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The Legendary Awakening [RP Thread ]

Cometstarlight

What do I do now?

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Isaac Thorton and Yache
Zygarde
Courmarine City
;328;

Isaac leaned deep into the bench, more than ready to get some sleep. When was the ferry going to arrive? A quarter from now, he hoped. Getting instructions on where to go was nice. At least he had some confirmation on that...but ending up in a region so far from Kalos? He already felt a little out of his depth.

Before hearing any footsteps, Isaac felt another 'presence' approaching from the other end of the harbor. It was strange, but Isaac was already starting to get used to this extra sight or '6th sense' as it were. He sat in silence with Yache on his lap as he saw the newcomer approach. He was dressed in...pink. A surprisingly amount of pink and he was quite a bit shorter than himself. He looked young too.

Isaac glanced as the boy ran up to another sitting on the bench a few yards down. This one had a Deino and gave an aura of one who didn't want to be disturbed.

Isaac petted Yache on the head and tried to gauge the conversation based solely on this sense he was developing. It was pretty constant- the one with the Deino was more closed off while the other one seemed light and wispy. Isaac shook his head. It was almost unnerving just how quickly he was willing to accept this.

Just then there was a shift and he found himself looking over to the two guys before he heard one of them yell call out to him. Isaac looked over to see one frantically waving to him.

"Hey mister! The one with the Trapinch! You wanna come over here and join us?! There's nobody here but us!"

Mister? Did he look that old? Oh well. He shrugged his shoulders and grabbed Yache.

"Oh, is the ferry here?" Yache called in a daze.

"Nah, we're just switching seats."

He walked over to the two guys and sat down next to the one with darker hair. They both looked younger than himself, but Isaac didn't think too much about it. They were teens, they were guys, and now they were all just hanging out on the bench.

He waved one hand before settling them back on top of Yache, "Name's Isaac. Nice to meet you guys." He gave a brief smile before the silence set in. Part of him wanted to keep the quiet until someone else broke it, but, hey, why not be the one to do so?

"So," he scratched Yache's back, "I'm waiting for the ride to Unova. Where are you two head to?"
 

Dragalge

"Orange" Magical Girl
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Leslie White and Woolu
Meloetta
Nimbasa City, Unova
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Back at her house, Leslie continued to ponder on about what the Hall of Legends looked like and where its location is. Leslie had never read anything about it at school so the only thing that she was hoping before her eighteenth birthday came was to know the whereabouts of the Hall of Legends as well as hoping that it wasn't very dirty.

"I assure you that the Hall of Legends will be easy to find as well as clean as a Mincinno's tail!" Woolu said cheerfully to Leslie. "Not to mention there will be a ton of cool surprises that you will meet as well!".

"You said that there are other surprises too? Well if that's so, I just hope these "surprises" are all clean like me." Leslie said in a concerned manner.

Woolu then told her to calm herself down and sing a song to let the stress go away. After all, it did lift her backpack by accident 30 minutes earlier with her own mind. As Leslie started singing again, small musical notes flew across the room towards the wall in front of her.

"Marvelous, dear! I like the way you sing!" Woolu said as she flew around in an excited manner. Leslie then replied back saying how she was scared about the potential her powers carried. "Couldn't I potentially hurt someone with my powers, Woolu?" said Leslie. Woolu told Leslie that a couple of her powers that with proper utilization, she could not only help herself out greatly but her friends as well. With all that said, Leslie decided that she would take a walk outside along with Woolu. Upon exiting out of the door, a soft wind blew around the duo and both headed east.

"Perhaps this walk will help make me feel more comfortable. And a trip to the library wouldn't hurt either since I have an assignment due." Leslie suggested to Woolu.

"Well don't waste too much time on these books. Your birthday is in a few days and your only homework assignment is to find the Hall of Legends!" Woolu happily said to Leslie. Leslie told Woolu not to worry as she promised that she would get her homework done before she turns 18.

As both Leslie and Woolu went to the library, a joke popped into Leslie's mind regarding the Hall of Legends. "Maybe the Hall of Legends is the Musical Theater or the catwalk! After all they could be considered "halls" and my parents are legends!" Leslie said to Woolu in a joking manner.

Woolu then replied back saying "Haha that was clever! But nah, you'll find it. I know you will!". They both arrived at the library and headed inside to which they silenced themselves for the time being.
 

Hydrangea

ask me about my ocs pls
Staff member
Moderator
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Erin Atropine & Orochi | Olivia Manami & Sylvie
Nihilego | Shaymin
Castelia City, Unova -> Relic Castle

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Erin hopped off the boat, it was a fairly painless trip. She wasn't used to being on ferrys, that much was obvious from her slightly staggered walk and ill feeling in her stomach. Orochi, on the other hand; seemed to be in a brighter mood than usual. It surprised Erin that a snake of all things could actually get enjoyment being on a turbulent boat on the waves, especially considering she knew that Orochi wasn't exactly the strongest swimmer. She looked around, watching as passengers loaded out of the huge ferry when she noticed something a little... odd.

A young girl, she looked about thirteen or so was hauling herself out of the back end of the boat. Actually, she was attempting to lower herself out of one of the cargo dock windows using some sort of green rope, or, at least that's what Erin assumed she was doing. Orochi's eyes seemed drawn to the girl, she couldn't shake the feeling that the girl was important somehow. Orochi tapped Erin's arm with her tail, gesturing with her head towards the girl, almost as if to say 'we should go check this odd character out.' Erin nodded, walking slightly closer to the girl. As they approached, the girl was almost completely lowered from the window, the green ropes that the girl had been using then retracted into her hands.

Wait. What?

Erin approached the girl, coming to face her. She observed her closely, wanting to know exactly what she had just done. The girl cowered under the pressure of Erin's eyes. Worried that she had been recognised as a member of the Manami family and was going to be forcibly dragged home where she would have to face her father. She cringed at the thought. She finally spoke up, her voice shaking slightly with fear.

"Uhm..." She began. "C-can I help you?" Asked the girl, her golden brown hair shimmering behind her. Erin eyed her yet again, trying to figure out how she had done that. Slyvie, upon hearing her trainer sound slightly scared poked it's head out of her bag.

"Jeeze, what does this crazy lady want?" Asked Slyvie, causing Orochi's eyes to dart up. Erin eyed the bag too, seeing a Bounsweet's head poke out caused her to finally understand. She nodded to herself before beginning to speak, only to be interrupted by Orochi.

"Erin! Thissss girl hassss a talking Pokemon too! Sssshe musssst be one of the otherssss that the dream talked about!" Shouted Orochi, her gruff voice presented for all to hear. Erin rolled her eyes, although Orochi had said exactly what she was thinking, she probably could've put it slightly more... delicately, had Orochi actually let her speak. The girl seemed to brighten up slightly upon hearing Orochi speak.

"O-oh!" She exclaimed, "You've been having weird dreams too? Did they tell you to go to the Relic Castle? Uhm... by any chance?" Asked the girl shyly, Erin nodded, a smile brimming upon her face. She certainly would have never guessed that the delicate young looking girl in front of her was actually her age, but I guess they all can't exactly be tough like she is. The poor girl was certainly shy too, maybe she was intimidated by Erin's appearance? The brushed it off, it wasn't a huge deal.

"Yeah," Started Erin. "My eighteenth birthday is tomorrow and I've been having these super... weird dreams for a while now. There's always two voices, and they always call me Nihilego. It's super bizarre, I really don't know what to think of it." Finished Erin, giving a mild shrug. The other girl's eyes lit up in a childish and innocent sort of way.

"Oh! That's super cool! My eighteenth birthday is tomorrow too! I've been having the same dreams as well, but... they call me Shaymin in mine. It seems a little weird, I have to agree with you." She smiled, and then looked shocked for a moment. "Oh gosh! I'm sorry I've been so rude! I'm Olivia, but, you can call me Olive if you want." She flushed red for a second. "My little friend here is Sylvie, she's kind of like a sister to me." The girl smiled and Erin smiled back.

"Nice to meet you, Olive." She started, "I'm Erin, don't have any nickname, it's already pretty short. And this snake here is Orochi, she sounds pretty tough but she's kind of a pushover." Erin said with a laugh, causing Orochi to hiss at her. "Considering we're both going the same way, we may as well go together, maybe the "others" are also already there." She formed the word others with air quotes while speaking, beginning to walk towards route 4. Olivia nodded and followed suit, the two had a casual conversation about life upon their walk together.


As they approached the Desert Resort, things began to get a little less visible. Slyvie had ducked back into Olivia's bag and Orochi had clamoured up into Erin's arms. Erin knew it wouldn't be long now. All her questions would finally be answered, she would meet more of the 'others' and maybe finally learn who those two voices were that had been invading her dreams. Maybe she'd figure out who the other more sinister voice was as well, it had been clawing at her mind ever since it had happened. The two girls approached the spot the Relic Castle would be located and made their way down the stairs, spotting two other people within the spacious cave.

A girl, around their age, and a boy with bright hair taking a nap. They thought it best to leave the napping boy alone, but both approached the girl. She seemed to be waiting for something, and they hoped it was the same thing as them.

"Uhm, h-hello!" Said Olivia shyly, "What are you here for?" She asked the girl, trying to make light conversation. Erin remained silent, observing her surroundings. The atmosphere here felt... oppressive. It made her somewhat nervous as to what would come next.
 

*Jean Grey*

Night Triumphant
;483;
Alena Volkova & Gavriil
Dialga
Village Bridge, Unova
;443;

Alena hated waiting. Buying the ferry ticket was the easy part - the ferry even had accommodations for her motorcycle, which was always a good thing, and she arrived early enough to buy herself a ticket that included that perk without having to fight with another person for it. That being said, arriving early had a lot of downsides, foremost of all being boredom. There were still a few minutes to go before the ferry arrived, but for the violet-eyed teen, it felt more like hours, having already eaten at the Village Bridge Restaurant for breakfast, and roamed around just to look for something to do. She ended up wandering back to the docks and smoking. Finishing the last of her cigarette, she then tossed it onto the ground and crushed it with her combat boot.

"Surprise!" Alena heard a high-pitched voice shout from behind her, a voice that did not sound like her own Gible's growl. She turned around and saw that a Sneasel - male, from the length of its feather - had knocked Gavriil down. A Sneasel that could talk, to boot. The Gible was not amused and immediately retaliated with an Iron Head to the Sneasel's stomach.

"Ha! Two can play at this game!" The tiny shark bragged as he stood proud, despite being only a third of the Ice Pokemon's size. Alena laughed roughly, as the two Pokemon scuffled, the weasel Pokemon slashing at the tiny land shark, who in turn, had sunk his teeth into its ear feather and started chomping at it. It wasn't everyday that she saw a talking Pokemon, which made her wonder...was there actually another one of those "others" in the vicinity? The violet-eyed teenager looked around, noticing that there were only a few people, and all of them save for one were passers-by. That one, on the other hand, appeared to be sitting down and reading something. He was a blond boy who looked around her own age, and was dressed almost like her as well, though in icier, lighter tones as opposed to her usual black. She looked first at the Sneasel, then at the guy. Was he its Trainer? Nobody had stopped by to look for their Pokemon, after all. She turned around and attended to both Pokemon once more, plucking Gavriil, who now had icicles hanging from his fin and the roof of his mouth, from atop the Sneasel's head with ease.

"Hey! No fair, killjoy! I was about to win!" The tiny land shark protested. The Sneasel crossed his arms smugly and laughed, though he did stroke his ear feather a couple of times as well as rubbed his belly.

"Yeah, you're alive and kickin', badass...and you've got icicles all over yourself," Alena snarked, though she did fish out a Lemonade from her spiky backpack and gave it to her Pokemon, who sighed and plopped on her shoulder. She returned her attention to the Sneasel, and impulsively picked him up and tucked him under her arm.

"I like ya y'know, punk," she commented, playfully giving the Ice-type a noogie. A more fragile, delicate Pokemon would've yowled in protest...but not this Sneasel. He cackled wickedly instead, as if he enjoyed it. Just like Gav...yeah, this one's no pussy, she thought as she strode towards the solitary boy. She shamelessly punched his bare shoulder lightly in order to get his attention, before holding out the Sneasel.

"Hey, dude...is this talking rascal yours?" She asked in her usual direct, casual manner, smirking. "He's pretty awesome, y'know," she added, placing the dark-colored Pokemon on the bench, next to the guy, before remembering that she hadn't given him her name yet. However, before she could give it, or even ask the guy his name, the unmistakeable sound of an arriving ferry's horn interrupted her thoughts. Finally, she thought as she turned her head to look over her neck, seeing indeed, that the ferry had arrived, and then looked back at the guy.

"Dude, you waiting for that?" She asked, raising a brow as she jerked her thumb towards the ferry. "Cause if you are, then you better get your ass up." She then strode towards her motorcycle, which she left just nearby, and began manhandling it towards the ferry by herself.

"By the way, the name's Ally, and this rascal over here is Gav," she said with a wicked grin as she passed by the bench once more, raising a hand momentarily to touch the brim of her newsboy cap, before continuing to manhandle her vehicle.

"You could also call me 'Awesome'," the Gible, who was now sitting on the motorcycle's handlebars, added cockily.
 

Vern

Why not both?
Fern & Razor
Rayquaza
Castelia City, Unova.


Fern sighed, twirling the pen around in her fingers as she waited for inspiration to strike her. She had tried drifting off to sleep, but the coffee she had drunk in order to keep her awake and alert as she made her way to where she currently was was quite strong, and she found that no matter what she did, sleep did not overtake her. Maybe it was excitement, but she wasn't sure. After all, it had been a long time since she had been excited for something.

Razor snored away besides her, but besides that, the cave was silent. The rainbow-hair guy remained sleeping. With nothing else to do, Fern found herself examining him. He reminded her, in some way, of that friend she had once had, and subsequently lost. How is he doing now, I wonder? Is he living like I am, alone and unhappy, or is he off having all sorts of crazy adventures?

Fern sighed again and began to sketch. It never did her any good when she started thinking about her past - every time she tried to replay her childhood in her mind, it felt increasingly fake and embellished. Instead, she began to note down the runes scrawled all over the underground complex's walls. Maybe they would come in handy if she ever wanted to write or draw fantasy.

She'd probably write some adventure story. The protagonist would be a young noble, tired of his sheltered life. He'd go and travel the lands, befriend a peasant girl after she rescued him during a snowstorm. They'd become partners, walking the lands. The two of them would unearth some conspiracy to revive an ancient demon lord during their stay at a particularly ancient inn, and choose to investigate further. Unknown to both of them, the noble boy is actually the reincarnation of said demon lord, and the multiple mishaps the two have suffered were actually engineered by a secret cult lead by the boy's parents-

The sound of two people entering the underground complex she was seated in brought her train of thought into a screeching halt. The story flew out of her head, immediately buried under the pile of other baseless daydreams and fantasies. That's okay... She thought, drawing several random lines across the top corner of her page, It was probably boring crap anyways...

Besides, those two were more interesting. Both of them girls, thy had come into the Relic Castle looking somewhat tired - they'd probably have had to weather that sandstorm to get in as well. One had purple hair and was accompanied by a shiny Ekans (Hm... never seen that before. Wonder if it's had some sort of tragic, science-experiment past? Or maybe it's the reincarnation of some legendary? That would be awesome. Creatures that special normally have some sort of interesting story), and the other was dressed in green and had a Comfey with her.

Could they be the 'others'? For second, Fern debated whether to wake razor or not, then decides to just let him sleep.

The purple haired girl stood back, looking somewhat uneasy, while the other one approached her. Fern quickly tucked her sketchbook and pen back into the bag that was lying besides her - when others were speaking to you, it was best to put away what you were doing and give them your full attention. Ever since one of the particularly bad-tempered teachers in one of the many schools she had been to yelled at her for constantly looking down at her pen and books when she was talking to her, Fern had made sure to put her things away (or at least to the side) when people were talking to her.

"Uhm, h-hello!" Said the brown-haired girl shyly, "What are you here for?"

Fern blinked. She didn't know these people, and she had learned over the years that it was a bad idea to blindly place her trust in others. It was best to be cautious when interacting with strangers.*Somehow, she felt that it would be unwise to tell them about her dreams and the like without ascertaining their identity first. But lying wasn’t her forte, so she had to take a middle route - telling only part of the truth.

“Hi…” she said. Her voice came out somewhat raspy, and she coughed once, to clear her throat, before continuing. She also made sure to give the girl a friendly smile. “I’m, um... waiting for something. What about you?”

The words had barely left her mouth when Razor burst out of his Pokeball and hopped onto her head, giving her ribbon a tug while he was at it. Why does he always do that? Seeing the other girls, he started shouting excitedly before Fern could shush him. “OHHHH! Fern, there are other people here! They’ve got Pokemon with them! Hey, hey, do you think they could be the ‘others’ you were talking about?”
 

TheCharredDragon

Tis the Hour to Reload
Ivan Vincent and Vera the Sableye
Hoopa, the Portal Trickster
Mistralton City?


Rings. That was what he saw. Rings, everywhere. Though the sky was only sparcely spaced with them, the floor was made up of them, somehow having solid purple matter in the middle, allowing him to walk. Not that he had any idea why he was walking, or where. He didn't even know where this place was. Everything were different shades of purple, pink and black. And again, rings, yellow ones. For one reason or another, he couldn't stop thinking about them being there, like they had a connection to him, to his very soul.

"Hoopa..." a quiet male voice said.

He stopped and looked around, but no one was there. Not that he was surprised. He had gotten quite used to it, the pain of loneliness. But that didn't make it any less painful. Only distracting himself helped, as far as he had figured out. So he went back to walking, to trying to figure out the rings all around him. But another voice called, this time of a female.

"Hoopa," she said, much more stern and yet with gentleness.

Just like a mother.

This time, when he stopped, he remained in his placed and merely looked in a direction he felt the voice came from. He tried not to let the barely visible memories flood him or affect him.

"Yeah?"

"You have endured much to get here," the man said.

With sadness, the woman said, "And much loss."

Once again, a memory came to him, a much more recent, and more painful one. The trip to insanity his father went down. But it didn't show on his face. Or at least he hoped it didn't.

"And we wish it wasn't so, but we need you to come to Relic Castle," the man said again. He reminded him of his father, long before he started changed. "Once you and the others arrive, the path will be revealed..."

