Fits Like Gloves
E.I.G.
Robo-Bird
- Pronouns
- It/They
--- Fits Like Gloves ---
Alexa emerged from her plain pokeball again, this time into the main lobby of Beveler and Awl. "Ah, those are more familiar faces," the old leatherworker, Roland, said as William and Charizard both returned to pokemon form. "They are ready. Plain and simple, although you will be lucky if they stay that way."
"Am I being included in that assessment?" William cautiously asked about the strangely worded statement as he recreated his normal human illusion.
"With magic this potent it is best to let the owner's energy determine what things look like," a new voice said. An almost familiar looking woman dressed like a witch in a blue dress with a black cape and hat was at one corner of the room, and Roland seemed to be the only one not surprised to see the woman. "My name is Lily, and a certain Thunder Pokemon let me know there was a new Legendary magic user in the region. Apparently he heard a rumor that she needed some instruction."
"The Witch from the Johto anime?" Charizard asked, and Alexa blinked at the realization that episode they had discussed back when Alexa was first turning into a pokemon apparently was based on a real person.
"Yes," Lily said with a sigh after Charizard's translator repeated his words. "That is the place most people know me from. Not sure I like a pokemon recognizing me from it, but I guess some have to have watched cartoons too. I'm more than willing to explain the reality of that one, but we should have time. I intend to at least get your Mephagic started on safe magic use."
"Well, first off that is my trainer, and not the other way around. Second, as you will see soon, Alexa is not just a Mephagic," Charizard said for her. "We are here for some fairly unique leatherworking."
"Not that unique. I've made some for a Mew before and they are also shapeshifters," Roland specified. "But as I was trying to say, we have two true shapeshifters here for gloves and one illusionist. For the Char I don't even mean what he just did to get here quietly, and his trainer has two other forms in addition to human, although I haven't seen one yet."
"I was saving Vespikiln for when we tested the gloves," Alexa informed the Witch so Roland wouldn't have to explain everything. "That one can't be reversed as easily as the others." Yet, she needed to work more on what Celebi had taught them.
"Vespikiln?" Lily asked a bit warily. "Their magic is a bit more... energetic. I didn't realize they were also human, but I guess that would explain why they are so secretive about the few hives that still exist."
"We cannot tell my mom there are still hives where they live," Alexa sighed at that news.
"Especially not until the Bugsy thing is just a memory," Charizard warned. "I know you said she calmed down enough that you trust her not to burn down the Gym, but I do not trust that she won't have someone else do it for her."
Lily blinked a couple of times. "I think I will want to wait to get started until after you are out of town," the Witch admitted.
"I'll need all of you in your base forms for this, given those are what the gloves are starting out as," the leatherworker grumbled.
"That's going to be about an hour for me," Charizard said with some embarrassment. "I've got layers to get through."
"Maybe it would be a good distraction to go over that cartoon incident while we wait?" William suggested. "Because I am a bit worried now about how real the spell from that one was."
"Ah, that. To be clear, when I actually met Champion Ketchum the spell we tried was a different one," Lily admitted as Charizard solidified back into a pure Water type with a splash of Contagion Cure. Which made the Witch look even more confused for a moment before she continued. "We used a more general spell that makes a human into what pokemon they would be, instead of just one that makes you able to understand pokemon a bit too much."
"So, is that a pokemon other than a human, like the Pikachu in the show, or a pokemon species that is also human like Mephagic?" Alexa had to ask to get started on those details.
"You are one of those people who know there isn't actually much difference between a human and any other pokemon species, aren't you?" Lily questioned critically. "That's going to make magic either too easy or too hard for that kind of thing. Technically speaking, it could also be used for turning one pokemon into another they are specifically linked to if you used it on a pokemon properly."
"So it might turn me into something Water typed?" Charizard specified. "Makes sense to me."
"There is an implication there that a pokemon might end up human with that logic," William added with some worry. "I know it probably isn't the best to be concerned about that, but with how travel with Alexa and her team has gone it is on my list of worries."
"If you think about that option immediately then it is probably likely, at least for that spell," Lily strongly warned them. "To be honest, 'what pokemon they would be' in practice would be influenced a lot by what they wanted to be, or just think they 'should be', as much as what matched their personality. Champion Ketchum admired the willpower of his Pikachu, and got along very well with the pokemon, so he ended up as one for a few days. It was a bit disappointing that they didn't really cover those days, they were fun." The Witch's smile was a bit sinister, but mostly fond.
