Chapter 7 - Meetings in Heaven

The opened doors give way to a medium sized room with a circular table in the middle fashioned from a stump. Five banners hang on the walls, each representing one of the factions that rule the guild. Furthermore, eight pokemon are spread around the table: Sam, the Empoleon and a Simipour; Curie, the Charizard and a Conkeldurr; Thoron, the Ursaluna and a Stoutland; Gigi's right hand, the Zangoose; and a Lilligant standing dutifully by my banner. Lilligant gives me a courteous bow, her pink flower releasing a sweet scent as I take my seat by her side.

The Lilligant clears her throat and stands at attention.

"Good morning everyone, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to come and attend. This meeting has been called by my superior and leader of the Couriers, Quartermaster Rangzhemolt. For the purpose of identification please reply when your name is called."

Lilligant then proceeds to call everyone present one by one.

"Samuela Dias, Guildmaster; Curie Farrow, Master Enginner; Thoron Berg, Grand Rescuer; Gigi Chang, Head of the Demonic Sect; and lastly Rangzhemolt Ynemol, Quartermaster… as well as being daddy." Lilligant says that last part in a whisper, making me flinch.

"Onto the other beings present here: 'Lara' the Simipour, Vice-Guildmaster; 'Gros' the Conkeldurr, Construction Overseer; 'Midden' the Stoutland, Rapid Response Leader; 'Blade Demon' the Zangoose, Master Disciple; and me, 'Skarbie' the Lilligant, General Administration Officer."

When everyone is accounted for I relax in my seat a bit, going through the motions of a weekly meeting and discussing aspects related to the functioning of the guild, such as budget allocation and mission statistics. After a while the meeting shifts from general talking points towards more detailed matters.

Throron raises his front paws, resting them on the table.

"The cases of disappearances in the snow dungeons have risen by a staggering 174% in comparison to last month. I would like an increase in our supplies of luminous orbs and healing items until the cold season passes, specifically tiny reviver seeds and oran berries." He says, looking at me.

"Very well, but I need more explorers in the dungeons on gathering duty. Get me four squads on gathering duty for the foreseeable future."

"I need all my forces out there on rescuing missions, we are overworked as is."

Curie raises a clawed paw. "I think I have a team that's masochistic enough to take on item collecting missions for a week at most."

I give Curie a thankful nod. Gigi lifts her hand as well.

"I have some trainees that are eager to prove themselves, I could round them up but I think they would only amount to two teams at most."

I nod, grabbing a sheet of paper and messily writing a mission briefing.

"That helps a lot, thank you very much."

I turn to those present.

"At 180 poké per seed, an item collection request of five tiny reviver seeds would cost us 900 poké at the market. Taking in consideration that the payout of our guild is 35% in comparison to the others' 10%, the reward would come out at 315 poké. Adding that to the fact that we need them badly in order to not lose our stocks I'm willing to round it up to 400. Is anyone against that notion?"

Silence is the reply I get, as well as a few nods from those in the room.

"Very well, forwarding the mission to the necessary channels and assigning it C-rank." I say, folding the paper in half and handing it to Skarbie who takes it with a graceful nod.

Sam raises her flipper. "I would like to address the project I suggested to Rags yesterday, related to the construction of a road from the guild to the beach that passes through Paradise, as well as the construction of a town by said beach."

All eyes turn to me again as I rest my head on my hands, elbows firmly placed on the table. "And I've told you that I need at least a week to properly assess the possibilities of such an endeavor."

"That week could be spent already building the road!"

"Yeah, and it would be shit."

"No, it would be incredible!"

"Incredibly bad. Any infrastructure without the proper foundation will collapse."

"I am in favor of building it straight away."

"I am against it."

"Then we'll do it by vote."

Sam's eyes and mine dart towards the other members at the table, scrutinizing their posture.

Thoron speaks first. "A road that travels across the continent would expedite movement by an incredible margin, the sooner we build it the better."

Curie interjects, the flame in her tail burning fiercer. "I stand by Rags' opinion, such a project should not be undertaken without the proper knowledge. I say we survey the terrain first."

"Of course you would, miss prim and proper."

"Better than losing half my team due to a landslide."

"Better than nor being on time and failing the mission."

"Connard!"

"Dasslåkk!"

"Dégage!"

.

At this point the meeting has just turned into a shouting match with slurs being thrown everywhere. I can feel my blood pressure rising each second, my hands trembling and sweat starts forming on my brow. Curie and Thoron are cussing eachother out, Sam and Lara are discussing what tourist attractions to include in the town to be, and Midden and Gros are busy making death threats at everyone present for derailing the meeting.

I slam my closed fists on the table, my face flushed from anger. "SPIERDALAJ! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING, ARGUING OVER SOMETHING AS SHIT AS THIS?! EITHER SHUT THE FUCK UP OR ACT LIKE REASONABLE ADULTS!"

The room goes silent once more and I slam my forehead on the hardwood. "Ja pierdole, I need a vacation…"

Gigi scrubs my back gently and Skarbie uses her aromatherapy to try to calm me down. I beckon Skarbie closer and shove my face directly inside her flower, taking a few deep huffs until I calm down. By then the atmosphere has become more solemn, and Curie and Thoron look at eachother. Thoron speaks first.

