bottlecaplogs | mayaka’s jan catch-all

Yikes, that got dark really fast.

Mayaka freezes, realising she may have been too careless with her words, even though the Litwick next to her is happily chowing down on the pinecone.

"I didn't know you had to go through that. That sucks."

Catrina, ironically, doesn't pick up on how dark that was. To her, this was just the price to pay for escaping her bio parents, a worthwhile payment. Pausing at the pinecone chow down, Catrina looks a bit confused.

"Hey, it's all chill. You're seventeen, right? I was about two years older than you when I escaped the donors, it was just a price to pay for freedom. Upside, the food situation eventually got better."

This was a completely normal conversation, Catrina isn't registering just how dark the topic is.

Edited (Forgot to CW it :x) 2026-01-08 18:10 (UTC)

Even though Mayaka can't relate to what the Litwick is saying, she's read enough to get an idea of the sort of situation that would lead her to running away from her parents. She presses her lips together in a solemn expression, but tries not to linger too long on it given how Catrina remains in good spirits.

She distracts herself by digging through the snow and searching between the roots of the trees, and successfully fishes out more pinecones which she tosses to Catrina. The few small nuts Mayaka finds, she drops into the bagpack.

As she circles around the tree, she discovers a ring of mushrooms, just barely poking out from under a thin layer of snow.

"Cat-chan, look at this."

It was certainly for the best not to discuss Catrina's bio parents, that one is nightmare fuel, even to someone like Catrina to even talk about. In turn, Catrina was more than interest in seeing the mushroom ring that Mayaka found in the snow.

"I think we hit the jackpot here." Catrina was pretty impressed with Maya's find. If they were poisonous or not, that one was up for debate and Catrina shouldn't be ID-ing any sort of fungi as edible.

Still, Catrina goes to use her flame to melt the snow with her Litwick flame to get a better view of the mushrooms for the potential harvesting. There was some use of coming into this world as the worst candle that Arceus decided to inflict on everyone.

"So..how many are there?"

Thanks to Catrina melting the snow, Mayaka is able to get a better look at the fairy ring of mushrooms. She lowers herself onto her knees and inspects them carefully. They're white, with wide caps, and what appears to be little gills running under the underside of the mushrooms.

"Looks like there's around 10 of them. From what I've read, the difference between the toxic and non-toxic mushrooms of this sort are very minor. But..."

She reaches out to pluck one off the ground and turns it around in her claw to get a better look at the mushroom's gills.

"Based on the size of the gills, I think these are safe to eat."

Well, the only way to know would be to eat them and see what happens, but Mayaka won't do something so rash like that now.

"Hell yeah, we can harvest them then, ten should be plenty to take back, right?"

Catrina is the last former amphibian to consult about mushrooms. On the bright side, Mayaka wasn't consulting her far worse older brother, Fernando, on the mushrooms...he would've eaten them on the spot. So no surprise mushroom munching on Catrina's end thank Arceus.

"Hmmm...we could always boil them for a long time to be on the safe side."

For once, Catrina made some sort of sound advice on the mushrooms, Lupe would be proud right now if they were here..maybe. Other option was ~~pestering~~ asking Sanji if the mushrooms are safe or not, but Catrina likely isn't thinking that far ahead, that would be silly.

Boiling them, while safe, doesn't sound particularly appetizing.

"Is there someone who's really good at cooking we can ask? Most of the recipes I know don't use mushrooms."

Mayaka gathers the mushrooms in her arms and tosses them one at a time into the bag.

Catrina scrunches up her little wax face in thought for a moment. How could anyone be against mushroom soup!? The tragedy...ahh what was Catrina trying to think of before? Oh! Right someone that knows how to cook!

"Yeah there's this blonde fox guy back at the Spire that can help! I'm sure he can ID these mushrooms."

Clearly there is no flaws with this (There was definitely flaws with this plan.)

"Blonde fox? Don't think I've met him."

Mayaka lifts the bag, jostling the mushrooms around, and peeks inside to see that there's still some space for more ingredients.

"Let's see if we can find anymore mushrooms or nuts before we head back."