"So the spell from the show wasn't real?" Alexa asked after Lily didn't elaborate on those antics.
"When they came to me to see if I was willing to show off that event I did ask them not to use the real spell," Lily began in a reluctant way that said the answer probably was a 'no'. "The one we actually used is fairly simple to try if you know about it, and also fairly dangerous if you mess it up. However, we needed something to show, and I knew of a much safer and more complicated spell. It was something of a joke by my mentor too, so it worked for the planned episode.
"An understanding spell. One that at the time just made it so you could understand pokemon and spoke like the specific pokemon you wanted to understand. So you ended up stuck talking like a pokemon until it wore off. We didn't think it would be too bad for anyone who went to all the trouble of casting it to have to spend a day or so speaking like a pokemon." Charizard and Alexa both laughed at the image, but Lily continued. "However, I did not think about what showing that spell with a different result on TV would cause to happen to the metaphysics of the spell itself. After at least one whole generation of kids saw that episode the spell changed to instead turn whoever it was used on into the pokemon they wanted to understand, and also still made it so they could only speak pokemon."
"Oh, that is probably an issue," Alexa said with a flinch.
"It was manageable, and taught everyone to not put a spell's details in a show without also showing exactly what it was supposed to do," Lily laughed a bit nervously. "Now you either don't see how the spell itself works, or you see the best case scenario for how the spell works. There are rumors that some mages tried to use it to make new spells too, but I don't know who or how."
"Um, I've seen some strange spells on television, the full spells," William specified with clear worry. "Are you saying that those were real?" It turned out the answer was at best 'they are now'.
---
"So since we held off until you were normal I assume you want to go first?" Roland asked as they all moved into the separate waiting area after Charizard changed back fully. The discussion had not been very serious, and the spells covered were mostly impressive looking pyrotechnics rather than practical effects.
Charizard had admittedly been distracted by a bit of worry about what would happen to his gloves. His custom pokeball had not changed, but that had not been made to change with him like these gloves. These were made for him in order to stay with him when he changed, which obviously meant they were supposed to change somewhat. "Yes, I'm either one of the stranger members of the group, or a rare normal one, and I want to know which as soon as possible," he answered. "Also I've got two things instead of just one."
"True enough," Roland admitted, and turned to William to double check that agreement.
"And I want to put it off as long as I can," William agreed as the Zoroark's illusion vanished again. "So that I know what those two get first."
"I'm staying a pokemon until it is time for me to get mine. I want to understand you entirely," Alexa noted as she glanced at the Witch who apparently was going to travel with them a bit. "Also you should test some other forms first, Charizard."
A pair of gloves for a three clawed hand was brought to him, the design fairly standard for a Charizard. They had holes in the ends for his claws, and were thick and strong to handle combat. They also currently were nearly identical to a pair Charizard could remember his biological mother wearing when they were out and about. That was likely to change soon, and at least he hoped the color would change with him as the orange leather matched his normal scales well, but would be strange with his other colorations. He was less hopeful that they would still look plain.
"There isn't anything fancy now," Roland said as he passed over the gloves. "All the impressive stuff should have happened already, this is just connection and testing. We do want to wait for the translator band a bit more, voices get tricky."
Charizard paused in his attempt to take the gloves calmly. "What about voices there?" he asked quickly.
"Communication is powerful for Legendary pokemon, mixing custom magic and advanced technology to give that ability will be less predictable," Lily explained. "That is how I worked out you would be here specifically, Roland wanted advice on that project and I recognized the description. Legendary pokemon have been known to alter devices made to assist them, and a holder made specifically for it with magic might set off that effect."
"Let's start with just the gloves," Charizard said and took the offered leather items. He tugged them on, the same way as the rough ones they had used earlier in the week for a proper fit, and felt something in the leather connect to him. There wasn't a light show, or anything blatantly apparent, but the backs did change to have a pattern of a mixture of flames and clouds. "Do we wait until I've tested some changes, or go straight to the translator band?"
"I don't think we have anything quick to reverse that actually changes your claws too much," Alexa said after they both considered those options.
The translator band was made to go around his neck, with a good sized and easy to use clasp that Charizard could quickly remove even if that meant it was impractical for combat, and the same color as the gloves. "Translator on it or off?" Charizard asked. "I was hoping to just leave the translator attached when I take it off." He then took off the translator to get ready.
"Two steps is better here, but be ready for it to change again after you put the translator on," Lily specified and Roland nodded as the leatherworker handed over the band, so he set the translator down on an available table.
