Pokitasia [Talent Show 2016 R3 - SM - Smart]

SUPER TALENTED EVERYDAY.

Those were the words that resounded from the dining room as Kouki read the scroll for his sister’s challenge this round. A tea tray and five bowls of soup descended around the table in front of him as he did so. Yae’s eyes went wide like the saucers that would soon accompany the meal. Ooooh, so for this challenge, she needed to show how she acted smart every day? Or maybe she needed to find smart ways to do her job? HMM. She used Psychic in the mornings as part of her daily chores when she multitasked to get things done faster, like right now! It really helped when you had a dozen dishes to prepare every day. As for her occupation, Yae generally helped out whoever needed her assistance around town! She watered Yamanaka-san’s garden twice daily, walked Ushio-san’s poochyenas once per day while he worked, prepared meals for the week for Aojima-san, babysat for the Yamada family once a week—and basically cooked specialized meals for all of them, which they paid her for of course. Were there ways to do these jobs more efficiently?

Yamanaka-san’s garden flourished with special plant food concoctions that he developed himself and which Yae gleefully helped him experiment with. There was a special corner of the garden reserved for their plant experiments which grew under often times outlandish nutritional conditions. The rest of the garden was planted with what they knew already worked. It was important that each mixture was compiled carefully as Yamanaka-san’s garden was the pride of his life and his neighborhood to whom he distributed some of the fruits of his labor.

Ushio-san’s mischievous poochyenas were difficult to keep up with and troublesome to coax to sleep. They unabashedly played all night, as dark type Pokemon were prone to do sometimes, but also somehow managed to play all day, sleeping in brief hour-long snatches before they were up and at ‘em again. The canines were also surprisingly picky about their food and tended to gnaw on everything in sight if they were not fed properly. So for the mornings and afternoons, Yae tied back her sleeves to prepare robust meat-based foods for them to eat, and in the evening she tapered down the serving size and mixed in a harmless amount of sleep powder—just enough to calm them down so that they could play more quietly for Ushio-san to sleep.

Meals for the bulky and boisterious Aojima-san were easy. He was a builder so Yae basically cooked the same foods she would make for Kouki, except smaller in volume and less spicy. They were dishes that supported strength and energy expenditure for those long days outside. The Yamada children across the street from Aojima-san were far, far pickier about their food however. Each one had certain vegetables, fruits, or grains that they disliked, but they all shared a love of sweets. Yae had a list for each child written down in the kitchen, but even then changes had to be made sometimes when one of the kids suddenly decided that they liked or disliked something from now on.

It was a lot for her to keep up with, so luckily her brother always kept her on schedule. Even so, Yae worked hard so that she did not waste time or resources while working, relying on her abilities when needed. Sometimes she employed the help of her Pokemon friends if there was a job she could not do alone. When she had free time, the espeon liked to prepare food for those friends as well. For the past couple of weeks she put together a special mix of bird seed and dead insects for a nest of pidgeys out in the forest. The nest seemed to only have a single parent, and that parent had gotten into some kind of scrape and injured their foot and wing. It made flying near impossible, and when Yae saw the pidgeot flopping at the foot of the tree where its chicks resided, there was no way she was not going to help. The pidgeot usually helped her fish in the river, and now it was her turn to help.

In fact, there were several other Pokemon whom she kept on her radar in her adventures. For an ursaring whose teeth were infected and had to be removed, she served soft, raw fillets of river fish and mashed fruits. The ursaring in turn helped her gather honey which she used for Yamanaka-san’s gogoat, whom she fed small and chewy plant-based snacks to prevent it from hopping the fence and gnawing on the garden. The gogoat would then help her ride over to a small rapidash stable lower in the mountains. She snuck small portions of homemade feed to the rapidash there whose owner was ornery and neglectful, and who even ignored Yae’s reprimands (There was definitely a plan in the works to free the poor steeds).

Yae sighed. How could she do these things better, in addition to the chores she had at the house?

“Well, good to know we don’t have to do anything crazy for this challenge,” Kouki noted with relief upon recalling last month’s challenge. He tossed the scroll aside and picked up another which contained a missive from Samurai Headquarters.

Yae fixed him with a curious look from the kitchen. “What do you mean? I have to work ultra mega loads more to be able to show cleverness every day for the contest--!”

Kouki rolled his eyes and began skimming his missive. “I’m guessing they’ll send a representative or someone out from the contest to monitor you for a day, at most. Even if they do go hardcore and monitor you for a month for some insane reason, you’ll be fine. They only need to take one glance in there to know what they’re in for.”

He nodded at the kitchen from which floating rice bowls were coasting in. “Sure there could be some improvements like with how hellishly easy it is you get distracted, but you’ve streamlined the process enough to be proud. You help a lot of people. It’s enough, whether you win or not.”

“Onii-sama…”

“Don’t burn the stir fry.”

Yae yelped as she turned back toward the stove. The rice bowls landed on the dining table with a clatter from her sudden surprise. Some of the rice spilled, which the samurai would pluck off the table and plop into his mouth. Yup there was lots of room for improvement, but to coordinate as much as Yae did with how many ridiculous tasks she piled onto herself, it was certainly something else. She was determined, she genuinely cared, and she thought long and hard about each responsibility she had to ensure that it was completed efficiently, probably so that she could move on to more countless adventures. Yup that was his crazy, silly, too-bright-and-yet-also-not-at-the-same-time sister.

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Didn't realize this before, but I'm pretty sure Yae is like a non-perverted feudal version of Brock when it comes to her current work. I decided to focus on her cooking, but she does occasionally do various other odd jobs around the village to help supplement the household income.
Argh I'm also painfully aware of perspective issues in this, but let's just say it was too late to go back

Hope you guys enjoy and good luck to all of the contestants! I LOVE YOUR ART AND YOUR FACES

Yae © Me

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Done in Adobe Photoshop and PaintTool SAI~