bottlecaplogs | September Catch-All

[After recovering from his exploration into Heavy Downmoor, Flowey has been just dying to talk to Akechi. Finally, the chance comes in the form of a simple gathering quest. He can earn some brownie points with the guild and talk theories-- it's a win-win! He does have to carry a basket on his head the whole time, though.]

The second meeting of the Flowey Detective Agency is now in session! Do you wanna start by presenting your findings?

[Admittedly, he has few new findings on Ribombee. With Firepaw in a coma, Flowey has been trying his hardest to aim for the coveted guildmaster's pet position, but realistically his tantrum on the Grumpearl network shot his chances at that forever. He still thinks that at least if he works hard enough, Ribombee will be forced to acknowledge him.

The only 'finding' he does have is that Ribombee made him shorten it from 'Death Blood Murder Skull Town' to just 'Skull Town', which Flowey thinks makes him even more suspicious, personally.]

The Flowey Detective Agency.

[He gives a rather flat look, head slightly cocked.]

I could protest that, given that I worked as a detective.

[A rather fraudulent one, but still...

Well, they have other matters to tend to, fluttering about to gather their resources.]

At any rate, I do have some information regarding the housing hierarchy. Where Mightyena-san is concerned, it's merely a matter of space, time, and resources, and she was deeply apologetic about the living conditions.

That's all well and good for the Oran Berries. The other night it rained and I didn't get a wink of sleep. Thought about asking Ribombee, but he was too busy with Skull Town. Which he insisted on shortening.

... But, hey! At least, I heard someone got a fancy new promotion! [He perks up a little.] Way to go!

Why, thank you.

[He puffs out his chest a little, tipping his chin up.]

But, funnily enough, Mightyena-san did advise speaking to Ribombee-san. She seemed... uneasy, when questioned about it, almost as if there's tension between the two.

Funny you say that! Three guilds, all with different ideas about how the town should be run, and no single leader? It's a miracle this place hasn't turned broken out into outright war yet! Wanna place bets on how long it takes for the outpost to declare independence? Or maybe the native Pokemon will destroy it first because of all the imperialism.

[He's about to cackle just thinking about it... until remembering that people would probably die. Maybe even he would die. That's sobering.]

Uh. Which would be bad, of course.

It's entirely possible that frictions could arise between the outpost and Bottlecap Bay in time.

[The remarks about 'imperialism' aren't entirely misplaced.]

I believe the key difference between this and imperialistic society is how communal it is. The Pokémon as a whole value community over personal gain, with a lack of currency, police, and other landmarks of more corrupt, capitalistic societies.

"Capitalistic?" [He doesn't know what that means. Frankly, he's still confused that most Pokemon don't just drop gold when you win an encounter against them.]

Nevermind, I don't actually care. I've been dying to talk about how weird the expedition here was and the stuff I found exploring.

And just when I was readying an economics lesson.

[Chuckling, he lets the matter drop. Flowey does have a point, after all.]

At any rate, I'd be happy to hear your account, seeing as I only visited "Furnace Mountain."

Hee hee. Save it, nerd.

[He gets serious.]

So I was in Heavy Downmoor with Perrin and Bigby. It took almost drowning in a deluge and fighting a mob of Spearow, but we found a ruined building. We took shelter inside. It was more or less structurally sound, even though the interior had been ravaged by the jaws of time. Nothing worth taking back-- just dust and rot.

But we found something else. The layout... the shelving... it was almost exactly like the Archives.

Now, some staircases were in different places. The faded paint once was a different color. But there was no mistaking it. Ask the others if you won't buy it from me.

Of course, first thing I thought: "Polteageist totally ripped off the design of the Archives from this old building." Sometimes, it's the most boring explanation.

... But all of us felt something. Speaking in our minds. I remember every word, still.

"How many times have we been here? How many times have we lived here? How many times have we fallen to ruin?"

[Flowey pauses, letting that sink in. As if he just said the scary part of a horror story... but, this is real.]

... Remind you of anything? You remember the memory share, don'tcha? It made me think of resets.