There had been a few of these for fitting too, but the end result was a bit wider than any of those had been. It clicked together easily, and was far enough down Charizard's neck he could see that it for the moment matched the added patterns on the gloves. "So far about what I hoped for," he admitted despite the device being too far to get translated for the humans.
As he picked up the translator it became clear that his luck on this topic had run out. There was a clear energy to the device, and he could feel a sort of not-heat from the band now. Charizard sighed and attached the device to the little spot that was made for it to clip onto. There was a brief flash, and he did not yet look to see what happened. Charizard could feel that the small device had changed into a short pyramid shaped gemstone of some kind. "So, is that what we were expecting?" he asked, and froze at the sound of it along with most of the others. "Is that changing my voice directly?" he asked.
"That is going to be much harder to hide," William complained. "The clasp changed with that too." Charizard bent his neck more and looked down to see a currently deep red gemstone and a much stronger looking clasp.
Charizard quickly checked to see if it was still easy to remove, and after getting it off inspected the band and gem more closely. It still had the flame and cloud pattern, and the gem had some circuitry patterns inside of it, but it was also clear that the gemstone would not come out easily if at all. He clipped it back on again and asked the obvious question as far as he was concerned, "Alright, Lily, are you up for being a justification for why I suddenly have a mystical translation artifact? You are known for magic about 'understanding' pokemon."
"I was planning on it, but I did hope for something less obviously magical," the Witch said glumly. "It probably is still fragile enough to not have it on for a battle."
"I think we might want to go back to where I started today," Charizard said to change the topic from that. "That way I find out what happens when I'm able to use Acid Armor." It was quite strange to hear human language coming from his mouth. Nobody objected so they got out his Geode and once more got the Water type as his secondary. That didn't change the color of either of his new clothes, but the clouds were replaced by cresting waves and the gloves themselves actually changed to allow the webbing of his claws to easily form. "Huh, that works at least."
"They should be able to handle any environment, and given this kind of change that includes being made for someone adapted to any of them," Roland reassured him. "They can handle getting wet."
A splash of Soak, now well controlled to the point he didn't hit anything or anyone else, changed the leather and the gemstone to a dark blue that matched his coloration now and also removed the flames to just have the new waves. "Yeah, this is what I hoped for so far," he agreed and motioned to Alexa. His trainer handed over a vial of Mercury Contagion, and he carefully used it on himself in an attempt to not lose yet another of the admittedly cheap containers. His body then changed to a solid silvery blue, and the leather once more matched it with little straight lined squares as the secondary pattern. "Now for Acid Armor."
The gloves and band both melted with him as he fell into a puddle, although the translator gemstone did not and instead just floated towards his center. "Um, does that still protect him from pokeballs when they're like that? Where would he have to get hit?" Alexa questioned while Charizard tried to see if he could move the gem around instead of his original plan to go right to mimicked forms.
"Harrumph," Roland said more than made the sound. "Maybe some other craftsmen would be content with ball handling gloves that only work where they are, but a properly made pair interrupts any attunement attempts. You can technically still end up inside of one for a moment, but unless it has your energy you should come back out immediately with no damage to the device. Hitting the glove directly will allow you to deflect one, but it isn't the only protection these give."
"Ok, the real test," Charizard said as he decided to just get it over with first. With a somewhat unsure movement he raised up into his new human disguise, and took a moment to get the shape correct given his inexperience with the details needed for humans. His coloration didn't change on its own, and someone probably could tell it was just an illusion on liquid metal if they looked closely enough even with the altered colors. Strangely while the gloves reformed his band did not and the gemstone remained at his center. "How does that look?"
"You look human," Alexa said a bit faintly. "And sound it too."
"That is a lot different with the voice too," William agreed about it being an uneasy look for him. "Are you actually going to use that?"
"Unfortunately, I am quite sure this new development is going to make my newly planned family gatherings less annoying instead of more. They already asked me to use this shape for family photos," Charizard admitted. "My mothers both thought the idea was 'cute', and my brother is not going to be able to avoid it. Worst case they get a new Charizard costume to fit him in place of the Charmander one he had when we were younger. Being able to just talk will make that event easier." He sighed, which even sounded different as well. "These work then I think. Alexa, are you ready to try yours?"
"Please turn into a different shape first," his trainer requested, and Charizard was more than fine with that so he went back to the baseline for his current typing. Alexa then used Contagion Cure to turn back to human.
