Interesting. I don't believe I've seen this before.
it's a common pastiche, to the point of being a stock parody. some notable examples that come to mind are bill and teds bogus journey and grim adventures of billy and mandy. it's usually said to have originated in the 50s film seventh seal, though the first direct example is from a swedish church mural.
 
Omake: Three-Ring Circus 2 (Fun and Adventure! + Hyphen X-over)
Here we go, getting into the stuff I really wanted to write! I might write one more to finish off the conversation but there's no plan other than talking.

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"Okay everyone," I said, trying desperately to not let the annoyance show in my voice. "Let's just talk it through."

Once again they turned to look at me as if they forgot I was there, even though I'd just spoken to them.

"Well, uh," said Mawile, sounded uncertain and confused, while Astra looked oddly fearful all of a sudden, looking at me with odd eyes. I couldn't make out the expression clearly because of the hood, but I wasn't that interested really. She didn't seem to know where I was any better than I did. "Neither of you are going to try to catch me, right?" Her expression changed to one of suspicion.

Now that I got a better look at Mawile, and she was staring at me, I had an odd sense of… fear. Which I could recognise was absolutely silly of me. It didn't help the emotions though, and I merely held my head higher, puffing out my chest slightly so I wouldn't take a step back.

Then again, maybe it wasn't so silly of me to accept I should be wary of this Mawile. A Mawile with Sweet Scent? That was a pretty high level move normally. Maybe she was born with it? After all, a forest was an unusual place for a wild Mawile to live in. Then again, I'd just seen a bunch of Jigglypuff living in a cave not a day ago.

"You don't catch Pokémon who don't want to be caught," I said, shrugging, ignoring the fear to the best of my ability. I could feel my voice crack at the end out of nervousness, and promptly ignored that too. "That's asking for trouble, never mind that it can be considered poaching."

Astra kept staring at me, but went back to Mawile when the latter Pokémon turned to face her.

"So you're not going to either,?"

Astra took a step back from Mawile, her eyes widening.

Like Vulpix, or Jigglypuff, or probably two dozen or so Pokémon I really liked, I knew a lot about Mawiles. They were adorable. But they also had Intimidate as a possible ability. Understandable that she'd be using it, since she was worried we were going to capture her. I'd never seen it personally, but I had been on both the giving and receiving end of a similar thing.

Truth be told I was curious me using it would even work on a Pokémon. I'd never tried it on Gardevoir back at home since I tried to ignore him as much as possible. It could work on me if I wasn't careful, when my sister did it. It could work on her. We both used it on mum. I used it on Professor Oak sometimes.

"Hey Mawile," I said, bringing her attention back to me.

I widened my eyes just a bit, blinked twice to generated some moisture and let my eyes get that wet, sparkly look, and frowned, putting a finger to the corner of my mouth.

"Why are you intimidating us?" I asked.

The lines along Mawile's face softened almost immediately, and her horn lowered a fraction. I felt the sense of pressure and fear lift and relaxed my shoulders slightly.

Astra looked beyond relieved, and when she turned to look at me as I kept up my Charm, her expression changed further to one of barely restrained excitement.

Slowly I let up on the Charm, lowering my hand and blinking the moisture away. Astra returned to looking vaguely wary, but thankfully Mawile didn't pick herself back up to try and intimidate us again.

Mawile opened her mouth to speak, but then she just got a confused look before settling on frustration.

"Agh, no wonder nobody's been willing to talk to me!" she said, pointing at me, her horns lifting again. "And you, what was that? Humans can't be that cute!"

"Ah," I said. "Well, Charm is just something me and my sister picked up. Very good for getting into, and out of, trouble."

"Wait, wait!" said Astra, waving her arms in agitation. "I have questions!" She definitely looked it, though I was unsure what those questions were other than the most important one.

"Me too," I said, wanting to just get to that question. I was three days on my Pokémon adventure and already getting into too many shenanigans. If I couldn't catch a Mawile, it was time to get out of this weird forest. There was still something off about it. "Mawile," I continued, looking at her. "Where are we, and how do I get out of here?"

"How should I know!?" asked the Mawile, obviously exasperated. "I just woke up here about a week ago and haven't been able to find my way out. Right now though, I want to know, how can you two understand me?"

I looked at Astra, who then looked at me. There was a sudden glint of apprehension, maybe suspicion about her. I paused a moment and waited, but an answer from her didn't seem forthcoming. She was waiting for me it seemed, and all the while Mawile was growing more impatient, fidgeting and looking at us back and forth.

I knew Astra was a Pokémon, mostly because I was very familiar with what the Ralts line looked like, and because she had a constant veil of psychic energy around her. Sure, she was either a very tall Kirlia, or she was a short Gardevoir, but her height didn't change the hair, eyes, or skin.

Thinking back, it looked like she might have assumed the same of me, which could be a problem. I had no idea why she'd bother putting on a disguise. And while I'd never heard of a Pokémon-trainer, it wasn't completely unheard of for Pokémon to direct other Pokémon in battle, generally. It could be she was nervous around humans. Maybe she just didn't want the attention. After all, I was certain if there was ever an open Pokémon-trainer, Professor Oak would be all over that.

Ah, screw it, I was probably over thinking it. No need to contort my responses into knots to mislead a Pokémon.

"Well, it's a long story," I said, honestly. "It's easier for Psychics to learn anyway, although some real weirdoes can learn if they spend enough time on it."

"Oh," said Mawile, eyeing me. "You're psychic?" She turned to Astra. "And you too?"

Astra looked at me warily, then at Mawile. She just nodded, then.

"You might notice," I said, bringing attention back to me. "That Astra here doesn't talk normally for some reason. She uses telepathy."

"You don't have to speak for me, I barely know you!" said Astra.

I just waved her off.

"Oh," Said Mawile again. "I didn't notice. So you aren't travelling together?"