But of course... if the world did reset the way I was able to, there wouldn't be any old buildings left behind. Everything would've gone back to the way it was. Still... something isn't right.

[Akechi listens intently, calm at first. He tries to file away all this information for later...

But the Archives. The implications.

It gives him genuine pause, eyes far wider than they typically appear.]

A time loop...? But then, if that were the case, how could the ruins coexist with the present?

[A time displacement, then?

But, wait...]

Firoza-san mentioned something a few months ago, regarding the exploration of the Southern Forest. If I recall correctly, their group encountered an Oricorio that was familiar with Bottlecap Bay, but not the guilds. Moreover, they fell into effectively the ruins of a prior civilization.

Could this not be connected to your findings?

[He can't help but smile a little. Good to see that they're on the same page.] Interesting. Veeerrrryyyy interesting. It can't be a time loop, but it definitely sounds like... Bottlecap Bay has been built before. Something happens, and then it's left to ruin. And then it gets rebuilt again somewhere else, just a little bit different. Whether or not there's a new cast every time or new suckers are pulled from their worlds to die here... I don't know yet. I'll have to follow up with Firoza-- maybe Pokemon like Oricorio know more. Someone has to remember.

For now... I didn't find any remains. Just dust. [That causes him to shiver involuntarily. But... Pokemon don't turn to dust when they die, he thinks. Even if they do 'fall down', comatose, sometimes.] Either this version of the Archives got destroyed a long, long time ago, or whatever happened didn't leave any bodies.

[How morbid. He would find it cool if there weren't the potential of impending disaster. He has no real reason to think it was them specifically who lived in these 'other' versions of Bottlecap Bay other than the fact that there's no evidence of other Pokemon having lived there. And, well... it's a hunch from his experience with resets. Sure, the patterns don't quite match up, but... something's weird.]

One thing's for sure. Whatever happened, it's going to happen again.

I have another hypothesis.

[Pausing, he glances around, just to ensure no one's listening. It's not that private, but subjects such as these are delicate. The complications therein may in turn confuse or concern the locals.]

Assuming this world follows an unending cycle, is it not possible that we're a new variable intended to break said cycle?

Wow! You really were a famous detective, huh? [This... sounds extremely sarcastic, but that's just his nature. He's actually impressed. Flowey was so focused on his nightmare scenario of being trapped in some weird time loop that he isn't controlling, he didn't even think about that.] That's a great hypothesis!

Actually... Emporio and I were talking. I'm sure you were thinking along the same lines, but we were speculating that a Legendary Pokemon that must have brought us here and turned us into Pokemon. [There are too many coincidences and little oddities that add up-- the way the forest was glitching, the way some Pokemon go missing multiple times, the fact that Pokemon go comatose like dolls with their strings cut. He'll explain if Akechi asks for more clarification.

... Although Flowey is naturally biased to think of the world as a game, and so he had felt like some sort of 'game master' had brought them here. It was his own peculiar line of reasoning.]

It might've called us here because nobody else from this world could break the cycle. It had to take drastic action because this may be the world's 'last chance', don'tcha think? When we were walking to Death Blood Murder Skull Town- [And yes, he will say the full name,] the forest was really weird. Even without the fog, it was like reality was breaking.

...Breaking how, exactly?

[His head tilts, but his attention remains firmly in place. This is a significant lead, one most certainly worth following up on...

The question is, how do the discoveries at Furnace Mountain fit into the big picture?]

Like it was a game glitching. Even without the fog, there were parts that were... weird. Unreal. Those parts of the forest kept alternating between North, Middle, and South. And isn't it weird how we got there in just one day, even though Mightyena said it should've been impossible?

It could be something about the Forest specifically, or it could be a Pokemon was using some move. [Whether it was to help or hinder them, he can't say.]

... There have been other cases of disorientation, though. I heard that voice in the abandoned archives building in Heavy Downmoor. Once, I became convinced that I wasn't actually who I thought I was. And this ISN'T just me. Haven't you noticed the same Pokemon go missing multiple times?

I have. And then there are those who seemingly lose the same item repeatedly as well...

[It's less severe but still worth noting. Repetition. Repeat missions. It all aligns with the sense of loops or cycles...