"Whoa, wait a second, what was that?" Lily questioned surprised with the instant change. "That looked like whatever Charizard did to change back from Steel."
"It is. Um, the full story is a bit long, and we don't want to take up Roland's time too much," Alexa admitted.
"Yeah, that probably should wait for the full Legendary discussion," Charizard agreed, and cringed at how Alexa flinched over his altered and understandable voice. "It was developed to help change back from things." The word 'developed' seemed to get the point of how complicated the topic was across and soon Alexa was being handed her own plain brown gloves.
Alexa's pair was lighter in build, if a slightly darker orange in color, compared to Charizard's battle ready pair. Which did not last as she put them on. The leather changed into a pure white base color covered almost entirely by black type symbol patterns layered over each other. "Well, at least it isn't as blunt as the pokeball," Alexa admitted. "This is almost something I would have asked for to match my Mephagic form, if I wasn't worried how it would turn out."
"It probably also glows when you are the types," William commented. "But so far these are making me feel a lot better about this whole thing."
"The pokeball?" Lily asked with some concern, and paled at the sight of it when Alexa got her custom one out to show, but thankfully did not comment yet.
"Right, so change test, might as well start with Mephagic to see how it matches," Alexa 'joked', although it was clear that was a firm topic change instead of humor. Charizard was unhappy with how often his team had to be serious about that stuff. There was a crack as she got out yet another vial that didn't make it, and her body morphed into her Mephagic form again. The gloves expanded and altered to have slits to let her own webbing through, and as expected the Poison and Water markings began to glow in appropriate colors.
"This is why I didn't make gloves for one of your other forms instead," Roland pointed out, literally pointed at the slits. "That is the kind of thing attuned gloves can do for a shapeshifter, but to make it that way to start takes twice the effort. I charge extra for gloves that work with webbed digits."
Alexa changed back and then moved to the next vial, this time of Magma Contagion. Lobasalt was a much larger form, and like usual her claws started in a shape that wasn't really a hand. The gloves this time did not cover the majority of her claws, only really going over the back and bottom of them with little justification for how they were supposed to stay on. Red and dark brown shapes of the appropriate types were lit up, and stayed that way as Alexa reshaped the claws into three fingered useful hands that could use a more proper kind of glove. Alexa's gloves followed the change of her hands like his own followed along when he tested Acid Armor.
"Alright, we're doing good so far, but the next one is where I really hope it works well," Alexa rumbled happily. "I don't want gloves on just two of my hands." Charizard was half tempted to try first with his shapechanging ability in his current form, but Alexa would have four arms much more often than he would so she really should be the one to test that.
"How many things does that reversal move work on?" Lily asked as Alexa changed back again.
"At least three methods, with a fourth we haven't tested yet that probably will too," Charizard answered while Alexa got out the much more tricky Chitin Powder. "That is why we mostly use those three, but Alexa doesn't change away from human with the one I'm using."
"'Away from human' is something I note you specified," the Witch pointed out.
"Yeah, she's probably going to use it to be human shaped for the next few days because we can't speed up turning back from Vespikiln yet," he agreed smugly. "Mercury Contagion gives illusion abilities. Although we did find out that was another known thing, sort of."
Alexa's body then changed into her Bug/Fire type form, which worked out normally, with the gloves actually splitting from one pair to two pairs. They now had a pale green and a red colored glow from the matching symbols. "Okay, that's all I was hoping for here," Alexa gleefully declared.
"Okay, my turn then," William declared. "Let's see mine." The other pokemon-trainer's were black leather with red fingers to match the Zoroark's claws. They also seemed to simply fuse onto those claws immediately after being put on. "Where did they just go."
"I was expecting that from the Charizard," Roland said without any surprise. As if the leatherworker saw it happen all the time.
"Yeah, that is the annoying result," Lily agreed as if this was just typical.
"Um, okay is this normal then?" Charizard had to ask given they apparent thought he would have it happen instead.
"Yeah, this advanced of an attunement requirement sometimes ends up integrated with your body," Roland explained. "Usually when you align with the effects enough. William here probably usually has gloves with his illusions already. Those should block properly, but I'm afraid if he doesn't have a pokeball yet he is going to need to get it attuned the hard way instead of just being caught."
"Are you seriously saying that I just merged with a pair of gloves because I use gloves in most of my illusions?" William complained.
---
[Author's Note]
Here we are, back to stuff that worked out well. Next time is more in depth exploration of magical stuff, and out of the city itself.
