Naturally, Florian the potter's workshop was filled with clay. The air tasted vaguely like it, and dried dust stuck to the edges of tables. Blocks sat wrapped in clear plastic behind cupboards and in mats left to dry out. However, the big table and the spinning wheel were pushed aside, for a table for Florian to meet his guests at.
And by that table, a stool sat. For Sinistea to meet its own guests. Sitting on big pillars of clay, two dogs and a gremlin sat. Tinkie, Casket, and Riolu.
"Okay. Let me start at the beginning." Florian the potter gestured to Sinistea. "Sinistea came to me about... twenty years? Eh, Sinistea m'boy. Was it twenty, or fifteen?"
Sinistea looked up from their stool-table, and then two bubbles blew up in its tea, and popped. It turned back to the stool, focused back on the game the Pokémon were playing. Something involving two small clumps of clay, and a ring drawn around them. None of them were touching the clay, and the clay wasn't moving, but they were watching like it was.
"Fifteen. Time flies." Florian turned back. "So, back then, Sinistea approached me—scared me proper when 'e showed up. But, with those illusions, he told me what he wanted."
"A teapot?"
"Precisely," he chuckled, "So he could evolve."
"What do Sinistea evolve into?" Poppy asked, fingers tapping on the table.
Linh and Florian made to speak at the same time, they dithered, and then Linh gestured 'go ahead'.
"Polteageist," Florian said, "They exchange their cup for a teapot."
"Polteageist." Poppy nodded. "I remember them! There was this Trainer who fought me with one. It used Shell Smash and then blew up Rajah! Had to use Corvi to stop it!"
Florian looked askance at Linh, "Is she?"
"She's that Poppy." Linh turned to Poppy. "That's what all Polteageists do, if they want to be optimal. Fragile, but hits hard and is fast. So Shell Smash to get as strong and fast as possible, and then full power until you drop."
"Anyways," Florian continued. "We made many teapots, together. Ones with tall necks, short necks. Round and wide, short and square. Even the fancy ones with two chambers, or the rotating ones. Problem was?" He looked back to Sinistea, cup-shaped. He was frowning, frustrated. "None of them worked."
Poppy looked to Linh. He considered what he knew. "Doesn't it need the ant—"
"The antique teapots? Yes, we tried those. Replicating the design and purchasing them! Neither kind worked." There was a tone of bitterness with his words.
Linh nodded slowly. Sinistea normally evolved using two different teapots, depending on whether the cup they possessed were authentic or replica antiques. A chipped or cracked pot. But, if neither worked...
Perhaps it was to do with the age? NO, that would have meant that the purchased ones should have worked. Or manufacturer. Or perhaps emotions. Linh mulled it over, turning back to the stool-table where their Pokémon played.
The Pokémon were making a small fuss, half celebrating, half not. One of the clay clumps that was inside the bounding-ring was knocked outside it. Rolling off of the table as if it was hit by something. The other clay clump seemed almost triumphant, with how it was placed and shaped. It almost looked like it had stag beetle horns.
Florian spoke, Poppy nodding at every point. "... So, eventually we decided to see if how Sinistea obtained the teapot would change anything. The attempt both of you walked in on was us seeing if fighting for the teapot would do anything. Next time, we'll see if fighting with another Pokémon instead of these old bones would work."
"I have an idea," Linh interrupted. "Have you tried involving Sinistea in the process?"
Florian stopped, "Tell me more?"
"Well. I'm thinking it could be about the maker of the teapot, or the emotions put in. If the hand that makes the teapot needs to be the one that makes the teacup, or if the teapot needs to be made with enough want."
Florian's hand fell into his lap, he looked a bit hurt. "You don't think I put in enough effort?"
"No! No. Not what I meant." Linh paused. "It's just. Pokémon are so much more freer with their emotions. And it makes sense that if a Sinistea makes a teapot, that teapot is what will let them evolve."
Florian sat there in silence, thinking.