Everything faded...
and he opened his eyes. There was only one thing on his mind:

He hoped Gwen had the same dream, and that she wouldn't mind going soon.

...

Gwendoline Gunther and Bedi the Sawk
Cobalion, the Cobalt Knight
Mistralton City, Unova


A dojo, that was where she felt at home, training others in the code of honor and protection. She would protect all those under her care and teach them to be able to do it themselves. She would care for them and their needs as best as she could. And, if needed, she would lead them in the right direction, the path that was best for them from what she has learned of them and what their desires were. That was the duty of a knight, to protect the weak and innocent, and to be kind and polite and willing to help.

But what was the duty of a legend?

She had no idea. She knew she was something else, especially when she payed attention to the dojo she was in. The walls, though built like your normal dojo with open windows to let as much natural light in, were made of steel. It was pristine, it was sleek, and most of all, it was a deep shade of blue. Just outside, she could hear them, the sounds of battle, the sounds of war, in other words, the sounds of pain.

She loved a good battle, a good challenge, but nothing came out of war. But she had never been to war...or had she? It was clear she still felt remnants of something from within her soul, from, if the voices were to be trusted, when she was Cobalion, the leader of the Swords of Justice, defender of all Pokémon. She had lived and seen the cruelties of man before their fellow equals and had despised them.

And yet, here she was, a human girl about to turn into a young woman. And even in the depths of her dreams, even if she might not conciously remember it, she didn't feel any ill will towards humans. The only thing she could reason was that the legends were wrong, that she had not hated people, she had merely hated those who commited evil, the irredeemable sinners. She was the leader of the Swords of Justice. Why wouldn't she despise them?

She sighed. She wanted to tell her parents, curse anyone who thinks otherwise, about this, all of this. After all, all legends had mentors, didn't they? Nobody was born wise.

"Cobalion," a female voice said.

She stood at attention but didn't bother looking for the voice's owner. She knew she wouldn't find them.

"I can hear you, Lady of the Mists," she said.

Though it was true that she had no idea who these voices were, or where they were, but whenever she heard them, there would be a strange atmosphere as they spoke. For the female, it looked as if the mists of the night appeared whenever she spoke. For the male, it always seemed to get just a little brighter. Besides, it cheered her to know they seemed fond of it, like they knew her habits.

A male chuckled. "I see you haven't changed, despite what happened."

"I am being who I am, whoever I may be right now, Lord of Light. As long as it feels right and just to me, I will be who I am."

This time Lady of the Mists chuckled. "You of all know that best." Her cheery mood left. "And so it is that we ask of you to take another leap for us."

"We need you to come to Relic Castle," the Lord of Light said. "Once you and the others arrive, the path will be revealed..."


Her eyes opened after that, but she did not move. She knew what day this, it was the day before her birthday, at about early morning. And they--the voices--had asked her to leave. She didn't care anymore, she was going to tell her parents (and curse whoever thought they weren't her parents). She went up and changed to her usual clothes, not noticing Bedi was awake until he spoke.

"Lady Gwen? What are you doing?"

She blinked but remained stoic. "I'm going to tell my parents about our situation."

"Why now? You planned with Sir Ivan to reveal it tomorrow."

"I...had another dream. They had asked me to leave for Relic Castle."

"They have? I see... I understand. I will wait for your instruction."

Gwen nodded and headed out...and bumped into the other legend in the house.

"Ah! Gwenny! Whoops. Sorry about that," he said, fully dressed, she noted.

"It's well, I'm fine."

"Let me guess... You had a dream too?"

That explained why he was fully dressed, complete with his scarves and fedora.

"Yes," she said.

"And you're going to tell them?"

Gwen was about to speak when Ivan raised a hand.

"It's all right, I get why. I ain't gonna stop you. Mind if I come with?"

She let a relieved smile spread on her face. She shook her head. Ivan returned the smile. But as Gwen headed for her parents' room, it vanished. She took a deep breath before she knocked.

"Mother? Father?"

Faintly, on the other side, she heard her mother say, "Gwen?"

"Yes, it's me, along with Ivan. May we come in? I need to speak with you and father."

She heard a "Sure" and rustling. That was when she entered with Ivan in tow. After she closed the door, she stood before her parents, who were both dressed in their sleepwear and sitting up on their bed. Both of them, despite their sleep lidded eyes, looked worried. She knew. She rarely did anything like this.

"Is something wrong, Gwen?" her father said.

Another deep breath, then she spoke. "Two months ago, Ivan and I had a dream. There were voices in them. They called us by different names, names of Pokémon of legend. They called Ivan, Hoopa. And they called me...Cobalion."

"Cobalion?" her mother said.

"But how's that possible?"

"I would have dismissed them as unusual dreams myself, but then...I was able to understand Bedi speak and I had gained powers."

"What?"

"Yup," Ivan said. "Me too. I can understand Vera and can do...this."

Ivan demonstrated by floating then and there. Her parents stared in wonder until he stopped.

Gwen continued. "They explained to us that they were our guardians, chosen to help and protect us. And just now..."

Her mother said, "And now...?"

"The voices had spoken to us again. They asked us to go to Relic Castle, where others are waiting. They said that a path will be revealed to us."

And silence reigned in the room, and it was suffocating. She couldn't stand it. She hated any tension between herself and her parents. But just when she was afraid she had upset them, they stood up. Her father went for the chest beside their bed while her mother went for the closet. While her mother seemed to be getting their clothes ready, her father brought out a surprise for her. Her eyes widened.

"Is that...?"

Her father held a sword, no doubt a rapier from its hilt, its sheath colored a brilliant blue with silver tips. And it had the family crest on it. It was the family heirloom.

Her father gave a small smile. "Yeah, it is. We haven't really used it in a long time, but we took care of it. I'm sure it'll help, if any of those stories of legends are any indication."

Gwen took it into her hands and couldn't help but stare in wonder. She had always been fascinated with swords, and now that she knew who she was, it made sense. She took the belt her father also held and put the sword by her side. At this point, her mother was dressed. She was confused as to why.

"Mother...?"

"You need need to Relic Castle tomorrow right? If we go now, we can get you there in time. Now, Mark--"

"Yes, yes, I know Mist. I'll go change."

Gwen closed her eyes, knowing very well that tears--actual tears--would threaten to come out.

"Mother, father, I..."

And the they hugged her.

"Hey, Gwen. We get it," her father said. "You're worried, you always do."

"But it doesn't matter if you were Cobalion or Terrakion or even Kyurem," her mother said. "You're still our daughter, and we'll help you however we can."

She returned their hug, once again thinking about cursing anyone who thought they weren't her parents just because of what she supposedly used to be. But even with this, she noticed her good friend standing back, a nostalgic look in his eyes. She held out her hand.

"Come join us, Ivan. I know you want to."

He was about to speak. She knew what he was going to say.

"Or do I have to drag you here?" she said with an amused smile.

Ivan rolled his eyes but complied with her "request". She enjoyed it while it last.

...

Ivan Vincent and Vera the Sableye with Gwendoline Gunther and Bedi the Sawk
Hoopa, the Portal Trickster, with Cobalion, the Cobalt Knight
Desert Resort -> Relic Castle, Unova


Ivan sighed with an amused smile, absolutely convinced that, despite their calm and friendly demeanor, the Gunther family was nuts. They had left yesterday, about five in the morning, in their fastest car and headed straight for their destination. Of course they packed, but it was rather minimum and Gwenny's parents even drive through the night, taking turns at the wheel to rest while he and Gwenny were asleep. They were now rather close to their destination. And they had given Gwenny a sword, a freakin' sword. He didn't think there would be any other than those in the museums.

It also touched him how much they trusted Gwenny and were willing to go to great lengths to help. It made him miss his own family, before it had fallen apart. The memories were misty but he could still remember the warmth, the smiles, and the happiness he felt from his parents. He sighed and pulled his guitar out front. It was no use to dwell on the past. But still, he missed it. So he'll start singing as he played his guitar.

"Lovin' can hurt,
Lovin' can hurt...sometimes...
But it's the on~ly thing that I know...
When it gets hard
You know it can get hard sometimes...
It is the only thing that makes us feel alive...

We keep this love in a photograph,
We made these for ourselves
Where our eyes are never closin',
Hearts are never broken
And time's forever frozen still...

So you can keep me
inside the pocket of your ripped jeans
holdin' me closer 'till our eyes meet
You won't ever be alone...
Wait for me to come home..."


And he continued with the rest of the song, he noted how Gwenny was smiling, and that the elder Gunthers were singing. It made time pass much faster as by the time he finished, they were at the entrance to Desert Resort. Their car wasn't able to cross such a sandy place. Not that he minded, he was already grateful to them for getting them here, as he was sure Gwenny was, perhaps even more from the way she was acting when they got out.

As he returned his guitar to his back, she gave them hugs and asked something about them coming along. They said they highly doubted they would be allowed, wherever they were going. So they wished each other "good-bye", with Gwenny's parents wishing her luck and to take care of herself (and him). He watched them leave along with Gwenny until they were gone from sight. Then he said,

"Ready Cobalt Knight?"

She rolled her eyes but smiled and went in nonetheless, their Pokémon in tow. It didn't take long to find the place. From what Gwenny's told him, she's actually been there before with her parents, considering their great interest in myths and legends, so he just followed Gwenny through the desert as she somehow could tell the differences on the landscape. When they got there, inside the place, he spotted several were already there and he smirked.

He floated up to one of the girls, one in green clothing with floral patterns and a fruit looking Pokémon. He did so from behind and popped his head from above, looking at her upside down with a ridiculous smile.

"Hi there. You wouldn't happen to be waiting for something, would you?" he said, holding his fedora to stop it from falling. Whatever her reaction, he floated away from her face then in front of her, as if he was lying down on a couch in the air. "It wouldn't happen to be for...oh, I don't know, something to be revealed, would it? Like a path?"

"Ivan," Gwenny said as she stood near.

Vera chuckled while Bedi remained stoic. Ivan just smiled wider.

"Oh, come on, Gwenny. It's a bit obvious, don't you think? A bunch of teenagers here in the middle of the desert of all days. They said they were others in that dream, remember?"

She rolled her eyes again. "That may be true, but it isn't wise to reveal our powers, especially in case we are mistaken."

He shrugged. "Eh, too late anyway. I'll keep that in mind next time." He looked back at the others, apparently consisting of three girls (besides Gwenny) and one guy at the moment who was asleep. He made a note to talk to him when he was awake, he was curious about his electric guitar. "So, anyways, since we're all waiting, why don't we introduce ourselves?"

He "stood up", except he still floated, but he lowered it to about five inches above the ground. He did an obviously fancy bow just for the heck of it before he said, "The name's Ivan Vincent." He gestured to his Sableye who came up beside him. "And this is my buddy, Vera."

"Hiya there," she said is a rather raspy voice.

He knew Gwenny's intros were fun, so he let his best friend and her Pokémon do so.

"Very well," she said before she gave a small bow of her head with her arm against her chest. "I am Gwendoline Gunther, and this is my partner, Bedi."

The Sawk in question did the same before he said, "Yes, that is the name my Lady has christened me. It is a pleasure to make your acquiantance."

He went back to relaxing mid air, about three feet off the ground. "Anyways, was I right about why you guys are here?"
 

Rotom310

As seen in pokedexes
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Rene Keffer & Erich the Grubbin
Genesect

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"Genesect."

A voice rang out through the haze, startling Rene. He glanced around, seeing nothing but his faint reflection in the cold steel walls surrounding him. That didn’t make sense. Hadn’t he just been…?

“Genesect,” the voice – deep and masculine – said again, disrupting Rene’s thoughts. “You must focus.”

A second voice – a more feminine one – joined in, and the two spoke in unison. “We admire your persistence in searching for answers, but they will not be found in a tome or online. Come to the Relic Castle, and you’ll find the answers you seek with all the others.”

“Others?” Rene asked aloud, but there was no response except for the faint echo of his voice. Soon it too faded and the haze overtook him.


Castelia City, Unova

With a gasp, Rene bolted upright. For a moment, he just stared blankly ahead in the dim early morning light, running his dream – the vision – through his mind. Soon enough he shook his head, raising a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose. Just like the last several nights he’d fallen asleep at his desk. Tonight’s pillow seemed to be the obviously well-read book on mythologies from the local university, if the wear on the spine was any indication. Or maybe it was just from him sleeping on it, he considered as he blindly groped for his glasses. At least I’d thought to take these off.

Perching his glasses on his nose, Rene’s thoughts turned back to his dream. Better than his first, he supposed. He had some sort of trail now, as opposed to the blind research he’d undertook for the past two weeks, or near about anyway. It wasn’t that he hadn’t had some success, he supposed. The “Hall of Legends” had been referenced in several myths and… well, legends, though of course each mention contradicted in some manner those of the others. And that was miles more than he’d uncovered about the name “Genesect,” which seemed to be completely absent from any form of the Internet – even the Darknet. (A shudder reflexively went down his spine as Rene remembered that particular foray; as long as his mind seemed permanently connected to the Internet, he’d definitely be avoiding that from now on thank you very much.) For all purposes, Genesect – if it was a being, as Rene was hypothesizing – didn’t exist even in myth. Etymologically the word didn’t even make much sense. Breaking it down as a Pokémon name yielded the best results, but even then, there were gaps and varied meanings-

“No Santa, the gummi bears are mine. Don’t let the Stantler sniff them.”

A muffled voice accompanied by a soft snore completely derailed Rene’s train of thought. Turning in his chair to find where the voice came from – Erich, from somewhere under the bed, he decided a moment later, definitely Erich – Rene was surprised to find his hands clenching the arms of his desk chair. Relaxing his grip, Rene slumped back in his chair. He shook his head again, almost as if to clear the tangential thoughts running through his racing mind. He had a lead now, if the dreams were to be believed. Just a journey out to the desert and his questions will be answered.

Rene paused, thought for a moment, and raised the collar of his shirt up for a sniff. Grimacing, he mentally rearranged his priorities. Right after a shower…


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Iris Fenix & Kit the Vulpix
Ho-oh
Ecruteak City, Johto

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Iris stared down at the sea of orange and red from her perch. Seated as she was against the rough bark of the trunk on one of the tree’s highest branches, the entirety of Ecruteak unfolded itself in front of her. A beautiful sight to be sure, especially in the mornings, right as the sun peaked over Mount Silver’s range and bathed the Bell Tower in its light. The spires rising from its roof glimmered in the sun’s rays, drawing the eye to the birdlike statues watching down at each of the roof’s corners. Bastions of an older way, of traditions and beliefs and ceremonies. Bastions that anymore just made for a damn good picture.

On that morning, stuck in memories, Iris saw none of it.


She was running. Around a tree. Jumping a fallen log. Squeezing between bushes. Fleeing through the haze that surrounded her. And through it all… It was always right behind her.

It.

A presence.

Something she couldn’t name. Something she couldn’t let catch up to her.

Something that made a little voice in her hindbrain think: help, warmth. Friend.

She wasn’t sure whether that scared her more or not.

So, she ran, always one step ahead, always one stumble away from meeting It.

Time was meaningless. She didn’t know if hours had passed, or days, or just minutes. It was just her, It, and the chase.

And then, it was over.


The rustle of a small weight settling nearby tore Iris from her thoughts. She glanced up, and didn’t have to look far. Only one branch up and to the left, within reaching distance, Kit sat in a cat-like sprawl. Her forelegs tucked under her, the Vulpix seemed uncaring that one of her hind legs dangled from the branch. No, her focus seemed squarely on Iris, her vulpine head tilted slightly to the side as she considered the girl in front of her. The two made eye contact, but only for a moment. With a hardening of her features, Iris looked away first, back to the city below as it began to wake.

A moment passed, and the air was still with unsaid words.

“You had another dream, didn’t you.”

And there it is… Iris thought, with such a jumble of emotions she wouldn’t know where to start dissecting them. The Vulpix continued to sit motionless, her statement – for it was a statement, not a question – hanging almost physically in the air, demanding a response.

Iris wasn’t about to give one.

Sensing her human’s reticence, the fox twitched an ear, breaking her stillness. “Fine. Once I found you here, I knew you would’ve had to had one. You never climb trees and stay there for any reason but to think and reflect; you’re too fidgety for that. ‘Course, you’ve never done it without me before.” At that statement, a hint of hurt entered the fox’s tone, but she continued quickly. “So, that means you must know more now. What to do, or what our mission is. Something.”

Again, Iris said nothing.

After the silence drug on for several minutes, a touch of frustration entered the Vulpix’s expression. “C’mon, Iris, talk to me. I’m supposed to help you, and I can’t do that if you don’t talk to me.”

Despite herself, Iris felt her fists clench. She forced herself to relax them.

Deep in Kit’s throat, a growl began to rumble. “You’ve been ignoring me for almost two weeks!”

A bubble of anger began to pool in Iris’ chest.

“You’ve practically been ignoring everyone for almost two weeks! Ever since you discovered your destiny you’ve shut yourself away and held everything in.” Springing to her feet, the Vulpix well and truly began to shout. “And that’s not good! It’s not healthy for you, and it’s not helpful for either one of us. So, why won’t you talk to me?!”

The bubble popped.

“Because if I talk to you, that makes this real!” Iris spat back, in her rage not noticing the Vulpix’s eyes grow wide with a mix of surprise and fright.

“Iris-“

It was like a burning haze had settled over her, words spewing from where she’d kept them locked up tight. “Because if I acknowledge this effed up situation, I’m acknowledging that I might just be the goddamned god that my family worships!”

“Iris your ha-!”

“I’m not stupid! I can read between the lines! Freaky dream things call me Ho-oh, suddenly I can catch on fire but don’t get burned, you start talking. Hell, even my name fits into it. Iris Fenix? Literally rainbow phoenix?! I mean seriously-!“

She was interrupted when the Vulpix jumped her. On instinct, Iris wrapped her arms around the small fox, stopping her from falling. Still, the unexpected weight nearly caused the girl and her Pokémon to topple off the branch, and it was only sheer luck that let them regain their balance.

A minute passed in wide-eyed, shocked silence before Iris’ mind got itself together again. As if she couldn’t do it fast enough, she shoved the fox away from her and onto the branch they perched on. “What the fu-“

“Your hand was on fire,” the Vulpix interrupted, eyes still slightly glazed over as she just got over the shock herself.

