bottlecaplogs | mayaka’s jan catch-all

The little Sneasel stands in a small clearing amongst the trees carrying an empty backpack, which should soon be filled with nuts and mushrooms. Her arms are crossed as she scans her surroundings. The thick layer of snow covering the woods has made it more difficult to keep track of where they’re going, and the last thing she wants to do is to get lost on this foraging trip.

At least she has company, and she trusts that this Litwick must know where they’re going, and also the way back.

“Thanks for accompanying me, Cat-chan.”

“This doesn’t look right…” Mayaka mumbles to herself, furrowing her brow in frustration.

She readjusts the lilac scarf around her neck, throwing the tail end over her shoulder before holding up the piece of parchment in her claws. On it is a rough plan of where the snow on the path should be cleared to make way for the road out of Skull Town. She volunteered to help Boufflant draft this out, to make sure the different teams knew which part of the path to clear, but looking at it now…

“This is too close to the woods. Urgh.”

It wouldn’t make sense for the bigger Pokemon to have to navigate tight spaces, and they certainly can't clear all these trees out of the way. Surely suggesting a path that cut through less of the woods would make more sense! Why didn’t she notice this earlier?

Edited 2026-01-06 12:44 (UTC)

Mayaka catches her breath against a large tree trunk, watching cautiously as the remaining Umbreon and Eevee disappear between the trees and snow. Her claws are still shaking, whether from adrenaline or the cold, she’s too frazzled to say for now. She’s just glad that it’s finally over.

It takes her a few more seconds to recover before she’s back on her feet, searching for the Typlosion who’d helped her during the scuffle. As soon as she spots him, the Sneasel quickly bounds over to check on him.

“Ingo-san, you okay?”

Catrina wasn't allowed to have a cute little backpack, mainly because of the flame. What she was allowed though was to assist in foraging via melting some snow with her little flame. Sure, Catrina managed to survive the wilderness last time, but that was likely because of sheer dumb luck.

"Hey no problem, we still need to get you ready to have a meeting with Polteageist and getting you over your fear of ghosts."

Good news though, Catrina is leaving a nice melted path through the snow, so it should be easy to follow back to civilization. At least it isn't a melted wax trail...that's the plus.

"Right. Thanks for reminding me..." Mayaka groans a little as she says this, sounding quite the opposite.

She enters the clearing and starts to scoop snow off the ground with her bare claws, tossing piles of it behind her, mindful not to get any on Catrina.

"Do you know where's good to find mushrooms and nuts?"

Part of the issue with defining a "road" to Skull town was that sometimes the roads themselves would shift. Traveling through had gotten easier, but not perfected, depending on what route led you there to begin with.

Archnemon, on site as well as her assigned partner (but of course, only referring to herself as Hatenna if asked) catches sight of the lifted parchment. Up until now, she'd mostly been letting Mayaka take the lead, while she had been doing a quick survey of what else was needed, always one to keep busy. Gathering any extra information she could while listening, taking note of how many supplies were available. But now it seemed time to speak up, before she got too consumed by imperfection. Something she knew too well, herself... seeing other people in frustration was an easier way to generate ideas. She walks up closer, recognizing a certain scarf accessory but of course not acknowledging that.

"True... but if you look closely, there are multiple paths to choose from, and some have been wide enough to move large groups through before. The problem is there seem to be pit falls and streams that weren't accounted for..."

"What are friends for? Besides, you'll do great." Catrina was more than happy to remind her new friend of that promise and get Mayaka all on board with Team Ghostie Ghoul.

Glancing a bit from Mayaka and then to the trees, Catrina goes to use that mythical thing called thinking. This was an important quest and Cat knew it was something she cannot fumble.

"Let's go near the trees, mushrooms seem to like growing on them anyways."

Mayaka gives her friend a small nod before moving to clear the area underneath the trees.

"I read up about mushroom varieties in the library. We've gotta be careful because some of them are poisonous." Though, she wonders if eating them will have the same effect on her since she is a poison-type now. This sounds like something that Doctor would want to test out.

"Cat-chan, do you have lots of experience finding stuff in the woods?"

Mayaka shifts her gaze to the Hatenna, quietly relieved to have a second opinion even if she's never spoken to her before. She places the parchment on the ground between the two of them.

"There are pitfalls? I've never noticed. Could you mark where they are here?" she asks, holding a charcoal pencil out to Archenmon. Her poisonous claws are safely covered by a pair of gloves today.

Catrina could find things in the woods pretty easily, downside though, those were normally skeletons she left to get cleaned up proper. Mushrooms and nuts though...yeah that one is not something she wasn't used to. She was more accustomed to the delicious crunch of pinecones...PINECONES! That's a solution right there if the mushrooms are a bust.

"I know that pinecones, pine needles, and the cambium are edible on evergreens if all else fails with the mushrooms."

Good save there Catrina, she gives herself a waxy pat on the back.

"Huh, what's cambium?" Mayaka has never heard of this before.

Just then, she feels her claws scratch against something on the forest floor. She picks it up, shakes the snow off of it, revealing it to be a small pinecone.

"Oh cambium, that's like that weird white stuff between the bark and the wood of the tree. It's edible and can be made into a bread." Catrina didn't waste a minute explaining the wonders of the edible parts of trees and the dread cambium bread that came with it.

