Work Text:
6:16 PM, April 16th
Diamond Heath
Lake Valor Outskirts
Sinnoh Region
A darkened glade sits between trees, bathed in long shadows cast by the setting sun. In the glade is a man clad in black, surrounded by Pokémon. A large Metagross, claws digging into the dirt, standing at attention as their eyes scan the forest. A Bronzong, floating behind him silently, with faint metallic ringing noises emanating from it. A Skuntank, resting on the ground, her eyes half-shut. A Hypno, leaning against a tree, swinging his pendulum idly. The natural tranquility of the scene is marred somewhat, as cases and assorted pieces of equipment are scattered on the grassy floor - a temporary base for a Pokémon hunting operation.
“Heh, three Gardevoir. Decent haul of the girls for today,” chuckled Heinrich. Three Poké Balls are dumped into a case, which the man promptly locks, placing it down atop a pair of identical cases. “Just gotta find where they’re all living, and we’ll be getting the big bucks, gang! We’ll track ‘em down sooner or later!” he cheers, to the scattered cheers of his Pokémon. Brushing his dark hair out of his eyes, he looked around, as reasonably paranoid as any hunter would be of possible detection… though, the hairs on the back of his neck were standing up. Like they had been for… some time, today, actually. Isolated backwater forest or not, you could really never be sur-
Two pairs of eyes, in the far distance. Shining red and brilliant violet. So briefly visible he barely saw them. A trick of the light, perhaps?
“METARARA!” roared his Metagross, stomping the ground before pointing with a leg in the direction of the eyes. Not a trick, then - he’d been with Meta long enough to know they didn’t make mistakes like that. The rest of his team perked up, alert to the possibility of a battle.
“You saw ‘em too, huh? We’re being watched, gang - look alive!” Heinrich called, his Pokémon taking defensive positions around him.. “Show yerselves, ya bastards!” He spun around rapidly - there, to the left, the eyes again. “Flash Cannon ‘em, Meta!” he calls, pointing with a malevolent grin. The X on Meta’s face glowed a brilliant silver, before a thin silvery beam blasted out from the centre, smashing through trees… and failing to hit anything.
In the corner of his vision, to his right - the eyes, again. “Over there, second time’s the charm!” Another Flash Cannon cut through the forest, only scattering a few Staravia in a tree smashed by the blast. Heinrich growled at the failure, punching a fist into his other hand. “Grrrah! You’re messin’ with the wrong guy, whoever you fuckers are!” And just who were they? Glowing red eyes - that could be one of the witches, trying to take “vengeance” upon him for taking their friend or some shit. It’d happen before and it’d happen again, and it just meant a bigger payday for him. But purple? That was an unusual colour. Still, he had countermeasures for the red one.
“Hyp, lock ‘em down, Impris-” he tried to order, only for a ball of blackened, writhing energy to fly out from between the trees. It smashed into the Hypno before they could even react, exploding with monstrous force into a shadowy blast, sending them flying through no less than three trees, the unsuspecting Pokémon rendered immediately unconscious.
Heinrich paled, fumbling for Hyp’s Poké Ball and returning him. Sure, that was super effective, but a single hit? Hyp was strong! He’d gone toe to toe with the Gardes before! None of them were ever that damn strong! Just what was after him right now? Who or what had found him?
Trying to collect himself, he thought. “Alright, you two want to play, I’ll play! Funk, burn ‘em out with a Flamethrower!” The Skuntank breathed in, before launching a stream of flaming toxic gas into the surrounding forest, igniting the edges of the glade. He watched as the fire spread, trying to spot the pair of eyes through the flames, his Pokémon doing the same. “You see shit, you blast ‘em - got it, gang?” But while the four of them looked, warily… they saw nothing.
And then, in his mind, a strange sensation. Thoughts that were not his. An echoing double voice. Feminine. At once stern and monotone, and ethereal and melodic - yet both sides were filled with immense rage and hatred.
<C̶a̶r̸e̵f̸u̴l̷ ̵p̶l̶a̵y̷i̶n̶g̴ ̴w̷i̷t̸h̶ ̴f̷i̵r̵e̵,̴ ̵H̸e̷i̸n̴r̷i̶c̷h̶.̴ ̸Y̴o̶u̶ ̵m̸i̶g̴h̵t̶ ̴e̴n̵d̶ ̸u̵p̴ ̸b̶u̷r̶n̴e̴d̷.̵>
The hunter paled further. It knew his name. How the fuck did anything in this backwater forest know his name?! Was it that deep in his head?! Could it read his thoughts?!