Indeed, on the spot where Iris’ hand had been clenched the bark had been charred to a crisp, likely only the slight early morning dampness having stopped the entire tree from catching alight.

A wave of cold numbness swept Iris’ anger away from her as her mind processed this turn of events. Back sagging against the tree trunk, she let out a meek and mumbled “Oh.”

Several more minutes passed, the quiet broken only by soft breaths, the occasional faint bird or insect noise, and the more distant sound of a city waking up for the day. Finally, the tense air ended when Kit slightly shook her head. “I think it might be too early for a told you so?”

Despite herself, a soft laugh bubbled up Iris’ throat, followed by groan as the girl dropped her head to her knees and wrapped her arms around them.

Tentatively, the Vulpix approached. “Iris,” Kit started, lightly laying a paw on the girl’s leg. “are you all right?” At the girls nod to the negative, the fox continued. “I could listen, if that would help. Like we used to do. I don’t even have to say anything if that’d help you.”

Slowly, Iris unfolded herself. “…Yeah, that’d help.” With her eyes closed, Iris couldn’t see it, but felt the Vulpix prod along her legs and settle on her lap. Hesitantly, she lowered a hand to the Vulpix’s back, stroking the fur there. When Kit made a content noise, Iris pet her more confidently. Man, had she missed this…

“Well,” Iris started to say, and if her voice wobbled, Kit at least didn’t point it out. “Yeah, I had another dream last night…”


It happened in an instant. One second, she could feel It racing behind her, and then the next she was surrounded. A second presence had appeared. Cooler, less imposing than the first, but just as steady as the first.

Iris could sense them circling her, trapping her between them. Panting slightly, Iris stayed quiet, not wanting to make the first move.

Sure enough, eventually one started to speak into the silence. “Ho-oh,” the first presence said in a masculine voice – the same voice as in that first dream, she realized, calling her that same damn name. “We are sorry you feel as if you must flee from us. We mean you no harm.”

“Truly we don’t,” the other presence – the feminine voice – agreed. “We understand your skepticism and concerns, and if time weren’t crucial, we wouldn’t ask this of you. But time is crucial, and you must join the others at the Relic Castle in Unova.”

Iris laughed, lowly and bitterly. “Yeah, no, I don’t want any of this.”

“We understand,” the feminine voice repeated, sounding almost pained, “but it is necessary. There is far too much to explain now, and we don’t have much time left. Please go to the Relic Castle.”

At this the male voice interrupted, having kept silent after his first remarks. “You don’t believe in the conclusions you’ve drawn, Ho-oh, and that is fine. Go to the Relic Castle, be proven right if nothing happens. The worst that could happen is you see the sights…”

As the voice spoke his volume gradually faded until she was alone with only trees for company, slowly fading into the blackness themselves.


“…And then I woke up, and pretty much immediately came out here,” Iris finished. “And you were here for the rest.”

Kit twitched an ear to acknowledge she’d heard, curled up with her eyes closed as she was, but otherwise said nothing.

Confused, Iris asked, “Well, aren’t you going to say something?”

That startled a reaction out of the Vulpix. She looked up at Iris, surprise clear in her eyes. “I thought you didn’t want me to talk?”

Iris looked away from her, a pink tinge appearing on her cheeks. “Yeah, well, it seems kind of silly to not when I know you can.”

Kit’s muzzle quirked into a toothy grin. “Well, I don’t disagree. With that or the dream. Whatever is actually happening, we won’t know for sure about any of it unless we go to this castle place.”

Iris groaned, tilting her head back against the tree trunk with a soft thud. “Yeah, that’s what I was afraid of…”


In the end, it was easier than Iris had expected, to pack a bag of clothes and whatever else had practical or sentimental value that she couldn’t leave behind. She hoped it wouldn’t end up that way, but a niggling little thought in the back of her mind guessed she wouldn’t be back for a while. A more depressing thought wondered whether her parents would even talk to her if she did come back, soon or otherwise. The last thing she had done before leaving her childhood home was leave a note to her family. It was short, maybe a bit too vague to be much use in comforting them, but it was probably about as honest with them as she’d been in ages, telling them she was sorry and she loved them.

After that it was short work to hitch a ride out to Olivine. Slightly harder work was stowing away on a ship destined for Unova, but as it turned out, some (admittedly accidental) bursts of fire provided a pretty good albeit conspicuous distraction for the security guards that chased her.

(“We’re not talking about that,” Iris said immediately after they found a suitable hiding spot.

Kit, out of her Pokeball for the moment, peeked out and eyeballed the dock getting both smaller in the distance and more noticeable as more shipping crates caught fire. The Vulpix grimaced slightly while her back was turned, but nevertheless delivered a perfectly deadpan “Talk about what?”)


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Rene Keffer & Erich the Grubbin | Iris Fenix & Kit the Vulpix
Genesect | Ho-oh
Desert Resort -> Relic Castle

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“Y’know,” Erich began, from where he was huddled in Rene’s bag, “I don’t think I really mind the desert.”

Feeling whips of sand sting against his arms as he trekked across the small dunes, Rene couldn’t say he agreed. Honestly, he was just happy he’d thought to tie his hair back before he’d told his parents a project of his needed testing in the desert (a lie, for the most part), that he’d probably be home fairly late if that was alright (less a lie, probably), and came out here to brave the sandstorms (already regretting the decision). If the way his bangs were flirting back and forth in the wind were any indication, his hair would’ve been even more unruly if he’d left it hanging. “Oh, shut up Erich,” he retorted through the thin scarf he held over his mouth and nose to keep sand out. “You’re not actually in the desert; you’re in a bag.”

“Well, bag or not I am currently occupying space residing in a desert, so I’m in the desert- Oooh,” the Grubbin suddenly said, getting distracted. “Looks like there was some arson earlier in the morning in Olivine City in Johto. Apparently, someone was trying to stowaway or something and started setting fires when they almost got caught. Whoever it was got away in the ensuing chaos. How mysterious.”

The suddenness of that comment made Rene pause for just a moment before he visibly refocused on navigating and continued walking. Still, let it never be said that curiosity wasn’t a fault of his. “And where’d you hear that?”

“I’m on your phone. You really should get a new password; you use the same thing for everything~” he singsonged. “I have so far beaten your high scores for Snowpoint Temple Run and Flappy Fletchling, and I’m currently kicking so much *** at competitive Tetris I’ve started multitasking, hence the news watching.”

That actually did make Rene stop. “Wait, you- What? How did you-? You don’t even have hands!” An idea struck him, turning his startled look into a glare. “Did you bring the arm?! I told you that it wasn’t finished yet!”

There was a beat. “I will neither confirm nor deny such accusations.” Then, another beat. “I will say that the arm works perfectly, however.”

Rene rolled his eyes with a groan. “Oh, we will be having words once we get to this stupid castle, believe me.”

“If it helps, I didn’t even use the arm when I beat your Flappy Fletchling score!”

“It really doesn’t!”


“That was the third time we’ve passed that cactus. Face it, Iris, we’re lost.”

Struggling in the sand, Iris fought the urge to growl. “And that’s my fault how? It’s not like either of us can actually see in this weather. Also, how do you know it’s the same cactus?”

Kit, from where she was draped over Iris’ shoulder, turned to look at her. “It waved at me.”

“Waved at you.”

Iris felt Kit shrug against her. “Yeah, started waving at me. Don’t know what Pokémon it was, but I don’t think it like me calling it a cactus actually… Wait, did you hear that?” Kit suddenly perked up, focused on some sound Iris couldn’t hear in the distance.

Iris waited a moment, before shaking her head. “I don’t hear anything but this wind.”

Kit raised a paw to Iris’ face, trying for her mouth to shush her and missing, hitting her nose instead. “No seriously, I’m hearing something, like a person maybe?”

Iris crinkled her nose, batting the paw away. She focused again, though, but still, the only sound was the desert winds… No, wait, there was something. Faint, but getting louder. Kit was right, a voice – no, two of them – still too far away to guess anything about the owner, but definitely getting closer to them. …And not making a lick of sense without context.

“Erich, for the last time, telling me that you’ve beat that Swirlix Saga level I was stuck on does not actually validate you bringing the arm with us,” the first voice – a low alto or high tenor, not immediately lending itself to a gender or even an age – said, exasperation plain in the tone.

Almost immediately a second voice – high pitched, a low alto as well, but more distinctly male; like a young kid maybe – retorted, “And I’m telling you, the arm works fine! It’s only punched me once so far!”

“That doesn’t actually help your case!”

By the end of that last statement a figure crested a dune, coming into the far edges of their vision maybe a dune and a half away. There was only the one figure, which surprised Iris and Kit both, for neither doubted they heard a second voice. As the two voices continued arguing – about an arm? What? – it became apparent to Iris the figure currently approaching them was ambiguous one: Not-Erich. Erich, presumably the name of the second voice, was nowhere in the observable surroundings.

As Not-Erich grew closer, Iris was finally able to see more than just a hazy outline. Not-Erich seemed taller than her and much thinner. Iris still wasn’t sure what gender the person was, as Not-Erich had long enough black hair to tie back minus a stray bang or two (man, I wish I’d thought of that, she thought as her hair whipped around her) and was still at enough of a distance to make discerning facial features tough. Guy, girl, or otherwise, though, she couldn’t deny that Not-Erich was good looking in a skinny hipster-nerd sort of way, what with the grey ripped jeans, collared shirt, purple vest, and a stylish looking lavender scarf to shield from sand.

Slightly distracted, it took Iris a second to notice her Vulpix prodding her cheek. “Iris,” Kit said, tone suggesting it wasn’t the first time she had said it, “finally! You should ask that person where this castle is!”

Again, Iris batted Kit’s paw away. “Hush you! I was about to.” She turned to Not-Erich, and cupped her hands to her mouth and began plodding through the sand. “Hey stranger! Think I could bug you for directions?!”

Not-Erich startled at the sudden yell. The person started to look around for the source, eyes soon falling on Iris. As she got closer, Iris could see confusion enter the magenta eyes hidden behind a pair of glasses. Seeing Not-Erich start to point in a “Who, me?” manner, Iris called out, “Yeah, you! You seem to know where you’re going. I don’t suppose you might know where the Relic Castle is? I’m trying to get there and seem to just be walking in circles.” By now, Iris had reached Not-Erich, and decided to punctuate her statement with little self-deprecating laugh, hoping that might get her a better shot at an answer.

An awkward pause ensued, as if Not-Erich was slightly flummoxed at coming across someone else out here. Quickly though, Not-Erich shook it off, and seemed to be about to answer when the backpack slung low on Not-Erich’s shoulders began to open itself.

Now, truthfully, between the running-away-from-home-to-follow-a-dream-destiny thing and the technically-becoming-wanted-for-arson-but-only-sort-of-because-they-didn’t-get-a-good-look-at-her thing, Iris had really thought that the level of weird in her day had plateaued. So, when that dull grey backpack began unzipping itself, Iris found herself ready to just say “what the hell” and roll with whatever happened.

That being said, seeing a thin metal hand reach out to its elbow and wave in her direction probably had to be the strangest thing yet. Actually, wait, no, strike that; seeing the Grubbin attached to said hand follow it out of the backpack’s opening with a “Hi!” was the strangest thing.

Huh, suddenly that arm comment makes sense.


Given both the sandstorm and how quickly his and Erich’s arm discussion had devolved into what was distressingly becoming their signature banter, Rene felt that it was understandable to completely fail to notice the girl he’d evidently passed right by. After all, at this hour only crazy people would be out in the desert (and yes, he is aware of the irony inherent in that), so it made sense that he was expecting a solo journey to the Relic Castle.

It also made sense that when faced with a short blonde really not dressed for the weather (a blue tank top and green shorts? A purple beanie of all things? A nice beanie actually – he kind of liked it – but that’s beside the point! The point, which was that if she was unprepared in terms of dress, it really wasn’t any wonder that she’d managed to get lost.) it took him a minute for his brain to catch up to him.

Unfortunately, as it happened that minute happened to be the same minute that Erich grew bored with beating his carefully earned high scores. Before Rene could actually answer, the blonde’s eyes (and those of the Vulpix slung over her shoulder) creeped over to his right, where his backpack hung at his side by one strap, with a look of befuddlement. Already having an idea at what they might be looking at, Rene turned his attention to his bag as well, resigned to the spectacle that is Erich the Grubbin.

As it turned out, the claw hand popped out first, naturally. Three hinged strips of metal acting as a thumb and two fingers, Rene had tried to design it and the rest of the arm as robotic and far from the uncanny valley as possible. Somehow, in this situation he did not think that helped much. Once the hand had freed itself to the elbow, in such an Erich move Rene almost facepalmed, it started waving at the blonde.

…Actually, no, the truly Erich move was the Grubbin popping out after the hand with a chirpy “Hi!” and immediately falling from the bag face-first into the sand.

Rene chanced a glance at the blonde. In just about any other situation, the look of slack jawed complete confusion would be comical, especially given how the Vulpix matched it. Looking back down to Erich, now flopped onto his side and struggling to right himself, Rene gave into the growing urge to facepalm.

“Erich, why do I take you places?” Rene mumbled, mostly for himself more than anyone else.

Opposite him, the blonde seemed to find her voice. “Ok, what? Why is there an arm on your… bug thing?”

If Rene had been paying more attention, instead of putting his focus on helping Erich and making sure he didn’t break the damn arm, he might’ve noticed the Vulpix whisper into the girl’s ear a soft “I think that’s one of those tropical bugs; I don’t remember the name but I read about it in Regional Geographic,” which might have saved the next few minutes of time.

As it was, he did not, and only just registered the question enough to answer it. “My Grubbin. He, ah, has a thing, about hands. So, I built him one. And you mister,” he added to said Grubbin, “are so lucky you did not break this.” Honestly, he was. Other than sand getting into the wrist pivot, elbow joint, and the track on the harness that allowed the arm to both rotate and move from one side of Erich’s body to the other, the arm hadn’t got a scratch on it. “What on Earth, though, gave you the idea to jump out of the bag? This is entirely too close to a meme for my liking.”

Undeterred, the Grubbin shook what sand had piled on his back and looked over at the mystery blonde. “That girl did! She’s going to the same place as you; she’s probably one of the others that dream mentioned!”

This time, even in his unfocused state Rene noticed how suddenly the girl froze at Erich’s words. It was strange. If Rene didn’t know any better, he would’ve said it seemed like…

Like she’d heard Erich as plain as he could.

His gaze shifted immediately to the girl, taking her in with a newfound focus as if she was a brand-new puzzle to solve. The expression on the girl’s face shifted through several emotions in rapid succession, too quick for Rene to take them all in. Amid the mix though, Rene could see muted horror, dawning recognition, and almost resigned acceptance. She’d definitely heard the Grubbin, but wished she hadn’t. Huh.

“You understood him,” Rene said, finally breaking the silence. He didn’t ask, because it wasn’t something he needed confirmed.

The girl remained silent, her emotions not done warring. The Vulpix, however, took it as the opening it was. “Yes,” the Vulpix said delicately with an undertone hard as steel. “She did. And, if you are talking about what I believe, she is.”

For all that he’d gotten used to hearing Erich talk (and talk and talk…), seeing another Pokémon speak stopped Rene cold. Suddenly, he could empathize with the girl, assuming their situations were similar and Erich was the first new Pokémon she heard. He more than empathized, actually, if Erich was her first. He could be a bit much even on a good day.

Taking pity, he approached the girl and held out a hand. “Rene Keffer, that’s my name. And yes, I do know where the Relic Castle is. I was heading there myself, for the same reason as you if I’m right. You could follow me there if you want.”

The girl closed her eyes with a sharp inhale of breath. At her side, a fist clenched and unclenched repeatedly. After a few seconds, she exhaled, slumping as she did so. Slowly, she reached out and shook Rene’s hand. “Iris Fenix. And yes, thank you.”

He nodded in acknowledgement and turned away, giving her the out it was clear she needed to regain some mental stability. Let it never be said he can’t read a situation.

In silence, Rene collected Erich – who in the short time had attempted to strike up a decidedly one-sided conversation with the Vulpix – from the sand and placed him back in his bag, this time leaving the zip open.


The rest of the walk to the castle passed in a somewhat uneasy quiet, broken only by the unending storm and Erich the Grubbin’s equally unending stream of consciousness prattling. Iris resolutely ignored the latter; with just her Vulpix, who she knew so well, she could believe she was imagining conversations. Hearing a stranger’s (extremely chatty oh my god) Grubbin talk though? That hit just a little too close to things Iris didn’t want to think about.

About a meter ahead of her, Not-Erich – Rene – lead the way. Occasionally, she could see Rene glance back at her with that scrutinizing stare, probably just to make sure she was following. Still, she couldn’t help but feel that Rene was seeing more about her than she’d like, the person had that kind of stare.

Just as Iris was about to say something about it, a shape leered out of the sandstorm. A spire, she saw as she grew closer, followed by several more circling what once might’ve been a building or entrance of sorts. In the present, however, all she could see was old stone stairs, leading down into the earth.

“Is this it?” she asked, surprising both Rene and the Grubbin. The former seemed surprised that she’d spoke, but nodded in agreement. The latter just seemed surprised someone else said something.

“Yeah, welcome to the Relic Castle, the last remnants of an ancient Unovan royal city if you believe the historians,” Rene answered. “This castle was the home of the twin kings, the last in power before the region was lost to wars and the monarchy ended. This was the heart of this region.”

Iris gave Rene a look, unimpressed. “You read that from a textbook or something?”

“Wikipedia actually, I hate history,” Rene quipped back, bringing a hint of a smirk to Iris’ face. Rene approached the stairs, stepping aside just before entering and bowing towards Iris. “After you?”

Iris huffed a laugh, despite herself. “Such a gentleman.” At Rene’s shrug, Iris rolled her eyes and headed down the stairs.

She walked out into a fairly spacious cave-like area, not really reminiscent of a castle in Iris’ opinion. She walked a few steps into the room, before stopping dead at the sight of the occupants. In total, not counting Pokémon or herself, there were six in the room. On one side of the room, a boy with rainbow-colored hair slept with something similar to a Geodude keeping watch beside him. At the moment, however, everyone else seemed congregated on the other side of the room.

