[ mix of open and closed prompts ] a backdated round-up of quests and festival prompts alike;

[outbounds]

Who: Emmet, Ingo, Siffrin, Bigby, Firoza ... and you?
What: Post-Scholastic Decisions with Siffrin (1), some questions arise! also, Bigby's no good, very bad, horrible day. and, well, the festival does have its effects on the resident ghosts...?
When: throughout September, maybe early October depending
Where: various! icefall lake, out and about around skull town, thereabouts.
Warnings: Siffrin's usual warnings, environmental hazards maybe, otherwise to be added if needed?

reflections...

[ Maybe you've been here a while; maybe you've only recently just gotten in during all the commotion that seems to be going on between both Malamar and Froslass (and really, how rude to Froslass! she's only trying to make sure everyone has a fun time?). Either way, if you're in town...

Is that your mirror, walking (or floating, or hopping, or,) through the streets of Skull Town with a sprightly, brisk gait, who now comes up to greet you with a brighter smile on their face? Or maybe they might tap on your shoulder to get your attention, and give a cheery wave as you turn around to face them? Oh, members of a given species all look much like each other in this world, to be sure, but this much of a resemblance is a bit uncanny, isn't it?

(If you give away at all that you're taken aback in the slightest, or a little unsettled, well. The grin just gets wider? Surely the mirror is not feeling invigorated by this, are they?) ]

It's nice, don't you think? How lively everything around here is right now?

[ (How thorough the mimicry is is up to you! It might encompass voice, even, or it might not. Potential odd details or tells that might or might not be present, depending on what you're vibing: too-sharp teeth, faint, some paler markings in parallel with where they'd be on Zoroark's form, the fur looking maybe a touch too long, or too ragged, faint red markings around the eyes... that sort of deal, you know? See through him, or don't; he's a touch affected by one of Froslass's blessings making him much more liberal with the whole Illusion thing that he would normally be, with the added bonus of it being much easier for him than usual to boot.

Don't you want to match? :) Isn't it comforting to know that there's someone out there just like you, that you're not alone?) ]

...on the river

[ Emmet doesn't really have anyone to mourn, no one he's lost quite in that way, but when he hears from the other ghosts what the tradition is really meant for, well— it's a nice gesture regardless, isn't it? Solemn, maybe, yes, and maybe a little sad, but. Nice? Maybe if not his own, then someone else's loved ones might take the opportunity to reconnect. Maybe this really will pass a message back to those they left behind, where they came from— if that's the case, he really should make the attempt at sending something on, shouldn't he?

Else those who remain, they will have lost both, rather than just one.

In any case, when Emmet sends his little boat out to sea, he doesn't really expect for anything to happen. And it doesn't, not right away.

a. ... which is why, when the curl of something eventually loops around one of his limbs, he just about jumps out of his skin at first— before freezing entirely as he recognizes it as a verrrry familiar texture. As he turns he just has to stare for a moment in disbelief, because there's no way...

Goodbye, everyone, this Zoroark has been buried under a large pile of oddly pale, potentially slightly lavender-hued, vaguely spectral looking (...?) Pokemon. (Surely they can't all be ghost-types?) You might be forgiven for thinking it was an attack, at least until maybe you come closer and hear the laughter coming from somewhere at the bottom of the pile.

b. "Emmet! There you are! When our tracks diverged I was worried I wouldn't be able to find you here. I am quite happy to see I was mistaken on that matter!"

Oh. Oh, this is...

"... Emmet? Is something the matter?"

Yes. Something is very much the matter, but he can't exactly say that to this particular apparition, so he just grins back and shakes his head no, grabs a hand to tug him along as if intent on showing him the sights. (He is! He is, but also.) He doesn't want to hurt Ingo— either of them, whether it's this one, who seems to be an image of the past (???), who doesn't actually know what's going on here or what's going to happen or why Emmet is so very evasive about certain matters all of a sudden,

Or the one who's been here for all these months now, who if he meets this particular shade almost certainly will find reasons to compare himself to who he was, and, Emmet suspects, find himself lacking. Nope! Definitely can't let them meet.

