Questionable Rumours [Mission]

[Evangeline Gaubert]

there is always a bit of truth in each rumour

◥

Evangeline watched Le Yeah's tables rapidly emptying as the clock's handles advanced to signal a quarter to ten. The morning rush was finally over, and the few customers that remained were mostly regulars with whom she could have a little chat until her shift ended. Stealing a glimpse at her reflection in one of the wide windows, she fixed her apron in place, before approaching one of the tables under her charge.

Table 9 was currently being occupied by Monsieur Ardenne, a grey-haired, middle-aged journalist who spent more time drinking espressos than actually writing. Judging from his aggressive typing and fidgeting with the laptop sitting in front of him, though, it looked like he was working on a new article for once. "Are you finding everything alright, sir?"

Ardenne didn't reply immediately. It took him a whole of two minutes, in fact, to finish writing down the idea that had just come to him, and turn to the lavender-haired waitress. "Oh, Madeline, it's you," he said, finally recognising the voice that had spoken to him all those minutes ago. "I'm finding everything quite alright, thank you."

Evangeline nodded, though she wasn't about to leave just yet. "What are you working on this time, Monsieur Ardenne, if I may ask?" Evangeline didn't really have to ask; she had been skimming through his article as he typed. It was, nevertheless, worth the trouble to please Monsieur Ardenne. Besides, she didn't want to believe what she had been reading was actually what the journalist was working on.

"Why, yes, of course you may ask." A smug smile appeared on his face, meaning she had come just in time for a speech on 'the best article the world had been waiting to see.' If she was completely honest, the journalist's articles would more often than not end up covering topics Evangeline and most human beings were not interested in, but it was always nice to see the usually sullen Monsieur Ardenne lively narrating his most recent findings. "You've heard about the Mystery of the Badlands, I'm sure."

So she hadn't been reading wrong, after all. This wasn't starting well. "You mean those rumours about the strange stones that would sometimes be dug up by treasure hunters in Route 13?" Evangeline tried to measure his reactions, tried to find any clues that led to him actually being serious about this... about this 'Mystery of the Badlands.' Granted, this wasn't the first time Monsieur Ardenne wrote about arguable topics, but this was by far the worst, next to maybe the myth about that one Pokémon that could change its form to that of electrical appliances at will.

"Oh, I know what must be going on in that pretty little head of yours, young miss," he said with a light scowl. "You're probably thinking, 'This old man has finally lost it. I should just nod and go on my merry way, flaunting this gorgeous hair of mine in everyone's faces and their mom's.'"

Evangeline laughed at Ardenne's dreadful characterisation of her. "I totally did not think that!"

Her comment caught him in the midst of flipping his hair like a diva, apparently. Or flipping air, perhaps, seeing as his own hair wasn't long enough to properly perform a hair flip. Monsieur Ardenne lowered his hand, again posing a serious demeanour. "Do you mean the part about me being an old man, or the part in which I become nuts?"

"The part about my hair, of course. I would describe it as nothing less than ravishing," she said, dramatising a hair flip of her own. Monsieur Ardenne, by now, was joining her in a cycle of contagious laughter that wouldn't stop until they both noticed the amused stares of the other customers in Le Yeah.

Monsieur Ardenne was the first to catch his breath after their little scene. "My point, Madeline, is that I have proof." Evangeline raised an eyebrow. "Rather, an acquaintance of an acquaintance has proof."

"So you don't know for sure."

The journalist looked at the waitress out of the corner of his eyes, trying to decide whether or not to share his piece of hard-earned information with her. "Come closer, my dear." Curious, Evangeline stepped towards him. "According to my acquaintance, these rumoured abnormalities are product of paranormal activity." Evangeline's eyes went wide. He really had lost it.

"Don't you give me that look, young miss. I have lived far longer than you and know how to judge an expression like the one you have right now."

"I'm sorry, sir, but-"

"Shush, now, let me finish. Just like you, I had my doubts at first. Nobody has even proved the existence of space creatures, and this person was just trying to convince me that they had been leaving proof of their existence right under our noses. What kind of freak would believe him? Well, he had good arguments going for him..."

There was a short pause in which Monsieur Ardenne looked pensive. He shook his head. "In any case, here's the deal: my sources have spotted cargo trucks being driven from the Badlands into the Stone Emporium. It's safe to assume there's something fishy going on there. Madeline."