In nearly any other time and place, Iris probably would’ve taken in the girls of the group first. Of the four, while the two brunettes both seemed cute looking if slightly young, the muscular looking blonde and particularly the somewhat edgy-looking girl with scruffy purple hair were very much her type. Yes, were the situation anything other than what it was, Iris would definitely have hesitated looking at each of them. As it was, though, the only male of the group took up all her attention, and not even for his incredibly eclectic sense of dress.

No, it was because he was floating. In the air. About three feet off the ground.

Before Iris could stare for too long, a body ran into her from behind as Rene followed her down.

“Ow,” Rene muttered, just barely keeping from falling over. “Why the hell did you stop…” Whatever Rene had been about to say was lost. Evidently Rene had noticed the floating boy too.

Iris, who had not been so lucky in staying upright, found herself sprawled on the ground. Forcing herself up, she rubbed at the slight scratches on her palm. Luckily, whatever transfixion she’d fallen under had been broken. Now if she could just not look at the guy again, she could stay in what little denial she had left.

Above her, she could hear Rene’s voice be regained. “Oh, now that is absolutely fascinating,” she heard Rene say, almost breathlessly, while approaching the group. “How on earth are you doing that? Is that some kind of localized gravity cancelation field? No, no, it couldn’t be, you aren’t floating off…” As Rene’s voice began to trail off into muttering, Iris chanced a look up at the group. She could see that Rene had started to circle the-person-Iris-was-ignoring-the-existence-of, a curious gleam in those purple eyes.

A cold grip on her wrist broke her thoughts. Startled, Iris looked down to see Erich’s… claw thing holding onto her wrist, trying to pull her up. Evidently the Grubbin had escaped the bag again.

Wordlessly, Iris found herself standing before being pulled over to the group. (Really though, what would one say when being pulled by a bug with a prosthetic to join a group of teenagers in an abandoned castle in a desert?)


Approaching the group with Iris in his grip, Erich couldn’t help but see an opportunity and take it.

“Ladies, gentlemen,” the Grubbin began in as gruff a voice as he could muster, “I bet you’re all wondering why I’ve gathered you here today.”

Immediately, Erich could see Rene register his voice, if only by the glare he shot at the Grubbin. Faced with that and an incredulous stare from at least Iris, Erich couldn’t help but give up the joke in a fit of laughter. “Oh man, you’re faces! I’m just joshing all y’all. You all must be the others that Rene and Iris here have dreamed about~! I’m Erich, the person lost in a daze of science when not glaring at me is Rene Keffer, this girl-” He held up Iris’ hand with his claw. “-who we met in the desert is Iris Fenix, and the fox who is also glaring at me is named Kit! Can all of you float? I know Rene can’t, he just is irresistible to bugs and gets squicked out by the Internet for some reason. Don’t know what Iris does but she seems cool. So, what are all your names?”


OOC: And I'm finally done. Fair warning I have not proofread this yet because at this point I just want to get something posted and I'm tired af so.

I hope I never write myself into a corner like this again.

Grubbin are amazing, but they don't have hands. This is a problem.

If anyone cares, I did draw a loose reference on how Erich's claw arm looks like (it's worn on his body like a harness, not actually a part of him):
Erich_Claw.png


I make no claims at being an actual artist.
 
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Tangeh

Well-Known Member
Henry Clifton & Sasha
Regirock
Relic Castle


The journey to Relic Castle wasn't as bad as Henry had thought it would be. After eating a generous portion at a local restaurant and sampling the famous Casteliacones, the duo were on their way to where the mysterious voices had said to go. (Sasha talking at all was considered mysterious.) The Desert Resort whipped sand into their faces, but neither of them cared. They'd watched a few tourists double back to get out of the constant sandstorm, but Henry couldn't see what the problem was. It wasn't like it hurt or anything.

Sasha absolutely loved the sand, and Henry had to scold her every few paces to stop playing in the tunnels and scaring the poor creatures (short black things with seriously long claws) out of their homes. Eventually they came across a hole in the ground - based on what they'd been told by the locals, this was Relic Castle. "Huh. Think this is the place? Guess they were right about it not looking like an actual castle."

"Only one way to find out!" Sasha dove down the steps, and Henry followed a bit behind her. He wasn't too worried about Sasha getting too far ahead of him, but he also hadn't counted on there being eight other people already in the room. Five girls, three guys, and a whole slew of pokemon. He walked in on a bug-type pokemon of some sort introducing himself as Erich, a boy (girl?) next to him as Rene (...was that a male or female name?), another girl as Iris, and the vulpix next to her as Kit. He noted the bug used a male pronoun for Rene, and was relieved that that could avoid some awkwardness later. But... 'can all of you float?' was a weird question to ask.

"Float...?" He noted a few people glancing toward a very tall boy with very bright clothing. It took Henry an additional few seconds to registered that they boy literally was floating. Henry stared for a few more seconds, then his mouth twitched into a huge grin. "Dude, that is awesome! Hey, looks like I'm in the right place then, huh? My name's Henry, just caught a ferry over from Hoenn. Uh, are all of you guys here because you're following weird voices you heard in a dream, plus your pokemon who just started talking one day...?" He paused, realizing how ridiculous that sounded. "...Please say it's not just me. Hey Sasha, come over here and introduce yourself!"

He looked over at Sasha, who was harassing an odd-looking geodude. It seemed Henry wasn't the only to take note of the geodude's odd appearance. "Are you a geodude?" Sasha gushed, wagging her floofy tail. "You look like one except, like, way cooler! I love your little spiky hair! It's kinda like mine! All rocky and spiky and stuff. Can I touch it?" She reached a paw out hesitantly, but then seemed to second-guess herself. "Actually, I might mess it up. Love it though." She winked at him and made a sharp turn and a few quick bounds to jump up on Henry's shoulder. "Hello everyone!" She waved to the room at large. "My name's Sasha!" She patted Henry's shoulder. "And your name is Regirock now, didn't you get the memo?"

Henry chuckled. "Yeah, sure." Sasha giggled good-naturedly as well, neither of them realizing any deeper meaning to the name bestowed on Henry by the two voices in his dreams.
 

Schade

Metallic Wonder
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Alexander Brennan and Rocky
Zapdos
Nimbasa City, Unova

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"Alexander, why have you not met with the other chosen." Zapdos more said, rather than asked. he was definitely dreaming again, and the giant bird was hanging in the sky in front of him, looking at him with a hint of annoyance.

"Hey, I got to the creepy castle, but there weren|t anynoe else here" Alex said, waving his arms. Though he likely would have falen asleep regardless of how many people were at the castle, it was a good excuse that no one was actually there. He wondered for how long he had slept. He had seen some Ghost-Type Pokemon feasting on his dream from time to time, but they all disappeared when Zapdos appeared. "Guess i'll wake up then..", Alex mumbled with a sour face. He pinched his arm, anticipating tom wake up. Nothing.

"Why doesn't this work? It always works!" Alex said as he pinched his arm even more. Zapdos rolled his eyes and began charging up with electric power. "Don't worry, I'll deal with this" he said with a sigh. Them, Zapdos released an electric jolt that struck Alex right in the face

And then he woke.

"..mm e BLEHEUHE" he yelled as he waved his arms, waking up. Oh. He was back at the castle. He stood up while rubbing his eyes. "Oy, Rocky. You up yet?" he asked, still rubbing his eyes. He then adjusted his sight and stared right into the face of another person. He jumped a few steps back while releasing a surprised yell. Rocky sighed. The girl in question had long light brown hair with green eyes. She was accompanied by a tiny Fletchling which seemed as energic as Alex was himself. She looked bored.

There were other people there as well. A magenta clad girl with a rather odd Ekans was there as well, talking with another girl, dark blonde, with a pink, round pokemon alex hadn't seen before. There were other people there too, all accompanied by pokemon, just like Alex was. Was this the others Zapdos had mentioned? Had to be. Not everyone gets the idea of hanging out at the Relic Castle in the middle of a desert in the middle of the night. The other people in the room seemed to be occupied with a guy in a rather eccentric outfit floating a few feet off the ground.

He skipped over to where the other people were watching the guy. "Hey there I'm Alex sorry i was asleep i was the frst one to arriwe here so i decided to just nap are you guys the people i heard about in the dream i'm so excited right now!" he babbled on and on until he was short on breath. then, he stretched out and released a huge yawn. "Yes. Hello." Rocky said politely while trying to avoid a rather excited puppy-like Pokemon Alex hadn't seen before.

"Are you a Geodude? You look like one except, like, way cooler! I love your little spiky hair! It's kinda like mine! All rocky and spiky and stuff. Can I touch it?" the pokemon asked. it was very energic, and reached out a paw to touch the magnetic flux on Rocky's head. He looked positively uncomfortable, and emitted a weak jolt of electricity to the pokemon, which made it stop harassing him. "Actually, I might mess it up. Love it though."it said before bouncing back to its trainer.. "Hello everyone!" She waved to the room at large. "My name's Sasha!" She patted the guys shoulder. "And your name is Regirock now, didn't you get the memo?" The guy was huge. Like, that guy who spends more time lifting at the gym than spending time with his family-huge. Though Alex had a muscular pyhsique himself, he had a scrawny figure by nature. He glanced at the guy, Henry was it? Damn. He's huge. No wonder girls fell for people like that.

"Hey, hey hey hey. Hello, yo!" he said. Alex was surprisingly energic all of a sudden. The nap likely helped out a lot. "My name is Alex. Alex Brennan, yep!". He grinned towards the guy and his Pokemon, Sasha was it? "This here is Rocky. And yes, he's a Geodude I met when vacationing in Alola. Rocky nodded in response. Nice to meet all of you. Should we do like, an introduction round? Keep this good thing rolling? No? Let's do it! How many more of us are there? You guys were led here by the dream too? whoaa..." he was interrupted by Rocky. "Alex. What have we talked about regarding your energy levels?". He was right. This happened more often lately due to his eectric powers.

"Sorry people, I'm just so excited!" Alex said, taking off his hat. He then proceeded to run his hands through his hair quickly, and sparks went flying. He then focused on the electricity within him, and released a strong discharge into the ground. He used to do this once his energy levels were through the roof, and somehow it helped. "Wheew. That's better." he said in a totally different, more relaxed tone. He put his hat back on, and Rocky chuckled.
 

Treeconator11

Ultranumb
Adrien Delano & Ken
Yveltal
Courmarine City Harbor

"Wow, we're going to the same region? What a coincidence! I have to go to Relic Castle myself because... um... I have to meet up with someone...."

Adrien sighed, it was clear that his plan was already in shambles before it had even begun. Lorenzo was going to the exact same place that he was, now there was no way he could ditch him. Still, the way he mumbled out that last sentence was suspicious. It sounded like even he wasn't sure about it, but before Adrien could contemplate that, Lorenzo switched gears again, and started talking

"I'm sure you're going somewhere far more interesting than me. Hey! Maybe we can chat on the ferry! We can exchange phone numbers, and become BFFs!" Adrien normally would have tried giving out a fake number, but he could tell this boy was pretty perceptive despite how inane he acted. A fake number would only end in an upset Lorenzo and an irritated Adrien. Still, he grinned as he prepared to exchange numbers, that's what caller ID was for. But yet again, Lorenzo was off on another track entirely, and looked at the man Adrien had pointed out earlier. "You know, I think it's rude to leave that other guy out. The more the merrier, right!" He then stood up, and waved frantically to the guy. "Hey mister! The one with the Trapinch! You wanna come over here and join us?! There's nobody here but us!"

Adrien was composed on the outside, but on the inside was falling into despair. What he'd planned to be a quick voyage into Unova had turned into a massive 3-way party, with him as an unwilling participant. First Lorenzo, with his sparkles and happiness, decided to forcibly end his solitude, and now he was inviting others. To top it all off, Adrien wouldn't even be able to ditch the kid after the boat ride! If this guy said he was going to the castle too, then Adrien knew today was going to be his unlucky day.

Unfortunately for him, his prediction was proven right. "Name's Issac," the man said, giving a small wave of his arm, "Nice to meet you guys." He paused, leaving an awkward silence that didn't last long enough for Adrien, and spoke up once more. "So, I'm waiting for the ride to Unova. Where are you two heading too?" Lorenzo's large smile somehow grew even brighter, and Adrien was just left feeling irritated. Somehow, Lorenzo had managed to find someone who needed to go exactly where he did. Ken was no help either, as he seemed just as excited as Lorenzo did about making new friends. Luckily, Adrien was saved by an unlikely source. "Hey, the boat's here" he said.

Lorenzo and Issac both turned and saw the boat approaching the harbor. It was a simple ferry, with many seats on top for viewing, and room inside for sitting down. It was a rather large boat, but it moved with an impressive speed for a boat its size. The sailors on the ship seemed hasty in their desire to get back, anchoring the ship in port and securing it with a surprising speed. The three boys quickly got up and walked over to ship, ready to board it and begin their journey.

The boat trip was surprisingly pleasant, not that Adrien was willing to admit it. Lorenzo had basically forced Adrien to stay above deck, and Issac was good either way, though he seemed to want to avoid conflict more than actually having any real opinion. During the trip, Issac and Lorenzo exchanged small talk, while Adrien mostly admired the scenery. The sea air was both salty and warm, and the sun bright glow gave the waves a sparkle unlike any Adrien had ever seen. Adrien had actually begun to grab his camera when Lorenzo had seen it, and decided to ask about it.

"So Adrien, you take photos? Maybe you could take a few of me." He said teasingly. Adrien sighed a bit, then said "No way kid. I don't do people photos. I only do nature photos. Its why I'm traveling to Unova in the first place. I plan on going places like Relic Castle to get good shots." He'd decided to lie about his reasoning for going to Relic Castle, as he knew the others would think he was crazy if he said voices appeared in his dreams to tell him to go. Adrien wanted privacy, but making a fool out of himself wasn't a good way to go about it. To Adrien's surprise, Lorenzo didn't get annoyed at all, instead getting a curious glint in his eyes. "In that case," the small boy said, "let me see, you must have some great shots!" Adrien was split between being annoyed and being flattered. His friends had been nice, but hadn't been too interested in his photography. From Lorenzo however, he sensed an actual interest. Even Issac seemed interested, even if he looked like he didn't want to press the issue. Adrien decided he'd show them a few, which quickly turned into many.

Eventually, the boat arrived at Driftveil city, and the three departed the boat, officially entering the Unova region. "So," Adrien said, "I guess we should head out now. Sad to see you go." He said, before beginning to walk away.
 

lilcipher

bi & ready 2 di
;486;
Hekas Collins & Mur
Regigigas
Dewford Town, Hoenn
;293;​

The first thing she hears is the loud squawks and cries of Wingull outside her window. For a second, she is jarred, heart racing a slight bit, before remembering; that’s right. It’s the mating pair that circle around every year to raise another nest. Each time they make their home in the alcove under the gutter above her bedroom window. She sighs, and raises her head up slightly. She can see Mur’s bed, nestled in the space under her desk, from her own bed. Mur is awake as well, and seems to have been for a while. The Pokemon is silent, just watching; but not in a creepy or malicious way, instead more protective or motherly. For a minute all is quiet, the Wingull having settled down, and the girl and her Pokemon continue to stare at each other. Mur knows better than to speak first, it seems to make her ward more disturbed.

“Hey,” the girl finally whispers.

“Hey,” the Whismur responds, a small smile quirking up at the corners of her mouth. “Gonna get ready for the day?” The girl responds with only a nod, finally pushing herself upright and sighing as she stretches. She surveys her room, noting the desk, the dresser, the bookshelf by the closet. The nightstand holding her phone and radio and fan. Everything is in its place and everything was how it always was, and always had been.

As if nothing had changed.

The girl swings her legs, over the side of the bed. It only takes two steps to her dresser. She pulls on her clothes in the correct order: undergarments, then pants, then shirt. She grabs her jewelry from the top of the dresser, placing rainbow bracelets on each wrist and a beaded necklace around her neck. She opens the first drawer to the right and grabs a pair of socks. She stuffs them in her pocket though, planning to put them on downstairs before she heads out. Socks go on immediately before shoes. With another three steps, she has reached the bedroom door, and opens it for her companion. Once Mur has walked through and out into the hallway, the girl does as well. One step into the hallway, and she closes the door behind her. Across the from her room, the laundry room door is open as well, so she closes that one, too. Six steps have been taken so far, not counting the ones she took while shimmying into her jeggings. She walks an extra four into the bathroom, convieniently beside her bedroom. The girl faces the mirror and takes a hard look.

Her name is Hekas Collins, and she is seventeen years old. In three days it will be her eighteenth birthday, and with it comes the knowledge of what her life will become.

Hekas breaks eye contact with her reflection to reach into the lowermost drawer of the bathroom counter for a hairbrush. She brushes the long blonde strands until they are free from tangles, and then sets to braiding. It takes a few minutes to get a good braid going, but she’s had practice so she finishes with ease, flipping the braid to the side. Her bangs still fall out a bit, as they do. Too short for the braid but too long for her face.

After hairbrushing comes a more detailed assessment of her face. She checks for new blemishes, popping a couple of small whiteheads that have appeared overnight. The scabs she has right now aren’t that easy to flake off so she leaves them be. The seven symmetical dots that mark her face are still there, as they always will be. Hekas reaches into another drawer and pulls out her coverup, covering the best of what she can. The deeper scars are still noticeable. The makeup barely masks the natural birthmarks. But it makes a little bit of a difference, enough to suit her own desires. When she is done, she shuts the bathroom door behind her.

She continues down the hallway, taking a right as it opens up to the main area of the house. The living room is conjoined with the kitchen via an open archway. She walks into the kitchen and sits at a stool at the granite island that functions as her family’s table. Eleven more steps taken, twenty-one total. Another woman stands across from Hekas at the stovetop, pushing something around in a pan. When she turns around to face Hekas, she smiles.

“Good morning, bug. Sleep well?” She leans down for a moment to pat Mur on the head, handing off a small piece of what looks like scrambled egg to the little pink friend. Hekas takes a good look at the woman, smiling herself. The other woman is rounder than her. They have the same long blonde hair but different eyes. Hekas has dimples when she smiles, but the woman does not. There faces are level to one another even though the woman is standing and Hekas is sitting. But they are so very alike.

“Mhm, slept fine. No dreams, no worries.” Hekas isn’t lying. She hasn’t had a single dream since exactly eleven nights ago. It soothes her mother, whose smile softens.

