There was a Pokemon GO Fest local enough that event PokeStop started to appear closer enough to where I'd usually walk around.

I was absolutely deciding to go to that.

Before that though, I ended up going to a friend's holiday party, who had a game playing on the TV screen. A number of characters shot out to the left side of the screen in a race. That one character in fighting games known for crouching, being overpowered, and I think also a family man appeared multiple times with different color variants. The one leading the race to the finish line for a slow flip in the air, while second place threw himself into a triple flip parallel to the ground and was launched straight into the finish line, winning the race.

Later, I was at the Pokemon Center store, the one at events like Worlds or Go fest. The design on most of the shirts felt underwhelming at best this year, but there was one with a colorful tapestry of iconic buildings from nearby with Mewtwo and some other Pokemon mixed in.

I decided to buy that one.

Getting in line, though, the rest of my cousins, who I went to the Pokemon Center store with, apparently had plans to cause chaos. One of the parents I would think would be responsible was the worst offender. She ended up behind the temporally abandoned counter poking around the computer and cash register. Littler ones were distracting others in the line. I watched, standing in place with a mix of exasperation, denial, and acceptance. Eventually walking out alone, I had the shirt.

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I then proceeded to go to the room I had rented together with a Pokemon go friend. It was just their kid that I was helping to watch for a bit, and I, there now though.

Event research tasks started to appear in our games and we both joined in on a Goomy raid. A couple of people in the lobby already had a new pose or two, one being a Unova elite four Caitlyn sleeping in a pink hammock or little chunk of bed.

It was a MONSTER of a Goomy-

20 people in the lobby, most of us high level, and the little slug-dragon was faring better than most or all legendaries would when being raided. The clock nearly ran out before the Goom went down.

Shortly after, I encountered a regional form of Corphish whose spikes were more numerous and had dark black tips. Upon encountering said Corphish, a bright stylized logo flashed on the screen for a split second before the Pokemon go encounter with the new Corphish form allowed me to attempt to throw a ball at the not just pure water, but dark/water unevolved crayfish.

After that, the two of us in the room talked about potentially trading in the main series games; what was stopped with the kid mentioning that some mons are most definitely hacked, and some of those even corrupted his game bad enough to need to restart it. I then looked at some of my boxes. I had a team of Pokemon close to the level cap, and some off to the side approaching the main team in level.