Amara squirmed in the chair as Rika looked over her registration paperwork. "And you did what?" They asked as Amara cast her head downward. "Into the crater, you went into the damned crater without league permission? What the hell, Amara?" Amara lifted her head to speak, but paused and simply gave a noncommittal reply. When Rika shot Amara a death stare though, she changed her tune.
"Would you actually believe me if I told you Professors Sada and Turo built a time machine and the robots they uploaded with an AI of themselves asked us to come dismantle it to stop an end of the world scenario, or would you call bullshit on me and claim that sounds like some third-tier fanfiction and that you don't believe it?" Rika's face went from angry to bewildered in a fraction of a second.
"I'd dismiss it as fanfic bullshit if all five of your friends hadn't corroborated your story independently of each other. The lot of you seem to have had a time down in Area Zero. Here's what I'll do, I'm going to file this excursion you and the Goon Squad went on as an emergency response, but if you go into Area Zero without permission again, I'm calling the international police." They looked to Amara again. "Do you understand?"
Amara acknowledged the restriction and then Rika stood. "As for your champion rank," they continued. "You'll be squaring off against the Elite four, myself, little Poppy, Larry, Hassel, and then you'll have a battle against Top Champion Geeta."
"Wait, Larry? Like Medali gym leader Larry?" There was a pause, and then Rika sighed and confirmed that yes, Larry was employed as a member of the Elite Four as well as a gym leader. "When does he have free time, honestly?" Amara said as she let out a sigh. "I thought my PTSD was bad, what the hell, Larry?" Rika did her best to bring the conversation back on track as the interview continued. Amara answered Rika's questions as best she could, and after a while, Rika smiled and announced that Amara had passed and would be registered for an Elite Four marathon battle the next morning.
"Set an alarm," they said. "If you're more than five minutes late the staff won't let you in and you'll have to call me to reschedule, and I'll have woken up early for nothing." Amara stood, shook Rika's hand, and left the league facility. She dialed Penny as she made the trek back into Mesagoza, but her call went to voicemail. Penny sent Amara a quick text containing a heart Emoji and a photo of the five Team Star bosses and Penny all sitting in a study lounge in their uniforms. After a quick "Where are you?" Amara changed course to meet up with them.
"There's the woman herself!" Ortega called as Amara stepped inside. "Hey, Amara." She sat next to Penny and did her best to help fill the five of them in on what had happened since they'd been gone, and after a fifteen-minute exposition dump, Giacomo gave a slow clap. "And then there's all the eighteen plus moments that we're not going to share." Penny started, then paused. "Also, you don't know this yet, but here in meat space my name is Penny." The group of them smiled and each hugged Penny in turn.
Amara got another text, then and made her way down the hall to meet Nemona. "So, you're on Rika's schedule? Are you nervous?" Amara brought Nemona up to speed on the whole "Pokémon League" situation, then Trish walked out of the bathroom and kissed Nemona's forehead. "Trish, you're a beautiful goddess of a woman." Amara announced. Trish walked over to Amara and kissed her deeply before pulling away and taking a seat on the bed next to Nemona.
"I'll admit, I was kinda iffy about the whole 'polyamorous sextet relationship anarchy' thing, but I'm actually loving every second of it." Nemona rubbed Trish's back and Trish cuddled up into Nemona's side. "As long as everyone is as into it as I am, I think we'll be ok." Nemona put a kiss onto Trish and announced that she'd never been happier than she was with the five of them, and that made Amara smile. "Do you have enough material for your final write-up, Amara?" Trish asked as she grabbed her laptop.
"I do." Amara noted as she pulled her own laptop out of her bag and pulled her draft onto the screen. "I'm actually done with my shitty first draft, so now it's the revision and edit stage, or rather the 'What the fuck did I write?' stage." Amara read through her document again. "I didn't think I would fill a thirty-page thesis, but it actually came pretty quickly as I just wrote about what happened." Nemona smiled and nodded.
"Yep, that's independent study write-ups." Nemona agreed, then Allie walked into the room with Arven. "Hey, you two, perfect timing. I found the bed size that Penny talked about. Are we all down to share a bed this summer?" Allie and Arven announced their assent, then sat on Allie's bed. "Thirty pages, then we're done and can bounce out of here for the summer. Fuck I can't wait." Nemona let her excitement loose into the room as she let out a massive cheer.
The lot of them all sat for a while, typing away on their computers in Nemona and Allie's room. Every so often someone read one of their sentences aloud and they laughed at how absurd their adventure sounded. Eventually, Amara's phone rang. "Hey, I'm stepping out, this is a university number." She stepped out into her room and hit the button to reveal Director Clavell on the screen.