Oh, what's this? Delicious pinecone? Well Mayaka found it and gets to lay claim to the pinecone delicacy right there. "That'd be a pinecone, very delicious and crunchy, definitely strong of fibers."

Hatenna uncurls one of her hair's tendrils to take and then carefully curl around the pencil to hold it, cautious but noticing those gloves. Clever.

"They're annoying, but usually avoidable... the snow adds that extra complication."

She makes a soft 'hmm' as she considers the layout on the parchment, delicately scratching out the markings where she recalls prior difficulties. "This area here, for certain. This longer path branches there... and there's a bridge. It might not seem the quickest route at first, but time... is funny, in there."

Mayaka can't help but chuckle as Catrina explains this piece of obscure trivia. It reminds her of the kind of odd facts her close friend Satoshi would know. She's always had a soft spot for fun facts because of this.

"Really, bread? You sure that's tasty?" she asks, sounding doubtful despite the amused smile on her face.

The Sneasel pauses for a second before offering the pinecone to the Litwick. Does Catrina actually want to eat this? Between this and the cambium, it seems like she has an odd taste in food. Though that certainly wasn't the strangest thing about this frog-turned-candle creature she's somehow befriended...

Mayaka can't help but notice how precise her partner's additions are.

"Looks like you've got a knack for this, Hatenna-chan." (A 'chan' is the natural honorific for someone that looks as small and cute as her!)

And where Hatenna had indicated the bridge would be, Mayaka doesn't hesitate to draw a clear symbol to indicate its position in relation to the rest of the paths.

"This route looks too long. We should prioritise routes that are short and safe for the pathing, shouldn't we?" Mayaka doesn't really get what Hatenna means by time being funny. On the map, it's clear to her that that route by the bridge doesn't seem efficient at all.

"It's shit as bread, but nothing a little bit of maple syrup won't fix."

Ironically, this was the more socially acceptable dietary plans compared to Cat's previous dietary habits by leagues. Clearly a wise decision on Arceus's end or whoever decided to bring this candle here.

It looks like Catrina does want to eat the pinecone...the wilderness did a number on this booger. At least its not something worse.

"Oh?"

It takes a beat for Hatenna to process Mayaka's question properly mostly because of the fact that she's been assigned a "-chan", which she... well knows what that means due to her own background, but doesn't expect to be the recipient of it, even here.

Instead, she motions toward the map again. "Yes, but if you look here... some of these routes all link up to that main one in some way, but if you end up straying too far off on the smaller branches for a short cut, it might have you looping around in another direction entirely, or right back where you started. It's part of the reason why these routes have been taking so long to develop in the first place."

"Why eat something that tastes bad to begin with?" Mayaka arches an eyebrow at the Litwick, failing to understand her logic. At least if it was surprisingly tasty, she'd be more willing to close an eye on this questionable source of food.

And seeing how Catrina is eyeing the pinecone, the Sneasel hands it over to the candle wordlessly, even though a judging expression is clear as day on her face.

"Cause taste gets thrown out the window when food is low and you can't get anything else delicious on short notice?" Catrina says this straight faced, this was definitely a normal outing for Catrina. Nothing wrong here.

Upon being gifted the pinecone, Catrina goes to crunch crunch town with the pinecone. Simply delicious and Catrina is staying on top of her fiber goals this year!

Mayaka listens to the explanation intently, before releasing a great big sigh.

"You're right!" she is upset, though not at Hatenna. "I thought I'd be more helpful doing this, since I can't carry much."

Right on cue, a huge Venusaur lumbers past them, transporting a massive amount of supplies on its back and in its vines. Mayaka acknowledges it with a glance and an unamused expression on her face.

"I'm still too new," she continues, shaking her head as she assesses the issue at hand. "Have you been around here for long, Hatenna-chan? Maybe it'd be better if you gave the suggestions and I drew them out."

Despite her frustrations, she's already moved on to come up with a solution.

"When I first arrived they had only just gotten to the point of being able to traverse this area at all, so it's been a few months for most of us at best. It's not wrong to take a little initiative when not everyone is particularly inclined for being organized..."

She finishes marking off the problem areas on the parchment, circling some other known hazards, and offers the pencil back over.

"As for direction, we should go ahead and find out who else has gotten a hand on these maps to make sure they're updated. There will likely be other plans laid out that need some drawing as well if they intend to reinforce that bridge for carts and Pokémon that can't just fly over."

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."

As Hatenna shares her ideas, Mayaka makes some finishing touches to the plan before rolling it up and tucking it under her arm.

"Sounds good. We can use this as our master copy then. Let me tell Boufflant first. Hold on a sec."

The Sneasel scurries off to update the head of this operation, mindful about respecting the chain of command. She returns to Hatenna's side a little out of breath from all the running back and forth, her scarf nearly falling off her shoulders.

"He's... good with us updating the other maps... or helping with reinforcing the bridge..."

She's just eager to work with someone who's actually responsible!

Edited 2026-01-08 11:20 (UTC)

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)

mayaka’s jan catch-all

nutty buddies w/ Catrina

bouffa-load w/ Archnemon

(post) eeveesive maneuvers w/ Ingo

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1/2

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LOL

:3c Delicious pinecone, good for your health totally.

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CW for Catrina's parents mention and past food insecurities