He just has to figure out how to do that in a way that doesn't seem like he's obviously trying to herd this Ingo away from anyone else. A little hard to do, maybe, with this many people out at the riverbank? ]

scholastic... discoveries? (for siffrinx, ingo)

[ Well. After that enlightening trip to the Mountain Shrine in the Downmoor, they've gotten... some information! Some very, verrrry interesting information.

Also questions. Questions that might almost outstrip any of the upcoming, promised answers the Oranguru they escorted hinted toward. What do you mean, there's no records of the odd merged (?) shapes that they saw, and ... ]

No, no. This is how it looked. Isn't it?

[ Frustration or irritation don't typically show in Emmet's voice, and what counts as his neutral expression is as unruffled as ever— at least to those who don't know the Zoroark well.

Though he probably doesn't much resemble a Zoroark at the moment, does he? In fact, he might not quite accurately resemble much of ... anything actually known, right now? His shape is a little ... hazy, or wobbly, at the moment, as if unsure of how it should be, and the features it does have... ]

It was something like Palkia, I think. [ Like, but not quite entirely the same as. Not as far as he could tell, or that he's aware of, he thinks? ] Long tail, two legs, wings up here?

[ Siffrin is shaking their head, though their voice sounds increasingly uncertain. ] It just had one wing... above its tail? And it was standing on all fours...

[ Was that really a wing. Emmet thinks this over for a moment, also shaking his head, but does try to incorporate some of what Siffrin suggests, and... well. Results are mixed.

Anyway, Ingo. Ingo where are you, do you know any weird clan lore that explains all this. ]

bea-very chilled (for bigby, firoza, ingo)

[ South is where the client Gumshoos directed them, and that, at least, is familiar(-ish) territory for at least three of them, so however it was that they came to be at the quest board the same time this morning for this... off they go! They might make a slightly mismatched-looking group, with the disparity between some of their sizes, but they're all seasoned Guildspokemon here, surely it'll be no problem.

As it is, Emmet's trying to get a sense of what Bidoof's scent is even like off of the note. According to Gumshoos they should be able to pick up on it at least a little here, but so far he hasn't had the most luck on that front. Speaking of the note, though... ]

Do any of you know what the singing tree mentioned in the note is? I do not remember anything like that in the woods here from last time. Is it further out?

[ ... The very obviously starting to thin out woods, since the tree cover does not last for very long once they start approaching the colder region of Icefall Lake in earnest. Well? ]

general wildcard option

[ the obligatory catchall wildcard slot for if we want to improvise a thread or do something that falls under none of the above open options! maybe we discussed it on plurk or on ooc or something, maybe we didn't and you just wanted to drop by for a thread. either way, please feel free to have your character bump into him whenever or wherever, though please do specify if it's happening during Froslass' visit or if it's afterwards in October. as ever, if you have any questions, you can reach out to me via the usual channels! ]

Comments

reflections

[friendlyflower]

[Flowey has only seen his reflection a scarce few times-- he doesn't like to ruminate on how small and pathetic he is, anyway. When he sees another Sunkern hop up to him, the too-sharp smile actually feels more recognizable than anything else. He practically expects to hear a perfect 'howdy!' or perhaps even a 'it's kill or be killed' come out of its mouth.

But there's one thing that the wannabe can't imitate, and that's Flowey's complete and utter disdain for everything-- Froslass especially.]

How clever. What do you want, a trophy? Don't you have anything BETTER to do?

[His own smile stretches wider.] Maybe you're having fun, being limbless and weak, having to weave between legs to avoid getting stepped on. After all, you can shed that miserable form whenever you get sick of it. Golly, isn't that just wonderful?

[It's like all his self-hatred is right there, smiling back at him, mocking him.]

discoveries

[offtracks]

[ Well, he certainly recognizes both of those descriptions! ]

So - to one of you, it looked like Palkia, but to the other, it looked like Dialga?

