bottlecaplogs | August Catch-All

I'm always saying that. Now it really can be part of the pun-ishment!

[Also noticing the notches at the same time Siffrin does, she reaches for one of the smaller pieces—a flat plank about as long as she is tall—and slots its end into one notch. It slides into place easily, almost as if belongs there... But it doesn't connect to anything else, and she still has no idea what kind of shape they're aiming for. For all she knows, this might be another Fucked Up Chair™ incident! With a theatrical sigh, she lets her arms flop uselessly onto the ground.]

Ugh. Seriously though, you'd think this would get easier... Sorry I suck at this.

[Somehow, she feels like she knows less about furniture assembly than she did when they first started, even though her amount of starting knowledge and experience was none. Still, she's apparently been having a good time, judging by how much she's been laughing.]

Yeah, how dare you not be a master carpenter on top of sewing and fighting. If only you wood take it seriously instead of slacking!

[It's not like Siffrin's been doing any better... honestly, it's probably a miracle they have ended up with so many successfully put-together pieces. Or a sign of thoughtful work on the furniture designer's part, despite all evidence to the contrary!]

[They hold up a few smaller boards to the notches, but nothing seems to go in as well as the one Shoka found.]

Maybe it slots into one of the other ones we have halfway done...?

[Now that it's got an angle to it that can snap, they have to drag it more gingerly, but they pull it over to some of their other Mysterious Objects. The first few they lean it against don't look right, but this fourth one...]

[They let go with their mouth and shove with their paws, trying to get it to slide in. Under their breath, unconsciously, they mutter:] Please fit together, please fit together, please fit together...

[...aha! It totally fits!]

Edited (actually you know what. this totally works. It's Time) 2025-08-18 02:38 (UTC)

[Again, she laughs.] What can I say? I just can't get on board with it...

[Speaking of boards—she straightens as Siffrin starts moving the pieces, keeping her arms out just in case they need someone to spot them. While she's hovering close, she hears them saying something quietly to themself: one request, three times, like a mantra.

Without thinking, she says the same thing she said to the last person who did that very thing in her presence:]

I don't think the pieces can hear you, buddy—

[An uncanny feeling of déjà vu, then. Taken aback, she trails off prematurely—but before she can dwell on it long, there's a satisfying click as the pieces slide into place.]

Oh. Huh! [Maybe they were listening after all!]

[Oh. Shoka overheard them. How embarrassing! They always forget they do that - actually, they're not sure they even remember the first time someone pointed it out to them? Then again, it's not like they've had much reason to be making things recently, until right now...]

I wasn't talking to them, really, it just... helps me concentrate? Stuff turns out better...

[Anyway, it worked, it fits! Some notches still aren't filled in, but their Object has a more definite shape now. It's tall! It's got shelves! It's... what is it.]

[That feeling of déjà vu only seems to be getting stronger.]

Huh. Well, I—guess it's working.

[She's trying—convincingly enough, thanks to her lack of a changeable expression—not to look completely weirded out, even as her mind starts connecting dots against her will. The one she heard use a similar mantra was that other feline Pokémon who washed up on the beach with the others—the one that was blind on the same side as Siffrin.

It might be nothing; she'd managed to convince herself then that it was just a wild coincidence. And if it's something, she's not sure she wants to know what it is. Something about it makes her shadows crawl a little.

Still, it's distracting enough that she can't even comment on their latest creation. Instead, she can't resist asking,] So is that a common thing where you're from, or... Just a you thing?

[Huh? It sounds like... Shoka thinks something about this is important...?]

...maybe I learned it from someone? I don't remember. [Just their usual terrible memory, nothing more complicated than that. They. They don't want to get into the rest. It's not like they remember anything to say about it, anyway!]

[Still, that does kind of imply that it's not common, to the point that they can't recall anyone else doing it!]

[Except... that's not right, isn't it? Stardust, on the beach, was muttering like that too. It kind of weirded Siffrin out, and then they weren't thinking about it, and - and their mind's dancing around it now just as much. For some reason they're desperate to focus on the awful furniture rather than this.]

[But now they feel bad. They promised Shoka they'd talk to her about things, and now they've avoided talking about two things in a handful of seconds. This shouldn't even be a big deal! So they have a slightly embarrassing habit and someone else shares it, so what??]

So I don't know about where I'm from... but I did catch another Pokemon around here doing it, haha! So I'm not the only weirdo around here! [They're trying to play it off as just a funny anecdote, what a silly coincidence, and they are smiling and half-laughing, but it feels a little forced?]

[Out of nowhere, for no reason, they're convinced that the air should smell like burnt sugar. When they sniff, though, it still just smells like lumber.]

[Something isn't right...]

[Shoka isn't buying that smile, but she does snort, hoping to lighten the mood (and also make them both a little less uneasy).]

That's for sure. If there's one thing the Bay's got, it's plenty of weirdos.

[Herself included, of course.]

But... I did, too, actually. Catch someone else doing the same thing, I mean. Which is sort of why I'm asking... [There's a hesitant pause before she asks,] Which Pokémon was it?

[You would think all the comments people make around the Bay about everyone being a weirdo would have helped with their anxiety about being the odd one out, and yet... it's hard not to think everyone else doesn't really mean it. Not to the degree that they'd actually be weird, if they weren't careful. ~~Aside from compared to A.B.A, who is genuinely probably weirder than them, and simply doesn't seem to care~~.]

[Still, at least they can joke about it now! As long as other people also don't think they're serious!]