"We met like, two minutes ago," I said. "Then she got caught by your Sweet Scent and ran off."

Mawile's eyes widened slightly. "Uh, sorry about that. I was expecting like, a Bidoof or something, not a trainer. I didn't think humans could get lured by it."

"Not entirely sure they can, really," I said, awkwardly. I rubbed my shoulder in the uncomfortable silence before Mawile shook her head suddenly.

"Wait, I haven't gotten any answers!" she said.

"Not a lot of those going around," I mumbled, all too aware I hadn't gotten any answers either.

Mawile clenched her little fists for a moment, and closed her eyes. Then she exhaled, and said, "Let's try this again. I'm… Mawile, and you're name is?" she turned to me.

"Alyssa," I said. She then gestured to Astra.

"I'm Astra," said Astra.

"Nice to meet you both," continued Mawile. "So, I take it neither of you know how you got here?" We shook our heads. "What was the last thing you remember?"

"I was sleeping," I said, crossing my arms and shifting my weight to my right leg. It was weird to see a Pokémon take so much initiative. "At the Pokémon centre in Cerulean City. Then I woke up here not ten minutes ago."

Mawile tilted her head then went to look at Astra.

"I was walking through the woods near Rustboro and suddenly I was in a different forest. I've been here for hours."

"Well, okay," said Mawile. "That's uh, Kanto, and Hoenn, right?" she asked.

I nodded, while Astra said, "I was in Hoenn, yes. But this place is different." She gestured with her overly long sleeves.

"There's something wrong about it," I said, voicing this concern for the first time. "There's this… I don't know, something. A faint pressure that shows up every now and then. Wait." I moved my arms back to my sides, and stood very still, wracking my brain. It was something on the edge of my memory, but no matter how hard I kept thinking, I couldn't seem to grasp it. I looked to Astra. "Come on, help me out here," I said, holding my hands up in helplessness.

"I don't know what you're talking…," she said, trailing off. "I… oh."

"What, what is it?!" asked Mawile, sounding frustrated.

"I didn't notice it," continued Astra. "I don't feel it now, but thinking back on it maybe there was some kind of psychic attack? That didn't do anything?"

"Hmm," I said, in thought. I hadn't seen anything, and I hadn't been here very long, but I definitely felt something on my arrival, something that wasn't nearly as obvious as Astra's psychic presence. "Mawile, you said you couldn't find your way out of here?" She nodded. "Okay, if that's the case we're probably looking at some Psychic or maybe Ghost Pokémon pulling a prank on us. Or protecting their village or something."

"Wait, village?!" asked Astra, excited all over again.

"Pokémon?" asked Mawile at the same time. "You think Psychic or Ghost Pokémon transported us here and now won't let us leave?"

"I don't know about transporting us here," I said to Mawile, "but keeping us here? Sure, I've heard of certain areas that require Psychic Pokémon to get through because the Ghost Pokémon lure travellers into getting lost."

"Wait, back up," said Astra, taking a step forward. "Pokémon villages? You know there are other Pokémon villages?"

"Well uh, yeah," I said. "I literally just ran into one yesterday. It was inside Mt. Moon in Kanto, and a bunch of Jigglypuff and Clefairy lived together in the mountain. All the Jigglypuff left though, because everyone else fell asleep during the celebration song."

Mawile snorted. She opened her mouth to say something, but clamped it down before any noise came out.

"So there are other villages!?" asked Astra, all but confirming what I already knew about her. "What was it like?"

"Uh, I don't know," I said, shrugging. "I wasn't there for very long. There was some kind of personal argument that had blown up into a huge village wide problem between the Jigglypuff and the Clefairy. The two groups were arguing over the Moonstone and its pieces."

"What's a Moonstone?" asked Astra, her "voice" even more insistent.

"Just a kind of Evolution stone. Some Pokémon need it to evolve. The Clefairy rode in on it from space apparently, and they worshiped it as their god. They were really protective of the pieces and thought the Jigglypuff were hoarding them for no reason."

Astra blinked, seemingly dazed. "What does that mean, 'god'?"

"Well I didn't exactly talk to them about it, but my guess is that since it's what brought them to this planet, in that sense it's their reason for being. So they worshiped it."

"From space?" asked Astra, eyes wide. "They came from space?"

"The way they tell it," I said. "Extra-terrestrial Pokémon are real, I just didn't think Clefairy were one. But apparently I was wrong."

"Extra-terrestrial Pokémon," said Astra, awestruck. She was wobbling slightly, and I worried she might fall down. She shook her head, and then said forcefully, "Had any humans found this village?"

"Uh, sure," I said. "It was built so that all the Pokémon could hide if a human just strolled in, plus it was in the mountain cave system, difficult to find. And also there was some crazy scientist who implied the mountain was under protection from the government. That last one's just a guess though.

"Anyway, Pokémon villages aren't exactly unheard of. They're very rare and hard to find though, for obvious reasons. But I feel like you should know all this." I gave her a pointed look, and she shuffled nervously before seeming to steel herself.

"Actually, I have questions," she said, looking at from me to Mawile.

"Shoot, I guess," replied Mawile.

"Are you from a Pokémon village? Is that why you can talk?"

"No, there's no village," said Mawile. "But what do you mean, is that why I can talk? Every Pokémon I've run into can talk, they just don't want to talk to me."

"Every Pokémon can talk," I said, confirming. "Every one I've met or heard in passing. They can all talk."

"But I mean like.…" said Astra, gesturing from me then to Mawile. "Like the way we're talking now! All I hear are Pokémon who say their name over and over, and trying to use Telepathy on them just gives this crude conceptual thing."

"Isn't that what I'm doing?" asked Mawile. "Just saying my name over and over?"

"Yes," I said, at the same time Astra said, "No." I whipped my head to look at her, and she did the same.

