wouldn't happen to have one on you, would you? It might save us some time."
"Yes, I do, I came prepared for this." The human said before tossing Strawberry to Rhaun. "Spin clockwise for less than 5 seconds for Vanilla. Spin counterclockwise for less than 5 seconds for Ruby. Spin counterclockwise for more than 5 seconds for Ruby Swirl. Spin clockwise for more than 5 seconds for Caramel Swirl."
Rhaun catches the strawberry. He scratches his head again, and looks over to the pokemon. As luck would have it, Nezami and crew are already giggling and spinning it around. Counterclockwise from the looks of things. "Here, catch!" Rhaun tosses the strawberry to the mon, carefully aiming so she'll hopefully catch it mid-spin.
The cream pokémon caught the strawberry in her mouth. The process is almost complete, but to seal the result it will depend if they spin her for less or more than 5 seconds straight.
Completely unaware of things, the pair continue spinning, just over five whole seconds before they stop. "Well.." Nezami and crew laugh. "That was fun."
Right when they stopped the Milcery began to glow, She is evolving in their hands, getting slightly bigger and forming into actual cream rather than milk, looking like a vaguely anthropomorphic being made out of whipped cream with a large crowning blob flanked by two loop-like "bangs" made of strawberry. Milcrey has evolved into an Alcremie, and she is very happy and feels welcome into this existence. Due to the spinning process that they used, they ended up getting a Ruby Swirl Strawberry Flavored Alcremie.
"W-woah!" Nezami gasps as she holds the weird strawberry swirl pokemon in her hands. "W-What did you do?" She asks.
"It evolved. Simple as that." Mason said that all matter-of-fact-y. The nearly evolved bundle of joy is so happy that it starts shooting cream from its hands, some of it ends up in Nezami's mouth, and it is indeed pretty sweet and tastes like strawberry. "Please be careful about leaving large amounts of sugary contents in one place exposed to open air." The human advised them, because while this mon is cute, they wouldn't want their entire sugar coming to live now, would they?
"Well, alright." Rhaun says. "Still, this will be very much a reprieve from the normal rations we have."
"Very good then. For the time being that's all there is to teach about pokémonkind, but there will be more in the future." And with that, Mason turned to leave...Miraidon was about to do the same but he stopped the robotic pokémon. "No, you stay." Miraidon is curious as to why, but he simply obeys without question and sits down. "I will leave Miraidon here to get data on how it adapts to a 'social' environment. It is part of testing. I trust he won't be a problem..." Then the human leaves the room. The robot is feeling perplexed at the sudden leave of his handler while he stays behind. Is this a test too? He slowly turned his head to look at the Avali pack. Right now he will only speak when allowed to.
"Well... looks like we have another robot around." Rhaun comments as he looks at the robot.
"May I be of assistance...?" The Miraidon says to them, as he doesn't know WHAT to do, he is lost already without anyone telling him what to do.
"Not at the moment." Rhaun replies to him. "We'll let you know if we need something later."
"Understood." It replied simply. It's not much but at least it's enough to stave off the robot's discomfort with the lack of orders.
Despite the robot's initial 'disappointment', later in the day once the excitement over the other mon has died down some, the others are able to give it some other tasks to do. Menial tasks at first, but it's a start. A boring start, but a start nonetheless.
Lightyears away however, in an unknown system, an all too familiar group's current activities could be described as anything other than 'boring'. A fact made evident as a missile very nearly dodges a fully armored avali's head.
