We absolutely NEEDED to make the SpongeBob reference.
Professor Turo stared at the ink blots in front of him, scratching his beard in thought. The psychiatrist fought back an irritated noise and spoke gently.
"Turo, you don't have to think about it. Just tell me what the ink blots look like to you."
Turo stopped thinking, chuckling to himself. "I know I'm not supposed to say robots and dinosaurs," he said, "but those ink blots look like robots and dinosaurs."
That was exactly what the shorter man had been expecting. "Professor Turo, you've been talking about nothing but robots and dinosaurs and laughing toasters since you got here. You've made progress with your outbursts, but not with your grasp on reality. Do you even know why you're still here?"
"Because lawyers are scum."
"Because you believe in the Zero Book!" The psychiatrist facepalmed. "Heath wrote of the past and future colliding in Area Zero. From all reports from those who have been down there - excluding you - there were Pokémon such as Venomoth and Braviary. They reported getting chased, but not by, what did you say? Oh, yes, a robotic Tyranitar."
"Iron Thorns," Turo corrected. "And I said that's actually a pretty chill Pokémon. Someone wasn't doing his homework."
He didn't need to mention his own report of a vicious robotic Delibird that once chased him a quarter mile. That was the report that got him thrown in here - that, and insisting that it wasn't a lie, that they lived in his house.
Rather than continuing down this conversation path, the psychiatrist held up another ink blot. "And this one?"
"Iron Hands," was the immediate reply. "Or, as you'd put it, a robotic Hariyama."
An eyebrow twitch, and a change in ink blots. "And this one?"
"Roaring Moon." Turo laughed again. "Now that's one that you really need to watch out for..."
The psychiatrist shook his head and left to speak to the doctor in charge. When he returned, Turo was making the ink blots fight, complete with sound effects.
Florian and Juliana separated at the edge of town once again. Florian had gotten a call from Arven about another Titan sighting, and Juliana wanted to go home and relax for a while.
She made it to Artazon before getting distracted.
It wasn't her fault. The Gym Leader himself was there, angrily waving a bag of Cheetos while the poor Sunflora wrangler was watching nervously.
"I told you that they aren't allowed to eat human food," he hissed. "Look at them! Now they're addicted!"
A cheese-covered Sunflora belched. The Sunflora wrangler flinched.
"Brassius, please. It's my job to release them into town while challengers look for them. It's not my job to lead the challengers to them."
"You could have at least ordered them not to!"
"They don't listen to me!"
"So you admit you're bad at your job."
Juliana took a step forward. The whole flock of Sunflora moved toward the gate. Juliana didn't notice.
"Hey, Brassius."
There was a pause as the Gym Leader tried to remember where he'd seen her before, having been completely distracted from his rant. "Juliana!" he finally recalled, to her happy bounce. "You already have my badge. What are you doing here?"
"I was actually on my way home from Levincia," she admitted. She held out her sketchbook. "But since you're not working, technically, can I bother you for art commentary? My mom and Mr. Hassel say they like my work, but it's kind of their job to encourage me."
Brassius, despite his natural trust of Hassel's judgement, took the sketchbook anyway and gave the contents a glance. She needed help with anatomy of all species, but the cartoony style fit her in a way. He handed it back after only a moment. "Your work is decent, Juliana. Perhaps a bit short on accuracy, but I can tell that realism isn't your style. My criticism would be that a Cheri Berry shouldn't look like it has a human butt."
Juliana laughed. "Yeah, it's a thing. It's more of an inside joke with my stepbrother, though."
"Then I retract the criticism of your art and change it to criticizing what passes for humor these days."
"I wanted to ask about the general theme," Juliana insisted. "You don't think a planet with lollipop trees and berry-based monsters is too...sweet, for the public?"
Brassius immediately got on the offensive. "I wouldn't put much thought into what others think. It cuts down on the avant-garde."
"Are you ever going to tell me what that means?"
"If you're avant-garde enough, you won't need to ask."
He barely kept a straight face. Juliana, for her part, did not notice, too focused on pulling a device from her pocket.
"Rotom, look up the definition of avant-garde."
As the Rotom in her phone gave the definition, Brassius turned away to hide his smirk. He'd judged the girl correctly after their battle. And if she could be so irritated by a simple term...
Well, it wouldn't be as fun as tormenting Iono. But what kind of art could the girl create if she channeled that anger?
He turned back around when he was certain he wouldn't laugh. She was rambling about the definition of avant-garde like he was listening.
