The next day, May had just finished registering for the Mulberry Contest when a familiar figure approached.
"Ah, there you are!" Harley said. "I suppose I should have known to keep an eye out around Contests, I should have realized you wouldn't have all your Ribbons just yet."
"Of course," May agreed, nodding. "It's good to avoid a gap before the Grand Festival, that way you don't get out of practice. I'm sure you've done the same thing."
"No, but I might have to consider it," Harley mused. "Interesting perspective… well, the Contest's this afternoon, so either this will be long enough or it should be long enough."
He reached into a pocket of his outfit, and brought out a stone wrapped in clear cellophane.
"Huh?" May asked, confused now, and Harley held it out.
"For your Snorunt," he said. "I'm sure he'll appreciate it."
"That's a Dawn Stone, isn't it?" Max asked, as May took it in a state of some confusion. "But… those evolve girl Snorunt."
Harley sniffed. "Shows what you know," he said, airily. "Girl is a state of mind. I'd have thought that those fabulous trainers you run into with the giant robots would have taught you that much."
"...oh," May said, blinking. "Oh, right. Uh – hold on a moment?"
She sent out her Snorunt, and crouched down to him.
"Snorunt?" she asked. "Would this work for you?"
Snorunt looked at the Dawn Stone, then at May, and nodded.
"Yep!" he added. "I hope that doesn't make you think of me differently or anything?"
Ash translated, and May shook her head sharply.
"You're still my friend," she said. "We've still worked on all those routines together, we've still done everything together that we did together before… nothing about you is different, I just know more than I used to. And…"
She frowned.
"I can't promise that it won't change anything," she said. "Because I don't know myself. I might make mistakes, Snorunt, especially if you do want to evolve, because I've had so long thinking of Froslass that way. And a lot more people are going to make mistakes about you once you've evolved."
"Yeah," Snorunt agreed. "I know they will. But honestly it's going to be really funny seeing them all get it wrong."
Ash translated that again, and Harley applauded.
"Now that's what I call gender positivity!" he said. "It might even count as praxis."
"What's praxis?" Ash asked.
Harley shrugged. "I don't really follow the theory, I just do it," he replied.
May looked at the Dawn Stone again, then frowned.
"I… just had an idea," she said. "Snorunt, how would you feel about having a really unique Appeal capstone?"
"I'm not saying you should, but… do you think you could create a Pokémon that didn't follow those kinds of rules?" Latias asked.
Ash looked at her in some confusion, because the Appeals round was in full swing and he wasn't sure what she was talking about.
"You mean… a Bagon who isn't a Bagon?" he asked, glancing at the stage. "Or, a Pokémon that's a different Type to normal?"
"No, I mean – when I say those rules, I mean the rules about which Pokémon can evolve and in what ways," Latias explained. "You know, like how only some Snorunt can evolve to Froslass – I mean, how it's only female, or normally female-"
She stumbled over her words a bit, then shook her head. "You… get what I mean, right?"
"Yeah, I do," Ash agreed, which made Latias relax in relief. "It's… an interesting question."
He frowned, thinking about it a bit. "I guess the worst situation would be if you had a Pokémon who wanted to evolve one way but couldn't, like a Kirlia who wanted to be a Gallade but their only option was Gardevoir. And… I don't know? Maybe I could? But I feel like fixing the problem that happens to existing Pokémon is more important than…"
"Yeah," Pikachu agreed. "But now I'm curious about that other one about Types. Is that something that's possible?"
"Again, maybe?" Ash answered. "I know there's both Fire-type and Ice-type Vulpix. But it feels like finding that out would be making a person for an experiment."
He glanced back at where Koraidon and Zorua were watching the latest Appeal.
"If I wanted to have another kid anyway, then… maybe that would make it okay?" he said. "But I don't actually know."
Then it was May's turn, and she sent out Snorunt with a flash of light.
Snorunt bowed to the audience, making three little bows once at a time, then used a new move he'd learned since his last Contest called Ice Spinner. He sped up to become a blur in moments, and May signalled with her hand.
"Double Team!" she said, and Snorunt created half-a-dozen Double Teams. Then he made them dance, first around himself in a circle, then he joined them to become one among the seven identical versions of himself tracing out a shape on the arena floor. They went to one end of the arena, then the other, danced around in the middle, then he moved on to the next step.
