CH85 (215), A Busy First Week

*Ring, ring, ring*

I woke with a start at the sound of my alarm and swiftly deactivated it. A quick look at the time told me that it was 6 a.m. Before I went to sleep, I set an alarm that would ring every 3 hours, since I planned to dutifully check out the egg every 3 hours.

The reason I did this was to make sure the paste and items placed around the egg had no adverse effect on it. While Utopia had a slow-healing effect that would help if the paste was a bit too potent, or the energy intake was too much, a late reaction would be detrimental to the development of the Salandit.

If it was too potent, then even Utopia's healing would be useless and the Salandit would be damaged. Moreover, it was possible that the long-term exposure to a seemingly optimal paste could accumulate any surplus energy that could not be digested in time resulting in a poison/fire/energy overdose or shock.

The same was possible if the energy intake from the outside was too much and the digestion could not keep up. That was something I wanted to avoid at all costs, hence the periodic check-up.

My decision proved to be a wise one since I noticed just now during the check-up that my lesser paste still turned out to be a bit too potent. I saw that the energy had started to accumulate and that Salandit was starting to feel uncomfortable.

Well, the paste itself was alright but combined with the slow absorption of poison and fire energy from the outside it became a bit too much. I made sure to clean up the egg before going back to my workshop to make enough paste of a slightly lower potency for three days.

I would create more later on but for now, I wanted to sleep some more. As for the old paste, that one could be used in a month or two. As soon as the paste was ready I applied it even to the egg's surface.

A look at my watch told me that it was 6:30 a.m, so I set my alarm to 9:30 a.m to adjust to the change of paste. I left Utopia and laid back down on my bed and as soon as I put my head on my pillow my lights went out.

*Ring, ring, ring*

I once more woke up with a start and could not help but curse a bit. It felt as if I had just gone to sleep, but a look at the alarm showed that it was indeed 9:30 a.m, so I put the alarm to rest and entered Utopia for the second check-up.

Unlike the last two times when everyone was asleep, this time around they were awake, so they began to crowd me as soon as I appeared inside Utopia. Horus/Xatu and Mothra/Butterfree were at the forefront of the mob.

They had noticed the new addition and asked me to show them the newbie. I had told them we were going to get an egg that would join us, and they were all curious about what it looked like.

I did not have it in me to tell them no, especially not to Mothra when she looked at me with her big glistening eyes full of hope and curiosity, so I went inside the nesting area and brought out the egg.

Since it was currently covered with the reddish-purple paste not much could be made out of its original look. I began to wash off the paste before taking the egg-care products and rubbing them on the egg with a cloth.

I finished the process with a nice polishing, before properly presenting it to everyone. They had been watching me the whole time and exclaimed in marvel since most of them had only seen Growlithes egg while others saw an egg for the first time, and a few had seen Nyx/Umbreon's Eevee egg.

The water Pokemon were much more experienced in that regard since they had seen quite a few Magikarp eggs, but they still looked at the egg curiously since the coloration and pattern were different compared to that of Magikarp eggs.

They wanted to know what it would look like after it hatched, and instead of showing them a picture or video from the web, I pulled out some of the colored sand I had in store for my telekinesis training.

I then used the black, gray, purple, and red sand to form a Salandit. I focused on the black and gray ones first to form the body outline, before using part of the purple pile for the eyes and part of the red mound for the tail.

I ended up with a sand Salandit that looked pretty much like a real-life one. I even tried to make it move, but that was much harder than just manipulating the multiple piles. It was a nice exercise method, so I decided to do this more often.

Everyone cried out in elation before they began requesting that I made a sand sculpture of them as well. I had to promise them that I would do one for all of them over time, but due to time constraints, I could only do so for three right now.

They discussed among themselves and Horus, Osiris/Marowak, as well as Enji/Growlithe were the ones to get the first turn, so I pulled out quite a few piles of sand in their color.

I had to do them one by one, and they were not as big as the original, a bit more than 1 meter in height, but everyone was thrilled nonetheless. I asked Horus which pose he liked the most before making the sculpture assume that position.

Horus wanted one with his head tilted to the sky and one of the wings pointing up while the other was beside the body. I put as much pressure on the sculpture as possible to compact it and make it hard, before spraying it with some of the clear glue I had in store.

Then I asked Ignis/Gyarados to use a really low-powered Heat Wave to dry the glue before polishing it a bit to make sure it was perfectly transparent. The result was a nice Xatu sculpture in Horus's favorite pose that I then gifted him.

I could have tried turning the sand into glass, but honestly, I had not tried that before and I did not want to try my luck. I might come back to glassmaking someday in the future, but for now, clear glue had to do.

I repeated the process for Osiris and Enji as well. Osiris wanted one where he was in a battle-ready position with his bone club in a mid-swing position. Enji had one that was in a sitting position with a happy look on his face.

Taking a look at my watch I saw that nearly an hour had passed, which meant that my parents could wake up anytime now. So, I told everyone that I had to focus on the egg now, before sending them off to their own places to eat their breakfast.

Afterward, I brought the egg back to its nesting area and began doing my check-up. This time there were no problems with the egg, or rather the Salandit inside the egg. It was not easy to categorize the feeling it gave off, but if I had to do so, I would associate it with contentment.