He'd known when they'd met that he was either going to like her or banish her from Artazon forever. Now he knew why Hassel had been so insistent that it would be the former. Her very presence was a source of inspiration.
Florian was lost.
He was riding Cyclizar, following the path and looking for any sign of the giant Orthworm that Arven had told him about. He made it to Zapapico without even noticing anything.
"Is this how Juliana feels?" he asked no one, to his Rotom's laughter.
"Probably," she decided. "Juliana usually stumbles into things, though. Try not taking the path this time."
So, stopping only to heal his Pokémon, he turned around and zoomed back down the road, taking a detour as soon as he saw a Fire Stone half-buried in the dirt.
He had no idea where he was. There were no boulders to guide him to the Titan. It was just him and Cyclizar, aimlessly wandering across the landscape of Paldea. He'd never related to anyone more in his life.
Cyclizar slowed down without his urging, muttering something to herself that Florian couldn't translate. Rotom, on the other hand, buzzed in excitement.
"She saw the Titan!" she announced. "Giant Orthworm, here we come!"
And she leapt into the hole that Cyclizar had stopped in front of, cheering on the way down. Florian could hear the sounds of electric attacks and his Rotom's shouts of 'Take that!' He could also hear the sound of something very, very big moving around down there.
Calling Cyclizar back to her ball, he cautiously peeked over the gate blocking entry for humans and most Pokémon. He saw Rotom, dwarfed by her giant pink opponent and nonetheless fighting with everything she had.
"Rotom?" he called, and got an irritated "What?" in return. Florian cleared his throat. "That's, um. That's not the Orthworm. That's its tongue."
Rotom stopped, looking around at the pit she'd charged into. For the first time, she noticed that the walls surrounding her were not dirt and rock but flesh and metal. "Oh," she said, and she would have gulped if she'd been able. "This is the tongue...and the whole thing is...the..."
The Orthworm closed its mouth. Florian's rage peaked.
"My cell phone!" he shouted, and rushed down the hole himself. The Orthworm ducked under the rock and tunneled away.
"Brassius said he liked it," Juliana announced as Sofia looked over the sketchbook.
"Brassius?"
"The Gym Leader of Artazon," Juliana explained. "He's kind of a big deal in the sculpting world."
"I've heard of him. My client wanted a miniature of Surrendering Sunflora, I had to put up a fight to get it. I didn't know he was a Gym Leader." Sofia held the artwork carefully, before turning the page to the rainbow patterned Starmobile rough draft. "And this is?"
"That's one I forgot to show you last time."
As Sofia looked through her daughter's sketchbook, Juliana looked over at her mother's projects, littered across what would have been a garage. A plant stand with a checkerboard stencil taped to it, ready to be painted in the morning. A bird cage that she was working on turning into a chandelier. Candle holders, wicker baskets, picture frames.
"You're pretty avant-garde yourself," she said, and Sofia laughed.
Arven and Toedscool were useless.
Toedscool missed every attack she tried and fainted after two turns. Florian had to rely on Mudbray's Double Kick to do any damage.
Eventually, Mudbray caught the Orthworm in the exact spot needed to get it to cough up the cell phone. Rotom, glitching with digital shivers, didn't say a word as the boys chased Orthworm off and went to raid his Herba Mystica stash.
Arven watched as Florian tucked a sandwich into a plastic bag. "Don't think I don't know you're feeding that brute," he said, and Florian shrugged it off.
"It helps him," he objected. "Professor Sada trusted Juliana, but you chose me. We have to work together to help Koraidon, just like I have to heal your Mabosstiff for you."
"I tried to help!" Arven protested. "I just suck at battling."
"Then maybe I should arrange a meeting for you and Nemona."
"That student council witch? I get enough of her in class."
"You don't go to class!"
Rather than respond to that, Arven released Mabosstiff, then handed Florian another sandwich. "Here. There was enough for four of them this time, I get to have one."
Mabosstiff sniffed the sandwich, the exact opposite of what Koraidon would have done. But he ate, slowly at first and then almost at a normal pace.
Then he woofed.
Florian paused, sandwich halfway to his mouth. Arven almost dropped his.
"You...you heard that, right?"
Florian nodded. Arven knelt down next to his dog.
"You're doing so well, boy," he said with a nervous laugh, giving the massive beast head pats. "You're gonna keep getting better, ok?"
Mabosstiff's bark almost sounded like an agreement.