Evangeline had been listening to Monsieur Ardenne's words so attentively, lest she be reprimanded again, that his suddenly calling her name came completely unexpected. "Y-yes, sir?" came her disconcerted reply.

Inhaling a big chunk of air, he resumed. "I want you to look into this for me. The Stone Emporium has been looking for some part-timers to help along fixing up the place. This would be the perfect opportunity to confirm my suspicions." He exhaled. Maybe asking this of Madeline, who was completely outside of his line of work, wasn't a good idea? But her being an outsider may be beneficial for the task at hand.

Ah, well, he had already shot the proposition. All that was left was to wait and hope for the best. "I would offer myself for the part-time job, but I'm sure they wouldn't be able to reject a charming young lady who came offering to help."

Mission available!
The Stone Emporium is in need of some part time help. They need someone to help carry in a new crate of elemental stones and add them to the display of the store, as well as serve as a clerk for the afternoon. Some of the stones might seem a tad odd, but you won't be able to ask the owner about them until the work day ends. If you do a good job, maybe he'll tell you.

Rewards: Mega Stone knowledge
Members: Evangeline Gaubert
Notes: Successful mission results in knowing what a Mega Stone is; potentially knowledge of Key Stone. No information on how to use said items.

For a few seconds, Evangeline remained silent. She was too dumbfounded to utter a single word. After she thought it all over, however, she realised there really was nothing to lose by accepting Monsieur Ardenne's eccentric request.

"Are you sure you're not just dumping all the hard work on others?" she joked, a conspiratorial smile on her face. Monsieur Ardenne's words were hard to believe, but it would be a lie to say she wasn't the slightest bit interested. Even if this didn't lead to proving his bizarre theories, something was sure to result from her undercover investigation. And, hey, this was the Stone Emporium they were talking about. Being able to earn some easy money was always a big plus.

Coded by Quixotic

[Evangeline Gaubert]

i would rather die of passion than of boredom

◥

Monsieur Ardenne said he would prepare everything for her, that she need only present herself for the job and keep her eyes open for any unusual activity. So there she was, a photoshoot and a moonlit night later, standing behind the Stone Emporium's counter, waiting for the cargo her boss had mentioned earlier in the day to arrive.

"This must be like a field day for you, Atlas," Evangeline commented, a tinge of jealousy in her voice. Atlas, as tranquil as always, was slowly making its way around the display cabinets in the shop, making sure no rare stones had escaped its trainer's inspection.

Evangeline felt so lucky that her supervisor had thought the Lunatone a charming attraction for the shop during the length of her stay. Of course, said supervisor having stayed working in the shop with her would have been even better.

Well, beggars can't be choosers, eh? At least she had someone with whom to interact now. Despite the Emporium's stones being high in demand throughout the year, it wasn't common for customers to visit their facilities as often as they did cafés, and that lead to Evangeline currently dying of boredom. She couldn't blame the supervisor for leaving, really.

Oh, how she wished someone would open that door and walk in.

Coded by Quixotic

[Deleted]

Walking down the street of this latest city, Prisca Majune took in the sights of the bustling life of the city as its inhabitants went about their lives. The tall traveler took in all of the sounds of a thousand voices talking over each others, the bustle of people moving to their destinations, and presence of so many people brought together into one area. While she had already stopped to eat something when she first walked into the city, Prisca had decided to spend a portion of her remaining spending money on something nice for herself or her Pokemon, and now found herself walking down a commercial area waiting for a store sign to catch her eye.

After ignoring yet another store trying to do the old '50% off! Final day!" scam, a small sign managed to catch her eye. Although the store itself was modest (a small sign hanging over the door proclaiming it as the "Stone Emporium"), What really caught her eye was the fact no-one seemed to go into the store. Deciding to duck out of the bustling crowd for a bit, Prisca adjusted her backpack on herself, walked over, and stepped through the door.

Looking through the display cases, she smiled and waved a hello to a Lunatone that seemed to be patrolling the display cases like a librarian and looked over to a counter, where a pretty-looking girl seemed almost bored to tears. Tilting her head, Prisca decided to stay a little while and talk to her. She might as well entertain someone in need of conversation while she learned about the region she was arriving at.

"Hello there~!"

[Evangeline Gaubert]

look, i'm falling all over myself

◥

Evangeline's surly expression immediately lightened at the prospect of interacting with another human being. Don't get her wrong; she loved her Pokémon—but she just couldn't hold a conversation with Atlas the way she could with a person. Not to mention it looked busy enough inspecting those stones.