I also noted that there was no accumulation of excessive energy, so it seemed I had managed to match his maximum digestion speed or came close enough to it.

After I was done with the check-up, I applied a new layer of paste before leaving Utopia. I decided to go to the workshop first thing tomorrow after my parents left, and create more of the paste for the egg.

I'd make enough for at least a month. I would need to see if I could increase the potency of the paste after that before making some more. Now, however, I had no time for that, since my mom could call out to me at any moment.

I promptly set my alarm to 1:30 p.m and began to set up an incubation area in the corner of my room to place the egg during the day while my parents were around. I was nearly done by the time I heard my mom calling out to me.

"I'm up!" I shouted, before adding "I'll be down in a few minutes." After that, I finished the area set up, before moving the egg there. A super-swift cloth change later I went downstairs.

I saw dad lounging in the living room watching some morning news, while mom was in the kitchen, so I gave him a morning greeting before I entered the kitchen to help mom with breakfast. She gave me a hug when she saw me, which I naturally returned.

After breakfast, we went out to the garden where I released my Pokemon. The majority of mom and dad's Pokemon were already there since most of them preferred to sleep there instead of staying inside their Pokeballs.

Weavile, Aomi/Lapras, Kaiyo/Lapras, Cell/Magnezone, and Vibra/Rhydon were the exceptions. They preferred to stay inside their Pokeballs, which I could understand, I had made them after all, and they were pretty good if I had to say to myself.

Anyway, mom and dad let them out as well, and as soon as everyone began to mingle my Pokemon began to brag about the sand sculptures I was making for them.

That ended up with them crowding me, asking to see the sculptures. Mom and dad became curious as well, and I had no choice and to go to my room and bring over my bag of holding.

I then acted as if I was using the bag to take out the three sand sculptures I made. Mom, dad, and their Pokemon were all very impressed, so after putting the sculptures away I had to make some for them as well.

I spent the next two hours making 5 sculptures before my alarm went off alerting me that I had to check up on my egg. I told my parents that I had to check up on the egg before I went to my room.

They went inside as well to prepare some sandwiches for lunch. After I made sure everything was alright with my egg, I went to the kitchen to help them with the sandwiches.

We made enough for everyone, which with the amount of Pokemon we had in total was quite a lot. So, by the time we were done we directly decided to start lunch.

We placed the sandwiches on 4 large plates and brought them outside. Everyone was able to choose any sandwich they wanted from the four piles, so the next 30 minutes were dominated by chewing and idle conversations.

Once we were done with lunch I was crowded once more and was gently persuaded to make some more sculptures. So, I spent another two hours making 5 more sculptures before declaring that I was too tired to make more. I promised them I would make the rest when they would come back home on Dialday.

After that, we went back inside, and just as I was about to sit down on the sofa my alarm ran once more, causing me to pause mid-air. I told my parents to choose a movie and went upstairs for the routine check.

When I came back down they told me they had pre-ordered pizza for dinner, and that it would arrive by the time the movie was over. The movie they chose was not bad. It played during ancient times and showed a man captured by a neighboring region during some skirmishes.

He was forced to fight as a gladiator and bonded with some of the Pokemon he had to fight against and escaped with their help returning to his home. The movie ends there, but with how open the ending was I was sure a second part was in planning.

A few minutes after the movie ended the doorbell rang and our pizzas arrived. I went out and distributed everyone's food before going back inside. We started another movie, a comedy this time, and ate while watching the film.

In the middle of the movie, my alarm went off again so we had to pause the film while I went up to check up on the egg for a moment. My parents praised my dedication after I came back down, and we resumed watching the movie.

Once the movie ended I went outside to recall my Pokemon and mom, as well as dad, did the same for those that preferred their balls. Once I was inside my room I locked the door, and placed everyone, egg included, inside Utopia. I followed inside and wished everyone a good night.

I then went to my workshop to make some paste while waiting for the alarm to go off, which it did roughly 30 minutes later. After that check-up, I went to sleep for 3 hours before the next alarm went off.

Once morning came around, my parents and I had breakfast together before they left to do some missions till Dialday. I began my morning training routine with my Pokemon before I made three more sculptures for them as promised. Everyone used that time to relax and unwind.

We did some light exercises afterward, before stopping for lunch. Afterward, we played some games for a few hours, before I made another 3 sculptures. Still, while I was making the sculptures everyone was working on their moves.

We had dinner after that and spent the rest of the evening relaxing. Obviously, I went to check up on the egg every three hours, but nothing had come up until now.

Mewday went nearly the same with training, me making 6 sculptures in total, checking up on the egg every three hours, and some games as well as relaxing.

By the end of the day, I decided to increase the check-up interval to every 4 hours, which I increased once more by the end of Palkiday to once every 5 hours once it became clear that there seemed to be no negative energy accumulation.

I also managed to finish most of the sculptures by the end of Palkiday, only the water group was left, but that was because I had to order some glue that was especially water and ice resistant so that they could place their statues inside their habitat.

The glue had only arrived a few hours before dinner today, and since my parents were going to come back tomorrow, I told them I would start their sculptures on Arcday.

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