Linh looked away, uncomfortable with his gaffe. Poppy hummed, kicking her legs.
"Alright." Florian said, finally. "We'll try this. But you're making the teapot with Sinistea."
Pottery isn't a single day event—it needs time for the clay to change. To dry out. First, it is wetted to better shape. Then it is left to dry to leather-hard, until it can be easily scraped and trimmed down to the final shape. Then it is left to dry even further, so there is less moisture, so it doesn't get damaged in the oven.
Linh received a text from his phone, so he asked Poppy if she wanted to go with him back to the workshop, or continue to watch her show on the TV in the Pokécentre.
She wanted to see Sinistea again, so they went together. At the workshop, in the window by the front door, Sinistea watched them approach. Then, as Linh knocked on the door, it phased through the glass and spun around Linh. Poking him, occasionally, with its liquid tongue. It circled him precisely like a pet smelling an open treat packet in a pocket.
"Yes, fine. I have the goods," Linh huffed, and he shook a small plastic bag. Loose flower petals squishing together. He raised a fistful and Sinistea stopped, vibrating in anticipation underneath it.
Linh showered a fistful of those petals over Sinistea, soaking and corroding into their tea. As he did, he felt the slightest tiredness—life force given willingly. Sinistea cheered, and then floated around him, towards Poppy.
"Only wanting me for my soul, I see how it is."
"I'm sure it's a nice soul," Poppy said off-handedly. She was distracted with poking back at Sinistea.
Linh sighed, then he took another fistful of petals, and dropped it over his shadow. The shadow ate the petals, greedily. Even peeling up to reach them faster.
The door opened, it was Florian. "Ah, Linh! Good to see you so promptly. Come in."
Linh smiled, "The pot's ready?"
"Just firing it is left—and I thought you would like to see the process."
"That I do—lead the way." He scraped his shoes on the front mat, and followed Florian into the workshop—towards the table that he used to let the earthenware dry.
There, on the table, was the teapot he made. White ceramic clay, glazed whiter. Stout and bulging in the middle, although the peak of the curve was slightly below the mid-point. A sign of Linh's inexperience. The spout started at the bottom and curled up, hugging the body until the top, where it daintily turned away. The handle stuck out, instead of curling down into a 'C'.
Linh crouched down, a finger lightly tracing the teapot. The surface felt grainy—powdery. The glaze not yet vitrified into that glossy sheen pottery has.
"Ay," Florian's hand snapped out, and slapped the finger away, "Don't scratch off the glaze."
"Yeah, yeah... So," Linh looked over to the side of the table—sitting on a chair was a bowl stained purple. "Never managed to work the tea out, did you?"
Florian shifted to stand pointedly in the way. "It's nothing." 'It' is the bowl they used while shaping the clay, Sinistea's tea poured in to wet the hand and the clay. "Bowl's are easy to replace—not like a good table." He gave a sharp-pointed glance at the table. Rather, the gouges in it.
Linh winced, those were cuts formed by carefully aligned Magical Leaf. Sinistea's, to cut the clay into the right portion. "Or a wheel." Both men winced.
He was, of course, referring to the potters wheel. The basin around it had chips and cracks, from when Sinistea's Stored Power skidded off of the clay, instead of trimming shavings off it.
Linh redirected, "Just ready to fire, now?" He looked to the oven. Thick, gas-fed, sitting on four legs, with the fuel tanks sitting underneath. "What are we waiting for?"
"You, but also. Sinistea—where'd he go?" Florian looked around, and then walked away. Linh followed.
They found Sinistea in another room, watching Poppy as she gesticulated. "—And this was where I met Sparky!" She bounced on the stained-couch, waving the phone around. "My Magnezone, found them when I went to Zapapico, again, again! They really liked being strong, and kept on pushing until they're one of my Elite!"
"Was this on your first or second Journey?" Linh walked into the room. "Also, hey again."
Poppy turned, hops in her seat as she shifted. "This was my second—the only Pokémon who wanted to stay Elite. Everyone else wanted to stay at home."
