Pride had been fun. Spike and Mezi had had fun playing games, and that made Ai happy too. They'd won all sorts of cool prizes; not only some cool items (She'd even managed to land a moon stone, which Mezi could potentially use in the future), but Pokemon as well. she'd won a Pansage, who seemed like he might be an okay little fellow. Spike liked having a fellow grass type around, but the jury was still out whether Ai would be thrilled with him or not. Only time could tell, after all. If that had been it, Ai would still have been relatively happy with her experiences at the festival. Of course, fate could never truly work out that way. In addition to the Pansage, she had, very unfortunately, won a Scatterbug as well. She hadn't let him out of his ball after causing a big scene trying to cart him away, and she intended to keep it that way. She'd already made blog posts about the Pansage (whom she tentatively named Maurice), but there was not a picture or word about the Scatterbug. She couldn't even bring herself to give him a name, because that meant she'd have to think about him which she really, really did not want to do. She'd also won a mystery egg, which tormented her now because what if it hatched into another creepy, crawly disgusting insect? 

She'd returned everyone else to their Pokeballs while she'd tried to cool off, and now she wasn't sure what to do. She could let them all out, and let her know she was planning to get rid of the worm. Maybe not Anna, because the Snubbull already had trust issues. If she knew Ai was so eager to get rid of one of her Pokemon, she was likely to make them worse. Then again, even if she didn't tell them now Spike and Mezi already knew about it. Anna would get suspicious when they asked questions. Besides, Spike probably wouldn't be happy with her if he knew she was deliberately trying to get rid of Scatterbug. Perhaps it was best to wait to talk, make up a grandiose story about how Scatterbug got lost forever and wouldn't be coming home. She found a nice spot on the side of a large, frequented path and sat down on the side, deciding the spot would be as good as any.

Unfortunately, she realized, she'd have to let him back out if she planned to get rid of him. The customers would need a sample of the goods. If she was lucky, he had a good personality that would be desirable, and get him out of her hair as soon as humanly possible. She had some loose paper in her bag which she used to make alternate faces for her masks, and she pulled out a thick marker as she wrote Scatterbug: For Sale in big letters across the sheet. She fished around through the Pokeballs again until she shudderd, picking up the accursed insect's ball. She held her breath, tapping the button and watching as the little caterpillar appeared in a flash of light before her. It took every ounce of self control in her not to just ditch him and run right then and there. He looked up at her, and she caught the scream in her throat before she could let it out. She coughed, trying to maintain some semblance of normalcy so he wouldn't suspect her plan.

"H-H-Hey. Sorry if I scared you before, screaming like that," she started, hoping if she got on the monstrosity's good side he'd be more willing to go along with her, "T-There was, uh, something kind of scary back there so I high-tailed you out of there." High-tailed? That wasn't normally something she'd say. Hopefully the bug would buy her sorry excuse. His big eyes regarded her for a moment and she was afraid the cat was already out of the bag, but a look of relief passed his face instead.

< Gosh, if that's the case I'm glad you saved us from whatever it was! > he said happily, and Ai's face fell for just a moment before she brought her too-forced smile back. Scatterbug didn't sense that it was fake at all. Of course. He's an idiot. This'll make it easy to trick him, but it might make him a hard sell. 

"Right! But now that we're a little better acquainted, I'm going to ask you to help me with something, okay?" Ai asked, and Scatterbug looked quite happy to comply. "I'm going to sit here behind you, and I need you to look as....cute as possible. Think you can do that?" She almost vomited out the word cute, but poor naive Scatterbug didn't notice the disdain at all. He was all smiles, nodding with great enthusiasm. The awkward wiggly motion almost made Ai want to barf.

< Of course! Just you watch, I'm gonna look as cute as I can! > he said, and I motioned for him to wait a moment. She dug through her bag again, pulling out a small bag of earplugs. She liked to wear them when she slept, but she would have to risk losing a pair for this next part to work out. 

"Before we start, I'm going to give you these nifty ear plugs. There's a really loud Nidoking wandering around here, and I don't want you to have to deal with his roaring. Don't want you to get too scared after all," she said, now a little grateful that the worm was so gullible. He nodded again, a look of worry crossing his face again before smiling.

< Gee, that's awfully considerate of you! I'm so lucky, having a trainer who's so thoughtful! > he hummed, and Ai had to hold back her snort of laughter. It was a bit of a pity laugh; she almost felt sorry for the guy. 

Once she'd eventually gotten the ear plugs into his little ear holes and made sure he couldn't hear her, she stood up, wiping her hands on her skirt making a face before holding up the sign. He was really giving it his all, his big eyes showing as happy and brightly as possible to the oncoming crowd. Disgusting. Ai cupped her free hand around her mouth, hoping that would help her voice be heard amongst the crowd. "Scatterbug for sale! Scatterbug for sale! Get your new Scatterbug here! We'll accept specks and tickets here! Dirt cheap, lovable personality!" Please, she hoped, let someone be interested.