Event 6 Part 1
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“Oh man! You again!? I swear I was JUST HERE!” She looked at Devonshire sternly, as if she could somehow divine the answer she sought from his equally stern gaze. Her appearance in his office was not _totally_ uncalled for, she had been summoned by the blowing of the Thistle Whistle, an amazingly powerful (if not a bit mysterious) instrument that now lay safely in the possession of Arianna. While much more could be said about Arianna and the Thistle Whistle, that’s not relevant to the task soon to be on hand. It’s Jasmine we’re interested in.
“Ah, yes, you must be the girl Arianna mentioned! We were beginning to think you weren’t going to show, what with you taking so long.” Devonshire really didn’t know how she abruptly appeared in front of him, and didn’t much care. What he did care about was the fact that she had knocked over several papers he’d been meaning to look at, and it would take him upwards of an entire minute to reorganize them. Time felt precious to him, although if you were to ask, he wouldn’t be able to tell you why. Not important. He’d figure out what she wanted and politely shoo her out. He hoped. She didn’t seem like the type to pick up on hints.
“What do you mean by taking so long! I was here before the whistle was even done being.. Did you say Arianna? Oh, no!” She looked positively crestfallen once she realized who blew the whistle. “How bad is it? Have you fixed it already?”
“No, the problem is certainly not fixed, Jasmine. It is actually why Arianna chose to call you in the first place. I understand you can see to it yourself, yes?” Sadly, that was not the case. It never was.
She stood (well, floated) in front of him, hands on her hips. “Of course not! Who do you think I am? YOU guys need to do the planting, why in the world would you think I could do all that!?”
“My apologies, Jasmine. Arianna spoke very highly of your talents, although she neglected to mention exactly what they were. Tell me what assistance you require, and I shall see to it you receive it.” He hoped she would be brief. Time felt very short around this girl, and if there was one thing in this world he didn’t like, it was running out of time to prepare.
Prepare for what? He couldn’t answer that one, either.
“Oh! Umm... Do you guys still have the trees? I don’t like heavy lifting, so it would sure be nice if you got someone to do.. all.. the heavy lifting.”
Of course they’d have to do all the heavy lifting! They hadn’t done anything to deserve a break lately, right? Right. No rest for the wicked. He was busy, though, and the thought of spreading out his already thin supply of resources wasn’t the most appealing idea in the world. He’d get that odd Ampharos and PK to take care of it, but they probably wouldn’t do it for free. Not like it mattered. Money was of no concern to him.
It was a lot to swallow. From what Malt told, so much had happened, and Mike couldn't believe he was naive enough to think Tao Village would just sit still. Malt definitely described this Twigs fellow as bad news, and Mike felt like he had to agree (even if he never had seen Twigs before). "Ugh, poor PK... and poor... Shroomy. Heck, I even feel bad for the guy!"
"Feel bad for what?" Cried an unknown voice.
Who...?
"Geez! The sun's already setting? I could've sworn it was nine in the morning when I talked to that ghostly creepster!" A... green floating onion flew in to see Mike and Malt together and noticed the wound. "Oh my! That looks pretty horrid! But don't worry, I know in a minute or two that should heal itself right up! Or was that weeks?"
"Um. Excuse me, but who might you be?" Malt rang up.
"My name's Jasmine, and I'm kinda looking for the owner of this place! Think she could make a last minute appointment with me?"
“Hey, hey you! I didn’t even see you there, I’ve been looking all over for you!” In a daze, PK danced the line of slumbering and consciousness. She saw Anana in her mind, not quite sure if it was real or not. Why would Anana be looking for her?
Well, it didn’t matter. PK rolled back over in her nook under her desk. She didn’t quite feel like getting up yet.
“Hey... hey YOU! I’m talking to you! It’s taken me weeks to find you!” This time, a tiny pointed finger tapped PK’s nose a few times. “Wake up, lady! I kept missing you every time I checked this room!”
