Building Snowmen with Pokémon Always Ends in a Snowball Fight (Monthly Votes, Please)

After a full day of heavy snowfall, the snow blanketing the Manor had grown another layer thicker. Many fruit-tree branches and vegetables in the plots had buckled completely beneath its weight.

Early that morning, Mingyou had, for once, woken not of his own accord but from the cold. The Villa's round-the-clock heating had gotten him used to sleeping under only a thin summer quilt, and the sudden drop in temperature that morning left him thoroughly uncomfortable.

"So cold..."

Mingyou sat groggily on his bed, wearing a rather cute pair of fluffy Eevee pajamas he had bought on sale during the cold spell a while back.

After taking a moment to recover, he checked the time: 6:35 a.m. It was still dark outside, and his room was so dim he could barely make anything out.

He gently draped his summer quilt over Ogerpon, who was still asleep on her side on a Magikarp cushion beside him, without waking her.

Then he felt for the switch beside the bed and flicked it back and forth twice, but nothing in the room responded.

"A power outage, just as I thought..."

Mingyou helplessly patted his forehead, then got up and threw on a padded coat to check what had happened. Losing power in the middle of winter was no joke.

When he reached the second-floor hallway, it was still fairly warm outside his room, which meant the power hadn't been out for long...

Without disturbing the other Pokémon in the Villa, he made a circuit of the backyard, then quickly returned indoors, shut the door, and prepared to change his clothes.

"Cold, cold..."

He blew warm air onto his hands. Just as he was about to open his bedroom door, the door to the neighboring room quietly opened, perhaps because his returning footsteps had