Florian spoke up, "Well. We're going to fire the oven up now, do you want to watch us?"
"Yeah—do you want to watch us set the teapot on fire?"
Poppy and Sinistea shared a look, and then ran over eagerly. Like mines, children yearn for fire.
The oven door swung open, and Florian started stacking pottery within, cups and lids and vases, carefully placed from back to front.
"Hand me a board?" Florian pointed to some thin slats stacked by the cups-not-yet-packed. "Open space is an absolute waste. Although you shouldn't let any of them touch each other. The glaze will melt and they'll stick together."
Florian placed four small pillars in the corners of the over, and a board overtop. More earthenware, and the teapot (Carefully tipped over to pour out a giggling Sinistea-cup), were placed there. Taller ones, about the same height as the teapot. Four more, longer, pillars, at the corners, and Florian steadily built up.
"Please don't touch the valves on the tanks," He said to Poppy.
"Okay."
Florian then put on each shelf, a small clay thing, bar-shaped,
with many cones sticking out of the top. "These are our monitors, each cone melts and sags at a different heat. So we can keep track of how the firing goes. For this type of clay, I prefer to cut the heat at about seven cones."
The oven door swung shot easily, once Linh was moved back and out of its arc.
(And Poppy, but she had the good sense to move back before Florian could get to her.)
Florian then bent down and turned the valve—and the oven turned on, hissing. He gestured to the door—where several corks where embedded in it. "Check through there to see if the fires reaching up, will you?"
The corks were plugs for the viewing ports, Linh twisted one out and peered inside. "... Yep. Fire. See the cones as well."
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"Great. Now. We'll check the cones every hour, but beyond that it's just waiting. Normally I'd do something else, but," Florian looked towards Sinistea.
So they waited. Poppy with impatience, and Florian with the patience of a fisherman. Linh pulled Casket out of his shadow, and started brushing her down—and time passed.
About two hours in, with legs kicking, Poppy frowned, she stood up from her chair, and spoke, "I'm going to go find Sinistea," she announced. Walking away with shoulders square.
They watched her go into the other room, then leave and go outside, then go back in. "Sinistea is missing." She set her hands on her hips.
Linh and Florian shared a look, before Florian stood up and power-walked out of the room. Linh leaned back and thought to the last time he saw Sinistea—inside the teapot. 'Poured' out, naturally. But...
He walked a circle around the oven, checking each side. Then he got a stool so he could see the top—there, a patch of oven roof without dust. He lifted up Casket and placed her by the dustless patch. She sniffed it, then barked to Linh, confirming.
As Florian returned to the room, concerned, he saw Linh peeking into the oven, tapping his fingers against his thigh in concern.
"Hey, Florian. We have a problem." Linh stood up and gestured to the viewing port.
Florian peered through the port hole. Through the red-orange glow, Sinistea's handle poked through the teapot's hole. A liquid hand extended up. It waved.
"Well then." Florian. He put the cork back in. "That's probably fine."
"Your ghost is inside the oven. There is fire," Linh pointed out. "Open the oven?" he asked. He looked to Poppy incredulously that he needed to state that.
Florian's face pinched, pained. "But... Gas prices."
"So?" A hand raised up, Linh gesturing towards the air.
Poppy ignored them as they dithered, she took the stool and stepped up it. She pressed her ear against the oven door. "... Hey! I hear laughter!"
Linh and Florian pressed against the oven door, and she was right! There, above the hissing and roaring of the fire, so strong and hot that it could push out of any open port holes, was laughter. Bubbling, ghostly, laughter. Neither boiling nor vaporising.
Florian exhaled, rubbing a hand down his face. "I knew Sinistea was fine."
"No, you didn't," Linh accused.
Florian ignored him. "Besides, opening the oven now will ruin the whole batch."
Linh made some incredulous noises, his hand slowly reached towards the oven's latch. But Florian slapped it away, scowling.