More unnerved than ever, he spun around, trying to see anything - but the very moment he turned away from Benjamin, it clanged loudly, in a sound of near-panic. Rapidly spinning back, it was clear why. A bright red aura engulfed Benjamin, while an unseen force pulled the Bronzong into the flaming forest - a clear use of Psychic, despite the move usually doing jack shit due to typing!
“H-how - Meta, pull ‘em back, quick! Ben, break outta it!” The Metagross rotated in mid-air, eyes glowing similarly red as they exerted their own telekinesis, while the Bronzong struggled with flailing arms against the psychic restraint. Benjamin slowed due to the Psychic tug of war, but Heinrich could only stare in horror as his Bronzong was dragged further away in a display of immense psychic power. Meta recoiled with a frustrated grunt, mild backlash from their Psychic grasp being broken as their mysterious attacker yanked Benjamin away. In one last desperate attempt, he grabbed Benjamin’s Poké Ball to try and return him - only for a purple aura to surround his arm, locking it in place.
With a harsh grunt of exertion, he painfully broke the telekinetic grip, but it was too late. Benjamin was out of sight, and he could only stare at the flames. “Fuck. Fuck! Meta, Funk, we gotta go ‘fore they get us too!” Frantically, he ran to his equipment - tracking gear, restraints, teleport inhibitors, and innocuous camping gear, beginning to pack up the important bits, tossing them to Meta to catch and load on top of themselves for a rapid exit.
Bent over and focused on the packing, Heinrich’s only warning was Funk’s squeal of alarm. He looked up, only to see Benjamin’s unconscious form being thrown at him like a rocket. Frozen in fear, the hunter locked up, wondering if this is really how it all ends for him. A sharp, sudden force pushes him to the side - likely Meta’s telekinesis, his mind supplied - causing him to fall on his right arm painfully with a grunt. He had no time to process that, though, as his Bronzong crashed through his supplies at immense speed - destroying them, crashing into his Skuntank with a horrific thud, and smashing the pair of Pokémon into a metres-long divot in the soil.
Scrambling to his feet, Heinrich runs over to where Ben and Funk had landed, Poké Ball in hand once more. The Bronzong was glowing red-hot, as if it had almost been melted, and was clearly banged up and damaged in a dozen ways. “Gods, fuck - Ben, what’d they fuckin’ do to you, get back in here!” he cried, panic rising further, recalling it. Underneath, Funk screeched at the sensation of hot metal on fur right after being severely injured from the impact of several hundred pounds of metal. “Gah, you too, Funk, that’s a nasty-ass burn,” he muttered, recalling his second-last Pokémon before quickly running over to Meta.
<W̵e̵ ̴w̵a̶r̶n̴e̶d̸ ̷y̵o̷u̴,̴ ̶H̵e̷i̵n̷r̷i̵c̴h̸.̴ ̵Y̵o̶u̷ ̷d̴i̶d̵n̴'̷t̷ ̷l̸i̴s̷t̶e̵n̵.̸>
At that intonation, the sky began darkening even further than he’d expect from the time. The wind picked up - and with it fell rain, hard and fast and unnaturally quick to arrive. It hissed and steamed with the flaming forest, beginning the process of extinguishing it, while also having the effect of making the twilight visibility drop lower and lower
“What the fuck are you, then, you damn freaks?” Heinrich yelled, less in anger than in terror, while attempting to clamber on top of his Metagross, his precious cargo of Gardevoir magnetically attached to the pseudo-legendary. Nothing out here should be so damn strong! His eyes latched on to the pair of glowing eyes once more, barely visible through the rain, flames, and steam. “Meta, Flash Cannon once more!” But yet again, the silvery beam simply hit nothing besides trees, the eyes blinking out before it could impact whatever the fuck it was.
An agonising spike of pain hammered into the man’s head, too many overlapping thoughts forced into his head at once.