"Hello!" she exclaimed. A little too eagerly, perhaps. Well, not that she would know. She was too enthusiastic about her first customer in the whole afternoon to notice. "Welcome to Lumiose's very own Stone Emporium, where you will find evolution stones for all your evolutionary needs. How can I help you?"

It sounded a lot more cheesy than she was expecting, but the brunette visiting the shop could dig it. Maybe.

While Evangeline greeted her already smiling client with a smile of her own, the Lunatone leisurely glided back to the counter. It waited for the tall brunette to approach, no doubt willing to reciprocate in its own way the friendly wave that had been directed to it.

Coded by Quixotic

[Deleted]

Prisca giggled a bit from the eager welcome the shopkeeper gave her, knowing she head read the girl's reaction right. Looking about the store Prisca shook her head and looked back at the clerk replying happily as she gave the clerk a wink "Well, nothing really, I'm just new in the region and I'm looking about~. Where I'm from evolution stones are never really found, so an actual store full of them is a bit of a novelty for me! My name's Prisca by the way~!"

Thinking it over she turned away and started walking towards the lunatone, looking at the Clerk as she walked away slowly. "Actually, I've been meaning to find or adopt a Ralts, and like I told you, I've never really been exposed to evolution stones much. Is there type of stone I might be able to use on the Ralts, assuming I ever find one? " As she spoke Prisca looked at one of the cases, loosing herself in the subtle sparkling of a thunder stone.

[Evangeline Gaubert]

a world possibly not born until you arrive

◥

Not found? Evangeline found that so strange. What kind of place didn't have evolution stones? Could this girl, Prisca, have been raised in a secluded village, far from the beauty and advantages of modern civilisation? Could she have, like Evangeline all those years ago, decided there was a wider world out there for her to explore, and thus left her home? Evangeline's eyes softened at the thought, as she saw the brunette turn towards her dear Atlas.

Whatever the case, Evangeline had to internally cheer. Prisca seemed, at first glance, a nice girl to chill with, and that was something she desperately needed right now. "Evangeline, at your service," she offered in response to Prisca's sing-song introduction. The warmth she had felt just minutes ago was still lingering in Evangeline's sweet tone.

Atlas levitated around the brunette once, twice, before she reached the displays and fixed her eyes on one of the green Thunder Stones lying inside. The whole ordeal was done in that same slow, almost cathartic pace that characterised the Lunatone, the same pace that would oftentimes exacerbate its opponents, or entrance its unassuming allies.

"A Ralts?" the Lunatone's trainer repeated, amused. "We have a Dawn Stone that can turn a male Kirlia, Ralts's evolution, into a Gallade. Females, on the other hand, may evolve into Gardevoir after enough battling and nurturing." Evangeline had a habit of positioning one of her gloved fingers just before her lips in a meditating pose whenever she was thinking and, by the time she reached these words, her little tick could be appreciated in full bloom.

"Oh, but..." Evangeline stopped. "Funny that you mention this, actually, because I happen to have a Ralts with me. I can show her to you if you promise not to say anything." Her voice slowed down towards the end of her last sentence, making a dramatic pause at 'promise,' followed by a quick glance left and right from the corners of her lavender eyes, and a widening smile, before resuming. "Don't want my boss to fire me in less than one day, do we?"

Coded by Quixotic

[Deleted]

Prisca listened to Evangeline explain about dawn stones, part of her listening and the other part thinking about her own lack of knowledge about evolution stones. While she had indeed been born in a region that was light on the presence of stone emporiums, the real reason she hadn't learned something that basic was because of her childhood hauling acid bins in that hellish factory. She had decided to travel more in order to escape the memory from that region than any real wanderlust that normally seemed to hold coordinators and trainers... She didn't even consider herself a trainer to be honest. Her hand reflexively drifted to her shoulder, where the acid scarring from the years of forced labor still existed, even after five years of growth and travel.

To distract herself from the memories threatening to return to her, Prisca instead looked at the Lunatone as it completed its second orbit around her, slowly reaching out to touch it as she herself looked at Evangeline. A small smile touched Prisca's lips when she saw the lavender-haired girl in her thinking pose. Walking back to the counter, she leaned forward, her mind re-focusing on the undeniably attractive girl before her. Prisca's eyebrow quirked as Evangeline mentioned her own Ralts, and the proposition she made.