"...I'm sorry Curie, the possibilities that the road might bring clouded my judgment."

"I'm sorry too, I let my emotions get the better of me." Curie nods, her wings furling behind her back.

"I still believe that the road construction should be started right now."

"Then it looks like we're at a stalemate."

Gigi ponders for a minute the question that hasn't been said before piping up for the first time since the meeting started.

"It's not like a week is too long, right? And besides, I trust in Rags' judgment. I vote against."

I give a grateful nod towards Gigi as I raise my head once more. "Then it looks like the voting has ended 3-2 in favor of actually being sensible and planning beforehand. Just like when we founded Emberspark the project will be spearheaded by Curie and her Masons, with the other factions providing support whenever needed. Thoron's Rangers will be the last ones to be called in case help does need to be requested, in order to not break the rescuing procedures we have in place." I conclude, quickly writing a project two times, and handing them to Skarbie and Gros.

I clear my throat. "With this, the first part of the meeting is over. I request that all personnel that don't have the clearance level of Faction Head leave the conference room as soon as possible. Thank you."

.

Grumblings aside, our right hands file out of the room, their chatter quickly dying down as they move away from our location. We wait for a couple of minutes to check if they hung around or not and then let out a sigh of relief. Sam walks towards the door, locking it before returning to her seat. "Now then, onto the second part of the meeting."

Curie takes out from her bag a bundle of five cylindrical metal objects, silver and red in appearance, and hands one to each of us. "Keep in mind that these are only prototypes so they don't hold pressure very well."

I nod, taking a hold of the pull tab and pressing against it, the crisp sound of air escaping giving way to a scent of fermented barley. I put the can to my lips and take a sip, the taste of forgotten memories hitting my brain like a hyper beam. Beer, actual malty and frothy beer! In a can! A sigh escapes my lips when I place the can on the stump, closing my eyes.

"If these are prototypes I can't wait to see what they taste like when they're the finished product." I say to Curie, picking up my bag.

Rummaging through it I pick up three looplets and toss them to Sam, Curie and Thoron. "Here, figured these might be helpful to your current conundrum, even if I didn't plan for it.

A rainbow-colored sphere quickly follows suit, rolling towards each of the pokemon around me. "Five conversion emeras, don't waste them. Each of them holds charge for an hour. Make it count." I begin by placing the emera on my looplet, enveloping me in a rainbow color.

The transformation is slow yet immediate: my lanky body widens quite a bit and my pale skin gains streaks of blue across it, three blue fins forming atop my head and three orange-like spikes jutting out of my cheeks; my arms thicken and rounden a lot, making my fingers almost cylinder-like; a lone dark blue fin appears on my back, bending my back a bit; I become top-heavy and stumble a bit to regain my footing after so long without transforming.

Shaking my head a bit to focus I look at my friends and colleagues:

Thoron has lost quite a lot of his Ursaluna features, becoming human-like with bear ears and clawed hands; his posture realigns as he regains his noble veneer, his braided beard only serving to boost said effect; his aged hair reveals his true strength, a deep chestnut brown with quite a lot of gray streaks running across it. Covered in furs, he sits down on the large stump and cracks open his beer, long drags from the can foaming up the shaggy facial hair.

Sam shifts in a way that honestly reflects her laissez-faire attitude to everything, with her lower half remaining pretty much as an Empoleon; her brown skin gives way to slender arms that grip her can with a surprising amount of greed, cracking it open with jovial energy; long blue hair encrusted with sea salt and adorned by a golden crown flow freely from her head as she raises her beer to her lips. A hawaiian shirt covers her bare chest, the cloth wrapped in penguin and surfing motifs.

Curie's form fits her to a T, a mixture of femme fatale and draconic features cover her body; crimson and orange scales clash against her tan skin and yet they fit seamlessly with her limbs that remained as a Charizard's; her leathery wings have remained the same even though Curie's body has grown to her human height of 6'1", making them seem cuter; a blond pixie hairstyle is intermingled with orange highlights which almost makes it look like it's on fire, giving her a fierce and confident look; Curie's tail slithers out from a pair of tan slacks, complimenting her blue cardigan.

Gigi's transformation is… honestly, what I expected all along. A black hanfu with red swirls and silver details covers her pale body from head to toe, a pair of cloth boots adorn her paws and her long delicate fingers seem to glide in the air almost ethereally; white and light pink ponytails give way to a layered hairstyle that seems to stop at waist length, gathered at the end with a hammer-shaped hair tie; though she has grown in size to match her human one, it's still lesser than the rest of us, clocking in at a round 5 feet tall.

The stump now seems large enough to fit all of us, so we sit down cross-legged atop it. I raise my beer at my friends, not wanting to waste anymore time since we're on a timer.

"Here's to another week gone by. Cheers!/Saúde!/Salut!/Jubel!/Geonbae!"

Our voices become one with a resounding cheer, the clinking of our cans echoing in the closed room.

Here's chapter 7, I tried describing everyone's appearence as best I could. Have a good one.