[closed] while the snow falls all around me

[outbounds]

Who: Emmet, Laios, Ingo
What: Play Nice and Exploration: Blue, for now
When: various points in August
Where: Middle Forest, uncharted territory past the Southern Outpost at current
Warnings: Cold weather environmental hazards; to be added if they come up

play nice (for laios)

[ So the guilds are looking to expand! Makes sense. Makes sense if they're intending to scale up operations as the town expands past the immediate area that they've well and mapped out by now. If they are to continue on these tracks then of course they are going to need more members to avoid being spread too thin, possibly on a little more reliable of a basis than 'every other month when strange things start happening.'

That still doesn't mean they know who or what they're looking out for, exactly! What sort of roles the guilds need filled, if there's any specificity in traits or abilities they should be on the lookout for or if they just need to bolster numbers in general. At least that means they have free choice of where to head? ]

It's cleared up a lot here from how it used to be... [ Emmet notes, picking his way carefully across the earth. Every now and then he'll eye the ground a little dubiously, but whatever he's waiting for or expecting to happen never seems to. So, after each of these moments his ears just flick a little as if to dismiss them. ] But anyway. What sort of Pokémon do you want to run into, you think?

exploration: blue (for ingo)

[ Uncharted territory again! It's been a while since they last ventured forth into the unknown. This time ... they are probably more prepared for it? It's a scouting mission, once again, so there is no imminent peril or time pressure.

Being surrounded by trees is familiar enough. What isn't is the drop in temperatures, especially given the season. And soon enough the familiar sight of densely wooded forest begins to give way to thinner vegetation, the few trees remaining growing gnarled and stripped barren. Snow is starting to collect on the twisting branches.

Emmet's ears twitch a little as he tilts his head back to take a look up at the sky above. Snow, huh. Not hail, at least, and not storming, but... ]

Knew it was to be expected, but. I am Emmet. Suddenly I am glad for all this fur.

Comments

[offtracks]

[ Ingo hums, leaning back. The comfort is appreciated, even if he'd been trying not to solicit it. Spear Pillar, though? What is that? ]

The...temple on top of Mount Coronet?

[outbounds]

Mmhmm. Think it is called that because the broken pillars up top look like...

[ Beat. ]

... Oh! Is it not broken yet for you?

[ Oops, spoilers? ]

[offtracks]

Oh! No! It is, but only just! That happened when Akari was up there battling Dialga!

[ Ingo sobers a little at his own mention of Akari. ]

[outbounds]

Dialga. Who was frenzied, right?

... Wonder if. I would make a historian cry if I ever told them any of this.

[ Or at least shake him down and demand from him how the hell he knows some of it. ... Well, that would depend on how much of this survived in any written or oral records to the present day, wouldn't it. Maybe a question for Champion Cynthia...? She does vacation in Unova from time to time, friends with Caitlin of the Elite Four... ]

[offtracks]

[ Ingo frowns down at the darkness below. ]

How can they possibly not know? It was a quite significant event!

[ Surely someone or other is going to, you know, remember? Write it down? Ingo hasn't really questioned Emmet's lack of knowledge - he's from all the way in Unova, and he mentioned not being a student of Hisuian (Sinnohan?) history. But is it really that obscure? ]

[outbounds]

Well! You know how it is. The legendaries being directly involved, that many of them— that might be hard to believe for some! You know.

So maybe some people might think, over time, that maybe the telling was. Exaggerated? Made bigger by retellings?

[ Though maybe it shouldn't really be all that hard to believe these days, considering. ]

But I am only guessing. [ Joking, really, if not with all that much levity behind it, given. ] I do not actually know what they say about what happened. Maybe all the history is accurate, and it is just the name that has changed.

[ He does pause a bit, before adding more quietly: ]

... She really did do a lot, huh.

[offtracks]

I suppose...

[ Do you really think people would do that? Just go in the history books and tell lies? ]

.....she did. Far too much, in all honestly. I would not have said so to her - I do not think she would take my meaning. But such responsibilities should not have been placed on her shoulders.

[ It's true that very few people in Hisui could have done what Akari did. There simply weren't enough trainers; of those who existed, most only had one companion, or they were the very members of the Jubilife leadership who forced her into those duties in the first place.

Though. That does leave one person, doesn't it? He flexes his claws, watching them scrape against the stone. The dried blood blends in well enough there to nearly be invisible, except where it flakes away. ]

...I have...wondered, before, if I was sent there to do that work first, and she was only sent afterwards because I did not.

[ Who's to say how he got there, or what directions he may have been given? Certainly not Ingo. ]

[outbounds]

... Years ago. A couple before you— you know. There was an incident at the League. Involved a great castle rising up from the earth, and a group who wanted to separate humans and Pokemon for good.

The Gym Leaders showed up to help. They are— something like Wardens, sort of. Maybe. And they did. There were a lllllot of people involved with the group. But in the end. It was still the ones the Dragons chose who battled against each other to determine things. When Zekrom was awoken by one, Reshiram appeared to Hilbert to face them together.