Alexa emerged from her plain pokeball again, this time into the main lobby of Beveler and Awl. "Ah, those are more familiar faces," the old leatherworker, Roland, said as William and Charizard both returned to pokemon form. "They are ready. Plain and simple, although you will be lucky if they stay that way."
"Am I being included in that assessment?" William cautiously asked about the strangely worded statement as he recreated his normal human illusion.
"With magic this potent it is best to let the owner's energy determine what things look like," a new voice said. An almost familiar looking woman dressed like a witch in a blue dress with a black cape and hat was at one corner of the room, and Roland seemed to be the only one not surprised to see the woman. "My name is Lily, and a certain Thunder Pokemon let me know there was a new Legendary magic user in the region. Apparently he heard a rumor that she needed some instruction."
"The Witch from the Johto anime?" Charizard asked, and Alexa blinked at the realization that episode they had discussed back when Alexa was first turning into a pokemon apparently was based on a real person.
"Yes," Lily said with a sigh after Charizard's translator repeated his words. "That is the place most people know me from. Not sure I like a pokemon recognizing me from it, but I guess some have to have watched cartoons too. I'm more than willing to explain the reality of that one, but we should have time. I intend to at least get your Mephagic started on safe magic use."
"Well, first off that is my trainer, and not the other way around. Second, as you will see soon, Alexa is not just a Mephagic," Charizard said for her. "We are here for some fairly unique leatherworking."
"Not that unique. I've made some for a Mew before and they are also shapeshifters," Roland specified. "But as I was trying to say, we have two true shapeshifters here for gloves and one illusionist. For the Char I don't even mean what he just did to get here quietly, and his trainer has two other forms in addition to human, although I haven't seen one yet."
"I was saving Vespikiln for when we tested the gloves," Alexa informed the Witch so Roland wouldn't have to explain everything. "That one can't be reversed as easily as the others." Yet, she needed to work more on what Celebi had taught them.
"Vespikiln?" Lily asked a bit warily. "Their magic is a bit more... energetic. I didn't realize they were also human, but I guess that would explain why they are so secretive about the few hives that still exist."
"We cannot tell my mom there are still hives where they live," Alexa sighed at that news.
"Especially not until the Bugsy thing is just a memory," Charizard warned. "I know you said she calmed down enough that you trust her not to burn down the Gym, but I do not trust that she won't have someone else do it for her."
Lily blinked a couple of times. "I think I will want to wait to get started until after you are out of town," the Witch admitted.
"I'll need all of you in your base forms for this, given those are what the gloves are starting out as," the leatherworker grumbled.
"That's going to be about an hour for me," Charizard said with some embarrassment. "I've got layers to get through."
"Maybe it would be a good distraction to go over that cartoon incident while we wait?" William suggested. "Because I am a bit worried now about how real the spell from that one was."
"Ah, that. To be clear, when I actually met Champion Ketchum the spell we tried was a different one," Lily admitted as Charizard solidified back into a pure Water type with a splash of Contagion Cure. Which made the Witch look even more confused for a moment before she continued. "We used a more general spell that makes a human into what pokemon they would be, instead of just one that makes you able to understand pokemon a bit too much."
"So, is that a pokemon other than a human, like the Pikachu in the show, or a pokemon species that is also human like Mephagic?" Alexa had to ask to get started on those details.
"You are one of those people who know there isn't actually much difference between a human and any other pokemon species, aren't you?" Lily questioned critically. "That's going to make magic either too easy or too hard for that kind of thing. Technically speaking, it could also be used for turning one pokemon into another they are specifically linked to if you used it on a pokemon properly."
"So it might turn me into something Water typed?" Charizard specified. "Makes sense to me."
"There is an implication there that a pokemon might end up human with that logic," William added with some worry. "I know it probably isn't the best to be concerned about that, but with how travel with Alexa and her team has gone it is on my list of worries."
"If you think about that option immediately then it is probably likely, at least for that spell," Lily strongly warned them. "To be honest, 'what pokemon they would be' in practice would be influenced a lot by what they wanted to be, or just think they 'should be', as much as what matched their personality. Champion Ketchum admired the willpower of his Pikachu, and got along very well with the pokemon, so he ended up as one for a few days. It was a bit disappointing that they didn't really cover those days, they were fun." The Witch's smile was a bit sinister, but mostly fond.