"Now, Frost Breath!" May called, and Snorunt exhaled a waft of ice. The turbulence of his spin whipped it up around his body, making it into a kind of mist that hovered in the air as he kept up his Ice Spinner move, and May watched it as all seven dancing Snorunts travelled in and out of the icy mist.
Then she nodded sharply. "Icy Wind!" she said.
Snorunt used Icy Wind, and blew the mist from his Frost Breath towards the ground. The whole arena froze, almost at once, but the path that the real Snorunt had traced out over his dance looked different because he'd cooled it with his Ice Spinner move, and it formed one of those stylized long-S-shapes you got in old books.
"And… finish with Shadow Ball!" May said, as Snorunt moved to the crossbar of his swash-S-shaped track and the Double Team duplicates circled around him.
They all slid to a halt, facing inwards, and copied the real Snorunt as he used Shadow Ball. May tossed the Dawn Stone into the impact point, and all six Double Teams ran inwards to join Snorunt, and there was a bright icy flash which faded to reveal the newly-evolved Froslass.
"...oh, I get it," someone said, from behind them. "That's an F, not an S!"
"It's a clever transition," Pikachu agreed, saying it in a way that made Ash sure his starter meant a joke but not quite sure in what way.
"It's a pity it's harder for Altaria to watch with us," Ralts said. "Now she's evolved, I mean."
"I know," Max agreed, as they watched a Coordinator's Altaria take to the stage against May and Cosplay-chu. "But we can go flying with her, so that's a good thing. I guess it's sometimes a mix like that."
"Yeah, tell me about it," Ash said.
Max tried his best to hide a snigger.
"I do sometimes have trouble thinking of you as not being, you know, a Pokémon," he said, then watched as May's opponent had her Altaria use Moonblast. "Oh, we should learn that."
The impact of the attack knocked Cosplay-chu sliding backwards, then before the Electric-type had finished moving May called for Floral Healing.
Cosplay-chu did a twirl, flowers springing up around her and puffing outwards in a cloud of petals, and when they'd gone she was just fine.
"Huh?" May's opponent asked. "I'm pretty sure Pikachu don't learn that move."
"So?" May asked. "Pikachu, Thunderbolt!"
"Dragon Breath!" the other Coordinator said.
May's Pikachu managed to get a Thunderbolt off, twirling her prop hoe and shooting the attack off the end, then summoned another riot of flowers around her as the Dragon Breath attack came in. This time they were all the same, pink roses that splayed out and hid Cosplay-chu from view entirely, and the attack splashed off the flowers before vanishing at the same time as the flower did.
That just left a cloud of petals wafting in the air, and May called for her Pokémon to use Iron Tail and waft the flower petals in Altaria's direction.
"Look out!" May's opponent warned. "Get into the air, then attack with Take Down!"
"That's funny," Ralts said. "They don't know that the petals don't do anything."
"Would you take the risk, if you didn't know that?" Max asked.
"Oh, the petals?" Brock checked. "Yes, it's a tricky situation to be in… take it from me, if you assume a move can't do anything then you can have a bad time."
"Strictly it was Geodude who had a bad time," Pikachu said.
Brock didn't understand, but Max did, and Max's snigger more-or-less meant that Brock got the gist.
"That went great!" May said, hugging both Froslass and Pikachu after the Contest. "Now we're ready for the Grand Festival!"
She smiled at Brock. "And thanks for your help with Floral Healing, as well… the judges said they'd never seen that move used so well."
Then she frowned. "Though, uh, Joy said she recognized some of the versions?"
"Of course!" Brock agreed. "They're the versions her cousins use! Alolan Joys often use Comfey, and it's a move that they specialize in – and, what's more, different Comfey have different styles! So one Comfey might use green flowers of all sorts, another tulips specifically, and the rainbow rose mix is especially good!"
"And this one's a tribute!" Cosplay-chu said, doing a twirl and producing a rose with pink-white-blue petals.
She blew on it, leaving the petals hanging in the air after the flower itself dissolved, and Froslass took one on his hand before blowing on it to freeze it solid.
Then the costumed Pikachu looked down at herself. "I'm quite fond of this one, it's going to be tricky to decide which to use at the Grand Festival. What do you think, May?"
Ash translated, and May considered.
"I don't know," she admitted. "Though… I do think we should try and work out if there's a costume that's likely to give you Chatter? That's for later, though…"
AN:
I've had this planned for Snorunt – now Froslass, or Froslad I suppose? - since the start.