[ There's old statues in Hisui that are like that. They tend to be within ruins. Possibly they're meant to depict one or the other, but were made by an artist who'd never seen them. Maybe it means something about the dragon's own histories. Either way, their name is the same. ]

Perhaps it was a Sinnoh statue, then.

reflections (come get your shot of espresso, emmet)

[wolfcut]

[ Oh, so now he’s just officially lost it, then. Color him unsettled, if not just a touch unsurprised. He grimaces, then awkwardly reels it in, not wanting to cause a scene and invoke Froslass even more somehow. ]

... Yeah. Been real great.

[ He remembers what Mightyena told him, that he was the first Morpeko she’s seen around here. Besides, that’s his voice, isn’t it? Close enough, anyway. But those teeth — all the better to eat him with, aren't they? His expression falls flat. His heart beats faster. ]

Are you... planning on sticking around?

[ Funny thing to ask the start of a mental breakdown. Bigby never needed a Dee to his Dum, by the way! ]

bea-very chilled

[wolfcut]

Beats me. Didn't have that in the middle section.

[ Bigby leaves that question right where it is: unanswered. What’s next? A wishing well? Hell if he knows. Between the four of them, he’s the odd man out in new territory, and his focus is better suited elsewhere for now. To keep up, he hops along on all fours, nose twitching as he tries to pinpoint something from that nothing of a note. Obviously Bidoof's scent should still be around, but some specification would have made this a whole lot easier. It takes a while for him to make out a trail that doesn't quite fit with the rest of the forest.

(Musky. With a hint of... vanilla? Hm.)

His ears perk as a sudden chill flows by. With less normal trees around, maybe whatever this singing tree actually is might be more obvious. ]

[outbounds]

[ Emmet, who is busy trying to reconfigure himself to look more like what Siffrin describes without also losing what details he managed to spot just sort of. Pauses.

Except he's still a ghost who hasn't decided on the shape it's supposed to be, so, you know. ]

A what statue.

[loopsiedaisy]

[Siffrin does not help this situation by perking their ear up right in the middle of Emmet being some sort of horrific amalgamation (that does not, in fact, really look like Dialga) and going:] Like that! It looked like that!

[Oh... that probably wasn't fast enough for Emmet to stop. It's gone again.]

[offtracks]

Ah - Sinnoh is the creator of the Hisui region, whom the Diamond and Pearl Clans both worshipped! That is the root of the conflict between them. The Pearl Clan believed that Sinnoh was the god of space, and Diamond the god of time. It's only very recently that we learned of Dialga and Palkia themselves, and how they were entirely separate beings! But there are still old statues that look somewhat like the both of them.

[ He gestures at Emmet, even if whatever he was doing just now is already lost. ]

That is a way of depicting Sinnoh. Or perhaps Palkia and Dialga's other forms!

[outbounds]

Like wha—

[ Oops too late Siffrin, it's gone; in his haste to stop Emmet more or less falls out of the middle of his Mario Kart item roulette of horrific amalgamation but vaguely draconic shapes and lands ... somewhere closer to the Dialga side of things but not quite.

Meanwhile... ]

Wait. But they do not look anything like each other or Arceus.

[ Well. Mostly. There's something in the faces, if he's remembering right? Something like that? And they all have tails but that is not saying much. ]

You did mention ... frenzy? Changed Dialga's form. What did that look like?

haha yay! his morning coffee!

[outbounds]

Are you expecting me to?

[ Not-Bigby, of course, meets that grimace with a much easier smile in comparison, even as his ears take on a curious tilt. My, what sharp teeth we have. Maybe part of it is a genuine question, given the interesting lack of surprise the Morpeko had to being met with a mirror image of himself. What does he think is happening?

(The racing heartbeat, though, the general sense of something being off— there we go, that's what we're supposed to be doing, isn't it heady, thrilling and energizing?) ]

Do you want me to?