PK jolted and smacked her head on the inside leg of her desk. “Wh-what? Who let you in here?!” It occurred to her that no one could have let Jasmine in, as the office could only be unlocked from the inside if you didn’t have the key. The key PK had in her desk.
“I’m Jasmine! I’m- ugh, listen! We got some things to do, all right? You can help, can’t you?”
PK was rubbing her head and squinting. A head bump wasn’t a fantastic way to begin the morning, nor was a talky intruder. “Jasmine, huh? Looks like we’re off to a bad start already. I can help show you out the door, probably. How’d you get in here?”
“That’s not important! I teleported, if you really needed to know. But I accidentally... well, I meant to just skip over here after your friend told me where you were. I knocked, I did, but no one answered. I had to! But it ended up taking me weeks to get to the right spot...” Jasmine said. It made a lot of sense to her, but none at all to PK, who had no idea of the little fairy’s time skipping powers. Mike and Malt had told Jasmine where PK was several hours ago, and it took Jasmine weeks of accidentally skipping to the wrong point in time before she teleported into the room correctly, albeit a bit late. Being frazzled would do that to her.
To PK, it just looked like she had another crazy on her hands. “I don’t know what you’re going on about, but you’d probably be best to do it out near the big treehouse,” she told Jasmine. “I’m sure they’d... love your company.”
“I- what? Aren’t you the head around here? Who’s going to do all the heavy lifting and planting then?! The forest is dying, didn’t you notice?” Jasmine looked upset. PK decided that maybe she should be taken seriously. The forest was really dying all around Tao, it was obvious. But they couldn’t really do much about it. It took a lot to even keep the grass around the village from dying, and the treehouse, too. They couldn’t do anything about the hundreds of trees all around them, though. Some lived, most died.
“I did notice, but what does it even... we can’t really do much about it. You’ve gotta know that. We can’t do anything for those big dead trees. We sold most of them as lumber to pay for stuff anyway, you know.”
“Ah, gosh! No no, we can do something still, that’s why I’m here! I’m glad Arianna got a hold of me, I bet I would’ve missed this whole thing otherwise!” PK froze at the mention of Arianna. It was hard not to feel anxious about her; PK had... borrowed the Thistle Whistle from her without permission, and, well, had caused an unfortunate thing to happen.
And it looked like Arianna still cared enough to help...
PK swelled with unease. Jasmine continued speaking in her silence. “So... yep. I need all of you to clear out the dead stuff... though it sounds like you’ve done a lot of that already. Besides that, I need you guys to plant a ton of things. I mean it! Plant a lot of stuff: flowers, trees, bushes, all sorts of things! I’ll do the rest. I just don’t like doing the planting bit because it takes soooo long... and I can’t really carry a lot of stuff, y’know, not really good for my back... also I just don’t like to. So...” Jasmine shrugged noncommittally.
“Wait, what? That’s gonna take ages before it matters though. Plants don’t sprout overnight.”
“No... no, did you even listen to me?! Oh my gosh... I’ll take care of the rest! I just need a bunch of stuff to help make it grow, but if it’s not there, I can’t make it grow! Don’t be a dolt!”
There was something comical about such a small fairy with such a high-pitched voice getting agitated with PK’s misunderstanding of the situation. Normally, she might have gotten annoyed at anyone sassing her, but this wasn’t the case with such a non-threatening, ditzy Pokemon.
“All right, so, what? You want me to get everyone to... just plant things?”
“You betcha! Trust me, it’ll look absolutely gorgeous when I’m finished. It’s kinda my specialty, lady!”
PK rubbed the sore spot on her head, in thought. “Kay... I guess I’ll need to see if the other guys will help. That’s way too much space to cover alone.”
“Whatever you need to do... I’m gonna hang out in this village for a while. I don’t really like making everything bloom until it’s all done. Wanna make a little festival of it? It’ll be really pretty, I’m telling you!”