Linh stared wide-eyed. Before scowling himself, picking up Casket, and walking away. "I'm going to go cuddle my dog until something happens," he announced.
Florian called out to his back, "Besides—Sinistea can go through stuff! He'll be able to leave anytime!"
Linh did not dignify that with an I knew that. Or any muffled grumbles. He sat in the corner with his dog hugged to his chest.
More time passed, Florian checked every half hour. Worry masked by checking the cones.
"... Seventh cone's sagging. It's about done." Florian remarked, he turned the valves again and turned the oven off. Then he turned to Poppy and Linh as they got up to approach, "—Hold on now. We need to wait for it to cool first. Can't open the oven yet!"
Poppy sagged, and Linh snorted.
Yet, as they turned back around, a strange noise came from the oven. Not the hiss of gas or the roar of fire. But the splashing of water—liquid.
Silence and confusion, turning towards the oven. It shifted forwards, then back. Forwards, then back. The splish splash came again—with the notes of fullsome laughter. Florian opened his mouth to speak when something phased through the oven.
Something spherical. Wide and stout. With a spout and a handle. Cracks and chips and missing patches of ceramic outright. And inside the teapot, liquid. Tea, black-leaning-purple. That flowed and spun as the teapot floated out. The tealid popping up as a slime-like ghost popped up. Great big swirling eyes and a small smile, and two small arms pushing out of the tea-body. One hand braced on the teapot's rim, and the other doffed the lid like a hat.
Sinistea has evolved. Polteageist has left the oven.
Jubilation marked Florian and Polteageist—Florian laughed so strong that his wiry hands shook, the barest hints of jowls jiggling. Polteageist danced wildly in the air, swishing side to side like a ballroom waltz. Tea sloshed inside the teapot, a glugging echoing out of its spout.
Florian pulled Polteageist into a hug, and patted its back harshly. "You evolved! I knew you could!"
"Congratulations," said Linh, standing back.
"Congratulations!" Poppy cheered. "What can you do now! Show us! Show us!"
"Yes Polteageist, show us your moves!" Florian cheered, pulling it in front of him so he could stare proudly.
Polteageist giggled, the tealid tilting on its head. Then it clapped its little hands together and the liquid making them up flash-boiled. A thick steam exploded out from Polteageist, engulfing Florian and advancing alarmingly quick towards Poppy and Linh.
Poppy grinned as it surrounded her, Linh stumbled back, shoes catching on the leg of his chair and he fell—
—bit down on a berry. Linh blinked, then looked down.
He was sitting at a table. A table with a hole in the centre for a parasol. There were plates and teacups set before him, before Poppy, and before Florian.
Polteageist was floating above them, and pouring out its possessed tea into his cup.
"Teatime, is this?" Florian asked. Polteageist preened. "Brilliant!" he whooped. "What about your Moves, are they stronger? Hey." Florian picked up his plate, the berries and cookies—melting like illusions—tumbling off. "Shoot this down!" Florian tossed the plate.
Polteageist giggled, and slammed its hands against its teapot. The teapot shook back, and rumbled like the liquid inside was boiling. Before, phasing through the ceramic like a ghost, a great big Shadow Ball ripped out.
It sunk into the plate and knocked it off course, throwing the plate harder into the ground until it shattered. Polteageist cheered, and so did Florian.
Then Florian, grinning like a child, snatched up Linh's plate. And before he could react, tossed it out again, like a skeet target. "Use Stored Power!"
Polteageist giggled, tracking the plate like a hawk. And then it flung its hand out, a pink-purple glowing light floating out.
The orb shot forwards like a hummingbird, flying low and then behind and above. Circling around the falling plate, a feat of dexterity. Before it collided with the plate, and shattered it with telekinetic force. Again, shards fell onto the floor.
Florian reached for Poppy's plate, thanked her when she handed it over, and then threw it as well. "Use Magical Leaf!"