Matching Evangeline's own cautious looks to the sides, she eyed the Lunatone replying softly, her own voice picking the same mannerism as her co-conspirator. "Well, I won't tell anyone if you don't..." Prisca's eyes met Evangeline's and holding the gaze for a second before continuing "After all, it would be a shame for you to lose your post on the first day... That Lunatone might rat out on us though." The grin that tugged at the corner of her mouth betraying the joke of the statement.

[Evangeline Gaubert]

i do enjoy a good round of teasing

◥

Evangeline wasn't even trying to restrain her grin. Prisca, it appeared, was willing to go along with her little act, and that was a definite plus in her books. She waved her hand up and down, as if trying to spare Prisca of her nonsensical concerns. "Don't you worry about Atlas, sweetheart," she said in the most serious tone she could muster. Just to reassure the brunette, she glanced at the Lunatone with an obviously fake scowl in an attempt to look threatening. "If it so much as opens its mouth, we're both going under."

A playful wink from the part-time clerk finally sealed their agreement. Her pupils wandered to the belt adorning her hips, a band of silver-coloured leather just wide enough to fit one set of golden-rimmed pokéballs, from which she grabbed the first. With slow, comical gestures, Evangeline was trying to both surprise and entertain her partner in crime.

She carefully positioned a partially see-through ball on the counter, hoping Prisca wouldn't mind the excessive decoration of her luxury ball.

"This beauty here is called Echo," the lavender-haired female explained, as her leather-clad hands wrapped around the Ralts's ball. Affection, and maybe even some pride, were evident in they way Evangeline spoke. "She followed me home one day, after a visit I paid to Santalune, one of the southern cities. I like to believe she was lured in by my unmistakeable love for fashion. That day," Evangeline laughed lightly at the memory, "I somehow ended up having to carry six or seven shopping bags all the way back to Dendemille."

Evangeline glanced back up to the sight of a delighted Prisca, her fingers trailing down Echo's pokéball in search of its elusive button. Realising the brunette must have not even heard of many other Kalosian towns—she did say she was new in the region—she added absentmindedly, "Dendemille's my hometown, by the way. It's not too far from here; just past Melancolie Route."

At long last, Evangeline clicked the pokéball open.

Coded by Quixotic

[Deleted]

Prisca giggled at Evangeline's attempt to scowl at 'Atlas' as the lunatone's name turned out to be. Continuing to smile at what was quickly becoming a friend, Prisca slightly leaned forward over the counter as Evangeline looked down to get the pokeball with the Ralts.

As the Evangeline took the pokeball with the pokemon in question and placed it onto the table with smooth yet theatrical gestures, Prisca bent down, hiding the bottom half of her face under the counter, her wide eyes twinkling with equal parts mirth and eagerness as her fingers gripped the edge of the counter. She kept her eyes on the ball like an eager child, listening to the story of how she found the Ralts.

As Evangeline mentioned her home town Prisca's eyes flicked up to the girl's face and blinked twice, interested in where this girl had come, remembering the reference so that she could eventually wander in that direction.

Her attention however, was quickly returned to the ball as the ball clicked open, leaning back as the Ralts finally emerged. Prisca stared at Echo for a minute, looking at it quietly before...well...

Going full fan girl mode all over her.

After a small minute of gushing over how adorable and pretty Echo was, Prisca reigned herself back in, slightly blushing over having lost her cool that was. Prisca put Echo back on the counter (having hugged her at one point, she didn't even know when) and attempted to nonchalantly looked at Evangeline, saying "So, ummm...yeah, she's pretty cute~. You said you two first met in Santalune?"

[Evangeline Gaubert]

make me laugh, make me smile

◥

Prisca had, against all of Evangeline's predictions, started gushing over Echo and how very cute she was. The Ralts, without a doubt, would welcome such an effusive greeting, even if she did look a little disconcerted at first. Evangeline could only laugh at the adorable scene unfolding before her.

"You said you were looking for a Ralts, but I didn't think you were this desperate for one," she joked, the remnants of a smile still idly lingering on her lips.

Echo was indeed pleased at the attention she believed she had very deservingly received. She raised one of her small, delicate arms to the place one could only assume was her mouth. She would happily accept any other compliments sent her way, from either of the females occupying the room.

Instead of complimenting her, Evangeline placed one of her hands on top of Echo's head. She patted her softly, lovingly, as she heard Prisca's words. Echo hummed. That worked, too.