"Hello, have I reached Elaina Plowman?" He asked. Amara announced that yes, he'd reached Elaina, among others. "Wonderful! I have an exciting opportunity for you, Ms. Plowman et al. Please report to the first floor of the university library to meet Mr. Jacq. He'll have more details for you." Clavell ended the call, and Amara poked her head back across the suite to let everyone know she'd be back in a bit, then made her way down the stairwell and out into main campus.
Is anyone else perturbed by how vague the director was? Rhys asked as Amara walked. Like, 'we have an amazing opportunity, go to the library' no details given. Amara rolled her eyes and scanned her ID to pass into the library. She found Mr. Jacq and a woman he didn't recognize talking logistics in a study room with three other students. She knocked, and someone opened the door for her.
"Ah, the Plowmans, please, come join us. We're planning the school's summer trip." Mr. Jacq took note of Amara's curious expression and sighed. "What did Clavell tell you to come here for? Did he just gush about an amazing opportunity?" Amara nodded slowly and took a seat next to the other students. "Alright, so every summer term Uva Academy sponsors a two-week educational trip to a far-off land for the students to broaden their horizons. Where all have we been, Ms. Briar? The woman looked up from her dossier and smiled.
"We went to The Crown Tundra last year, and Hoenn the year before that. Also, hello, everyone, I'm Ms. Briar. I coordinate the trip every year for Blueberry Academy in Unova." She looked down at her notes again. "Alright, so the four students on the trip will be, Amarco Duprine, Elodie Du'unbrök, Adam Finch, and The Plowman System?" She gave a confused look to Mr. Jacq and Amara spoke up.
"That's us. We have DID." She muttered as the other three students gave her a confused look. "I'll get into it some other time, for right now, The Plowman System refers to this body." Ms. Briar nodded and read out some of the travel plans for the trip. Amara learned that the schools would be traveling to the land of Kitakami, far to the east of Paldea. She wasn't kidding about far-off, damn. Elaina muttered from the back brain.
"And we'll be doing a cultural tour of Kitakami's folk legends. There will be four students from Blueberry Academy on the trip as well. We'll meet at the Castelia City airport in Unova and fly to Kitakami from there. Are you all excited?" The four students looked back and forth to each other, then Amara said what they were all thinking.
"Were the four of us picked randomly? Also, do we have to pay for this trip?" Ms. Briar shook her head and revealed that the schools will be funding the entire trip, and that the students get to focus on learning.
"We'll meet here on campus at 6:00 in the morning on June 30th, then take a flight from Mesagoza to Castelia, meet up with the Blueberry crew, then fly to Kitakami airport and take a bus up to the mountain. I'm really excited for everyone to experience this trip." Mr. Jacq delivered as he passed out trip information sheets.
"So, June 30th to July 13th we'll be in Kitakami, cool." Amara tucked the form into her bag and smiled. "Do we need shots or anything?" she asked as she stood to leave. "Yes! The four of you need to see Nurse Miriam to get a cocktail of vaccinations before anyone's trips are finalized." Amara nodded and opened the door. "I'll read this sheet over and get my shots, Mr. Jacq. Thanks for this opportunity, I'm kinda excited." Mr. Jacq smiled back at her and gave her a wave as she closed the door behind her. The other three students came out of the room shortly after as Amara scanned her ID to exit the library.
As she got back to Dragontongue and popped back into the suite, she found her partners sitting in her room, on the floor and on her bed. "So, we just got an all-expenses paid trip to Kitakami, I think." Arven looked up from the video the group was watching and grinned.
"You got picked for this year's Briar Expedition? That's awesome! Come sit with us." Amara climbed into Arven's lap and laid across Arven, Trish, and Nemona. Arven took the opportunity to run his hand over Amara's exposed midriff as she stretched. "Do you still have the spicy Herba Mystica sandwiches I made?" This caused Amara to perk up and root the sandwich from the fridge.
"Of course, I 's use it?"Amara asked as she unwrapped the sandwich and cut it into six pieces."Come get a horny sandwich, everyone."She announced, and they all happily munched down their pieces."Alright, now give it a few minutes and you can all take me in turns.I love you all so very much."They all kissed Amara's cheeks, then Amara flushed with heat, and her mind began to stepped over to her bed and flopped down."Please come love me, everyone."Amara said, and as her lovers pressed their lips onto her, Amara felt happy in a way she hadn't felt in a very long the day turned to night as the lovers shared themselves, and for a moment, a brief, wonderful moment, all was right in the world.