<V̷e̴n̴g̸e̷a̷n̴c̶e̴> <T̴h̷e̸ ̶g̶o̴d̶ ̵o̸f̷ ̶t̶h̸i̵s̶ ̷f̸o̵r̷e̸s̸t̸.̸> <P̷u̵n̶i̴s̸h̶m̵e̵n̶t̴ ̶f̵o̴r̷ ̸y̴o̶u̷r̵ ̴s̴i̷n̷s̶.̸> <T̷h̷e̶ ̸s̵p̴i̴r̵i̶t̸ ̴o̶f̷ ̴w̸i̶l̷l̷.̴> <S̴o̵r̷r̶o̴w̷ ̴a̵n̶d̸ ̵d̴e̷s̸p̵a̸i̷r̷.̵> <T̸h̷e̶ ̸o̸t̴h̵e̵r̵ ̷s̷i̸d̶e̷ ̵o̶f̵ ̷t̶h̵e̸ ̸m̴i̷r̸r̵o̴r̵.̵> <Y̵o̶u̴r̴ ̷d̸e̴m̵i̴s̸e̷.̸>
None were screams, but collectively, they were overwhelmingly loud, and the hunter clutched his head in pain, almost falling off his mount if it had not moved to grab him with an arm. “Get out of my head, you fucking bitch, whatever the hell you are! I ain’t believing that shit!”
<Y̴o̶u̵ ̷w̵i̵l̸l̶.̶>
With a grunt of rage, the hunter pulled himself back up on board. “Fat chance of that, we’re getting outta here! Go go go!” But instead of moving to take off, Meta froze as if they had spotted something - and then rapidly spun. But before Heinrich could even catch his bearings and look at whatever Meta had seen - a loud, terrifying roar, stomping noises, and then overwhelming sensation of force as he was flung from his partner Pokémon with immense force, crashing into the wet ground several metres away with a pained yell, his already-injured arm smashed once again. Stunned by the crash, his vision went black to the roars of Meta locked in combat with the unknown thing that had attacked him, along with the sound of claws rending through metal.
Lying sideways on the ground, the man in black sputtered back to consciousness, eyes fluttering open through a sensation of pain and disorientation. But it wasn’t long before Heinrich awoke properly. “Nrgh, wh-what… argh, fuck… fuck, Meta!”
Attempting to push himself off the ground, he screamed in agony as his right arm rebelled against the idea of exerting any force - the damn thing was likely broken. Awkwardly, he managed to stand, taking in his surroundings. Still dark. Still raining. Still in the glade. Raindrops dripped down his forehead, mixing with blood from scratches, as he attempted to make out anything in the dark - eyes catching upon the fallen form of Meta. The Metagross was unconscious, deep slash marks in the metal that made up their body, and the X on their face cracked and broken on one end. For a moment, he could only stare, in awe and terror of whatever could have caused this.
“F-f-fuck. E-even you, b-buddy?” For a terrifying second, he wasn’t even sure if his Metagross was alive - but after fumbling with his off hand to grab their Poké Ball, the beam blessedly recalled them without issue. “Oh, thank the gods.” Looking around further, he noticed none of the cases - let alone those with the captured witches he’d come here for - were anywhere. Not on Meta, nor the ground nearby. Ground that was scarred by the footprints of something, impacts from Metagross claws, and a series of cracks and fissures running through the dirt.
Spinning around, he looked for the pair of eyes. Nowhere to be seen. “M-maybe that bitch left me alone after taking them back.” For several seconds, he just stood, trying to spot any sign of… whatever the hell that thing was. After that… maybe it wasn’t lying. But he saw nothing but raindrops and the occasional rustle of leaves from a small wild Pokémon. “G-gotta get me the fuck out. Back to a city, away from…”
Slowly, his body still in pain from his fall, he sluggishly trudged towards the way he’d first entered the glade a week ago. Within the trees, it was even darker, and he only had the dinky-ass headlamp he had on his person rather than any of his better torches, leading him to almost trip on roots several times. That in turn forced him to stare downwards, rather than focusing on his surroundings - not helping the fact that in the dark, anything and everything could look like some form of… spirit of revenge, or Azelf themselves out to get him. The slightest movement caused him to flinch and freeze, in terror that the thing might have found him one more.
But after several minutes of nothing, he began to pick up his pace, walking faster, trying to get his way out of the forest as fast as possible. It must have left him. There wasn’t anything here besides normal, understandable Pokémon that he could actually deal with. Or, could have, had his team not all been in desperate need of medical attention. The longer he stayed, the more likely it was it’d come back for him.