"Our paths did cross somewhere along my way from Santalune City to Dendemille Town, but I'm afraid I can't tell you exactly where that was." Evangeline's cheeks coloured as she admitted these words. She was clearly ashamed of not knowing where she had met Echo. "I didn't notice until I was well into Parterre Way, you see."

Echo looked up at her trainer, stared at her, as if trying to recomfort her. It was okay. Evangeline felt her body warming up ever so slightly, and smiled at the Ralts. She mouthed a heartfelt "Thank you," before raising her face once more.

"If you want to catch a sweetie like Echo, I'm sure Santalune would be a perfect place to start. Santalune, Aquacorde, Vaniville—Ralts are said to appear all over the place."

Coded by Quixotic

[Deleted]

Prisca's blush gained ground on her cheeks at Evangeline's teasing. While it was true she really wanted a ralts, she knew her overenthusiastic reaction had earned the teasing. Even now, as Echo took up what could only be called a Ralt's trademark position, Prisca had to resist the temptation to just grab her up in a hug again.

Looking instead to Evangeline, the brunette nodded in understanding when Evangeline admitted to not knowing exactly where they had met. The corner of Prisca's mouth twitched upwards as she imagined poor bag-laden Evangeline not noticing the Ralts tagging along due to the sheer mountain of bags her imagination placed on the fashonista. As Evangeline paused to look at Echo, Prisca was overtaken once more by the urge to just lean over and take them both in a giant hug.

In an effort to resist the urge, Prisca instead broke her eyes away from Echo and Evangeline and carefully placed her backpack on the counter, the heavy bag making a soft but noticeable thud as it was placed onto the counter. Removing the straps, her jacket managed to slip a little without her notice, allowing some of the scarring on her back to peek out for a few seconds before being hidden again. Prisca, none the wiser, began digging through the pockets, looking for a map she had found along the way to orient herself. Arm-deep in her bag, Prisca continued talking, wanting to continue talking with her newfound friend to help pass the time.

"Alright, thanks for the info~! So just out of curiosity, what are those special pokeballs you have there? I've seen afew but never actually talked to someone who had them before~"

[Evangeline Gaubert]

contests, you said? oh, you didn't?

◥

A brief look of disconcert marred Evangeline's face at the colossal backpack that fell in front of her just as she looked up. The phantom of what looked like a burn on the tall brunette's back caught her attention, but, before she could have a clear look, it was once again covered by a thin layer of wool.

Prisca's animated words brought Evangeline's attention back to their little chat. She managed to catch a question about her... pokéballs? "These?" she asked, holding Echo's luxury ball up in the air. But that would be useless; Prisca was too busy looking inside her backpack to check the item in her hands. She decided to continue, nevertheless. If Prisca didn't even know much about evolution stones before, it was more than natural to assume there weren't contests where she came from, either, which was one thing she needed to mend as soon as possible.

"These are called Luxury Balls in the business. I tend to refer to them as simple Pokéballs, though. There really aren't many in Kalos, you know? Pokémon Contests aren't all that well-known here, not yet. Would you believe we don't even have a Contest Hall of our own? One would think, for all the glitter and glamour you see in every street corner of this city, we could at least be able to brag about one."

While Evangeline proceeded to make an entire speech about contests, or about the lack of contests in a region as influenced by History and the Fine Arts as Kalos, more accurately, Echo sighed. As much as she loved being in the spotlight and capturing the hearts of her audience, she was nowhere as enthusiastic about coordinating as her very own coordinator was. She could swear that Atlas, still roaming the display cases all the way down the room, was also rolling its eyes by now.

At the sudden silence that surrounded her after her passionate discourse, Evangeline's words came to a slow, yet decisive, halt. She looked first at Prisca, then at Echo and Atlas, and back at Prisca. "Right. These pokéballs." She cleared her throat, trying to get past the fact that she had just gone on an unnecessary rant about contests. Again. "Basically, they function the same way any other ball does, but these were especifically designed for performances."

Evangeline's lips were shaped in the form of a ring as her hands fumbled with her belt, before finally coming out victorious with a small sticker-like object. "If you were to apply a seal or two to this capsule, they would trigger some neat effects as a Pokémon is released into the stage. I bought this one from the Mart just the other day, though I haven't gotten the chance to test it yet. Do you want to try?" she finally asked, smiling as she fiddled with her neatly-tied braid.