PK decided that that would be a good idea. She left her office with Jasmine to seek out Mike and Devonshire, and arranged a meeting of the guilds at the fountain in the center of the town.
: Okay everyone, I don’t know if you’ve all seen the little fairy who’s been bugging a good lot of you, but chances are you will shortly--
: Hi! I need you guys to do some stuff for me!
: H-hi...
: Who are-- oh, you’re that guy who helped me out weeks ago! I remember you! You were with the cow, right?
: Weeks...? That was last night.. and that's Malt you're talking about. Hey, wait, what are you here for?
: I didn’t tell you? Oh... but I thought- oh that’s right, I told the ghost guy.
: (Jeez, everyone goes to Devonshire first still? How weird, it's like he's the real head honcho)
: I’m sure heading to me first was just a coincidence, Michael. I don’t believe she’s too aware of the normal passage of time. Also, if you don’t want people overhearing, whisper more quietly.
: …
: Whatever. Jasmine told me I basically need to get a lot of help in planting more stuff around here. My guild has been super busy fixing up the village and the ranch for a couple of months now, so I don’t really want to solely dump the burden on them. Plus, you guys live here too. So what I really want is that everyone comes together for this.
: Yeah, I have to agree with that. I think the environment kind of needs some 'rescuing' too... right? Kheh... (empty laugh)
: You heard the girl, Rogues! I would have all of you listen to her as if she were a smaller, more authoritative Gunpowder. I have no speech prepared, as I’m a bit busy with something else. I trust all of you to perform this duty admirably.
: …
: Um, yes! Let's all cooperate this time! We saved the village together, but we kinda destroyed it together... wait, I mean!! Let's just plant some plants! Even-- hey wait, you can't make trees in a few days, so what gives?
: Dummy! Weren’t you told anything?! Leave that to me! I’m the expert here. I’ll make everything bloom even if you planted it five seconds ago! I told this lizard lady here that after you guys did all the planting, I’d make everything bloom at once and we could make a festival of it. How’s that, huh?
: Well, if only I was told by you or PK! Whatever. We've experienced Winter suddenly happen overnight, so I hope Spring would do the same.
: Okay, that’s that, guys. We have a lot of saplings out at the ranch that haven’t been planted yet, so I’m sure they’ll be happy to give you all some of those, and some seeds, too. I’m fine with whatever plants you want to put in the forest. Try to pick pretty things out, though...
: That reminds me! Rogues, make sure you assist Dmitri in emptying the, ah, stockpiled cache of saplings and seeds from the Law Firm’s tunnels. Put everything to good use, yes?
: Why do you have stockpiled... what... well, whatever.
: Will I be needed for anything further? Time is running short, and I have unfinished business to tend to.
: No, I don’t suppose so. Now that you’ve given me the right to drive your lackeys around, I think that’s about all I needed from you.
: ...hey wait, where do we Rescuers get our supply of saplings and whatnot to plant!?
: What a good question, Mike. While SOME of you were busy slacking off, I was already prepared! I bought a bunch of pretty flower bush seeds from Sapling Village with the excess money from the treehouse. I intended to have them planted around Tao, but I imagine it’ll be fine if they’re planted outside of it, too.
: F-Fresnel!! I... Thanks, and sorry I guess.
: Sounds like everyone’s ready! I’m gonna stick around ‘til this job’s done. I’ll try not to teleport too much, or I probably won’t make it back here at the right time...
Event 6 - Temporal Terraforming
OBJECTIVE - Plant as many trees, bushes, flowers (and anything else you can think of) as you can around Tao Village and in all devastated areas of the nearby forests. Creeping Forest got hit especially hard, between Tao and Merlot’s castle.
The blooming will happen later, after everything has been planted. Jasmine will want to get everything all at once for a festival after the planting has been done - so don't let it bloom yet!
Collaborations recommended in order to speed along the planting process!
Event ends on August 19th