“That’s good. Want eggs? I have to warn you, though, I burnt ‘em a lil’ bit. Got distracted by the newest episode of Vikings and Valkyries.”

“A proper Viking woman wouldn’t burn breakfast for her family,” Hekas teases.

“She would if they were giving her attitude,” her mother counters. They both kid. This is part of their dynamic. Mur watches out of the sliding glass door as they talk.

“No thanks, Mum. I’ll just take cereal.” Her mother shrugs and reaches into a cabinet, grabbing a bowl and silverware and sliding it onto the island, a box of corn flakes and a jug of milk following soon after. Hekas says thanks, and makes herself breakfast.

After breakfast, Hekas heads back into the bathroom (thirty-one steps now) to brush her teeth. After that, she makes sure she looks alright one last time, running her eyes down her own body. She nods to no one in particular, and heads back out, down the hallway, past the kitchen, and into the front room. She retrieves her shoes from a small cubby in the front room’s closet, and walks to the couch to put them on. As she ties the laces, carefully measuring their distance to the ground, her mother speaks.

“Where are you off to already, missy?”

“Just the beach, Ma. Mur and I gotta get our exercise in, after all.” Hekas replies as she finishes off the knots and stands back up. Mur walks over in the cute semi-waddle that all Whismur walk in, standing by Hekas’ side and looking back at her mother. Hekas’ mother keeps quiet for a few seconds before nodding.

“Alright. Just let me know if anything comes up, okay?” Hekas’ mother worries about her. She knows that something is off, but there’s no use pestering the girl for the answer. She’ll talk when she needs to. Hekas smiles, trying to assure her mother.

“Of course, Ma. I’ll be back by noon.” And with that, she grabs her satchel off of the coatrack, opening the door for Mur to hop through first. As soon as the Whismur passes through, Hekas takes one look back at her mother and smiles again before shutting the front door behind her.

She has taken fifty-three steps throughout her home this morning. The count resets itself as she exits the house and starts to head down the familiar path she always takes to the beach. Her smile drops once she can no longer see her house, saying nothing as Mur stays ever by her side the whole way.

Hekas and her small family live within a thirty-minute walk to the coast line, their small single story house nestled in the more suburban area of the city. The streets of Dewford have small brushings of sand on them, some of the older cars on the street and driveways slightly rusted due to the oxidation from the sea air. It’s a busy day, as people are out shopping and taking their own walks. Hekas notices a small group of tourists, or maybe trainers, heading in the general direction of the gym, further within the city. As she walks past them, she smiles, though balks on the inside. She’s not ready for that kind of life yet. She’s not ready for the changes that will come.

Within thirty minutes, as expected, Hekas reaches the beach. Children are playing in the waves, parents watching nearby from towels laid out. A couple walks by further down the beach, swinging their hands together as their fingers are entwined. Hekas doesn’t venture down to the sand herself, instead opting to sit down on a bench at the edge of the boardwalk. Mur offers her arms up to her, and Hekas lifts her up and sets her down beside her on the bench. Another five minutes go by in silence, the two staring at the ocean and people-watching as passer-bys venture past. They wait until no one is within earshot to start talking.

“Do you know anything else yet? About the Hall of Legends?” Hekas says, keeping her eyes forward and voice quiet. Mur turns her small body towards her partner.

“I’m afraid not. They haven’t told me anything else so far.”

“Who’s ‘they’?” Hekas finally meets Mur’s strange eyes, looking down at her friend.

“I know about as much as you do about them, doll. Only that they’re something powerful and ancient.” Mur looks back out to the sea. “It’s safe to assume that they’re legendaries themselves, you know? Who else would know about your…” She turns back. “Birthright.” Hekas sighs, dropping her head to her chest and squeezing her eyes shut. She scratches at an old scab on one of her fingers, the one she got when she accidently broke a glass cup. She just reached out, hand wrapping around the cup, and before she could even lift it to her lips, it shattered. The glass was thick, too, her mother had bought the set of them years ago when she was a clumsy child who often dropped everything. She was lucky she didn’t slice through her hand entirely. She had barely grasped it.

“Where is this power coming from?” Hekas whispered, speaking not only to Mur but to whatever beings were watching her and dictating her fate. She felt Mur’s nubby hand touch her own, keeping her from irritating the cut even more and providing comfort. Hekas opened her eyes and looked down at Mur.

“I believe everything will be revealed soon, darling. They’re just waiting until…” Mur trailed off, small smile faltering for a bit before coming back as strong as ever. “I can’t believe you’re going to be an adult soon. I still remember when you found me in Granite Cave like it was just last week.” She pats Hekas’ hand. “We should start planning, you know? For the party. I know your mother has plans already, but maybe we can invite some friends from school? I know you’ve been meaning to get back in touch with them. I’m sure Victoria would love to come.” That’s enough to make Hekas blush, and she chuckles a bit.

“Yeah, I guess. I’ll ask Mom if it’s alright when we get back home. I just wanna stay here for a bit longer. Is that alright with you, Mur?” Hekas looks at her Pokemon, who nods.

“Sure, sweetheart. Take your time. I’ll still be here.” And with that the two resume their gazing at the ocean, at what lies beyond their little island. Hekas is so grateful for Mur. She really helps a lot, and her sudden ability to understand her is the least-jarring part of this prophecy predicament. She doesn’t know where she would be without her little pal. But the thoughts of gratitude aren’t enough to keep her upbeat. In three days, something is going to happen. Things are going to change.

And Hekas is not going to like it.
 
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Hydrangea

ask me about my ocs pls
Staff member
Moderator
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Erin Atropine & Orochi | Olivia Manami & Sylvie
Nihilego | Shaymin
Relic Castle

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Olivia blinked, the girl she had initially spoken to had replied to her in a rather raspy and gruff voice. She was rather vague, claiming she was just waiting for something and not bothering to say what that "something" was. Before Olivia could speak up a Pokeball burst open and a small bird Pokemon landed on the girl's head. “OHHHH! Fern, there are other people here! They’ve got Pokemon with them! Hey, hey, do you think they could be the ‘others’ you were talking about?” Olivia was shocked at first but let a small shy smile form upon her face.

"Oh, your Pokemon can talk too? You must be one of the "others" we're looking for!" Exclaimed Olivia excitedly. "I'm Olivia, and my little berry friend here is Sylvie." Sylvie gave a small bow as her name was said, looking up and smiling at the girl and her Pokemon. Olivia looked behind her to see Erin looking slightly uneasy, she decided it was best to let the girl introduce herself instead when she felt she was ready.

Erin glanced up, seeing Olivia talk to the girl that was present. She was quite friendly and easygoing, it almost made Erin sick to her stomach. Why was she so nice? Had she not first-hand seen how truly cruel and unforgiving the world could be? Or was she just that naive. Whatever the case, Erin feared that people would take advantage of such a gentle and kind soul. She approached the two, standing moderately behind Olivia.

"I'm Erin." She stated without much emotion in her voice. "This snake here is Orochi, she's my pretty cool partner that puts up with my garbage." Continued Erin. Orochi smiled and gave a very simple "Charmed." in her gruff, masculine voice.

Olivia was about to speak to the girl further when more faces began to appear in the Relic Castle, soon it wasn't just her, Erin, the girl she was speaking to who she assumed was named Fern, and the sleeping boy. The people who arrived were a boy and girl, they approached the small gathered group and the boy began to float in front of them, a large grin plastered across his face. "The name's Ivan Vincent." He said, giving a small bow before gesturing to the Sableye beside him. "And this is my buddy, Vera." The Sableye gave a small wave and greeted the group in a raspy voice. The other girl was next, she walked towards everyone and gave a small speech to introduce herself. "Very well," she said before she gave a small bow of her head with her arm against her chest. "I am Gwendoline Gunther, and this is my partner, Bedi." He gave his own form of hello, causing Sylvie to smile and shake with excitement.

"Look Olive! More chosen people! Their talking Pokemon give it away." Exclaimed the small berry Pokemon. Olivia attempted to hush her Pokemon but sighed as the berry bounced around and rushed over to the other two Pokemon.

"Uhm... Hi Ivan and Gwendoline. I'm Olivia, b-but you can call me Olive if you'd like." She paused, gesturing to Sylvie. "My little bouncing friend there is Sylvie." Sylvie bounced around happily near the Sawk and Sableye. She could practically hear Erin behind her rolling her eyes, she sighed and looked towards the entrance once again, only to see more people arriving. "Oh man... so many people." She thought to herself, nervous about being in a large group.

Erin, oblivious to the further people coming through the entrance introduced herself in much the same way she had before. "Erin, snake's Orochi." She replied gruffly, she hated meeting new people. They were always so judgemental for no reason, they didn't know her so why did they care so much about what she looked like or make snide comments behind her back.

The next, rather abrupt two to come in were a girl being dragged by a Grubbin with an odd metal arm attached to it's back and a boy. “Ladies, gentlemen,” the Grubbin began in as gruff a voice as he could muster, “I bet you’re all wondering why I’ve gathered you here today.” The Grubbin stated, before looking over the small group that had gathered. He continued “Oh man, your faces! I’m just joshing all y’all. You all must be the others that Rene and Iris here have dreamed about~! I’m Erich, the person lost in a daze of science when not glaring at me is Rene Keffer, this girl-” He held up Iris’ hand with his claw. “-who we met in the desert is Iris Fenix, and the fox who is also glaring at me is named Kit! Can all of you float? I know Rene can’t, he just is irresistible to bugs and gets squicked out by the Internet for some reason. Don’t know what Iris does but she seems cool. So, what are all your names?” Olivia blinked, while Erin rolled her eyes at the whole spectacle.

"I'm Olivia!" She exclaimed, again, much too happily; only to have Sylvie pipe up from near the Sableye and Sawk with a "And I'm Sylvie!" The Bounsweet gave a little hop to signify it was her that was speaking. Erin rolled her eyes, once again giving only her name curtly; Olivia could see that Orochi was beginning to look slightly agitated at her trainer's rude behaviour. Before anyone could say anything further, another boy approached, with a cute Rockruff in tow.

"Hey, looks like I'm in the right place then, huh? My name's Henry, just caught a ferry over from Hoenn. Uh, are all of you guys here because you're following weird voices you heard in a dream, plus your pokemon who just started talking one day...?" Olivia looked slightly baffled, he seemed like he was pretty straight to the point with most things; she had to admit she kind of admired that. Meanwhile Erin, thought that was the stupidest thing anyone here could have done, what if this wasn't the group he was actually looking for and he had just made himself look positively idiotic. Erin sighed, moving forward slightly to introduce herself before the boy's Rockruff jumped on his shoulder and introduced herself as Sasha, while saying her trainer should be called Regirock.

Erin was fully ready to finally disclose her 'identity' as stated by the dream, but she was interrupter once more by the initial boy who was having a nap waking up and introducing himself as well. "My name is Alex. Alex Brennan, yep!" He seemed, excitable. Which was probably an understatement for the boy. His Geodude reminded him calmly and flatly to calm down, causing the boy to attempt to wind down while sparks flew from his hair.

Erin was finally given a moment of calm to speak, "I'm Erin. But judging by everyone here we're here for the same reason." She looked around "The voices have called me Nihilego." She finished speaking and looked towards Olivia who walked up somewhat shyly. Her friendly, over-excited nature seemed to diminish after seeing so many people around her.

"I'm Olivia..." She began, not wanting to draw all the eyes to her. "T-the voices called me Shaymin." She backed up to be behind Erin, not wanting anyone to recognise her too well as a Manami. Orochi and Sylvie further introduced themselves and as the group quieted down, they all waited to see if anyone else arrived.
 
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Monster Guy

Fairy type Trainer
:646:
Kyle Uriah Remington and Frosty
Kyurem
Village Bridge

;215;​

Barely a sentence into his novel, and Frosty was already getting himself into trouble. Kyle peeked up from his book to see his Sneasel in a fight with a small Gible. While most Pokemon Trainers would have ran over there and stopped the fighting, Kyle just sat there and watched the two Pokemon battle. They seemed to be enjoying themselves anyway. The Gible belonged to some white haired girl dressed entirely in black. She would have garnered strange looks from the people back in Lacunosa Town for sure, not in a good way.

What was strange though, was that Kyle was able to understand every word her Gible was saying. After the Gible retaliated, Frosty attacked back with Ice Shard and Icicle Crash. Resulting in a very upset Gible, who was now covered in ice.

"Hey! No fair, killjoy! I was about to win!" The Gible protested.

Frosty crossed his arms smugly and laughed, though he did have to tend to his wounds a bit. That Gible wasn't exactly helpless after all. Kyle couldn't help smirking. He was the one that had trained that Sneasel to battle after all. He then looked back down at his book while the girl gave Frosty a noogie that he seemed to enjoy.

It didn't take long before the girl approached Kyle, and he felt someone punch him on the shoulder. He didn't flinch, or look up for that matter. "Hey, dude...is this talking rascal yours?" She asked.

Talking? Well, that confirmed she could understand Frosty as well. Was this girl one of the others the dream?

"He's pretty awesome, y'know," she added, placing the Sneasel on the bench, next to Kyle. Just then, he heard the sound of the arriving ferry's horn. Kyle was relieved that the ferry had finally gotten here, and now he wouldn't have to speak to this girl. He wasn't in the mood for a conversation.

"Dude, you waiting for that?" the girl asked, as she gestured towards the approaching the ferry. Kyle had to resist the urge to roll his eyes and make a sarcastic comment. It's not like people just sit in the harbor if they weren't waiting for a ferry. "Cause if you are, then you better get your ass up." She then strode towards a motorcycle, which he assumed was hers.

Kyle shut his book, and stood up, while Frosty jumped on to his trainer's shoulders. "It's about damn time..." He muttered.

"By the way, the name's Ally, and this rascal over here is Gav," she said with a grin as she passed by the bench once more.

"You could also call me 'Awesome'," the Gible sitting on the motorcycle's handlebars, added.

Frosty stuck out his tongue, and blew a raspberry. "Oh please. If any one is awesome here, it's me. I did kick you're ass just now!"

Kyle just stared at her motorcycle for a moment. He always wanted one of his own, but his parents would never let him get one. They were barely comfortable with his first Pokemon being a Sneasel. He was sure they would have made the fact that he owned a motorcycle into some huge scandal. Kyle had made it one of goals to get one of his own after he turned eighteen, and fleed the walls of Lacunosa for good.

Kyle was interupted from his thoughts when Frosty spoke up. "Dude, if you're not going to say something, I will." The Sneasel pointed to Kyle and then to himself. "He's Kyle. I'm Frosty. Not the best name in the world, but whatever."

Kyle rubbed his temples. "I was fucking ten when I caught you..."

The Sneasel didn't respond to his trainer. and continued on. "You'll have to excuse him. He's a little... icy, if you know what I mean. He's not so bad once you get to know him."

"That's it! You've done enough talking." At this point, Kyle stormed off, and boarded the ferry.

---

It wan't a particularly long ride on the ferry. They were still in the same region, after all. Kyle stayed quiet the entire time, while Frosty continued to fight with Gav.

Once the ferry pulled into Castleia City's dock, Kyle grabbed Frosty, and took off towards the desert, in spite of Frosty's protests. Kyle didn't bother to check if the girl was following him or not.

---

"Who decided the desert was a good meeting place?!" Kyle shouted while walking through the desert looking for the Relic Castle. Kyle hated the heat. His icy powers didn't even work properly when the temperature was this high! The fact that the desert kept whipping sand in their faces didn't do much to help Kyle mood.

"Yeah, no kiddin'." Retorted Frosty.

Regardless of how much they both hated it, the two kept pressing onwards. After trekking through the sand for what felt like way too long in Kyle's opinion, they finally came across a hole in the ground. From what he had read in various books about the subject, the Relic Castle had been buried by the desert sand over the course of time. These ruins were apparently all that was left of the castle. "Finally. we're here." Kyle muttered as he made their way down the steps.

"Let's hope this blazing sun can't reach us down there!" Frosty commented.

Both Frosty and Kyle were exhausted once they arrived. Kyle noted several others also waiting, along with their Pokemon. Could they be more of the others too? Kyle didn't really care at this point. Kyle just sat down on the floor, while Frosty sat on his lap. The blonde young man then produced a hail cloud over his head, an in attempt to cool himself and Frosty off. It was in fact, cooler down where they were, since the sun couldn't reach them.

---

716.png

Lorenzo Amoré and Fiorentina
Xerneas
Courmarine City, Kalos
764.png

The other man responded by coming over to where Adrien and Lorenzo were sitting. "Name's Isaac," the man said, giving a small wave of his arm, "Nice to meet you guys." He paused, leaving an awkward silence that didn't last too long before continuing. "So, I'm waiting for the ride to Unova. Where are you two heading too?"

Lorenzo's large smile grew even brighter. "Wow! What a coincidence! We're headed to Unova too! Looks like the three of us are going to be travelling buddies! Yay!" He exclaimed. "I'm Lorenzo, and this cute guy next to me is Adrien."

Before the conversation could continue any further, Adrien had signaled that the boat they were waiting for had finally arrived. Lorenzo turned to see the large ferry had in fact in arrived. "Oh goodie!" The boy cheered as he got out of his seat, and gestured for the other two boys to follow him.

Lorenzo didn't know what the other two thought, but he rather enjoyed the trip. Lorenzo had to tell Adrien to stay above deck so they could all get to know each other, and Isaac seemed cool with it. During the trip, Isaac and Lorenzo talked, while Adrien just stared at the sea. At least Isaac was much more social than Adrien is. Meanwhile, their three Pokemon seemed to be talking and playing together. Lorenzo didn't pay much attention to what they were doing.

He noticed Adrien grabbing his camera, and decided to ask about it. "So Adrien, you take photos? Maybe you could take a few of me." He teased.

Adrien sighed, then said "No way kid. I don't do people photos. I only do nature photos. Its why I'm traveling to Unova in the first place. I plan on going places like Relic Castle to get good shots."

What's with the kid line? Lorenzo thought. I'm pretty sure I'm the same age as you. Still, Lorenzo kept the smile on his face. "In that case," he replied, "let me see, you must have some great shots!" From that point, Lorenzo and Isaac sat around looking at Adrien's collection of photos. There were a number of gorgeous shots in there, and Lorenzo rather impressed. "Wow! You're really good at this!