"Hot damn, then yeah, you're in for a show with the blondie fox. Gets weird around girls though as a heads up."

Catrina gives a nod as she goes to melting more snow with her little flame...being a fire and ghost type has its advantages, especially for this booger of a candle.

"I hear yah, you see anymore mushrooms or nuts from the ground?"

Mayaka brushes off Catrina's warning with a little snort, figuring that she'll be able to deal with that easily if it happens.

"If there was a ring of them here, it's likely there'll be others around the other trees too." Having made this deduction, the Sneasel heads to the next tree over and begins digging through the snow.

"Oh! By the way, I found a figurine near my window the other week and it didn't say who it was from. I remember you said you know how to sculpt... was it from you?"

Who else would deliberately give her a creepy ghost, knowing she was frightened of them? Mayaka had been too scared to place it in her room, or even the common room, so it's currently sitting in the garden outside her house, and she tries not to think about it lest it ruin her sleep for the night.

Edited 2026-01-10 11:26 (UTC)

If there were bones inside of Catrina, there'd be no wax off them as she shrugs. Back to hunting for more mushrooms n' nuts~

"Sounds like a plan, I'll just keep melting snow on my end to make this easier." Spring is definitely going to look weird after Catrina's intervention with the premature melting of snow.

Uh-oh...Catrina glances away quickly. She thought that little clay sheet ghost with the tiny sculpted hair bow was cute...plan has backfired spectacularly! There's no torch or pitchforks here, right? It's not like Mayaka would chase Catrina out of the Bay.

"Yeah and I made it cute as a button. Why?"

"C-cute...?" Mayaka repeats, her voice wavering. Alright, maybe she can see the effort put into it, such as the hair bow, but that really only made it look more doll-like to her which added to the creepy factor.

"It's not that I don't appreciate it!" the Sneasel is quick to add. "You made it really well. So well, it's like its staring at me, sometimes."

"Just think of it as staring at you with adoration." Catrina's attempts at reassurance is at best a D minus. She's trying though, so that earns her a bit of a gold star sticker, right?

Speaking of stickers..."How about decorating it with some fun stickers? That might make it cuter?"

"I've... put it on watch in the garden outside."

Mayaka doesn't want to disagree with Catrina's interpretation of The Stare™, so she tries to change the topic. Anyway, she should say this now in case the Litwick comes by her place again and finds the doll sitting outside.

"Yeah, maybe stickers."

Stickers to cover the eyes might work.

(ooc: i love this so much its in tdm now lol)

(ooc: Oh my Arceus I love it XD Poor Mayaka, Catrina should've given her the cursed stick dolls)

"Oh sweet, I should've made a gnome cap for it to wear to be stylish!" Catrina is completely not realizing its because her totally not a cursed sculpture (its totally now cursed) is scaring her new friend.

Eye contact means its uber friendly or at least that's what Catrina understood for humans (oh honey no, humans don't like that stare..) Surely, giving the statue a makeover will save it!

"I think so too like heart stickers on the eyes would make it look love struck or something."

This may or may not make the ghost sculpture worse...

"Just... be sure to tell me if you make any changes to it."

Mayaka does not want to wake up one day and see the ghost in a different part of the garden, or with a different face, with no explainable reason why!

Though now, what if she does see its face change, and it's not Catrina's doing?

A shiver runs down her spine.

If it did, Catrina would be throughly impressed that she ascended into being the tiniest PokeGod ever...Arceus is getting competition now.

"Will do, I mean what weirdo would do that?"

Catrina...you're that very weirdo parents warn their kids about if they don't shape up right away. At least she's a step up better than her brother...Fernando would've made that statue far worse..

Maybe Mayaka could make a little sleeping mask to put over on the ghost sculpture? That way the eyes won't be staring as much?

"The same weirdo who left a ghost on my window without telling me about it..."

"Okay fair, but I'm the fun and whimsical weirdo from the days of yore."

Despite herself, Mayaka can't help but chuckle at her strange friend.

At least this outing wasn't so boring.

mayaka’s jan catch-all

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CW for Catrina's parents mention and past food insecurities

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wrap!! theyre so cute