[ So what is it with teenagers and young adults, really. ]

Akari knew what she was supposed to do. Right? So Arceus had a safer way of getting someone there. Than whatever route you took. And ... If Arceus asked you to do something. You didn't tell me. And you didn't tell Chandelure.

[ And maybe there simply was no time or opportunity to, but something about that sounds wrong. If it is truly what happened then Emmet is going to have words for Arceus should he ever meet it next, whether he's human at the time or not. ]

[offtracks]

But she has lost memories too! Just not that of her mission!

[ Maybe it found some way to protect that much? Or it just told her after? ]

I am not sure I truly believe that is what happened. But it does not seem entirely out of the question to me.

[outbounds]

Okay. So that still means that if Arceus wanted you to know what Arceus wanted you to do. It had a way of making that happen.

[offtracks]

Perhaps it was a practice run! How often does it do things like that, really?

[outbounds]

[ Huffs a little bit of a sigh. ]

No idea! Not exactly documented, or if it is then it is not publicized.

Would it make you feel better? To think it happened for a reason, even if you forgot it?

[offtracks]

.....no. I think it would make me feel much worse.

[ If only for Akari's sake. But it wouldn't even just be that, would it? Maybe he could have gotten himself back to Unova a long time ago, if he'd known what to do. Is that...something he would have preferred...? ]

[outbounds]

... if Arceus wanted you to know. It could've tried harder.

[ Practice run or not, if it only managed the second time with Akari then the least it could have done was go back to the first and explain, if only for efficiency's sake. ]

Sounds like it would have been easier. Than being lost in the cold.

[ Or bringing in a teenager to shoulder what sounds like it was way, way too much of a burden for one person alone. ]

[offtracks]

Hm, yes. I suppose.

[ None of it really matters now, he supposes. At least, there is nothing he can do about any of it. ]

I only...wish that I could have made it easier for her.

[outbounds]

The legendaries ... do what they want sometimes. Don't have to be happy about it but it just is.

[ Probably isn't even malice or lack of care, is the thing. What are they to beings who operate on that scale? ]

I am unhappy you both had to hurt because of it, though.

[ 'It' being how things are, that is. ]

[offtracks]

...ah, well. That is simply how things are at times.

[ He leans companionably against Emmet. There's nothing to be done - he doesn't want Emmet to worry about it all too much. ]

[outbounds]

... Could always take me back. And let me at them.

[ It would not actually solve anything— probably make them worse, honestly!— but it would be cathartic. ]

Many legendaries are not allowed in the Subway. Would be a fun chance to have a serious battle we couldn't find otherwise.

[ Emmet no— ]

[offtracks]

[ Teasing: ]

Are you jealous that I have gotten to battle some of them and you have not?

[outbounds]

[ Without missing a beat: ]

Yes.

[offtracks]

[ Ingo barks out a laugh. ]

Well, it was very fun!

[outbounds]

Unfaaaaair. Legendaries beyond a certain level of strength are not permitted to ride. To make it fair for the average challenger. [ Also for safety and logistical reasons. Like in the case that someone one day tries to show up with a Kyogre or something. The trains are hardened against a lot but there's only so much they can test and proof for. They do not need the underground flooded. ]

But that does not mean I do not still want to battle them.

[offtracks]

Is it really so common that you had to make a rule against it? You would have to if it were in Hisui, at this point, but that is rather out of the ordinary!

[ Ingo's never had any trouble with it himself; they have an open enough training arena, and can always just go outside of the village walls if things might get too intense. But he knows the subway is underground, at least. That would be far more dangerous! ]

[outbounds]

Hmmm. They will accompany trainers who challenge the Subway sometimes. Not all the time but some of the older or more experienced trainers have befriended them. There are a few pilots who have challenged the lines with the legendary birds; a few stoneworkers who have had the company of Terrakion. Mostly-retired trainers and veterans who have met their fair share of wandering legends like the Swords and Forces of Nature over the years. That sort of thing. They are allowed.

[ Even the legendaries want to let loose and have a good battle sometimes. Or something like that? Shoutout to Socialites Aparna and Saty, Gentlemen Camus and Kavan, Veterans Colombo, Leron, Jeune, and Risha among others whose entire list of known Pokemon consists entirely of various sets of the trio legends, plus some splashing of Regigases, Cresselias, and Heatrans for spice.]

But. Palkia, Dialga, Giratina, Arceus. Those ones, not so much! They are something else. So I would verrrrry much want to battle them.

[offtracks]

I've not battled either of the latter two yet! Maybe one day. But you might have to travel to - to Sinnoh to find them yourself!

[ It'd be easy enough, if he went to Hisui with Ingo. But that's - complicated, isn't it? He doesn't want to raise the spectre of what might happen if the two of them ever do leave this world. ]