Eventually, the boat arrived at Driftveil city, and the three departed the boat, officially entering the Unova region. At that point, Fiorentina wrapped herself around her trainer's neck. "So," Adrien said, "I guess we should head out now. Sad to see you go." He said, before beginning to walk away.

Lorenzo smiled, and grabbed both Isaac and Adrien by the hand. "Not so fast. You're not getting away from me that easily!" Lorenzo said with a giggle. "Come on, let's walk and talk. Don't you find it a little too coincidential that we all happen to be headed to the exact same place at the same time? You guys will probably think I'm nuts, but you probably already think that anyway. Haha! Anyway, let me tell you the real reason I'm headed to Relic Castle!"

From there, the three boys walked from Driftveil, through Nimbassa, and on to the desert. Lorenzo talked about the dream he had, and his real reason for coming. He even showed them a Dazzling Gleam to prove he wasn't just making up stories. Adrien did not seem to appreciate this. Much to his surprise, he found out his two new companions were going to Relic Castle for the exact same reason. It made sense, The dream did mention there being others. "See? I knew this was too much of crazy coincidence! Heh, this sort of thing only happens in movies!" They also found out that they could understand each other's Pokemon. From what he could tell, Adrien's Deino was a lot different from Adrien himself. His Deino had a lot in common with Fiorentina, then how Deino's are usually depicted.

Getting through the desert proved to be the real challenge of this trip. With the desert heat, and constant sandstorms whipping them in the face. "Ugh, I'm not dressed for this!" Lorenzo complained. He couldn't tell for sure, there was no way Adrien could be comfortable with this. He was wearing entirely dark colors, and that wasn't exactly good in this desert heat. Isaac on the other hand, seemed to have no problems with the desert for some odd reason.

Eventually, the trio finally came across a hole in the ground where the Relic Castle was. Lorenzo breathed a sigh of relief that they finally made it. Then, while still holding Isaac and Adrien's hands, he went down the steps, and into the castle.

Despite being tired from trekking through the desert, Lorenzo was as full of energy as ever. He entered the room walking arm in arm with Isaac and Adrien. Upon arriving, he found several others waiting for them. What made Lorenzo really excited though, was that among the others present, there were several attractive men. This was Lorenzo's lucky day! "Ciao everyone!" Lorenzo introduced as he let go of Adrien and Isaac's hands, and waved to everyone present. "I'm Lorenzo Amoré! I guess you must be the others the dream voices were talking about! Hehe. So many men, so little time!"

Fiorentina then unhooked herself from around Lorenzo's neck, and started happily floating around the room. Admiring all the people and Pokemon gathered within it. "Hi! I'm Fiorentina!" She said to no one in particular, just anybody that would listen.

Meanwhile, Lorenzo went up to each and every guy present, and spoke to each of them. First, there was a boy dressed very similarly to himself wearing a colorful outfit that had pink and blue in it, among others. He was rather tall, even by Lorenzo's standards, and he was floating in the air like it was nothing. "Dude, really? You're already tall enough, do you really need to be floating too?" He joked as he stretched his arms up, and started jumping trying to reach the floating boy, but with no success. "Hmph, no fair! Get down to our level... Er... My level!"

Next, there was a boy with shoulder length black hair, and wearing glasses, accompanied by a Grubbin wearing a mechanical arm. The guy had a nerdy look, but his features were pretty. Almost feminine so to speak, but Lorenzo could still tell this person was male. Lorenzo walked up to him next, and kiseed him on the cheek. "Well, well, well. Aren't you pretty!" Lorenzo said with a giggle. He had a feeling this guy would probably be embarrassed by that gesture. Nerdy types were usually that way, and boys were so cute when they got flustered.

Up next, there was a cute muscular guy with a Rockruff that Lorenzo knew he had to talk to. Despite his size, the man didn't seem all that intimidating. "Well hello there big boy!" He greeted while shaking the guy's hand, then kissing it. "Did you just get back from shooting the 'Hot Guys with Baby Pokemon' calendar?" Lorenzo giggled, then gave the Rock type puppy he was with a friendly pat on the head. "You're little puppy is so cute!"

Next their was a cute boy, with hair that was the colors of the rainbow. Lorenzo wished he were allowed to dye his hair a different color, but his mom said he had to wait until he was eighteen, like his sister who had lavender streaks in her hair. Lorenzo went uo to him, and gave him a hug. "Wow, you're cute!" He exclaimed. "Love the hair color. It suits you." He smiled, and gave a thumbs up gesture.

Finally, there was a good looking blonde guy sitting there with a Sneasel on his lap. He had a hail cloud over his head, and the guy looked rather grumpy. That was nothing he couldn't fix with a little friendliness, Lorenzo thought.

:646:
Kyle Uriah Remington and Frosty
Kyurem
Village Bridge

;215;​

Kyle watched as the over dressed little blonde boy went around talking to every guy in the room, and prayed he wouldn't come to him next. He glared angrily at him, trying to scare him, but that didn't seem to deter this Lorenzo boy at all.

The boy skipped up to him, took his hand, shook it, and then kissed it. He probably didn't get any closer because he didn't want to get pelted by the hail cloud that was over Kyle.

Before the boy could actually say anything, Kyle quickly pulled his hand away, then gave the kid an icy punch on the shoulder. Leaving behind a thin layer of frost. "Do. Not. Touch. Me!" Kyle warned. This wasn't the first time somebody had violated his personal space, and Kyle didn't like it one bit.

Lorenzo rubbed his shoulder where Kyle had punched, and left behind ice. "Ow! Well gee, someone is a grumpy pants today!" The boy teased.

Kyle glared at him. "Kid, it is too fucking hot for you're Taurosshit..."

The boy narrowed his eyes, and stamped his foot. "FYI, I'm your age. Just because I'm small and adorable doesn't mean I'm a kid!"

Kyle merely rolled his eyes, scoffed, and ignored the kid.

Frosty glared at his trainer, then spoke up on Kyle's behalf. "Yeah, you'll have to excuse Kyle over here. He is a bit of grumpy pants. Especially now after crossing through the desert. He and heat don't get along if ya know what I mean."

The boy didn't seem all that surprised by the talking Sneasel. After getting the ice off his shoulder, Lorenzo giggled and patted Frosty on the head. "Well, at least your Pokemon is nice."

Kyle just sighed frustratedly. Why did Frosty feel the need to speak on his behalf? Now this kid would never leave him alone.
 
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lilcipher

bi & ready 2 di
;486;
Hekas Collins and Mur
Regigigas
Dewford Town, Hoenn
;293;​

Hekas sits in darkness, darkness that surrounds and engulfs her. The ground below her is a strange mixture of both dusty and damp, like fresh clay dug from the earth. She can make out different bumps in the ground, like runes lining the floor. Hekas doesn’t know Braille, but that doesn’t stop her from understanding it. They spell out strange instructions. Hold still for two minutes. Walk close to the walls clockwise. Stay still again. She decides to follow these instructions, not thinking about these actions but merely doing them, as if another force is guiding her along. Once she has remained still for the second time in a row, a sudden light appears from above. It’s blinding, like looking into the sun itself, it somehow it doesn’t hurt when she stares directly into it.

“Regigigas,” a strong male voice booms. “We know we have caused you such distress as of late. We are truly sorry. But there is something else we must ask of you.” The light is replaced by a glowing darkness, different than the pitch black of the cave.

“You must leave for Castelia City of the Unova region, and make your way to Relic Castle, lying in the desert beyond city walls,” a softer, feminine voice advises. Hekas blinks, eyebrows furrowing, not able to say a thing. “Take Briney’s ferry to Slateport, and then set out towards Castelia,” the voice continues, before suddenly shifting back to the blinding light.

“Go now, and seek the others! Only once you are all gathered may the path be revealed…” The voices fade, light flickering until Hekas is left alone in the darkness. She sits for an eternity, until a cold chill rushes up from behind with a loud and malevolent hiss.

Hekas awakes at 2:25 am, her Whismur already in bed with her.

“It’s time, love.”

Desert Resort, Unova

It takes Hekas two more days to reach the desert. She tells her mother that her father has invited her to meet with him at the Unovan City. “What’s Dad doing there?” she asks. “I’m not sure myself,” Hekas answers. Ms. Collins lets her go, though a bit uneasy. Hekas is just as uneasy, because she knows that once she arrives in Castelia her mother will call her father, and they will both panic once they realize her lie. She turns her phone off the second she leaves the Dewford Town docks. But she has made it through the trip, through the city, and now stands at the desert’s edge. Mur is patting her leg, sighing a bit.

“We have to go in eventually, Hek,” Mur says, attempting to ease Hekas. She hates sand so much, and that’s all the desert appears to be. Even after buying the protective goggles for herself and Mur, it’s still too much. Hekas tightens her fists, and nods.

“Can I hold you, at least?” she asks her partner, who nods back and allows the girl to pick her up and squeeze her to her torso. Once Mur is secure in Hekas’ arms, she takes a breath and steps into the desert. Only a few minutes pass by before the two really start to be battered around by the wind and sand, sand making its way into the openings of Hekas’ clothing. She wants to scream and turn back, it’s too uncomfortable, but she travels onward. She needs to find the castle, find the others. Eventually she feels something tug at her mentally. As if she finally picked up a signal on the radio, she tunes into another station. She doesn’t know what it is, but she follows it, and the reception grows stronger. She follows it until she reaches the pillars half-absorbed by sand, and the entrance to the aforementioned castle. She follows it until she makes her way inside, inside the castle, and suddenly loses it when what seems like a million other channels play at once.

Relic Castle, Unova

Hekas is in a stone room with many other people, at the most sixteen others, including their Pokemon. The mental connection is broken when she hears them all speaking, all introducing themselves, even the Pokemon themselves. A Comfey flits around happily, a Gabile brags. She has to sit down. Hekas slides down the wall of the entrance, barely inside the room, and starts to breathe heavily.

“This can’t be happening,” she gasps in between breaths, starting to hyperventilate. Mur quickly races to her side, papping her cheek and shooshing her. The Whismur says something to Hekas, but she can’t make it out. The blood is rushing in her ears, drowning everything else out. Hekas’ eyes dart back and forth from every face, until she squeezes her eyes shut and presses her fists to her eyes. This can’t be happening. She should be home with her mother. She should be receiving cheap candy and souvenirs in the mail from her father’s travels as presents. She should be taking Mur on a walk through the same path she always follows. She should be messaging or meeting up with one of her friends at the same restaurant she’s been to a million times. She should be doing the same things she does every other day, following the same pattern, being completely safe. She keeps her eyes shut tight to prevent any tears from being shed. Her fingers go to find a scab on her face to scratch at before she suddenly stops moving at all.

The connection is back. And the signal is stronger than ever. She opens her eyes finally, and the first thing she sees is him. He’s taller than the rest of these other teenagers, but not as tall as her. He has brown curls and brown eyes, and a smile. He looks as if he’s been carved from different layers of rock, sturdy and strong. And when she looks at him, she sees home.

Hekas raises from her spot against the wall, walking further into the room, leaving Mur behind, calling after her. It’s as if she has tunnel vision, her eyes remaining only on the boy in front of her, so she continues. She weaves in and out of the way of anyone in her path, only stopping once she’s in the boy’s eyesight. She stay still, mouth agape slightly, and waits to see if he recognizes her like she recognizes him.
 

Vern

Why not both?
Fern & Razor
Rayquaza
Relic Castle, Unova.


Razor didn't seem to have realized his mistake, and continued to blabble on and on despite Fern's tired, futile attempts to quiet him down using small signals. She didn't really want to talk to Razor because that would arouse suspicion, but at the same time, she didn't really want to wake the sleeping guy, and she didn't really want to annoy the newcomers. This was a problem she ran into quite often - since she never really wanted to do something, she ended up doing nothing. This case was no different. She just sat there, feeling vaguely uneasy but not knowing what to do about it, waiting for something to happen. Thankfully, the brown-haired girl smiled, and Fern didn’t detect any sort of ill-will in that smile.

"Oh, your Pokemon can talk too? You must be one of the "others" we're looking for!" the girl exclaimed, "I'm Olivia, and my little berry friend here is Sylvie." Her pokemon gave a small bow, mirroring the girl’s smile. Olivia looked behind her, at the other girl, who promptly came up and introduced herself as well.

"I'm Erin." she said, "This snake here is Orochi, she's my pretty cool partner that puts up with my garbage." The shiny snake smiled and gave a very simple "Charmed.”

Fern found herself feeling confused, happy, and nervous at the same time. In this Relic Castle, a beautiful and very much fantasy-like setting, a story like those she loved to spin around in her head was taking shape. Everything was beginning to make sense - the dreams, the folk tales, the voices in her head, her powers - and that was at once exhilarating and terrifying, especially considering the implications. The others - they were gathering, and soon the promised path would become clear. She gave the girls a nod and a soft smile, as she always did, and opened her mouth to respond, but Razor beat her to it. “Heya, I’m Alysrazor, the magnificent aspect of undying flame, and this is my partner, Sylvana Fenchurch, veteran world-traveller, folklore master, and avatar of the north wind! I am pleased to make your acquaintance.”

Fern winced mentally at the throwback to her delusion-filled past, but managed to keep a straight face. “Don’t mind him.” She murmured, her voice still soft, but friendly and good-natured, “He’s always like that. Just call him Razor, and call me Fern.”

An awkward silence followed. Thankfully, it was broken quickly. Razor had barely finished sucking in a long breath in preparation to continue talking when two people stumbled into the Castle - a boy and a girl, who seemed to be pretty close. Girlfriend and boyfriend? Doesn't look like it, but it's not out of the question. Maybe they're hiding it for some reason... That would be sorta interesting. One was accompanied by a Sableye, the other a Sawk. The boy carried a guitar, the girl carried a sword. A sword.

I don't know why she has one, or how she got it Fern thought, twirling a strand of hair around her finger as she was prone to do when slightly nervous, But that's kinda cool. Makes her look like a knight...

Razor seemed to concur, and he resumed his chattering with a renewed vigor. "OHMYGOD she has a sword!" He squealed, pecking Fern on the forehead several times in a row, "Fern, are you seeing this? How awesome is that? I want to swing it around and cleave enemies in two sooooooo bad... Hey, maybe that's the sword Pokemon you were telling me about the other day! They're quite rare around here, you know?"

Fern winced slightly from the pain of being repeatedly stabbed in the forehead with the sharp beak of her companion. Razor was prone to do that every now and then when he got too excited, and no matter how often it happened, she just couldn't get used to it in the same way she got used to the state of her room, or her life of wasting time in dreamland. Besides, that sword was most likely not a Honedge. She shook her head vigorously, dislodging the Fletchling. While they were packing, Razor had dove into a pile of her drawings for some fantasy assassin novel, and had found a picture of a Honedge in there. Before Fern could stop him, he had read through all her notes on that particular Pokemon, and decided that he wanted one. She had tried in vain to explain that a Honedge was way too heavy for a tiny bird like him, but it was a futile endeavor from the start.*

Fern knew that whenever Razor set his heart on something, the best course of action was*always*to just get out of his way. Ever since she had talked him out of pouncing on a wild Houndoom a long while ago, he had allowed her to stop him from getting into dangerous fights. But other things (the looking for, acquiring, and use of a ghost sword included) were another story. Fern didn't blame him - not to long ago, she had also wanted one. She even had a dream about herself waving the poor thing around and shouting things like 'be banished, forces of darkness! May you never return to this reality!' at the time. But she was good at letting her dreams stay dreams, so such fantasies had been confined to her own stories, at least until Razor dug them out.

That’s when the boy suddenly started hovering in midair. “The name's Ivan Vincent." he said, "And this is my buddy, Vera." The Sableye gave a raspy greeting. The girl also introduced herself as ‘Gwendoline Gunther’, giving a bow and putting her arm on on her chest, in a distinctly knightly fashion. Her Sawk did the same. They certainly made a strange couple. Olivia and Erin both hastened to introduce themselves as well. Fern allowed Razor to greet them in the exact same way he had greeted Olivia and Erin, before repeating her own explanation. She was beginning to get nervous and sort of twitchy - five was already a large enough group - she had rarely had the opportunity to interact with more people than just Razor and maybe some shopkeeper when she had to buy something.

As if she had jinxed herself, another couple came in afterwards - a Grubbin, dragging a girl behind it using some mechanical arm on its back, followed by a very… ambiguous-looking boy. It was probably a boy, but Fern couldn’t be sure. “Ladies, gentlemen,” the Grubbin said, “I bet you’re all wondering why I’ve gathered you here today. Oh man, your faces! I’m just joshing all y’all. You all must be the others that Rene and Iris here have dreamed about~! I’m Erich, the person lost in a daze of science when not glaring at me is Rene Keffer, this girl-” He held up Iris’ hand with his claw. “-who we met in the desert is Iris Fenix, and the fox who is also glaring at me is named Kit! Can all of you float? I know Rene can’t, he just is irresistible to bugs and gets squicked out by the Internet for some reason. Don’t know what Iris does but she seems cool. So, what are all your names?”

“Woah, I like this guy.” Razor said, hopping back onto Fern’s head and excitedly nibbling on her ribbon, “He’s funny. Hey, Erich! Can I borrow that arm? If not, can I fight you for it?”

Before Fern could introduce herself, or shush Razor, the boy that had been sleeping before shot awake, bringing his face right up against hers before hastily jumping back, surprised. Fern instinctively recoiled as well, jumping backwards and sitting down towards the side and away from the center of all the commotion. He introduced himself as ‘Alex Brennan’, in the excitable tone Fern had expected from him. She was beginning to have a headache, and the corridor was beginning to feel cramped. If this had been any other gathering, she would have simply just went out, but she sensed that doing that might annoy some people, so she didn’t.

Another boy came in soon after, saying "Hey, looks like I'm in the right place then, huh? My name's Henry, just caught a ferry over from Hoenn. Uh, are all of you guys here because you're following weird voices you heard in a dream, plus your pokemon who just started talking one day...?" The boy’s Rockruff quickly added that he should be called ‘Regirock’ - a name that Fern recognised as being an ancient stone golem type of creature. One of those ‘legendary’ pokemon that she had been trying to research.