"So the spell from the show wasn't real?" Alexa asked after Lily didn't elaborate on those antics.
"When they came to me to see if I was willing to show off that event I did ask them not to use the real spell," Lily began in a reluctant way that said the answer probably was a 'no'. "The one we actually used is fairly simple to try if you know about it, and also fairly dangerous if you mess it up. However, we needed something to show, and I knew of a much safer and more complicated spell. It was something of a joke by my mentor too, so it worked for the planned episode.
"An understanding spell. One that at the time just made it so you could understand pokemon and spoke like the specific pokemon you wanted to understand. So you ended up stuck talking like a pokemon until it wore off. We didn't think it would be too bad for anyone who went to all the trouble of casting it to have to spend a day or so speaking like a pokemon." Charizard and Alexa both laughed at the image, but Lily continued. "However, I did not think about what showing that spell with a different result on TV would cause to happen to the metaphysics of the spell itself. After at least one whole generation of kids saw that episode the spell changed to instead turn whoever it was used on into the pokemon they wanted to understand, and also still made it so they could only speak pokemon."
"Oh, that is probably an issue," Alexa said with a flinch.
"It was manageable, and taught everyone to not put a spell's details in a show without also showing exactly what it was supposed to do," Lily laughed a bit nervously. "Now you either don't see how the spell itself works, or you see the best case scenario for how the spell works. There are rumors that some mages tried to use it to make new spells too, but I don't know who or how."
"Um, I've seen some strange spells on television, the full spells," William specified with clear worry. "Are you saying that those were real?" It turned out the answer was at best 'they are now'.
---
"So since we held off until you were normal I assume you want to go first?" Roland asked as they all moved into the separate waiting area after Charizard changed back fully. The discussion had not been very serious, and the spells covered were mostly impressive looking pyrotechnics rather than practical effects.
Charizard had admittedly been distracted by a bit of worry about what would happen to his gloves. His custom pokeball had not changed, but that had not been made to change with him like these gloves. These were made for him in order to stay with him when he changed, which obviously meant they were supposed to change somewhat. "Yes, I'm either one of the stranger members of the group, or a rare normal one, and I want to know which as soon as possible," he answered. "Also I've got two things instead of just one."
"True enough," Roland admitted, and turned to William to double check that agreement.
"And I want to put it off as long as I can," William agreed as the Zoroark's illusion vanished again. "So that I know what those two get first."
"I'm staying a pokemon until it is time for me to get mine. I want to understand you entirely," Alexa noted as she glanced at the Witch who apparently was going to travel with them a bit. "Also you should test some other forms first, Charizard."
A pair of gloves for a three clawed hand was brought to him, the design fairly standard for a Charizard. They had holes in the ends for his claws, and were thick and strong to handle combat. They also currently were nearly identical to a pair Charizard could remember his biological mother wearing when they were out and about. That was likely to change soon, and at least he hoped the color would change with him as the orange leather matched his normal scales well, but would be strange with his other colorations. He was less hopeful that they would still look plain.
"There isn't anything fancy now," Roland said as he passed over the gloves. "All the impressive stuff should have happened already, this is just connection and testing. We do want to wait for the translator band a bit more, voices get tricky."
Charizard paused in his attempt to take the gloves calmly. "What about voices there?" he asked quickly.
"Communication is powerful for Legendary pokemon, mixing custom magic and advanced technology to give that ability will be less predictable," Lily explained. "That is how I worked out you would be here specifically, Roland wanted advice on that project and I recognized the description. Legendary pokemon have been known to alter devices made to assist them, and a holder made specifically for it with magic might set off that effect."
"Let's start with just the gloves," Charizard said and took the offered leather items. He tugged them on, the same way as the rough ones they had used earlier in the week for a proper fit, and felt something in the leather connect to him. There wasn't a light show, or anything blatantly apparent, but the backs did change to have a pattern of a mixture of flames and clouds. "Do we wait until I've tested some changes, or go straight to the translator band?"
"I don't think we have anything quick to reverse that actually changes your claws too much," Alexa said after they both considered those options.
The translator band was made to go around his neck, with a good sized and easy to use clasp that Charizard could quickly remove even if that meant it was impractical for combat, and the same color as the gloves. "Translator on it or off?" Charizard asked. "I was hoping to just leave the translator attached when I take it off." He then took off the translator to get ready.
"Two steps is better here, but be ready for it to change again after you put the translator on," Lily specified and Roland nodded as the leatherworker handed over the band, so he set the translator down on an available table.
