"Attention, attention!" Isabelle climbed up on top of a chair and held up her clipboard. "I call this meeting to order!"

Roxy gave a lazy salute and a wink. "Totes here. Not possibly not here. And at order, whatever that means."

"I am not certain of your meaning either, mademoiselle," Sycamore said. "Ah, but yes, I am listening, Isabelle!"

"Don't sweat it." Roxy shrugged. "Give us the word, dogmom! What'd the therapist call us in for?"

"I hope there is something to eat," piped up Pooh, who was sitting propped up on a box on top of a chair.

Isabelle startled, but only a little. "O-oh, yes! Well, you see, Mr. Waruatama decided that it would be a good idea for us to have more group therapy outside of our usual circles, and based on what we've reported, he grouped us up based on... something like compatible personality types? Oh, and Mr. Bear was invited too--"

"Hello," Pooh said with a wave.

"--yes, hello! Because Mr. Speedwagon had an accident with the wormhole machine and brought him and his friends in."

"I must say, it is fascinating!" Sycamore gave one of his bright smiles. "Not that we have all been in those horrible games, of course, that is dreadful, but that we have managed to overcome them! Ah, Monsieur Bear, was it, or Monsieur the Pooh?"

Pooh gave a lilting laugh and a shrug. "I suppose it doesn't matter what a person, or bear, is called. My friend Donnie is not actually named Donnie, but that is the name on the little tag he has on his suit, so that is what they call him. He's in the meeting down the hall and he is brown and has a blue suit and his hair is like yarn, but he is not made of stuff and fluff like I am."

"Yarn dreads. Got it." Roxy snapped her fingers. "So, Izzy, heard you know my time-travel alternate-universe dad-kid. What's up with him?"

Isabelle wagged her tail. "Oh! You must mean Dave!" Rule of paw: if something sounded like it would take way too long to explain and leave her even more confused than she was to begin with, it was probably related to Dave. "He's doing fine. Professor, have you seen him lately? He did move to your world, after all."

"Ah, oui!" Sycamore practically sparkled in the 'this is a man who made a living out of talking about his world' way. "He and his friends have been doing very well on their journey! Once they're done seeing the beautiful sights of Kalos, they have asked me to assist in finding them a place to live. Just some land and a nice building to fix up into an establishment for travellers to rest! He personally thanked me just the other day for the Munna I had brought over from overseas -- if any of you are in need of a sleep aid..."

"Props, Professor," Roxy said, giving a thumbs up. "Glad to know someone's looking out for them. You too, dogmom. You kinda remind me of the little chess piece dudes who raised me. Only, you know, not all hard and shiny."

"Is a living chess set like a living toy?" Pooh asked. "You see, I haven't heard of many worlds that are like my book, and it gets just a tiny bit lonely when you are the only one like yourself, even if, in other ways, you are not."

Isabelle leaned over the table to rest a paw on his fluffy arm. "I understand that, too. I was the only animal in my class, and all of them had such sad stories, while I just lived an ordinary life and couldn't understand why their lives were so unfair to them."

Sycamore hesitated and gave a sigh. Honesty and forthrightness, right? "I came to a discovery myself, near the end of my game, that I was not unlike Isabelle. That is, the others had been gathered for a purpose and I was an odd one out. It was a shock, to say the least. I feared that I was not part of the group. But to them, they said, it changed nothing. That bunker, that school had changed all of us from who we were, so our origins, they did not matter so much."

"The people from my world on the murderbeach weren't even from my actual world," Roxy shared, "and they didn't remember me, either. Weird time shenanigans. Not as fun as it sounds."

Isabelle gave sympathetic whimpers at the others' stories. She looked back at Pooh and managed an encouraging smile. "See? We were all different, but even though we felt alone, we helped keep everybody together. So we weren't alone after all!"

Pooh thought for a moment. "I suppose it was like that for me as well! Everybody was very nice, and I made many friends. We had many adventures, although some were very sad. In the end, everything was fixed, though. They also had a lot of honey. Do you have the kind in the bear jar?"

"Nah, it's pretty much a bear-free zone in here 'cept for Henri." Roxy shrugged. "We got the real stuff, though. And some chocolate-flavoured stuff Anna brought in by the truckload since some farmer owed her a favour."

"Oh, that sounds wonderful!" Pooh clapped his stuffed paws. "Do you think that perhaps we could take a tiny break to eat lunch or a light afternoon snack?"

"I do not see why not!" Sycamore said, rising up from the table. "That is, if Isabelle is quite all right with the situation!"

Isabelle picked up her clipboard and gave a radiant smile. "I'll pencil it in right away!"