Razor eagerly repeated his previous greeting, which he seemed to have taken a liking to. Fern would have attempted to clarify again, but she knew that she was too far away for her voice to be heard, and she was feeling distinctly uncomfortable with all the people swarming around her. The only thought she could formulate was that if that boy - Henry - had walked into any other gathering saying things like that, he’d probably end up as the target of multiple strange looks, and end up being shunned for the majority of the morning. Or evening. Or afternoon. Or maybe even just forever. That’s just how things worked - people see something they find strange, and they push it away. It had happened to her often enough to know. Especially that time she had walked into school with bandages all over her left arm, saying that there was a demon trapped in there. Not a nice memory.

Erin added that she was called Nihilego, and Olivia said that she was called Shaymin. Shaymin’s name Fern was familiar with, but Nihilego was foreign to her. Fern noted that Olivia had backed up behind Erin, using her as a shield - so she was that type of person. The shy type? Or did she have something to hide?

Before she could further follow that line of reasoning, her thoughts - which were already muffled by the overwhelming sense of stuffiness that came with being with large amounts of other people in a small, enclosed space - were disrupted once more by the entry of yet another group - a boy, holding the hands of two others. He quickly introduced himself as ‘Lorenzo’, then proceeded to flirt with every single guy in the room. He even went as far as to give the rainbow-haired guy from earlier - Alex - a hug. Fern sighed, and thanked god that she was a girl, and could simply observe things like this instead of being forced to be a part of it. That’s when a guy with an ice cloud over his head, who had slipped in without Fern noticing, gave Lorenzo a punch on the arm leaving behind a layer of frost.

Fern winced at the gesture of violence, while Razor hopped up and down and shouted ‘FIGHT, ICE GUY! FIGHT! I’LL BACK YOU UP!”

Out of the corner of her eye, she sees another girl get up from where she was sitting (where did she come from?), walking straight towards the naive guy from earlier, stepping around anyone in her way. It’s like she’s being drawn to him, by some invisible force. Now that she thought about it, Fern realised that Regirock was part of a certain group of other legendaries. Registeel, Regice, and Regigigas, if she remembered correctly. But she could be wrong. There were too many people to keep track of. Fern’s head began to hurt some more. She attempted to look once more at everybody’s face an remember it, but she was tired after getting up so early in the morning, there were too many people, and she couldn’t concentrate.

She sighed, thought about it for a moment, and decided that she’d just pop outside for a brief moment and wait for everything to calm down, before coming back down. There were too many people in a space that was too small, and it was suffocating her - not literally, of course. She blinked once or twice before pushing herself into a standing position and slinging her bag over her shoulder. Razor, who knew his trainer’s tendencies, didn’t comment, instead choosing to jump off her head and sit himself right in front of Erich the Grubbin, yelling excitedly at the top of his lungs to be heard over all the people, “WHERE DID YOU GET THAT ARM? CAN I HAVE ONE?”

Fern ignored him, deciding to let him have his fun. Instead, she hastily made her way through the side of the crowd, brushing past the Regirock boy (Henry? What was it again? I think it was Henry…) and barely managing to dodge contact with the rainbow-haired guy before emerging from the exit again, and into open space. She let out a contented sigh and pulled her overcoat closer around her, to shield her from the sand.
 
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TheCharredDragon

Tis the Hour to Reload
Ivan Vincent and Vera the Sableye
Hoopa, the Portal Trickster
Relic Castle, Unova


He was a little disappointed that the girl, who introduced as Olivia, didn't react too much from his thought-to-be surprise appearance from behind. But hey, it wasn't like he could win them all. The other girl, the one with the Ekans, was Erin. While the last one...well, he tried his best not to laugh at the reaction of the Fletching to Gwenny's sword. He had good taste. She introduced herself as Fern and her little birdie as Razor. He liked him. Je was funny.

It wasn't too long before someone else arrived before the ones that were with them could answer. To say the least, Ivan couldn't help but smirk at the shocked expressions of the two newcomers. It got even more smug--if it was even possible--when the androgynous one started circling him with fascination, mumbling about and asking how he was floating.

"Well, I assume I'm floating however Pokémon with Levitate float. I mean, yeah, it was a bit tricky at first but now it's as easy as walking and breathing for me. After all, from what I can tell, we used to be Pokémon."

Then the best thing to happen so far today. The bug Pokémon (he assumed as it had mandibles) that was with the curious person had a robot arm, a freakin' robot arm, on it and went to the center to say,

"Ladies, gentlemen, I bet you’re all wondering why I’ve gathered you here today.”

The face of the girl that he dragged with him was priceless, as well as Gwenny's. Ivan couldn't help but burst out in laughter, along with the little crustecean. Speaking of, he started sending a tirade of words in quick succession.

“Oh man, you’re faces! I’m just joshing all y’all. You all must be the others that Rene and Iris here have dreamed about~! I’m Erich, the person lost in a daze of science when not glaring at me is Rene Keffer, this girl--” He held up the hand of the girl he dragged with his claw. “--who we met in the desert is Iris Fenix, and the fox who is also glaring at me is named Kit! Can all of you float? I know Rene can’t, he just is irresistible to bugs and gets squicked out by the Internet for some reason. Don’t know what Iris does but she seems cool. So, what are all your names?”

After he managed to calm himself, he spoke, ignoring Gwenny's light glare at him.

"First off, that was fantastic! I should try that sometime. Nice to meet you, Erich. Well, I don't about these guys, but between me and Gwenny, only I can float. And do this!"

Ivan then proceeded to grab his fedora and drop it. But before the hat reached the ground, he clicked his fingers and a ring appeared below it, something purple inside, as well as one above his hand. The white hat fell through the lower ring and appeared from the higher one to hand in his hand. Then, with a flourish, returned it on his head.

"Rings that act like portals. Pretty cool, don't you think? Though maybe not as cool as Gwenny being able to summon a sword. But anyways, as for my name...again, I'm Ivan Vincent."

"And I'm Vera," his Sableye said. Then she gestured to the Sawk she stood beside. "And this is my mate, Bedi."

Said Sawk bowed again in greeting but remained silent. Gwenny introduced herself in similar way again, courteous as ever. Then a rather heavy set teen came in with a Rockruff. And his own reaction just made his day all the more brighter (and his face more proud and smug).

"Dude, that is awesome!" he said. "Hey, looks like I'm in the right place then, huh? My name's Henry, just caught a ferry over from Hoenn. Uh, are all of you guys here because you're following weird voices you heard in a dream, plus your pokemon who just started talking one day...?" He paused. "...Please say it's not just me. Hey Sasha, come over here and introduce yourself!"

He didn't blame him for that last bit. But by now he had gotten used to the improbable and impossible becoming more than reality. The Rockruff then went on to correct her human as that his name shoul be "Regirock" now.

Ivan raised an eyebrow. "Regirock, huh?"

Wait a second, if Henry was Regirock, and his Pokémon just happened to a Rockruff, did that mean...their partners were hints to their former lives? He glanced at Gwen who was standing beside him and their eyes met. She gave a small, almost inperceptible, nod. She was thinking the same. It made sense. He happened to have a Sableye which had at least one type the same with Hoopa, Ghost, if the legends got it right, as well as Bedi, who had the type that was the same as Cobalion, Fighting. He looked back at the others. He could guess which types they were relatively accurately, considering some were dual types, but that still meant a whole lot of legends. Well, he didn't have to worry about that now.

He said to Henry, "Yeah, you're in the right place. We, at least me and Gwenny--" He gestured to said girl, who bowed in greeting again. "--came here because of the dreams too. And thanks for the compliment."

At this point, the multi colored hair boy finally woke up and started going on about excitedly, introducing himself as Alex and his Geodude as, well, Rocky. He wondered if he named him because he couldn't think of anything better or because he liked rock music, considering the headphones, microphone and look, it didn't seem too far off. He wasn't too surprised at the electricty.

"Nice to meet you, Alex. Name's Ivan Vincent, that there's Vera, Bedi, and Gwendoline Gunther. I call her Gwenny," he said, gesturing to each one he addressed, the latter two bowing slightly instead of speaking.

Gwenny seemed to be in a quiet mood after introducing herself twice. Not that he blamed her. It can get tiring doing it again and again, but he didn't mind. He liked to talk, keeps him busy, keeps him thinking. Anyways, throughtout the whole time, Olivia and Erin introduced themselves repeatedly, along with their Pokémon, with the latter a little grumpy from it, likely for the same reason Gwenny was quiet right now. Then the pair told of their legendary names. Now Gwenny finally spoke again after being quiet for so long.

"Nihilego and Shaymin..." she said. "I have heard of Shaymin but I'm not sure if I know of Nihilego. The name is a bit familiar though. As for myself... The voices have called me Cobalion."

Ivan was about to reveal his own when a trio came in and his focus was all on them, though admittedly it was mostly because one of them introduced himself loudly.

"Ciao everyone!" he said introduced as he let go of hands of the two males who accompanied him and waved to everyone present. "I'm Lorenzo Amoré! I guess you must be the others the dream voices were talking about! Hehe. So many men, so little time!"

Lorenzo in question actually had clothing similar to his. The only difference really was that his own had at least three more colors (black from his shoes and pants, purple from his vest and white from his fedora), one more scarf and a different kind of hat. One of males that he entered with had a Trapinch with him and wasn't too striking to him. The other one was wearing all black and had a Deino with him. He didn't look all too happy about being here, or Lorenzo being here, it was hard to tell.

But one thing was for sure, he felt like he knew them somehow. Maybe it was from the days when they were legendaries. Speaking of legends, Lorenzo then went up to him and said,

"Dude, really? You're already tall enough, do you really need to be floating too?" he said as he stretched his arms up, and started jumping trying to reach him, but with no success. "Hmph, no fair! Get down to our level... Er... My level!"

He floated down and landed gracefully, his scraves flowing for a moment from the descent before settling against his chest. But he didn't get a chance to react, again, as the blond went to the next male, and the next, and all the while Ivan couldn't help but watch him, and not only because of that feel of dejá vù. After all, it wasn't everyday he saw such a brightly dressed male that wasn't him. He was curious and that meant one thing: he wanted to find out.

So, when he finally "stopped" with the guy who looked like what Gwen would be if she was a male, and more grumpy, and wasn't a part of the Gunther family. He went up to stand beside Lorenzo, his smile having a devil-may-care attitude to it.

"Well, to answer your earlier request...heh, according to my dreams, I'm Hoopa," he said with a smile that was surprisingly not as mischeivous as usual. "And even if I wasn't, fun is my thing."

Meanwhile, he noticed that Vera had followed him and was staring at Lorenzo's ring. Bedi in turn followed her and grabbed her shoulder and said,

"Vera..."

"Oh, come on, I'm not actually gonna try and eat it,"
she said. "I just...wanted to watch."

Bedi rolled his eyes while Vera just snickered. Ivan chuckled at this. It was always adorable to watch his Pokémon and her mate interact. It reminded him of Gwenny's parents, and his own actually, but, again, he didn't want to get depressed so he started to speak again. Besides, he was doing that ice guy a favor. He didn't want to interact with Lorenzo while he did, so win-win. Hopefully it'll be enough that Lorenzo wouldn't bother the guy...for now.

"Anyways, I'm Ivan. Ivan Vincent. The Sableye's mine and her name's Vera. The Sawk's Bedi. He's the Pokémon of my best bud, Gwenny--" Once again, he gestured to her. Gwenny just nodded in acknowledgement, her attention on the group with Olivia and the others. "--there. But anyways! Enough about me. Lorenzo, right? That's a nice name. You wouldn't happen to come from Kalos, would you?"
 

Tangeh

Well-Known Member
Henry Clifton & Sasha
Regirock
Relic Castle


The geodude who Sasha had been pestering was owned by a young rainbow-haired man, who practically emitted energy as he bounded over to introduce himself. Henry had no idea where he appeared from. "My name is Alex. Alex Brennan, yep! This here is Rocky. And yes, he's a Geodude I met when vacationing in Alola."

"Knew it!" Sasha whispered-yelled to Henry, who grinned in amusement.

Alex seemed too energetic for his own good, which even his own pokemon pointed out. Then he took off his hat and released electricity... out of his hair? Out of his hands? Henry didn't really get it but electricity went flying into the ground, somehow. "Whoa!" Henry exclaimed, grinning. "You okay buddy? What's with the light show?" He seemed calmer, actually, as if the pent-up energy was literally released as electricity. Sasha stared as well with wide, curious eyes.

Two girls approached the group. One was dressed in a lot of purple, down to her eyes and hair. She looked annoyed at something. Henry briefly mused over what it could be before she introduced herself as Erin, and noted that the voices had called her "Nihilego". That name didn't ring a bell to Henry the same way Regirock had. The other girl had long brown hair and a flowy green dress. She seemed nervous, and avoided eye contact. She introduced herself as Olivia, and claimed that the voices had called her "Shaymin". That name was more familiar - from Sinnoh mythology, maybe? Not wanting Olivia to feel shy, he smiled warmly at the pair. "Great to meet you Erin, Olivia!"

"And you too, Orochi and Sylvie!" Sasha chimed in. Henry hadn't even noticed the green snake and purple grass-type standing near the girls. Must be their pokemon. Sasha prodded Henry's shoulder. "Hey, there's more people coming in!"

More? Three boys walked in, and the shorter one in a pink and blue getup spared no time in beginning to personally introduce himself to the others. "Hey! My name's Henry, and this is Sasha," Henry said to the remaining two boys - a taller one with a darker complexion and a shorter, thinner one.

"Well hello there big boy!" Henry blinked and turned in time to accept the much smaller boy's hand to shake. The boy kissed his hand, and Henry started to feel weird. Like... really weird. "Did you just get back from shooting the 'Hot Guys with Baby Pokemon' calendar?"

Henry stared at the blonde boy, then grinned dopily and patted him on the head. "Whoa, you're like... so small and cute. Like, the cutest guy ever. ...What's your name again?"

Sasha leapt off Henry's shoulder to greet the boy, jumping up on him as he patted her head. "Hi! Hi! Hi! I get told I'm cute a lot." She smiled at the little flower pokemon floating nearby. "My name's Sasha! What kind of a pokemon are you?" As Lorenzo moved on to the next person, Sasha blinked at Henry, who was still staring after the boy. "Uh, you okay? You're kinda spacing out."

Henry blinked, only realizing how flushed he'd been as the weird feeling disappeared. He scratched the back of his head, confused. "Y-yeah, I'm fine. I think." Lorenzo had moved onto introducing himself to a boy who Henry hadn't even noticed come in, sitting in the corner alone with a literal cloud over his head. The guy suddenly punched Lorenzo, and Henry narrowed his eyes, prepared to step in if things got out of hand. Who punches a guy that much smaller than himself? Henry stepped forward as the yelling continued to escalate, but something caught his attention. It wasn't a sound, or anything he could see, but a strange draw to the other side of the room. Sasha followed him in confusion as he abruptly abandoned his original intent to stop the fight.

Across the room, he made eye contact with a tall girl. She was pale, blonde, and as she came closer he noted an array of freckles on her face that lined up so perfectly they almost looked unnatural. She halted when close enough, and continued to stare as if in awe. Henry stared back, unable to shake a nagging feeling that somehow he knew her. He knew he has never seen this girl in his life, yet there was an intense sensation of familiarity. She said nothing, so Henry broke the silence. "My name is..." For some reason, he stumbled on the introduction, unsure for a moment of what his name was. Why was Regirock suddenly the first thing to come to mind? "Henry," he finished. "But... in my dreams they call me Regirock." He felt safe saying that to her. Logically speaking she should be here for the same reason as the others, but there was something deeper that he couldn't quite put his finger on. He smiled at the girl, silently urging her to introduce herself as well. Sasha, for once, stayed quite, looking curiously back and forth between her trainer and the new girl.
 

Dragalge

"Orange" Magical Girl
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Leslie White and Woolu
Meloetta
Nimbasa City, Unova

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In the library, Leslie was sitting at a table next to Woolu with a book in front of her. The book Leslie was called “The Sands of Unova” where it discussed the history of the Desert Resort and how it came to be what it is today. This book was what Leslie needed for her homework assignment that was due on her birthday. It was not a difficult book for Leslie to read and after she was done reading The Sands of Unova, Leslie grabbed a pencil and a piece of paper from the front counter and began writing her paper to turn in.

“Do you think there are any Palossand in the Desert Resort? I love their shovels on their head! That and the way they move their arms is hilarious!” effused Woolu.

“Quiet Woolu. We’re in a library meaning that we have to keep our voices low.” said Leslie as she commanded Woolu to mute her voice.

While Leslie was writing her paper, Woolu began to flap her wings lightly which blew some of the pages from the book from one side to the other. Leslie told Woolu to watch what she does but Woolu then noticed an image of a structure in some sand.

“Hmm…the Relic Castle, huh? I wonder why those Darmanitan are sitting there. They must get pretty bored after a while.” asked Woolu.

Leslie followed up on Woolu’s questions by saying “Oh that? Well it is said that those Darmanitan guard the Relic Castle but what are they guarding exactly is unknown. The only other piece of evidence known to prove that they are guardians is that Sigilyph roam around in the Desert Resort as well.”

“Sigilyph, huh? Pfft they think they are better then us Woobat with their pretty colors and ancient history. One thing those Pokemon don’t have over me and every other Woobat is that they do not know how to love on everyone. All they do is just attack anyone who gets near the Relic Castle without any hesitation. Well if I ever see them, I’ll show them who is the better Psychic and Flying type!” Woolu ranted.

Leslie then wondered why Sigilyph would attack people wanting to see the Relic Castle but Woolu told her that Sigilyph were rare Pokemon and one would have to be unfortunate enough to encounter such a beast. In return, Leslie asked why Woolu freaked out in the first place only for a librarian to give Leslie a warning about her outside voice. Leslie apologized and continued to work on her homework assignment, thinking of what Woolu angrily ranted about the Sigilyph and the Relic Castle.

It was Leslie’s birthday and she, her family, and Woolu all celebrated her new milestone after Leslie turned in her homework assignment. Normally Leslie’s parents were busy in the weekdays but they took the day off to spend some time with their daughter. Leslie did not get much for her eighteenth birthday in regards to presents but what she did get was a bow from the Musical Theater for Woolu and a custom-sewed blue shirt created by the people where her mother worked at. Leslie fitted the bow onto Woolu’s head much to her delight. Leslie even offered to sing to her parents and Woolu in order to spice up the celebration.