There had been a few of these for fitting too, but the end result was a bit wider than any of those had been. It clicked together easily, and was far enough down Charizard's neck he could see that it for the moment matched the added patterns on the gloves. "So far about what I hoped for," he admitted despite the device being too far to get translated for the humans.
As he picked up the translator it became clear that his luck on this topic had run out. There was a clear energy to the device, and he could feel a sort of not-heat from the band now. Charizard sighed and attached the device to the little spot that was made for it to clip onto. There was a brief flash, and he did not yet look to see what happened. Charizard could feel that the small device had changed into a short pyramid shaped gemstone of some kind. "So, is that what we were expecting?" he asked, and froze at the sound of it along with most of the others. "Is that changing my voice directly?" he asked.
"That is going to be much harder to hide," William complained. "The clasp changed with that too." Charizard bent his neck more and looked down to see a currently deep red gemstone and a much stronger looking clasp.
Charizard quickly checked to see if it was still easy to remove, and after getting it off inspected the band and gem more closely. It still had the flame and cloud pattern, and the gem had some circuitry patterns inside of it, but it was also clear that the gemstone would not come out easily if at all. He clipped it back on again and asked the obvious question as far as he was concerned, "Alright, Lily, are you up for being a justification for why I suddenly have a mystical translation artifact? You are known for magic about 'understanding' pokemon."
"I was planning on it, but I did hope for something less obviously magical," the Witch said glumly. "It probably is still fragile enough to not have it on for a battle."
"I think we might want to go back to where I started today," Charizard said to change the topic from that. "That way I find out what happens when I'm able to use Acid Armor." It was quite strange to hear human language coming from his mouth. Nobody objected so they got out his Geode and once more got the Water type as his secondary. That didn't change the color of either of his new clothes, but the clouds were replaced by cresting waves and the gloves themselves actually changed to allow the webbing of his claws to easily form. "Huh, that works at least."
"They should be able to handle any environment, and given this kind of change that includes being made for someone adapted to any of them," Roland reassured him. "They can handle getting wet."
A splash of Soak, now well controlled to the point he didn't hit anything or anyone else, changed the leather and the gemstone to a dark blue that matched his coloration now and also removed the flames to just have the new waves. "Yeah, this is what I hoped for so far," he agreed and motioned to Alexa. His trainer handed over a vial of Mercury Contagion, and he carefully used it on himself in an attempt to not lose yet another of the admittedly cheap containers. His body then changed to a solid silvery blue, and the leather once more matched it with little straight lined squares as the secondary pattern. "Now for Acid Armor."
The gloves and band both melted with him as he fell into a puddle, although the translator gemstone did not and instead just floated towards his center. "Um, does that still protect him from pokeballs when they're like that? Where would he have to get hit?" Alexa questioned while Charizard tried to see if he could move the gem around instead of his original plan to go right to mimicked forms.
"Harrumph," Roland said more than made the sound. "Maybe some other craftsmen would be content with ball handling gloves that only work where they are, but a properly made pair interrupts any attunement attempts. You can technically still end up inside of one for a moment, but unless it has your energy you should come back out immediately with no damage to the device. Hitting the glove directly will allow you to deflect one, but it isn't the only protection these give."
"Ok, the real test," Charizard said as he decided to just get it over with first. With a somewhat unsure movement he raised up into his new human disguise, and took a moment to get the shape correct given his inexperience with the details needed for humans. His coloration didn't change on its own, and someone probably could tell it was just an illusion on liquid metal if they looked closely enough even with the altered colors. Strangely while the gloves reformed his band did not and the gemstone remained at his center. "How does that look?"
"You look human," Alexa said a bit faintly. "And sound it too."
"That is a lot different with the voice too," William agreed about it being an uneasy look for him. "Are you actually going to use that?"
"Unfortunately, I am quite sure this new development is going to make my newly planned family gatherings less annoying instead of more. They already asked me to use this shape for family photos," Charizard admitted. "My mothers both thought the idea was 'cute', and my brother is not going to be able to avoid it. Worst case they get a new Charizard costume to fit him in place of the Charmander one he had when we were younger. Being able to just talk will make that event easier." He sighed, which even sounded different as well. "These work then I think. Alexa, are you ready to try yours?"
"Please turn into a different shape first," his trainer requested, and Charizard was more than fine with that so he went back to the baseline for his current typing. Alexa then used Contagion Cure to turn back to human.
