{RP} The S.S. Wishmaker - Tides of Witchcraft

[Neo Emolga]

The Diamond Ladies
Central Park (Poke Park)
Affected RPers: @Chakramaster @Shruikan

To say the least, Cassandra was completely stuck with no where to run. It was already a challenge to avoid stepping on an unsuspecting Pokémon, all while it feeling very strange to her to suddenly be so huge and surrounded with fluffy fur.

Jimmy had encouraged Jirachi to tag Cassandra, seeing as how he had already marked her as a victim and she was by far now the easiest and biggest target to tag. Jirachi cheered at the idea and had levitated his way toward Cassandra’s neck.

“EEV-VEE…” (“AND I’M SCREWED…”) Cassandra slouched in defeat as Jirachi tagged her on the neck and then hid himself into her very fluffy collar.

She couldn’t look down far enough to see where Jirachi had tucked himself into her cloud-like collar, but before she could even begin searching, suddenly everything stopped. Suddenly all the candy had disappeared and everyone had started to glow brighter.

I hope I’m not about to get even bigger!

But instead, it had suddenly ended and after a moment of white haze and a moment of disorientation, Cassandra had come to, finding herself on the ground, but this time as a human. And right next to her were Jarena, Violet, and Sami, having just realized they had transformed back. After sitting up, it took her a moment to get her bearings back and get used to being human again. But for now, it seemed the chaos and the absurdity had concluded, and perhaps Jirachi had gotten enough playtime and was feeling tired and in need of a nap. Cassandra imagined nestling into a Gigantamax Eevee’s collar fur might have been cozy enough for him to doze off.

“Oh wow, that was wild!” Jarena had begun laughing hysterically before smiling impishly at Cassandra. “Holy cow, you should have seen the look on your cute giant Eevee face! Oh man, I hope, hope someone took a picture of that! I need that picture!”

“Gee, thanks,” Cassandra replied sarcastically, sighing as she rolled her eyes. “Next you’re going to ask me what kind of frame would go well with it.”

“I’ve had some weird dreams…” Sami told the three of them, looking at them for a second before looking past them at the spot where piles of candy had been just a minute earlier. “But really nothing compares to that.”

Violet had nodded, rubbing her face just to be absolutely sure it wasn’t still covered with fur.

“Jirachi playtime really is something else…” Violet muttered, still trying to understand the reality of what just happened minutes ago. “Hopefully he’s happy now.”

“Dude must have tuckered himself out,” Jarena replied, seeing as how everything suddenly vanished and was reset. “That was crazy fun, though! We should do it again sometime! So what’s it like being a towering Gigantamax Eevee?”

Even though she had only been as one for a few short minutes, Cassandra didn’t think it would be something she’d ever forget. To her, it was very vivid and the feeling was unlike anything she ever felt before.

“It’s… an experience…” Cassandra replied, almost laughing at the absurdity. “It was like being a giant Eevee plush pillow sitting in a pool of my own fluff and I couldn’t see anyone below me. There was just… fluff and fuzz everywhere.”

“We know, we nearly got buried in it,” Violet remarked, recalling the moment it was like running away from a fluffy avalanche.

“It was so cute, too bad you couldn’t stay like that,” Jarena giggled. “Although yeah… we’d have trouble getting you off the ship.”

Cassandra looked down and nodded, still feeling that would only be just one among many complications that would arise from being stuck in that kind of state. In the meantime, it was an experience she never thought she’d ever get to have in this lifetime… but she had to admit that despite the situation, it was captivating in a way. To her, it was like almost a wonderous dream, only it was real and on a level of experience she didn’t think was possible.

“Getting kind of late,” Sami told them, looking at her watch. “Isn’t your final tournament battle with Jon coming up soon?”

“Wow, that’s right,” Cassandra suddenly snapped to attention, looking at the time and seeing she only had little less than a half hour left before it was time for the final tournament battle. “If Jirachi had been able to go on for another hour or so…”

“’Pokémon High Seas Final Tournament Battle canceled, Finalist Cassandra Silvers stuck as giant Eevee,’” Jarena laughed. “What a headline that would be!”

“Guess you could have battled Jon’s Pokémon as… yourself,” Sami pondered. “I don’t think a ruling against that kind of thing exists.”

“I would have done it just to see the look on Jon’s face,” Cassandra snickered.