Nothing was following him anymore. He was safe.
<W̶e̵ ̷s̵e̶e̵ ̵y̵o̷u̷,̴ ̷H̸e̶i̵n̵r̶i̷c̶h̵.̵>
The man froze. Slowly, glacially, he looked up. Two eyes. Shining red and brilliant violet. Not just glowing but burning with some manner of energy strong enough it was leaking out of them. Closer than before, in the dark, but still too far to make out. His heart raced. His mouth grew dry and he stammered on nonsense. Stuck between fight or flight. It made the choice for him.
<R̶̢͖͊͂͝ǔ̷̪̼͕̈́n̸͍̊.̸̜͒̄>
He turned and sprinted through the trees, ignoring the pain of his broken arm and his bruises, flying through it as fast as he could, scraping his arms and legs against branches and roots when he fell, too terrified to even remotely care. Having had to run off the path he remembered, the hunter didn’t know where he was going - nor did he care, as long as it was away from that thing that would assuredly kill him if it got him. Quickly, Heinrich glanced back, and - the violet eyes, in the distance, moving towards him. Fuck. He turned back, desperate to sprint faster - only to see the red eyes, already ahead of him, balefully glaring. Fuck fuck fuck.
His heart hammered in his chest as he twisted to his left and took off, narrowly avoiding falling over on the wet ground, moving as fast as he possibly could while mentally reciting prayers to any and all gods who might have even the slightest chance of delivering him from whatever this was. But when he looked up from the torchlight, no respite was granted - for the red eyes were ahead of him once more, and the violet eyes were still catching up.
“Leave me the fuck alone! P-please! I’ll n-never come back!” he cried, switching directions again. No response, besides the red and the violet eyes continued to corner him. And again. And again, his terror rising and rising. Would they ever let him go? He kept running, as fast as his exhausted, pained body could manage. It’d been… longer than usual, since the last time they had cornered him. Ahead, the trees began to clear, growing less dense. “P-please, gods, let me out of here!” The space between oddly-leafless trees opened up, and roots began to give way to blackened soil, the horrifying darkness of the rainy, forested night clearing just a little as Heinrich passed the edge of the tree line, finally having… escaped…
He looked around. The same claw marks. The same scorched trees. The same goddamn clearing this had all started at. The hunter dropped to his knees, from both exhaustion and despair. “N-no. N-n-no, this can’t be h-happening, no! No no no!” he cried, breaking down. Holding his face in his hands, he sobs, blood, sweat, and tears falling down his face.
<W̸e̸l̷c̷o̵m̶e̶ ̸b̶a̵c̴k̸,̷ ̴H̸e̷i̸n̶r̵i̴c̵h̵.̴>
At that pronouncement, the temperature plummeted, fallen rain freezing on the grass beneath him. The hunter shivers, both from the cold and the fear as two pairs of steps slowly approach - and he stops all movement. Before he could muster up the strength of will to dare look up, a red aura glows around his body, and for the third time, Heinrich finds himself thrown - this time, his back hitting a tree with a painful thud that forces the air out of his lungs and elicits a scream of pain as his broken arm is bent against the trunk. The force holds him against it, preventing him from moving his limbs even an inch. Gasping for breath, he looks up - the red and violet eyes finally close enough to make out just what the hell his pursuers were.
Both clad in black leather and cloth in a near-medieval look, with loose, traditional-looking cloth shawls of dark red and dark violet hanging around their necks and shoulders like a cape, matching the colour of their eyes. The pair moved in an eerie synchronisation, each step exactly in tune as they approached, stopping less than a metre away.
One, what he had expected. A Gardevoir, or maybe some spirit in the form of one of the damn witches, with a deep red crystal exposed through her garb. She stood as tall as him - and it was most definitely a she, because Heinrich could see she was both unusually athletic and feminine for a Gardevoir - something that’d have netted him millions or more on the black market had he managed to catch her. If she even was a Pokémon, and not something far, far worse. He couldn’t make out where her dress was, though her long, green hair seemed like it was trying to make up for the missing flowing tendrils. Her pale face was covered with large, scarlet markings - dripping down from her eyes over her cheeks like tear streaks of blood - and bore a look of pure disgust and incandescent rage, teeth bared and red eyes burning as she stared into his soul and seemed to find it wanting, causing him to gulp nervously. Her very presence was as cold as the grave, and with every exhale came a cloud of mist and ice that chilled him even through his now-tattered clothes.