Coded by Quixotic

[Deleted]

Prisca listened to the whole spiel while it happened, a small grin forming as the lavender-eyed coordinator went off at the not-wuite-mention of the lack of coordinator halls in Kalos. Having found her map and a pen, she had grabbed and lowered her bag with one arm while holding onto the map and pen with the other, careful to not make noise lest she interrupt the monologue. Spotting Echo giving a sigh that showed just how often her trainer went off like this, Prisca could tell that Evangeline loved contests.

Reaching over and giving the ralts a quick pet, Prisca quietly unfolded the map, finding the location on the map while paying attention to the speech. Once Evangeline finally noticed the tangent she had gone on Prisca gave her a quick smile and a giggle as she recovered from her tangent. When she finally pulled out the seal Prisca folded up the map (now marked with the Santalune-Dendemille route), and leaned in, taking a close look at the seal before picking up the luxury ball from where it lay and smiling.

"That sounds like a lot of fun! I'm up for it if you won't get in trouble~."

Offering the pokeball to Evangeline with one hand she quietly petted Echo with her free hand, all to happy to stroke the little Ralt's ego a little bit.

[Evangeline Gaubert]

maybe there's something you're afraid to say

◥

Oh. Prisca's comment reminded Evangeline of just where they were. "I won't," she replied spontaneously, but regretted it as soon as the words came out of her mouth. Normally, there would be no problem in taking out either of her darlings, even during her work hours, in the cafés she part-timed at. They were spacious, and their managers extremely lenient when it came to Pokémon. The Stone Emporium? Not so much. "Probably."

Rather than lenient, Evangeline should maybe note that they actually encouraged friendly sparring between customers and employees, much to her chagrin. If there was anything she wasn't good at, it was battling. And being patient. Perhaps keeping out of trouble's way was another. But those were all topics better left off for some other occasion.

Evangeline took Echo's pokéball from Prisca's hand slowly, as she watched the brunette pat her on the head. She opened it, and retired a dark-tinted capsule. "Okay, then. I saw the other coordinators do it like this..." Carefully, she stuck the petal-shaped seal on it, as she muttered the instructions to herself, before applying it back to the luxury ball. "And then like this." She was done in no more than twenty seconds, after which she looked up to the sight of Prisca still caressing her Ralts.

Once she considered the Pokémon's vanity had been groomed enough, she called out, "Echo, come back for a second, will you?" The Ralts perked up at her trainer's call, and nodded slightly. A flash of light came out of the luxury ball as it opened and shut with a soft click. Evangeline lifted one hand to her lips, returning to her trademark thinking pose.

"Here," she said, holding the ball out for Prisca to take. If Evangeline was about to get in trouble, might as well take advantage of the opportunity to imbue her new friend with some stage magic, right? "Just do it like you would any normal pokéball."

Coded by Quixotic

[Deleted]

Laughing a bit at just how fast Evangeline had been to reply, Prisca's grin made itself known as the "Possibly" was added on. Although she didn't want to cause trouble for the lavender-eyed girl. She patiently waited while Evangeline tinkered with the pokeball, busying herself with Echo's adorableness until Evangeline called the ralts back. Blinking as Evangeline presented her with the pokeball again, Prisca's eyes quickly jumped from the ball to Evangeline's eyes.

"Well, if you're sure you'll be fine. Thanks for letting me try it, cutie~!"

Winking quickly and turning to face a slightly more open area of the store (and to hide her own furious blush from having her mouth slip), Prisca eyed the seal, gently running her thumb over the seal before releasing Echo with an energetic "Let's do this~!"

Then things got...interesting.

At first everything worked perfectly, Echo came out in a burst of light and a small shower of petals, much to the delight of Prisca. Then it became noticeable that the petals seemed to go on for a decent while. Turning to Evangeline, Prisca opened her mouth to ask if it was normal for that many petals to come out. She never quite got the chance, since the pokeball seemed to explode in her hand.

While it wasn't exactly that the ball exploded into smithereens, it was more like it was forcibly opened by the absurd number of petals it somehow had built up inside it. Regardless of the details though, the end result was the interior of the shop getting engulfed in an enormous pile of petals, enough to completely bury Prisca (who had fallen onto her rear from surprise) and block vision for a few seconds. As the pokeball stopped showing everyone in small petals and the air cleared up, the image of a person standing at the door could be seen, staring right at Evangeline before giving a mild cough to catch the attention of a certain Lavender-haired clerk.