"She," Astra began, before looking at Mawile, "You sound like… two people speaking. One's speaking human, and the other's lower and just saying "Maw mawile wile maw," all the time.

"Ooph," I said out loud, smiling. "That sounded almost funny. I'm so used to understanding Pokémon I couldn't begin to speak Pokémon gibberish."

"So you don't hear a second human speaking voice when I talk?" asked Mawile to me.

"You're just speaking like any other Pokémon," I confirmed.

"That's… weird," said Mawile, frowning. "You're a human that can understand Pokémon. Can you speak like a Pokémon? Maybe like, 'hu human man man?'"

I snorted, lifting my hand to stifle a giggle.

"No that's ridiculous," I said. "But yeah I can speak Pokémon. I haven't run into the occasion to need to, but I suppose if I ever need to talk to my Pokémon without other humans knowing what I was saying, I could definitely do it."

"Ah!" said Astra, sounding accusatory, pointing at me. "Other humans! So you're human!"

I looked at her and shrugged.

"Never said I wasn't."

Mawile looked at Astra like she'd just said something extremely stupid. Then she shook her head, looking at me again. "Saving that question for later, can you say something in Pokémon for us? I want to see if we can understand."

"Sure," I said, though it came out as "Vul." "As a kid I practiced speaking Pokémon with my family's pet Vulpix, so I speak with a Vulpix accent. I can do a Gardevoir one too, though I'd prefer not to."

Both Astra and Mawile just stared at me, and I worried for a moment that I'd somehow gotten really rusty before Mawile spoke up again.

"That… is weird," she said. "I understood you fine and you sound just like any other Pokémon I've heard, just… it's crazy to hear that coming out of a human." She looked like she wanted to say more, but after a moment she just turned to look at Astra, who was still staring at me.

"It's like Mawile," said Astra, seemingly transfixed. "But… why can you talk like a Gardevoir?"

I grimaced.

"My… my mum has a Gardevoir," I said, trying to speak quickly to move past this topic. "Been around all my life."

"What!?" asked Astra, her voice sounding angry for some reason. "How could… I don't understand! I want an explanation!"

I scoffed. So did I!

"What's to explain really?" I said, getting heated. "From what I understand my mum met Gardevoir when he was a Ralts. And he's just… hung around. I don't know if she even caught him, he's just there." I threw up my hands. "And she never answers any questions about it. So can we change the subject please?"

"No, we can't," said Astra, taking a step forward. "Are you sure your mom never caught him? Where did he come from? Did he come from a village?!"

"I don't know!" I said, stepping forward myself, peering at the hooded weird Pokémon with a stupid hat. "The only thing I know is he was with us when we were in Galar. If you're from Hoenn and asking about some kind of village there, he's not from there, he's from Galar. Hoenn's not the only region with the Ralts line you know! Have you been living in a cave your whole life!?"

"Yes!" shouted Astra, though after a moment she took a step back, her expression turning to one of thought. "So… there are other Ralts, Kirlia, and Gardevoir out there?"

"Of course!" I said. "The world's a big place. Off the top of my head they're native to not just Hoenn, but Galar and Unova. There's probably plenty of other places too."

"Where is Galar?" asked Astra, sounding a lot less angry now.

I lowered my voice too, feeling only a little bad for yelling at a Pokémon who clearly didn't know much about the world. "Assuming we're all in the same country where we started, Galar is practically on the other side of the world. So's Unova for that matter. "

Astra took a step back, seemingly lost in thought as Mawile waited a bit, before speaking.

"Astra," she said. "I don't want to upset you or Alyssa, but can you uh, do me a favour? Can you bring out one of your Pokémon?"

Astra's expression changed, looking confused. She then nodded.

"Sure," she said, taking out one of her Poké Balls again. "Treecko, come out!"

Treecko formed out of the light and landed beside Astra. It took one look at Mawile before crouching down, ready for combat.

"No Treecko," said Astra, patting it on the head. "Mawile's friendly. She just wanted to see you."

"Hello!" said Mawile, waving at Treecko. "How are you?"

Treecko looked back at Astra, then suddenly looked at me, seemingly only noticing me then. It then looked at Astra again and said, "Who what?" pointing at me and then Mawile. "Talk her you the good?"

"They're both new friends," said Astra. "I think Mawile just wanted to hear you talk a bit. Is that okay?"

Treecko shrugged. "Good."

"What…," both Me and Mawile said at the same time. "Is that?" I continued, while Mawile went with "the Hell?"

"What did you two hear?" asked Astra.

"It's basically nonsense," I said, while Mawile nodded her head, keeping her horns low on the ground. "I think he was asking why Mawile can talk like you?"

"It's all primitive and out of order," said Mawile, continuing the thought. She looked at me. "Do you have a Pokémon too?"

"Sure," I said, reaching for my bag. This could get interesting. I took out Jigglypuff's ball and enlarged it, tossing it on the ground next to Treeko and said, "Come on out Jigglypuff."

"Morning!" she said upon coming out, her little stubby arms out. Her expression shifted to one of confusion, looking at Treecko, then Astra, then Mawile and finally me. "Where are we? Where's that mean guy with the red hair?"

"Okay, so that's what I expect!" said Mawile, gesturing to Jigglypuff while Astra seemed completely taken aback.

Jigglypuff turned to face Mawile, and puffed up slightly.

"Am I fighting that?" she asked. "I've never seen a Pokémon like that before."

"What the fuck," said Astra, and I was taken aback.

"Language!" I said, looking at Astra. "I am a child!"

Astra didn't even seem to hear me.

"I don't want to be caught!" said Mawile angrily at Jigglypuff. "I just wanted to hear you talk!"

Jigglypuff looked at me. "What's going on?" she said.

"Heck if I know, Jigglypuff," I said. "We're trying to figure that out." I held out my Poké Ball again. "Jigglypuff, return."