The other, not. It was something that looked to be a woman, not that he was putting much stock into appearances at this point - tall, slender of frame, yet with the kind of figure that even leathers couldn’t hide. The woman’s face was obscured by a fox mask, white and red as per the usual for Sinnoh; or perhaps that was her face, and she was some sort… of kitsune spirit out to eat his soul. Her eyes were exposed through it, glowing bright, her right eye in particular shining with a starburst pattern like a diamond. Rather than the fiery anger in the Gardevoir, her piercing eyes bore only a cold hatred and malice, like some of the real sick fucks of the criminal underworld. Strands of long, white hair floated unnaturally behind her head despite the pouring rain, twisting and turning like flames, further filling him with the feeling that this woman wasn’t human.
“You have committed innumerable sins,” intoned the woman, in a flat, cold voice, staring at him.
“You’ve destroyed many lives.” To his shock, the Gardevoir-shaped thing continued - speaking in human words, rather than telepathy, clearly inhuman with an unnatural melodic tone - in the way that a funeral dirge might be described as - yet thoroughly comprehensible.
“You capture and enslave the innocent…”
“...selling our kin for your personal gain!”
“To those who would cage them forevermore.”
“To those who would carve out their hearts.”
“To those who would perform obscene acts.”
“To those who would covet their bloodline.”
The pair walked closer, the woman having produced a long, sharp knife from behind her, causing his eyes to bulge. “N-no, no! I w-won’t do it again! I’ll… I’ll l-leave Sinnoh, go f-far away, never bother your f-forest again, I swear!” he rambled, saying whatever he could think of to try and save himself - he wasn’t going to just quit, but if fleeing the region got these freaks away?!
“You lie, hunter!” snarled the Gardevoir, dropping her telekinetic hold on him - only to surge forwards, grabbing the man by the throat and slamming him against the trunk with nothing but physical strength, eliciting another pained gasp as he choked in her grip, tight enough to draw blood, staring terrified into rage-filled blood-red eyes. Her frozen breath stung his face, his eyes, and even his throat, chilling him to the core.
“We see into the depths of your mind, Heinrich. Hiding in gaps between your words, trying anything to save your skin and escape! You’d simply move on to harm our mortal kin elsewhere, hoping you’d be beyond our reach!” The Gardevoir teleported back, still glaring menacingly with flecks of red blood on her fingers, her sudden disappearance causing Heinrich to fall to the ground, limp with his back against the tree, gasping for air.
In turn, the woman stepped forwards, bending down to stare at him, her dead violet eyes even more terrifying than the Gardevoir - the Gardevoir spirit or god or something - in just how empty they seemed.
She was going to kill him.
He was going to die.
The hunter looked up at her, a fear of death fuelling a truly desperate idea, for doing nothing would surely be worse. Whatever the woman was, he had broken her telekinesis before. Whatever the woman was, she felt the need to use a knife. Maybe… maybe he could… His muscles tensed, as he prepared to fling himself forwards and grab her knife - and then, pain, overwhelming pain in his hand.
“Argh, fuck, gods above!” he yelled, attempting to see what had happened to it - only to find it unable to move, and the mere action of trying to move it into his sight brought more shocks of pain. Turning his head instead, he screamed even louder as he took in the sight of his hand pinned to the tree trunk by a knife, the blade still surrounded in a purple telekinetic aura. “Nrrgghhh, my hand!” Another quick force wrenched his head towards the psychotic woman-thing, still staring at him in the exact same manner, with no indication in her glowing eyes that she had just impaled him through the hand.
“A foolish decision. Did you truly think we would not notice?” she asked, head tilted slightly. Gods above, they really could read his mind. Leaning forwards, she pulled the knife out of his hand, causing another grunt of pain as the wound began to bleed profusely, the hunter now once more firmly within the grips of absolute terror with his last gambit a failure. Idly, she looked at the bloody blade, before moving the tip to his throat. “A laceration to the throat can kill within a minute. It would be a trivial task.”