But this voice? Well, that's a fascinating segue, isn't it? So fascinating that Akechi finally seizes his chance.]

At any rate, our exploration at Furnace Mountain also yielded fascinating finds. Setting aside the immense heat and the peril, we found an obsidian spire covered in mysterious symbols.

[Bringing his wings together, he lets that sink in.]

But directly touching the spire assaulted our minds with a cacophony of voices. It was... overwhelming, to say the least, and we were unable to discern their precise words.

However, as we left, a mysterious voice asked, "Can you hear me?"

[... Well, that's unnerving.]

Did you reply? Or hear anything after that?

[He thinks about this new information. If it were a cacophony of voices, it might be more than one entity that they're dealing with... or maybe it's the same one who's spoken in his mind, and the others are trapped. Lost in time and space...]

... And have you ever heard that voice before?

No reply. The final voice was the clearest by far.

[Shutting his eyes, he tries to think if he had heard a similar voice before.

Then it hits him, and he straightens his posture, a serious look overtaking his features.]

When we searched for Zweilous, an odd thought overcame us. "Something important is... missing." While I can't say it was the same voice, it was an unsettling feeling, and I believe others involved in the search experienced something similar.

That was the Pokemon I was searching for when I first heard it! You know, when I felt like I wasn't who I thought I was!

[He doubts Zweilous itself has anything to do with it... that must have just been a time the voice broke through for several of them.]

... Missing? What's missing? [Could what the voice told them be connected?] Is there something we're forgetting?

Or was it that Zweilous felt something was missing?

[Something to motivate it to keep leaving, time and time again... Still, what Flowey just said is worrying, to be sure.]

We also must consider why these Pokémon repeatedly go missing and how they can evade detection by the clinic staff. On a wider scale, there are also the frequent attacks from Pokémon who can't be reasoned with.

True. Some of them seem like they can come to their senses, like the Pokemon with bounties on their heads.

[It feels too frustrating to settle for a 'wait and see' approach, but they have come across tidbits of information that way so far.]

The way I see it, there's three points of attack: question Pokemon like Ursaluna and Zweilous, question our fellow guildmates about their experiences with the voice, or try to follow up on that obsidian spire. That's the only way we might be able to contact the voice rather than wait for it to contact us.

[There's also following up on the guildmasters, which is also generally on his to-do list. He knows there's more that Ribombee isn't telling him. But, he isn't sure how much more he can learn from him before resorting to outright spying on him-- at least, without ranking up some more.

Flowey also considered doing a stakeout and waiting for a frequent runaway like Zweilous to get lost yet again, and then following them to see what they can learn... but that might be a lot of work for zero reward. Last time, his team found Zweilous napping in a tree.]

Your thoughts, Watson? [Realistically, Akechi would be the Sherlock Holmes. But it's funnier to try to get a rise out of him.]

[Akechi slowly inhales, but decides not to press on the Watson point. Knowing Flowey, he's likely trying to get under his skin, and they have far more pertinent matters to discuss.]

It may be worthwhile to divide and conquer. If we can find enough volunteers from the guilds, we could theoretically tackle multiple points of attack in one fell swoop.

[Surely there's enough interest. They may even learn more in the process.]

Of course, there's also the matter of the guild leadership to consider. I'm still not convinced it's as harmonious as it appears.

We could always ask your boyfriend, loverboy. [Oh, how he longs to love someone, anyone. Even if it seems a little gross to be all nose nuzzle kissy smoochy. He'll hide that emptiness behind mockery, as usual.] Hee hee.

Loverboy. Really?

[His feathers do fluff up a bit, but only for a moment. A slow breath in, a slow breath out, and he's back to perfect composure.]

Setting aside the blatant teasing, I do believe that Ren would be interested.

You know what they say: if the shoe fits...! [He cackles, pleased that he managed to ruffle Akechi's feathers.]

Anyway, sounds like we've got a plan! Let's loop in Ren at least. We should keep the guild leader investigation stuff between us so we don't get any unwanted attention, though.

Edited 2025-09-26 16:39 (UTC)

September Catch-All

No Pain No Grain

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