Jigglypuff let herself get hit by the return beam and disappeared in a flash of light.

"So all your Pokémon talk like that?" Astra said, still completely shocked.

"Yes," I said, gears in my head spinning furiously and coming up with nothing. The best thing I could come up with was that maybe Astra had only encountered particularly stupid Pokémon. "Every Pokémon I've ever met, or heard, or heard of."

"I… think I have an idea," said Mawile.

"Please," I said, gesturing between myself, Astra, and her, then finally to the forest in general. "Make sense of this!"

"I think we may have gotten punted here from alternate dimensions."

I opened my mouth, then closed it. The very concept wasn't unheard of. But… the manner in which I experienced it was a lot different and a lot more integrated into my new life. And was also a decade ago. Why would I get put into a different universe again, without even dying, and one that seemed basically the same as where I left? Oh… but wait! I kept thinking, trying to cross reference what I'd read and what I remembered about Pokémon in my past life.

There was a long silence, and eventually Treecko got bored and curled up amongst the flowers.

"I don't know what that means," said Astra, frowning.

"There are other dimensions," I said, slowly. "There's some research going on in Unova about that, I think."

"But what does that mean?" asked Astra.

Mawile took a small step forward at that, sighing.

"So, imagine there's a world just like yours somewhere else, except something in the past, or maybe all the way at the beginning, happened differently. And whatever happened differently, that caused everything else to spiral out into a different direction. Are you following me?"

"I… think so?" she replied, frowning harder. "Like if I hadn't gone out for berries that one time, and then…." Astra trailed off. Mawile waited a few moments but when Astra didn't say anything more, she continued.

"So, this world, and it sounds like wherever Alyssa's from, is a reality where Pokémon can all talk to each other like humans, but not to humans, and yours is one where they're all, uh. Animals." Mawile paused, looking at Treecko. "No offence meant."

Treecko waved her off. "No about worry."

Both me and Mawile cringed at that.

"That's going to take some getting used to," she said.

"Alright," said Astra. "I think I get it. But wait!" She turned to me, gesticulating wildly. "If you're from another dimension too, then all that stuff you said about Pokémon villages might not be true for me!"

I shrugged. "I guess not. But you don't seem to know a lot about the world outside your cave, so who knows?"

"There's a reason we never left before," she said, sounding annoyed. "I almost got caught myself, and those humans didn't stop and ask if I wanted to be!"

"Wait, what?" asked Mawile. I ignored her.

"Normal Pokémon who don't want to be caught don't get found in the first place!" I said. "That's like, rule one of Pokémon, and being a Pokémon trainer! Being seen is in itself a sign you want to fight and join a trainer! Did you at least run?"

"For my life!" said Astra, sound furious, her voice loud in my head. "I couldn't have been any more scared!"

"Am I missing something?" asked Mawile.

"Well then fine, maybe things are different in your world then!" I shouted, completely confused why Astra seemed to think I'd done something to her. "Or maybe they were just jerks! Some humans don't pay attention, and some are just bad people! That's why humans have Officer Jenny's, and that's why you can break out of a Poké Ball if you have to!"

"So that's another thing to look into later," said Mawile, to nobody. "If this world, or Astra's have Officer Jenny's."

"May's not a bad person, she's just a little rough around the edges!" said Astra. "She didn't know, things are obviously just different where you're from!"

"Wait," I said, my voice back to normal levels. "May? Like, brown, kinda short hair? Blue eyes? Wears a bandana thing on her head?"

"Um, yes?" said Astra, put off by the sudden change in tone. "Do you know her?"

"Not at all," I said. "Do you by any chance know a boy named Ash too?"

"No?" said Astra. "My other friend I'm travelling with is named Brendan."

That name sounded familiar. "Brendan…." I said out lout. "Brendan…." I was pretty sure that was the male protagonist in the games. I didn't know if he had a counterpart in my world, but it did answer that question. "That clinches it," I continued. "Our universes are very different."

"Can one of you please explain what you were arguing about?" said Mawile, and I felt the sudden dread from her intimidate, which disappeared after a moment. "I'm being left out of the loop!"

Astra glanced at Mawile, her shoulders slumped, looking defeated.

"I guess it doesn't matter now," she said. "I'm a Kirlia."

Mawile blinked. "Do Kirlia normally look like you in your world? You look human."

"She looks weird," I jumped in, which earned me a glare from both Astra and Mawile.

"I'm using an illusion to look like a human," she said. "And I'd… rather keep it up if you don't mind." She looked at me. "No offense, but I'm just not comfortable showing myself around you."

"Whatever," I said, a bit more annoyed than I thought I should be. Astra glowered in response to my tone. "I doubt your disguise will fool any Psychics. Unless those don't exist in your world, or maybe wherever you're from really is the only place the Ralts like exists."

"I've only heard that humans aren't Psychic." Astra then cocked her head, her expression softening. "Do humans have types where you're from?"

"Like, for pair bonding, or do you mean Pokémon types?"

Astra blushed, then looked annoyed. "Obviously I mean Pokémon types."

I tapped my chin with my finger in thought.

"Not too much research on that," I said. "Obviously, as I prove, some humans can use 'moves' that normally only Pokémon can use. And…." I sighed. "I am Psychic, so I can use Psychic moves, but Charm is a fairy type move. And I mean, have you seen me?" I gestured to myself. My outfit was pink and white, and my hair and eyes were pink.

"Holy crap, your mom has a Gardevoir," said Mawile. "Are you implying –"

"I'm not implying anything!" I said, cutting her off. "The truth is I don't know, I only suspect. That subject needs more research."

Mawile smiled, and I didn't like the look of that smile. "Are you planning on doing any of that research?" I could tell what she was implying by the tone.

"I don't know, what about you?" I asked. "Does that sound like a good idea to you?"