He trembled, barely able to get a word out between pain, fear, and the blade. “Pl-please…” he murmured, scarcely audible. The knife pushed the slightest amount deeper, slicing through the skin… before stopping. “Were it my decision alone, your fate would be sealed here. But my other half pleads for… a form of mercy, and I shall oblige,” droned the woman, still nearly monotone, before pulling her knife away.
The Gardevoir teleported forwards again, standing to the side of the fox-masked woman, twin pairs of eyes bearing down upon him, and the pair began to speak in uncanny unison, one after another as if they were one person.
“You’ll never return here.”
“You shall never speak of this day."
“You’ll never hunt Pokémon, in any region.“
“You shall atone for your sins and your crimes.”
“You’ll submit to mortal justice, and accept punishment at their hands. So we decree!”
“And should you defy our judgement, none shall ever find your remains. So we decree.”
Completely and utterly terrified, tears dripping down his face, and every inch of him in pain, Heinrich finally, fully conceded - no more running, no more lies, no more gambits. “I-I promise… I won’t… I’ll do a-anything y-you ask…” he mumbled out, slumping as much as he could, his resolve entirely broken. He stared up at the… the… the god, before dropping his gaze. He’d… never had a chance, had he?
“Your fate was always sealed,” responded the woman, with a faint tone of sadistic satisfaction, confirming beyond any doubt that they were in his mind.
“From the moment you entered our domain,” followed the Gardevoir, a viciously victorious tone in her voice.
He whimpered, not daring to say anything at all lest they decide to rescind their mercy. They’d… probably know anything he’d say anyway. Moving forwards, they both grabbed his chin, forcing his vision back up so that they could stare into his eyes. The hunter didn’t dare resist as their eyes glowed brighter and brighter and brighter - and as they did, his consciousness began to steadily, slowly fade into black, exhaustion overtaking him. But just before he passed out, a final foreign thought ran through his mind.
<R̵e̴m̵e̸m̶b̷e̶r̴.̴ W̷e̸ ̷w̸i̷l̴l̷ ̵b̵e̸ ̶w̵a̵t̸c̵h̵i̶n̷g̵.>
8:14 AM, April 17th
Canalave City
Sinnoh Region
A large apartment sits in the centre of the city, one among hundreds. Inside it, two women sit at the dining table for breakfast, their chairs placed right next to each other. One, a white-haired human, with piercing violet eyes and an effortless, elegant beauty. The other, a Gardevoir, with shining red eyes and an athletic, yet feminine bearing. The Gardevoir leans on the human’s shoulder lovingly as the latter checks her phone, eyes rapidly flicking over headlines.
“What’cha looking for, Victoria?” chirps the Gardevoir, an audible edge of humour in her melodic voice - a voice somehow capable of human languages, if one still distinctly non-human despite the effort that must have gone into such a feat. The human woman turns her head, looking towards her partner, still flicking through the headlines - until she pauses.
“Hm. This article seems to be quite interesting, Selena. ‘Wanted Pokémon Hunter Heinrich Lancre found bound, unconscious outside Veilstone City Police Headquarters; promptly arrested.’ I am very glad someone was able to capture him,” she reads out in a near-monotone, though a slight, satisfied smirk breaks through her flat affect to signal her own shared amusement.
“Man, I sure wonder who sent him there? They were probably super cool and extremely pretty, mhmm~?” responds Selena in a lilting, cheery tone, snickering a bit. Her eyes glow a bright red as she telekinetically pulls a slice of toast onto her plate.
<Oh, I am most certain they were. And extremely skilled, to compound their positive qualities,> came the response, even as the human woman ate a forkful of her meal - the message sent through telepathy instead, carrying the intended tone of wry humour far more effectively as thoughts than Victoria’s speech would.
Selena’s response came quickly, a flirtatious vibe attached to it. <Why, if I saw one of them, I might have to just kiss them, ya know?> At that, Victoria’s smirk grew ever so slightly, and she reached to the lowest level of the deeper than deep, psychic bond the pair shared - linking to Selena’s natural telekinesis and sending a request at the speed of thought that was quickly assented to. The white-haired woman’s eyes glow a brilliant violet, scarred right eye shining like a diamond as she lifts her coffee cup into her hand from the table, looking at the Gardevoir next to her feigning surprise and shock all the while. The pair both begin to giggle - loudly for Selena, more restrained for Victoria - before pulling each other into a hug and peppering each other’s face with kisses, to continued laughter.