As Cassandra likely figured, the lack of a ruling was likely only because the heads of the League never thought contestants would become Pokémon themselves and consider entering a battle on their own accord. Although if it were to ever become a very common thing, it made her wonder exactly how they would ultimately declare the ruling on that.

“I’ll take you to the stadium,” Sami told them, knowing she was still on escort duty. “Probably best if you all come. Once we get to the waiting room, I’ll keep on standby and I’ll see if I can get Kyle to join me. He’s a bit like me, didn’t really take the whole thing with him being turned into a Yamper personally. I think the two of us together will make sure we don’t have an incident like yesterday night.”

“Yeah, I guess that would be better,” Cassandra nodded, looking over her shoulder. “We haven’t stopped this ‘Karma’ person, and if Lance hasn’t given up and wants someone to carry out his order, he’s running out of time and they may be looking to take action soon.”

“They do that and I don’t care what Jon or the League says about us using witchcraft,” Violet replied with a determined tone of voice. “They bust in like Lance did and I’m not holding back.”

“Yeah, I don’t even think Jon would argue with us,” Jarena replied with a confident nod. “Though yeah, we’re almost at Castelia City. Ship’s supposed to dock in less than three hours. We’ll be out of here, soon.”

“Well, we’d better go,” Sami told the rest of them. “I’ll text Kyle and let him know we’re on our way.”

As they left the Poké Park, Cassandra couldn’t help but look back at the park and think about the wild game of tag they had as Pokémon. She couldn’t help but admit she never thought she would ever have crazy and adventurous fun like that…

---

En Route to Battling Arena Waiting Room

Shortly after leaving Central Park, Violet tried to think about the possibility of them getting attacked again. She didn’t know what kinds of Pokémon Sami and Kyle had in their possession, but once Cassandra left to go to her battle with Jon at the stadium, she and Jarena were going to have to depend on their Pokémon, their trust, and their own witchcraft. Violet didn’t want to say she couldn’t trust Sami after her short time being with her, but she still felt she needed to be on her guard at all times. To Violet, Jarena and Cassandra were the only ones she truly trusted in full.

It was coming down to the wire. Once the ship docked in Castelia City and everyone stepped off, whatever Lance tried to do before would be much more difficult, although not impossible. As she thought about what happened last night, Lance was intent on killing the both of them and framing Jon and his Latios for the attack. As much as Jon questioned Lance’s sanity, Violet felt Lance was no idiot, even if he was a madman. Violet had recognized he had been an opportunist in this situation, looking and waiting for a moment the situation could be leveraged for his own goals. And though Jon had put Lance in a state that would likely require him being in an infirmary for a while, it would not stop him from possibly trying again sometime in the future, when Jon, Cynthia, and Steven were no longer around. He also had money and influence, and if he couldn’t accomplish his goals, he wouldn’t be above paying someone to do his dirty work, but his pride spoke more of wanting the opportunity himself. Still, she didn’t think he would put that above him waiting a long time for this.

It all came down to how far would Lance be willing to take his escalation of commitment and for how long. From what Cassandra had mentioned after she had gotten Lance’s confession recorded, it seemed he was willing to go very, very far. Enough to the point where even after the ship had docked, Violet figured they would do well buying new clothing as soon as possible and disguise themselves and blend into Castelia City pedestrian crowds. But would they still be followed and stalked long after that? She also felt there was a strong potential of that as well.

She didn’t want to mention this to Jarena, as she felt she would get worried, but Violet had a feeling Cassandra already knew the potential danger. Lance had been a Champion for quite some time and used to be regarded as a guardian and a hero, and from his own words, the way they had stolen that from him and had been showered with praise and attention drove him over the brink of insanity. Violet had figured he had his hunches about their cheating at first, and that had turned into anger, though it never reached its peak as he hadn’t not confirmed yet. And after being angry for so long and then finally getting the final confirmation he was right the whole time, it made him snap and become an entirely different person. And now that he was going to lose his position with the League and never get what he lost back… Violet figured he had nothing left to lose, a man who wouldn’t feel a thing if he spent the rest of his days rotting in prison. But if he could accomplish his dark goals in some capacity and the three of them were dead as he so desired, she felt it might be euphoric to him, regardless of what outcome would befall him as a result.

Still, she had every intention of watching the shadows carefully from now on. Even long after they got off the ship…