Mawile blinked, as if she hadn't thought about that. She was the one who brought it up!

"Am I missing something?" asked Astra. "I just wanted to know if humans had types."

"Maybe they do!" I said, throwing my hands back up in the air in frustration.
 
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Correction: the first human trainer. Astra is properly registered and has her pokedex and starter and everything!

Astra is, officially speaking, more human than Mawile!me is. Which I imagine would kind of smart, were I to really think about it.

We seem to have reached the point where there are more Apocrytha entries than actual chapters. if this rate of Omake-ing continues then this thread might well have to be renamed 'The Great Pokémon Omake Off' rather soon.

Assuming that we don't end up killing the author with happiness first, that is.

We reached that point a while ago - now we're at the point where the apocrypha word count is threatening to overtake that of the actual chapters. Not that I mind - by all means, I'd love to see that, if only to find out just how low my jaw can drop - but I'm certainly feeling the pressure to get the next chapter out soon. ^^;

Hey Flairina, sorry it took so long to get a response back to you. I got buried with work over the last couple days.

No big deal; it took me a while to respond as well... which I am, in turn, also sorry about.

I'm still a little iffy on just what I want to call it.

That's fine, I'll just leave it as a mystery crossover for the moment then. If you ever start the story proper, feel free to inform me of such, and I'll update the threadmark in both threads. :)

I figured that MawileYou would probably at least try to find some way to carry around your worldly possessions so that you could free up your second mouth for biting/intimidation if you needed to.

A temporary backpack built using the resources you had on hand seems like an ok solution at least until you could get your jaws on something more permanent.

Heh, you're not wrong about that; I just doubt I'd be resourceful enough to manage it. Kind of a cute image regardless - I imagine I look like rather a Mawile heading off to its first day of school. :p

Ahaha, yeah. A full grown Minccno is about 40 cm (Bulbapedia) including the ears which are about the same size as my head while Mawile stands at about 61 cm.

So from MinccinoMe's perspective you really are tall.

Mawile!me: "...hmm, well, now I have to keep you around."

Minccino!you: "Huh? Why?"

Mawile!me: "You'll help me keep my perspective... which is to say, one about 2/3s of a foot above yours."

Yeah, I think that the cute charm thing is going to be plot device one way or another, either as a means of getting MinccinoMe into, or out of trouble.

Heh, this dichotomy almost feels like it deserves some sort of PMD-style team name. Team Cute n' Tooth, or Team Charm n' Harm, or something like that. :lol:

not sure how my semi-canceled Wimpod SI would do...
Probably flee on sight after snatching any leftovers....
Or help from a distance using ranged moves if you and Aster are battling a powerful dark type...

Well, Wimpod's only ranged move period is Struggle Bug, and that would apparently require the opponent attacking you first according to the anime's depiction of it, so... maybe find a way to chuck some rocks or something? ^^;

Ok, this might be late but on the previous topic of ghosts types and their nature, apparently in the anime, Acerola's shiny Mimikyu is actually the spirit of a dead Mimikyu instead of just being a ghost type.

Apparently people don't mind its undead nature.

Just checked - right you are. Can't say I'm not at a loss as to how that works. Do ghosts in the Pokemon world just... have no way of fully dying? Do they seriously just come back as ghosts^2? Because if so, the world is eventually, inevitably going to be completely overrun by them - the Pokemon world will become a literal ghost planet.

...I need to go find and watch the episode that was explained in, I think...

Pretty sure at that point you get isekai'd, no complaining, no playing chess with Death, not getting out of jail free card.

You're cursed to forever wander the mortal coil.

The afterlife is done with your shit.

---When your own world's death system gets so fed up with you refusing to accept the end that it just foists you off on some other world rather than try and deal with you any longer---

Here we go, getting into the stuff I really wanted to write!

...and that is officially the longest omake so far, beating out the second chapter of Backslash by about 100 words. Threadmarked! :D I just labeled it as the second "chapter" of Three-Ring Circus, but as always, feel free to tell me if you have your own title in mind.

(Might I also suggest you crosspost this and your previous omake to Hyphen's thread? Astra's been pretty prominent in these, after all.)

A Mawile with Sweet Scent? That was a pretty high level move normally. Maybe she was born with it?

It's not if it lives anywhere other than Galar... which in turn makes me kind of wonder if that's supposed to imply Galar Mawile tend to be more combative and up front than other Mawile, since Sweet Scent clearly isn't part of their general hunting strategy early in life, if ever. Can't see any other reason for Gamefreak to move a near-useless in-game move 30 or so odd levels up the list, so that's what I'm going with.

I widened my eyes just a bit, blinked twice to generated some moisture and let my eyes get that wet, sparkly look, and frowned, putting a finger to the corner of my mouth.

I'd personally peg this as Baby-doll Eyes rather than Charm, but then again, I imagine there's ultimately not much difference between the two. :V

"And you, what was that? Humans can't be that cute!"

Mawile!me: "...n-not that I think you're cute or anything! I mean- ergh, stop making me be tsundere!"

"Oh," said Mawile, eyeing me. "You're psychic?" She turned to Astra. "And you too?"

Astra looked at me warily, then at Mawile. She just nodded, then.

Mawile!me, internally: ...am I psychic? I mean, I wasn't last I checked, but what the heck is the connection here?

"Well, okay," said Mawile. "That's uh, Kanto, and Hoenn, right?" she asked.

I'm a little surprised you didn't start wondering around here how I'd even know about other regions, given that Mawile are not generally known for their worldliness. :whistle:

"The way they tell it," I said. "Extra-terrestrial Pokémon are real, I just didn't think Clefairy were one. But apparently I was wrong."