Polteageist shook itself, up and down and up and down. Heavy sloshing and splashing, as tea dripped from the cracks in beads. Polteageist seemed to then reach into itself, amorphous hand reaching into amorphous body. And then it flung out what it grabbed—wilted clumps of tea leaves. Tea leaves that soared and curved into the plate. Smacking into it and cracking it apart. A third plates-worth of broken shards hit the floor.
Linh noted that the plate shards remained, while the table and the snacks and the cups were hazy at the edges.
"... Were those your plates?" Linh asked. Florian opened his mouth and made a noise, his eyes darted to the shelves on the wall, where multiple racks stood depleted. De-plated.
"Ah, well." Florian frowned, then sighed. "It's fine, they're all defects."
Linh doubted him. Poppy doubted him. Polteageist merrily rocked side to side.
"Sooooo." Florian faced Polteageist. "You've evolved! That's great. What are you going to do now?"
Polteageist looked confused.
"I mean. You've evolved! You came to me for that, and you've gotten it. So. Now what?" he asked.
Polteageist thought, popping down into the teapot, lid clacking on top. Whistling sounds came from it, steam seeping through the cracks and the holes. Before Polteageist popped back out. It pressed it’s hands against the teapot, and the lacey looping patterns shifted. Telling a story in pictograms.
Florian and Polteageist, hand in hand, skipping across a green grassy hill, revolving in place.
Polteageist against some foe, the heat of battle drawn literally. By Shadow Ball and Stored Power, the ever-shifting Pokémon scribble defeated.
Polteageist and Florian, sitting around a campsite. A meal outdoors, and far from civilisation.
A childish image, but it was clear what Polteageist wanted. A Trainer to do battle with. Explore the world. Journey. Florian frowned at the sight.
"Ah," he said, with a note of nostalgia. "Heh. A Journey? Well. Polteageist. That'd be a sight. But..."
Polteageist leaned in.
"But I'm just an old man now, and those days are behind me! No. I'm quite content with just staying here."
Polteageist wilted.
"That—that doesn't mean you can't—Linh!" Florian rounded on Linh, and he reared back in surprise. "You're journeying, aren't you? Queer at your age, but you are. Aren't you?"
Linh nodded, finger raised, questioning.
"So that means you can take Polteageist in! It's only fair, you're the one who came up with the idea—Polteageist evolved because of you. So. Why don't you take him in?"
Linh lowered his finger, then looked between hopeful Polteagiest, slightly manic Florian, and quietly watching Poppy. "... I think it's Polteageists choice first."
They faced Polteageist, hovering there. Polteageist stared inscrutably at Linh, before coming to a decision. It approached Florian and...
... hugged him. Liquid arms expanding from shoulder to shoulder. Florian hugged it back.
Before Polteageist floated, smiling, towards Linh. A choice made.
"I see." Florian grinned. "Take care of Polteageist, will you, Linh?"
Linh nodded, then reached into his shadow, and passed Casket over to Polteageist—a greeting made again. "Naturally."
"And you better bring Polteageist back! I want to hear about his adventures!"
Linh nodded, lips twitching. "I can do that."
"Good!" Florian harrumphed. Then he stood up, "Well. I better go find his Pokéball—won't take a moment."
When Florian came back, he found Linh and Poppy waiting by the workshops exit. Polteageist explaining something animatedly to their Pokémon, through liquid shaking and tea swirling.
"Hey." He tossed the Pokéball, faded and warm, towards Linh. "Heading out now?"
Poppy grinned, "Yeah!" Linh nodded again.
"Well. Jus' let me say my last goodbyes to Polteageist, okay?"
They had no issues with that. And Florian pulled Polteageist close again, "This is goodbye, I suppose. And a see you later, if I have anything to say about that. But, before you go. I'd like to give you one last gift. Okay?"
Polteageist nodded, smile soft and a little sad.
"A name. To remember me by. When you're out there, in the big world outside this tiny village. Show off your new teapot out there. I know you can do whatever you want—
"—Kaolin."