[Oh:] It was Stardust - um, the new Meowth in the Cheri Berries?

Yeah, same for me. The Meowth with one eye, right? [She snorts.] Their name is seriously Stardust?

[Cute... But also, what?

... Then again, maybe she shouldn't find it so strange now, as someone who also knows a Firepaw and a Dark Heart.]

Anyway, I heard 'em say it when they were carving something. It's—probably all just a weird coincidence, but... [Her eyes wander over the wooden structure standing before her. If it was just the mantra, she likely would have dismissed it as nothing more than a coincidence right away. But then there was also the feline shape, the eye missing on the same side, the voice that sounded vaguely, eerily familiar...] I don't know. Guess I thought they might be from the same place you are or something?

[A place where a three-request mantra is a ritual and everyone gets one eye taken out? Like that's a thing!]

It might be a nickname...? They had a friend they were looking for with a much [stupider] sillier one.

[What was it again? Why did they dislike it so much?]

[They don't think about it.]

[It probably is a coincidence, but... someone from the same place as them would maybe explain the "star" part of their name, and the muttering.] ...I guess they could be?

[On the other hand, being from literally any other world would also make the nickname not that weird. So!]

[They almost start to add something about definitely not knowing each other though - except, their mouth won't form the words? Their body feels oddly distant, or maybe everything else does, like they've been wrapped in a sheet. Siffrin shakes their head, trying to focus.]

[Shoka watches Siffrin carefully, unsure what to make of that gesture.]

Well... you could always ask 'em. It'd be nice to have someone who knows your world around, right? And even if it turns out they aren't from the same place, the two of you still have a few things in common you could... talk about, maybe.

[So maybe they'll be good company for Siffrin... Or something. Even she isn't entirely sure where she's going with this, if she's even going anywhere at all.

Willing the atmosphere to lighten, she shifts the subject.]

But now I have to ask. What was their friend's nickname?

[What was it? It was... it was...]

L-loop. Their friend's nickname was Loop.

...sounds pretty dumb, right?

[...]

At first I thought it had to do with - um. You know. [So it's probably not a surprise that they're unsettled by it! Just happened to be an unfortunate coincidence!]

[They never actually asked, despite what they're implying. It must have nothing to do with time loops. There's so many other reasons for someone to be nicknamed Loop, after all! But even though it's pretty rude of them to be judging someone they've never met, they still don't like that name.]

[They're too distracted by this to respond to what she said about asking Stardust, for the moment, but they did at least hear it!]

... Loop. [She sounds the syllable out carefully, considering it—and then she snorts.] Yeah, not gonna lie... It kinda sucks.

[As a not-so-secret giver of silly nicknames (Frinrin could confirm themself), she doesn't actually hate it though, really. It's sort of cute? Maybe it's short for something. Lupin? Guadalupe...?

Siffrin's real reason for disliking it isn't lost on her, however.]

Oh. Right... [Siffrin did call them loops, didn't they? Not Replays, as Shoka sometimes called them in her head. It's yet another bizarre connection, snagging in her mind on the others.] Yikes. Might as well call 'em Torment Nexus, huh?

[... Too soon? Siffrin looks unnerved, preoccupied by something.]

... "At first"? [There's an unspoken question in that echo: are you sure it doesn't have something to do with it? Did you ask?]

[Oh no. They're being called out.]

I mean... it can't have anything to do with it, right...?

What kind of person would go through a time loop and then call themself that...?

[Haha... ha.....]

[They absolutely haven't realized that they're doing this, but they sure are weirdly confident that "Loop" chose their own nickname, huh.]

Didn't say that they did.

[It could be related some other way, maybe? Who knows?

... Wait.]

Did they come up with that nickname themself?

[Um. Did they...?]

[Siffrin is sure of it, so Stardust must have said something about it. But they absolutely can't remember what it was that gave them that impression...]

[That's really nothing new with their memory, though.]

It sounded like it...

[Shoka studies Siffrin for a moment—but if she finds anything in their expression, she gives no indication of it.]

And that's the best they could come up with? Woof.

[Her tone is light, but inwardly that bizarre, not-quite-right feeling lingers with her. Something's fishy, but she can't put her finger on what. Not yet.

She starts to fidget with another furniture-piece, distractedly trying to find anything that might fit into the remaining mystery-notches.]

Well... Like I said, you could always ask Stardust about all that stuff. Might be nice... to have someone around who literally knows where you're coming from, right?

[That is, if Stardust is even from the same place at all.

After a beat, she adds,] Or... I guess I could ask. If you want. Unlike some people, I don't really care what anyone else thinks of me. I'll weird out whoever.

[It sounds almost like a threat.]

[That is so absolutely a threat.]

No, I'll ask, I'll ask!

[It would be even weirder to have someone else ask for them!! Also how dare Shoka call them out like this.]

[They're not very hopeful. Even if Stardust really is from the same place as them, he wouldn't remember it. Just like they don't. But maybe... maybe it would be nice to ask about Vaugarde...?]

[...hahahaha! No it wouldn't!! Not when Siffrin's the reason it must be frozen in time right now!!!]

[They'll. They'll think of something else to ask about. Poteria, maybe. And then it'll turn out that Stardust has no idea what they're talking about, and they can tell Shoka he doesn't know, and neither of them will have to think about the weird coincidence anymore.]

[For now! They go to fetch some more likely pieces and join Shoka in trying to fit them in.]

August Catch-All

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me looking up the other sif's thread with a :]c face

>:3c

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/piles on more embarassment for when they remember

← making it worse

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