Mawile!me: *desperately restraining myself from listing off all other outer-space Pokemon I know, ie. Solrock, Lunatone, Elgyem, Beheeyem, Minior, Deoxys, Eternatus, etc.*

"What the fuck," said Astra, and I was taken aback.

...so, leaving Astra with May as her sole conversational partner for an extended period of time might not have been the best idea...

Mawile blinked. "Do Kirlia normally look like you in your world? You look human."

Mawile!Me: "Other than the green hair I mean, but in this world that could be natural anyways."

And I mean, have you seen me?" I gestured to myself. My outfit was pink and white, and my hair and eyes were pink.

Mawile!me: "...come to think of it, your mom doesn't happen to be named Joy, does she?"
 
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Mawile!me: "...come to think of it, your mom didn't happen to be named Joy, did she?"
I am now imagining Nurse Joy as just one person, just a super powerful psychic daughter of a Gardevoir who teleports to every Pokey Center just when they're needed. I think there's been multiple Nurse Joy seen at a time, so that might not really work, but it's amusing anyway.
 
Yeah, has to be Charm. Baby Doll Eyes is usable when you don't need to work to pull off that level of cute, there was too much prep for that to be anything but a devastating Charm.

On Ghosts: Well, Ghosts do tend to feed on each other, and they can move between the living world and the Reverse World. I don't know why they would ever go to the Reverse World though, since they're just gonna get eaten by Giratina there (and thus re-enter the cycle of reincarnation) but hey, nobody ever accused Ghosts of being smart.
 
Just checked - right you are. Can't say I'm not at a loss as to how that works. Do ghosts in the Pokemon world just... have no way of fully dying? Do they seriously just come back as ghosts^2? Because if so, the world is eventually, inevitably going to be completely overrun by them - the Pokemon world will become a literal ghost planet.
actually, the anime also had an example of a ghost pokemon dying and staying dead. it was a totem trevenant, which died apparently of a natural cause and whose corpse is a healthy, living tree.
 
actually, the anime also had an example of a ghost pokemon dying and staying dead. it was a totem trevenant, which died apparently of a natural cause and whose corpse is a healthy, living tree.
You know, that reminds me of a germ of a setting idea, where life and death are two polarities that occasionally flip...

Suffice to say, I find it oddly appropriate that ghosts die by birthing life, and life dies by birthing a ghost, and did not expect to find it in pokemon.
 
Well, Wimpod's only ranged move period is Struggle Bug, and that would apparently require the opponent attacking you first according to the anime's depiction of it, so... maybe find a way to chuck some rocks or something? ^^;

At least by level up in the games.
if TM moves are learnable by training, a few more options are available...

Just checked - right you are. Can't say I'm not at a loss as to how that works. Do ghosts in the Pokemon world just... have no way of fully dying? Do they seriously just come back as ghosts^2? Because if so, the world is eventually, inevitably going to be completely overrun by them - the Pokemon world will become a literal ghost planet.

...I need to go find and watch the episode that was explained in, I think...
I assumed it was more, they have a choice to reincarnate or come back?
 
I am now imagining Nurse Joy as just one person, just a super powerful psychic daughter of a Gardevoir who teleports to every Pokey Center just when they're needed. I think there's been multiple Nurse Joy seen at a time, so that might not really work, but it's amusing anyway.
I think the first time we saw Joys together was at the Indigo Plateau where Brock was floating after a bunch of them while identifying where each of them came from. At some point which I don't remember we also got to see a family picture of all the Joys of the region and another for the Jennys.
 
We reached that point a while ago - now we're at the point where the apocrypha word count is threatening to overtake that of the actual chapters. Not that I mind - by all means, I'd love to see that, if only to find out just how low my jaw can drop - but I'm certainly feeling the pressure to get the next chapter out soon. ^^;
Not a proper omake, but this is what came out of my brain on reading that:
SCENE: A Discord meeting. Each participant is hidden by a dark robe.
PARTICIPANT 1: Good, good. Everything is proceeding according to plan…
P2: Yes, Glorious Leader. Recruiting that Psychic-type from Hoenn was a stroke of genius.
P1: Indeed. We all owe our thanks to 6.
P6: Me? I am flattered, Glorious Leader, but I feel certain it was 4's idea.
P4: Alas not, 6.
P6: What? Then who—
P9: It was my suggestion, esteemed councillors, though I did not foresee the knock-on effects.
P1: Then our thanks go to 9!
P5: These mix-ups wouldn't keep happening if we didn't insist on staying anonymous.
P1: We have discussed this, 5. We must remain anonymous!
P5: Can we at least not wear these robes? They itch.
P3: Guy Fawkes mask?
P8: NO! No, that's the wrong anonymous! How many times—
P7: Peace, 8.
P1: Indeed, 8. This, too, has been discussed.
P9: We could just turn off our cameras?
Several seconds of silence.
P9: Because, like, we're on Discord?
More silence.
P8: OH FOR FU—
 
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Allow me my own spaghetti post.

Hmm, this makes me wonder, does Sweet Scent's smell vary depending on the Pokemon using it?

It could be the reverse, where Sweet Scent smells different depending on who's smelling it.

It's not if it lives anywhere other than Galar...

Consider this my, and Alyssa's mistake. She is from Galar after all. It hasn't come up yet in my actual fic, but she considers Hoenn form Zigzagoon to be weird and be "Hoenn form" rather than just the base normal version.

I'd personally peg this as Baby-doll Eyes rather than Charm, but then again, I imagine there's ultimately not much difference between the two.

I'm basing it off how Teddiursa and Ursaring used it in the anime. Baby-doll Eyes seems instant and is more flirtatious. Which makes it more confusing how it differs from Attract, but thankfully Alyssa doesn't know that one.

Mawile!me, internally: ...am I psychic? I mean, I wasn't last I checked, but what the heck is the connection here?

Fairy types....

I'm a little surprised you didn't start wondering around here how I'd even know about other regions, given that Mawile are not generally known for their worldliness.