"Whoa, wait a second, what was that?" Lily questioned surprised with the instant change. "That looked like whatever Charizard did to change back from Steel."
"It is. Um, the full story is a bit long, and we don't want to take up Roland's time too much," Alexa admitted.
"Yeah, that probably should wait for the full Legendary discussion," Charizard agreed, and cringed at how Alexa flinched over his altered and understandable voice. "It was developed to help change back from things." The word 'developed' seemed to get the point of how complicated the topic was across and soon Alexa was being handed her own plain brown gloves.
Alexa's pair was lighter in build, if a slightly darker orange in color, compared to Charizard's battle ready pair. Which did not last as she put them on. The leather changed into a pure white base color covered almost entirely by black type symbol patterns layered over each other. "Well, at least it isn't as blunt as the pokeball," Alexa admitted. "This is almost something I would have asked for to match my Mephagic form, if I wasn't worried how it would turn out."
"It probably also glows when you are the types," William commented. "But so far these are making me feel a lot better about this whole thing."
"The pokeball?" Lily asked with some concern, and paled at the sight of it when Alexa got her custom one out to show, but thankfully did not comment yet.
"Right, so change test, might as well start with Mephagic to see how it matches," Alexa 'joked', although it was clear that was a firm topic change instead of humor. Charizard was unhappy with how often his team had to be serious about that stuff. There was a crack as she got out yet another vial that didn't make it, and her body morphed into her Mephagic form again. The gloves expanded and altered to have slits to let her own webbing through, and as expected the Poison and Water markings began to glow in appropriate colors.
"This is why I didn't make gloves for one of your other forms instead," Roland pointed out, literally pointed at the slits. "That is the kind of thing attuned gloves can do for a shapeshifter, but to make it that way to start takes twice the effort. I charge extra for gloves that work with webbed digits."
Alexa changed back and then moved to the next vial, this time of Magma Contagion. Lobasalt was a much larger form, and like usual her claws started in a shape that wasn't really a hand. The gloves this time did not cover the majority of her claws, only really going over the back and bottom of them with little justification for how they were supposed to stay on. Red and dark brown shapes of the appropriate types were lit up, and stayed that way as Alexa reshaped the claws into three fingered useful hands that could use a more proper kind of glove. Alexa's gloves followed the change of her hands like his own followed along when he tested Acid Armor.
"Alright, we're doing good so far, but the next one is where I really hope it works well," Alexa rumbled happily. "I don't want gloves on just two of my hands." Charizard was half tempted to try first with his shapechanging ability in his current form, but Alexa would have four arms much more often than he would so she really should be the one to test that.
"How many things does that reversal move work on?" Lily asked as Alexa changed back again.
"At least three methods, with a fourth we haven't tested yet that probably will too," Charizard answered while Alexa got out the much more tricky Chitin Powder. "That is why we mostly use those three, but Alexa doesn't change away from human with the one I'm using."
"'Away from human' is something I note you specified," the Witch pointed out.
"Yeah, she's probably going to use it to be human shaped for the next few days because we can't speed up turning back from Vespikiln yet," he agreed smugly. "Mercury Contagion gives illusion abilities. Although we did find out that was another known thing, sort of."
Alexa's body then changed into her Bug/Fire type form, which worked out normally, with the gloves actually splitting from one pair to two pairs. They now had a pale green and a red colored glow from the matching symbols. "Okay, that's all I was hoping for here," Alexa gleefully declared.
"Okay, my turn then," William declared. "Let's see mine." The other pokemon-trainer's were black leather with red fingers to match the Zoroark's claws. They also seemed to simply fuse onto those claws immediately after being put on. "Where did they just go."
"I was expecting that from the Charizard," Roland said without any surprise. As if the leatherworker saw it happen all the time.
"Yeah, that is the annoying result," Lily agreed as if this was just typical.
"Um, okay is this normal then?" Charizard had to ask given they apparent thought he would have it happen instead.
"Yeah, this advanced of an attunement requirement sometimes ends up integrated with your body," Roland explained. "Usually when you align with the effects enough. William here probably usually has gloves with his illusions already. Those should block properly, but I'm afraid if he doesn't have a pokeball yet he is going to need to get it attuned the hard way instead of just being caught."
"Are you seriously saying that I just merged with a pair of gloves because I use gloves in most of my illusions?" William complained.
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[Author's Note]
Here we are, back to stuff that worked out well. Next time is more in depth exploration of magical stuff, and out of the city itself.
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