Although it was indeed both fun and a great time to celebrate, Woolu had to remind Leslie on what to do on this day. Leslie then explained to both of her parents saying that she needed to find a mysterious place called the Hall of Legends as instructed by Woolu. Normally her parents would reject her going on such a journey but they both knew that Leslie was old enough to do things on her own and thus were fine with whatever excursion Leslie and Woolu went so long as they were both safe.

After Leslie hugged and said goodbye to both of her parents, she and Woolu headed out of the house and started to search for the Hall of Legends. The question was where would it be as Leslie still wondered. Woolu explained Leslie on how much she studied the last few days and applauded her by circling around in joy.

“Yes, I know I studied really hard but that is what you have to do when you want a nice streak of A’s on your report card.” Leslie said.

“Well use whatever you learned and apply it!” Woolu replied in a confident manner.

“Wait…studying…assignments…sand…guardians? I think I might just know the area where the Hall of Legends is! It’s the Relic Castle!”.

“Good work! Let us leave Nimbasa and make way towards the Hall of Legends! And if any Sigilyph come around, I’ll give them the scolding of a lifetime!” Woolu cheerfully said replying to Leslie’s excitement.

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Leslie White and Woolu
Meloetta
Nimbasa City, Unova -> Desert Resort, Unova

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Out of the gate that leads to Nimbasa City, Leslie and Woolu made their onwards to the Desert Resort. Passing under the highway, Woolu decided it would be a good idea to fly over the highway instead which made Leslie worry a little.

“Get down from there. You know it is dangerous to be flying on a highway while a sandstorm is happening.” yelled Leslie. “Speaking of sandstorms, it’s a good thing I got my shoe polisher with me!”.

“Don’t worry, I’m fine! After all I am part Flying! Woolu said boastfully. Woolu then followed her comment with her saying how see saw green trucks up there.

“GREEN? EW! L-let’s just get to the castle.” Leslie replied while being disgusted. Leslie hopped that nothing green would appear upon arriving to the Relic Castle although she feared her wishes would not be granted.

Both Leslie and Woolu headed west and up north to the location of the Desert Resort entrance. The sandstorm started to kick up and hampered their movements for a short while. When it stopped for now, both head to the Dessert Resort to start their search for the Hall of Legends at the Relic Castle.

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Leslie White and Woolu
Meloetta
Desert Resort, Unova -> Relic Castle, Unova

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“Hey did that book ever have an exact map of the entire region of this desert? asked Woolu.

“Now that you mentioned it, I do recall the Relic Castle being a straight path to that directon over there” Leslie replied as she pointed the direction of where the Relic Castle would potentially be at.

As both walked towards the route to the Relic Castle in the harsh sandstorm, Woolu asked Leslie if she could hum a tune to pass the time upon reaching it. Since the sandstorm was raging throughout the desert, singing aloud would have been nearly impossible so Leslie pleased Woolu by humming some music. This sound however attracted a local nearby.

They have finally arrived. Leslie and Woolu both spot the Relic Castle not too far from them and the sandstorm was not as brutal as before. Eager to see what’s next, both started heading toward the entrance when something flew over their heads.

“That can’t be…” Leslie wondered.

“A SIGILYPH.” Woolu said yelling aloud.

This Sigilyph had an angry look on its lone eye and slowly crept towards the duo to which Leslie was afraid. It did not help that Sigilyph normally had some green coloring which frightened Leslie more.

“If you think you’re taking us out, you’re wrong. We both have a mission to so just float away, honey. Or are you afraid to take me on” Woolu scolding at the Sigilyph.

The Sigilyph then stopped moving and stared at Woolu for a few short moments.

“Well…are you going to hurt us or what?” Woolu asked. Leslie then told Woolu to not give the Sigilyph any ideas.

After a few moments of silence, the Sigilyph then flew away without a sound. This surprised both Leslie and Woolu as the former was scared of being injured. Woolu then thought of a reason as to why the Sigilyph left. She suggested that both her and Leslie were important characters in the Sigilyph’s eye and thus it left so that both Woolu and Leslie could advance further without any harm.

“Well what are you waiting for? Let’s go! We finally made it!” cheered Woolu.

Before they would enter, Leslie went ahead and polished her shoes so that the sand would come off in which it did to full succession.

Both Leslie and Woolu entered the Relic Castle and to their surprise, there were many people and Pokemon inside. Leslie wondered why there was such a cornucopia of humans and Pokemon. One of the Pokemon even had an arm on its back.

While Leslie was looking at everyone, she noticed someone with green clothing all around. Taking immediate action, Leslie turned around and ran to the nearest person in fear of being touched by the woman wearing a green dress and a brown coat.

The person she was near was a bulky-looking kind of person with a Rockruff wearing a red bandana to which pleased Woolu as she was wearing an accessory with the same color.

After bursting into fear, and when Leslie calmed down and got her act together, she looked up to the muscular person and immediately had a thought in her mind. “Waaaaait a second. I think I may have seen you on TV before. Weren’t you a famous actor in one show with some-“ Leslie asked but then got interrupted by Woolu.

Woolu spoke to Leslie saying “Do you know what the worst part of this trip was?”.

“What?” Leslie said following up on Woolu’s question.

“We did not see a single Palossand in this excursion. Cute bandana your Rockruff has there though!” commented Woolu.
 

Cometstarlight

What do I do now?

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Isaac Thorton and Yache
Zygarde
Courmarine City
;328;

"Wow! What a coincidence! We're headed to Unova too! Looks like the three of us are going to be travelling buddies! Yay!" He exclaimed. "I'm Lorenzo, and this cute guy next to me is Adrien."

Lorenzo just seemed to ooze this cheery demeanor, so much so that it almost caught Isaac off guard.

“Lorenzo and Adrien, huh?” Isaac smiled briefly. “Nice to meet you guys.” He didn’t say so right away, but Isaac was happy that he wasn’t leaving the region by himself. There was just something about leaving everything you know out of the blue that made a guy feel a little less comfortable with the lot he was given. Having these two around made it a bit easier.

Before anything else could be said, the ferry arrived and was ready to be boarded. Lorenzo jumped up and gestured for Isaac and Adrien to follow. Adrien exuded the aura of a drowned Purrloin, but he followed anyway.

It wasn’t too terribly long before the boat gave the final call for Unova and left the port. Isaac gripped the bars on the deck and tried to think. His home was rapidly fading out of view, no doubt his parents were out of bed by now and realized he was gone, and he was on his way to the Relic Castle because…a dream told him to? It was weird, but…he was strangely excited. Adventure was calling and he finally picked up on it.

Other than that, the three boys and their Pokemon all hung out above deck. Adrien wasn’t much of a talker, but Lorenzo more than made up for him. He had a LOT to say, but it was interesting to hear. Isaac talked a bit about Yache and stories he had picked up from here or there, but before too long, Lorenzo tried to get Adrien back into the mix.

"So Adrien, you take photos? Maybe you could take a few of me." He teased as he noticed Adrien holding a camera.

Adrien sighed, then said "No way kid. I don't do people photos. I only do nature photos. Its why I'm traveling to Unova in the first place. I plan on going places like Relic Castle to get good shots."

Relic Castle?

Isaac noted the detail mentally as Lorenzo asked to look at Adrien’s pictures.

“Wow! You’re really good at this!” Lorenzo exclaimed.

Isaac was dually impressed. Shots of gorgeous landscapes, coasts, and forests of all seasons were just a few of the things Adrien’s camera had to offer.

“Wow, you’re well traveled,” Isaac whistled, “These are really good, you know? I’m not just saying that.” He looked up from the camera, “I bet you could sell framed prints of these, heck, I know my mom would buy a few.” He smiled as he looked back down, “She loves stuff like this.”

Eventually, they all ended up in Driftveil City. Yache wobbled back onto dry land. Isaac didn’t have to ask to know that his friend was a bit sea sick. He kneeled and patted him on the back gently, “How are you holding up?”

“I don’t ever want to go on a boat ever again,” Yache waivered.

“You know, I could’ve just put you in your poke ball.”

“And who would watch you? You’d be lost without me!”

Isaac rolled his eyes, “Uh huh, I’m sure.”

It was then that Adrien tried to make a quick escape, “I guess we should head out now. Sad to see you go.”

Suddenly Isaac felt someone grab his hand and before he could react, Lorenzo was dragging them both along. He talked about the Relic Castle again. He didn’t want to get ahead of himself, but maybe these two were more like him than he originally thought. Isaac worked his hand out of Lorenzo’s to sweep a dazed Yache off the ground.

Relic Castle

They walked through cities and were out to the desert before they even knew it. All the while Lorenzo went on about dreams he was having and then Isaac didn’t have any room for doubt. Lorenzo even shot off a flash of dazzling light. It felt unreal.

The talking stopped soon after that as the sand deepened and the storm picked up, blasting the group with dirt and debris. Adrien didn’t say much, but he looked strained. None of them were dressed for sandstorms. Yache, on the other hand, felt right at home. Isaac waited for exhaustion to kick in…but it never did. The sand blasted his skin, but he never itched or chaffed. He never felt the need to shield his eyes and he could actually walk in this blasted stuff! Maybe this was part of these weird powers he had been figuring out.

And finally their destination was in sight! The great Relic Castle that he had heard so much about. Such ancient and majestic structure left to the sands of time, pun intended. Lorenzo grabbed his and Adrien’s arms and dragged them inside before he realized it. Lorenzo made his grand entrance to all the other guys in the room and Isaac backed up.

“Oh wow,” he murmured, “there are actually a lot of people in here.” He saw people floating, introducing themselves, and just being, well, people. It was a bit overwhelming. Something he didn’t quite expect was how many girls were there. He felt a bit foolish as he looked around. Isaac hadn’t even thought about the fact that there would not only be more people like him, but girls too. It seemed silly, but he guessed he hadn’t really processed it. Speaking of processing, there was WAY too much talking and action going on here than he was used to. He looked around the room once before casually slipping back out the entrance for some peace.

The sand seemed like a piece of art in and of itself- constantly changing, yet appearing the same to normal everyday person, like himself, he thought. It didn’t bother him nearly as much as he thought, but he could still feel the life energy of everyone down in the Castle. It was that, rather than the sandstorm, that exhausted him. He felt a nudge at his pant leg and saw Yache rolling around in the sand like a Growlithe. Isaac snickered, “You havin’ fun, Yache?”

“Isaac,” Yache said seriously as he rolled, “we NEED one of theseeee.”

“You mean a sand box?” He chuckled before realizing he wasn’t alone.

He looked to his left and saw a girl standing with a large blue overcoat pulled close. She had long light brown hair that whipped in the cutting wind. She looked young, well, younger than him, but then remembered his assumptions from earlier. By the way things were she was probably 17 or 18 too. She, like him, was also probably trying to escape the ruckus downstairs.

“Sorry,” he said, lowering his voice, “I didn’t see you there. Didn’t mean to disturb you.” He smiled. “Looks like we had the same idea though.” Isaac noted her brilliantly bright green eyes before pausing for a moment. “I’m Isaac. It’s nice to meet you.”
 

*Jean Grey*

Night Triumphant
;483;
Alena Volkova & Gavriil
Dialga
Village Bridge, Unova
;443;

"Oh please. If any one is awesome here, it's me. I did kick your ass just now!" The Sneasel protested proudly, before sticking his tongue out and blowing a raspberry. Gavriil got on his feet and glared down at the Ice-type Pokemon, smirking widely.

"'Kick your ass, my as! If you're so damn tough, then what the hell were you rubbing right there?!" The Gible pointed out, before laughing out loud, satisfied with himself. The icicles fell from his nose and the roof of his mouth, shattering on the ground. Alena caught the blond boy looking at her motorcycle for longer than a supposed passing glance. Was he going to ask to race with her? He did look the type to own one. However, there were no nearby vehicles around, so maybe he just didn't bother bringing it, or he was more a racecar person? Whatever it was, she was determined to ask him to race with her soon enough. It became clear, however, that the Sneasel wasn't taking his Trainer's silence well, judging from his expression.

"Dude, if you're not going to say something, I will." The Sneasel pointed to the guy and then at himself. "He's Kyle. I'm Frosty. Not the best name in the world, but whatever." Wait...did the Sneasel just say that the guy named him Frosty? Alena thought as a small snicker escaped from her lips. It was just like naming a Fire-type Pokemon "Firey" or a Grass-type Pokemon "Weed"...unless of course he had a strange sense of humour coupled with strategic reasons. She had met people of that sort while she was studying in Castelia - trainers who gave their Pokemon overly-cutesy names to throw their opponents off. Kyle rubbed his temples out of exasperation.

"I was fucking ten when I caught you..." he growled. Ah, so it wasn't strategic after all. The Sneasel ignored him, however, and continued talking.

"You'll have to excuse him. He's a little... icy, if you know what I mean. He's not so bad once you get to know him," he explained. Alena arched a brow knowingly.

"Ha! I've known my share of hardasses," she snarked, before briefly leaning a hip against her motorcycle. "Except unlike most pussies, I don't have enough fear to back off." Her tone was cocky, with a hint of suggestiveness creeping in. The boy did remind her of a particularly dark and brooding movie character from a recent "space opera" movie, portrayed by one of her favorite actors, Zackary Lascelles.

"That's it! You've done enough talking." Kyle then grabbed Frosty and stormed off towards the ferry. Alena wasn't about to let him walk off with a technical win that easily. Oh, no...she was going to show him up good for thinking he could intimidate her...even if it meant picking a fight down the line. As far as she was concerned, demeanors were nothing to be scared of.

---

On the ferry, it became clear that Frosty and Kyle had opposing temperaments. While the boy chose to sit alone silently, the Sneasel quickly grew bored sitting around. Gavriil approached and picked another fight, a fight which Alena was now witness to as she was gulping the beer in her hand. They were out on the deck, and the floor was already slicked with ice in some parts. Icicles had formed on Gavriil's tattered fin, but he was still up and about. Frosty was licking his sharp claws proudly, clearly confident. The Gible took this as an opening and rammed the Ice-type Pokemon hard with an Iron Head, catching him off-guard. The Sneasel let out an uncharacteristic yelp as the wind was knocked out of him and he fell down hard.

"HA! Who's awesome now?!" The tiny Gible gloated. Alena pumped her fist up in the air before turning her attention to Kyle, who wasn't sitting too far off.

"Yo, Kylo," she called out, deciding to go ahead and nickname him. "Look at how tough your Frosty is now," she pointed out only half-sarcastically. The Sneasel was no weakling for sure. Frosty was groaning as he rubbed his belly. Kyle paid no attention, however, seemingly engrossed with what he was doing.

"Pshaw, we're just even...for now," Frosty declared, clearly not being a Pokemon who wasn't willing to surrender. He did smile once more though, and offered his claw for Gavriil to high-five...which the smaller Pokemon quickly did. The ferry began to slow down just then, and after a few minutes, it docked at Castelia. Kyle had quickly retrieved Frosty without another word, and was among the first to get off. Alena shrugged, before she picked Gavriil up and began preparing to get off herself.

---

Desert Resort, Unova

Alena held her hand over her eyes to shield her eyes from the sands of the desert. Being Dialga had its perks - not being too bothered by sandstorms being one of them - but unfortunately, that did not extend to her eyes. Gavriil was luckier, and was actually the one leading the way.

"Here girl, I found these," the tiny land shark spoke, holding up something that looked like a pair of red, Flygon-themed goggles, complete with a striped red-and-green strap. Alena had noticed a stall that was supposed to be selling some of them just before she reached the desert, but they were fresh out when she inquired. She knew that the Desert Resort was popular...but she wasn't expecting that many people. She grinned as she accepted the goggles from her Pokemon and strapped them on.

"Damn, that's why you're my boy, Gav...at least I can rely on you. Unlike...yeah," she praised, before musing to herself for a moment as she walked. The past was dead, that much she knew, but it didn't exactly leave her unharmed. She shook the thought away from her mind, however, and the two kept moving. She knew that the "Relic Castle" wasn't exactly a castle anymore. Rather, she was supposed to be looking for a hole in the ground...literally.

"Again, tell me why they just can't change the name to 'Relic Hole' if that's what it's supposed to be right now?" The silver-haired girl wondered aloud.

"Because it used to be a castle, that's why. You can't just erase the existence of something that stood there for so long. It was a castle longer than it was a hole, y'know?" Gavriil pointed out the best he could, which led to the teenager crossing her arms and snorting.

"Right, and it's definitely not misleading," she replied sarcastically. "But really, it's a hole now." The pair trudged on, until they came across the hole in the ground that was supposed to be the Relic Castle. Here it is. Time to see if these dreams really are real, or just some damn alcohol-induced bullshit, Alena thought, before heading down the stairs.

---

Relic "Castle", Unova

As it turned out, she wasn't the only one was told to head to Relic Castle. The stone chamber she entered held more people than she expected - Kyle being one of them, of course. Accompanying them were different species of Pokemon, and all of said Pokemon were actually talking, just like Gavriil. One of them was a blond boy dressed in what appeared to be formalwear and called himself "Lorenzo". How he kept himself clean, she couldn't point a finger on. He was introducing himself to everyone, his Comfey in tow. When he tried kissing Kyle's hand, the taller boy boxed him with an icy punch. The smaller boy commented on Kyle's moodiness and insisted that he was in fact, the same age as all of them. Frosty once again spoke on Kyle's behalf, explaining his owner's behavior...which once again annoyed the boy with the icy eyes. Alena didn't let the exchange deter her, though, and she strode towards Kyle and greeted him with a headlock.

"Hey, Kylo," she laughed coarsely, before letting him go. She then gave the shorter blond boy a noogie, messing with his hat.

"The name's Ally, or Dialga for all of you who are wondering...let's leave it at that," she announced aloud, not bothering with politeness as usual.

"And I'm Gavriil...Gav...but 'Awesome' also works!" Gavriil chimed in. The silver-haired girl then made her way across the room to introduce herself to the others. While she wasn't one who got along well with some kinds of people, she was hardly shy. A blonde girl followed by a Sawk caught her eye. Said girl was a paradox...she carried herself with politeness and poise, judging from how she introduced herself and her partner as "Gwendoline and Bedi" in an almost knight-like fashion, yet dressed very simply and laid-back...though she was still undeniably beautiful, nonetheless. Alena strode towards her and punched her arm, grinning mischievously.

"Yo, a Fighting-type, huh?"
 
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