It's not unheard of. That one Jigglypuff in the anime has been all over! Plus, if I do a third chapter we'll get to this area of discussion.

It typically doesn't.

Hair! I meant to write hair!

Wait, you wrote Deviantart on Ice! If that's any indication of your skills, Fun and Adventure should be hilarious.

Not exactly the same level of comedic tone, but I did try!
 
Or, well, hair dye. Given that an Albino shouldn't have much difficulty dying their hair, and would explain all the other traits... aside from being exceptionally small for a human, and covering their entire body, and being significalntly shorter visibly than physically if anyone can sense that...
 
Omake: Three-Ring Circus 3 (Fun and Adventure! + Hyphen X-over)
And here we are, the final one! I really just wrote these because I wanted the dialogue, and now that's done with. There's no plans or ideas on continuing further than this.

_____________________________

I sat on the ground, along with everyone else, around an unfortunately low table constructed from rocks that me and Astra made, while Mawile pretended to help with her tiny non-Psychic body. It turned out Astra was the only one with food at the moment, as I was too busy being in another universe to go shopping like I'd planned, so we'd reconvened at Mawile's self-proclaimed hovel.

Each of us were given a few Oran berries, with Mawile the most enthusiastic in eating them, stifling little moans of pleasure. I pointedly ignored her. For me, Oran berries weren't my favourite, but food was food.

"So, what's the plan now?" asked Astra, quietly eating her own berry.

"Get out of this forest," I said, eating half an Oran in an entire bite. I took a moment to chew and appreciate the flavours before swallowing and getting back to the conversation. "Get back to a city. Shouldn't be hard for us Psychics now that we know what to watch out for."

"But how are we supposed to get back home?" asked Astra, a note of despair in her "voice." "I have a village to protect. It's the whole reason I became a Pokémon trainer in the first place."

"Well we'll have to do some research on that," I said, quickly finishing off my last berry. "Figure out what this universe knows and what the current state of dimensional research is here. Finding out if Mega Evolution happens here should be our first priority. After that, Ultra Wormholes. If we're lucky we'll find both of those and we can go from there."

"I don't know what you just said," said Astra.

"They're just stuff to look out for," I said. "There's Mega Evolution in my universe, but I've heard there's other ones where it doesn't exist. There's also research being done on Ultra Wormholes, which are like… portals to an area between universes."

"How do you know all that?" asked Mawile, still finishing her berries. She seemed to want to take her time. "You're like, ten years old."

"Well I hung out at Professor Oak's lab in Kanto a lot growing up. Plus I'm a genius." I grinned at Mawile, who didn't seem impressed. "Anyway, I've had conversations with a few other professors and academics; so I'm pretty familiar with a lot of things, at least back in my world. Not a lot of the real technical stuff, but popular science."

"So what do we do if this universe has this stuff you're talking about?" asked Astra, now putting her jar of berries back into her bag.

"Find out where research is being done and then pick a place to go," I said. "Explain our situation and see if they can get us back."

"So we should get moving right now then?" asked Astra. "I can't be gone too long, the village is depending on me!"

"I think we should try to find Dialga and Palkia," said Mawile, quietly. "Or Arceus. Then we wouldn't have a time limit."

"That'd be a tall order," I said, and Astra looked from Mawile back to me.

"Who, or what, are those names?" she asked.

"Legendary Pokémon," I answered. "Well technically, Arceus is a Mythical Pokémon. Anyway, Dialga and Palkia are Pokémon that can control time and space, so if we found them they could put us back exactly when and where we left. Arceus theoretically created the entire universe, including Dialga and Palkia. So if we somehow found any of these Pokémon, it'd be simple for them to fix our problems."

"Okay, wait," said Astra, closing her eyes tightly as if warding off a headache. "Why – ugh!" She let her head fall onto the table, before rocking it back and forth almost causing her hat to fall off. Finally she picked her head back up and took a deep breath. "You two are going to kill me if this keeps up." She then looked at Mawile. "I can maybe get that a human might know about this kind of stuff. Humans seem to know all kinds of things. But what about you? What kind of world did you come from? How do either of you even know if these things are real?"

I looked at Mawile, suddenly curious. I hadn't really considered the implications of her knowledge. She was asking a lot of specific questions for a normal wild Pokémon.

"Well I uh," said Mawile, looking at Astra before glancing at me briefly. "I used to live with humans."

"You were with a trainer?" I asked. "Or were you a pet?"

Mawile scoffed. "I was not a pet!" She seemed to catch herself then, her eyes growing wide. "There were just… circumstances. I learned a lot."

"A research Pokémon?" I asked. Mawile looked away from both me and Astra, staring straight ahead.

"Hey, why won't you just answer the question?" asked Astra, her voice determined. "It's like you're hiding something!"

"Look, it's better if you two don't know," said Mawile. "It doesn't really matter anyway, what's important is that Dialga and Palkia exist, and if we find them they can fix this."

I narrowed my eyes at Mawile, while Astra did the same thing.

"Were you a human, before?" I asked.

Mawile sputtered something incomprehensible, shocked by the accusation. "What gives you that idea?!"

I shrugged. "You know too much," I said. "Plus I know it's possible to turn a human into a Pokémon. A witch could do it. There's been experiments in mind transfer, but those were closer to accidents than anything else. Neither really fits with this situation completely, but given how weird this all is already, I wouldn't be too surprised."

"What's a witch?" asked Astra.

"Could we just not look into this any further?" asked Mawile. She looked at me then. "Or maybe if you want to continue, afterwards we can talk about your dad?"

I pursed my lips to avoid saying anything too harsh, feeling really annoyed.

"That's a low blow," I said. "But fine." Taking the hint and wanting to move on, I turned to look at Astra. "A witch is a kind of Psychic human who uses rituals and external materials to focus their powers to get more specialised effects that you normally can't do by yourself. They're seen as kind of… weird, or scary, compared to normal Psychics. Which, frankly, are already seen as weird and scary. I've never met a witch but I've glanced at a magic book once or twice."

Both Mawile and Astra blinked at me.

"So that's really true?" asked Mawile. "Witches exist?"

"At least where I'm from," I said. "For whatever reason, where I'm from, more girls become witches than boys. There's a stereotype about it, which I'd rather not get into."

There was a long pause as both Mawile and Astra stared at me, trees rustling around us.

"Your world is weird," said Astra, finally.

"I prefer to think of it as fun and filled with adventure," I said, waving that criticism away.

"Can witches turn Pokémon into humans?" asked Mawile.

"I'm not sure," I said. "Maybe? Probably. I don't know."

We devolved into silence again after that.

"Well," said Astra, finally breaking the silence. "We know we've got to get out of this forest and find a city, regardless of how we solve this problem after that. So, Mawile." Mawile looked over at Astra, looking a bit apprehensive. "Are you coming with us?"

"Why not?" she said. "Even if I can't get back home I don't want to be here. I'll starve before too long, there's too few berries, and hunting is really hard."

Astra looked at me then. "So then… which of us should she go with?"

Comprehension dawned on Mawile's face, as she stood up from the table, slowly.

"She can just follow us," I said. "At least nobody would question that back in my world. Pokémon are everywhere, nobody's going to ask why you're out of a Poké Ball all the time. Though if you get injured it might make things difficult. Plus I hear Poké Balls are comfortable, and they keep you from getting hungry as quickly."

"If they're so great why don't you two go in them then?" said Mawile.

I held up my hands defensively. "Hey I'm just saying. As long as you're around a human you're going to be assumed to be with that human. Even by yourself, if you're in a city, you're going to be assumed to belong to somebody. Unless the closest town to us is Ryme City, in which case we should find the next nearest town."

"I'm not sure how I feel about that," said Mawile. "I'm my own person!"

I shrugged. "I mean, there's more details to go into, I'm just trying to say you don't need to be caught by one of us."

"I think it's a good idea if you were though," said Astra. She looked at me then. "I mean, couldn't just any old human catch her if one of us didn't do it?"

"They'd have to know she wasn't already caught, and that won't be assumed," I said.

"But what about battling other trainers?" Astra asked. "Wouldn't she be expected to fight for one of us?"

"Just set the rules first," I said. "Heck, you could just say 'Mawile is a friend, she's not here to battle.' Or say she's for Pokémon Contests." I looked at Mawile, suddenly grinning. "Or maybe we could actually use her for Pokémon Contests!"

Mawile's horn rose then, opening slightly as I felt the sudden full force of Intimidate. I didn't let myself back down though, and set up my Charm, staring down Mawile's glare with my widest, cutest, sparkliest smile.

We stared at each other like that for a while before Mawile said in a harsh tone, "You're not putting me in a dress."

"Aww," I said, keeping my voice a touch higher than normal. "But you could win all kinds of ribbons!"

"Don't you have to fight in Pokémon contests?" she asked, still glaring.

"But it's not the same kind of fighting," I said sweetly, holding the Charm.

"You guys are giving me a headache," said Astra, shaking her head. "Can you stop this?"

We both turned to look at Astra, who promptly screamed and fell backwards, causing me to stop the Charm. Mawile managed to end her intimidate and lower her horns, rushing over to help the fallen Pokémon.

"That was awful!" shouted Astra, standing back up. "I felt terrified, but also as if it'd be very cute if you tore me to shreds." She took one angry step forward, her arms at her sides and shouted, "Never do that again!"

I held up my hands in a placating gesture. "Hey, it was an accident." Truthfully I just didn't want Mawile to be caught by either of us. I already had six Pokémon, and there was no telling where Mawile would end up if I caught her. But if anybody was going to catch a Mawile I wanted it to be me. "Let's just table this Mawile catching thing for now. Mawile doesn't have to decide right away, we can at least wait until after we've found a city."

"Yeah, I think that sounds good," said Mawile, moving back across the table to her old spot. She looked at me suddenly, her expression thoughtful. "If this world does have Mega Evolutions, could we go find some Mawilite? I hate being so weak compared to you guys."

"So you know what Mega Evolution is then?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Should I even ask at this point?" said Astra, setting herself back down.

"Besides, maybe you could Mega Evolve!" continued Mawile, ignoring Astra.

I lifted my chin a bit and said, "Only Pokémon can Mega Evolve, and whatever else may be the case, I am human." Mawile looked like she wanted to laugh, while Astra seemed torn between trying to get us to answer her question and just ignoring us. "Besides," I continued, my voice much lower. "My mum has Gardevoirite. It didn't do anything for me."

"Maybe you're not a high enough level yet?" suggested Mawile in a teasing tone. I swear it looked like her horns were grinning.

"Can we change the subject?" I asked, standing up.

"Sure," said Mawile. "Do you have an Ability?"

I groaned, and mumbled my answer.

"What was that, I couldn't quite hear you," said Mawile, standing up too. Then Astra followed suit.

"Pixarrar," I mumbled again.

"Come again?"

"Pixilate!" I shouted. "I only know that because my sister has Trace!"

Mawile burst out laughing, and we started walking away from the table, hopefully towards civilisation and sanity.

"Wouldn't that mean that –"

"Shut up!" I said, feeling my face burn red. "No, no more questions from you! Astra, change the subject!"

"Well," said Astra, sounding thankfully confused. Hopefully she didn't understand what Mawile was talking about. "There is one thing I want to know, now that I got the chance to ask."

"Go for it," I said.

"What's puberty?" she replied.

I buried my face into my hands, hoping to slip from this reality into one which was less embarrassing.
 
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