[outbounds]

[ Maybe Flowey's clear misery will take him aback, have him drop the pretenses to try to help put the Sunkern more at ease?

... The smile is ... unrelenting? Maybe under normal circumstances he might have. Maybe! Unfortunately, for the ghosts both native and not, this festival... ]

Haha. Wow.

If you were not enjoying the festival, all you had to do was say so. But a lot of that... Well, what would you want instead?

[ And has he considered just asking Froslass for help with it? Who knows, maybe they can make some sort of silly wooden mech operated by vines or something for the seed who Wants To Be Tall. ]

[wolfcut]

[ A two-for-one deal on answering a question with a question, it seems. Already, he can't stand to hear himself coming from something so unlike himself, even if those teeth are more like him than he is now. Confusing. Uncanny. His fur bristles, just a bit.

Is this how talking to yourself is supposed to go? ]

I don't think it really matters either way.

[ Bigby doesn't give any indication on which of the two questions he's supposed to be answering. Instead, he adjusts his bowtie. Another gift from Froslass. A reminder that he's not really doing that great right now, thanks. He takes a small step away from his doppelganger. ]

You don't have to stay, if you don't want to. But sounds to me like you do.

[offtracks]

Ah - well, that was described to me only! But Akari said that...it remained on four legs, but the forelegs were bizarrely large and clawed, and the hind were quite spindly! And there was...a crystal lodged in its throat somehow? And many more spines than usual.

[ He frowns a little; is he remembering it all correctly? ]

She said that it looked very unpleasant for Dialga!

[friendlyflower]

[Great, another freak, Flowey thinks. It's too bad that Emmet didn't suggest the wooden mech idea out loud, because he would think that's actually kind of badass.]

What do I want? How about for you to go back to normal and stop mocking me? Or for this stupid ghost to stop brainwashing people? [He wouldn't be so upset if he couldn't feel her trying to tug his puppet strings!] You wouldn't understand.

[loopsiedaisy]

[Hmmm...]

It had some crystals, I think...? Near its shoulders and chest, but not lodged in its throat.

[Siffrin doesn't even try to comment on the rest.]

[But if it's a statue of Sinnoh, then,] Would Pokemon not know that they're two separate beings...? Oranguru said... that some of what we saw sounded like Pokemon from folktales, but that everything merged together didn't...

[So it sounds like all the Pokemon around here wouldn't be making a merged Sinnoh statue! And if so - who did?]

[outbounds]

[ His reflection, of course, has its own bowtie. Most likely due to the illusory nature of it, it appears to bother Not-Bigby much less. ]

What I want. That does not really matter, does it? [ Your warped mirror, echoing your own sentiment right back at you! (With, again, another question.) ... Or is it?

The reflection shrugs a little before grooming behind an ear with a paw. ] It does not change the way things are. Sometimes. What we want matters very little. We can only make the best of it.

[outbounds]

But isn't its most well-known move Roar of Time? A crystal in its throat. Sounds like it would make that verrrrry difficult to use.

[ It sounds unpleasant just to hear about. That almost sounds like a mega evolution gone wrong, or... something? At Siffrin's mention of crystals Emmet tries to crane his neck to get a better look at himself; did he include those in the illusion. ]

Folktales about ancient and powerful Pokemon. If they are old and have been forgotten about, it is one thing ... but Oranguru said there are no records at all about the merged shape even though there are for them separate. Supposedly. And we cannot even agree on what we saw.

So ... why are we seeing it like that, actually.

[ What would Ingo see it as? ... if they just hauled everyone up there and asked them, would it be an evenish 50:50? Will it be consistent, or will the answer change the next day? ]

[offtracks]

...maybe it is something to do with our being off-worlders? Did any of the native Pokemon go and see it too?

[ He doesn't know of anything like a merged shape between the two of them, even having seen them in battle personally! ]

[loopsiedaisy]

Oranguru was with us...

[They're not sure if any other native Pokemon have gone to see it since then, though. Or even what Oranguru saw, actually - the scholar seemed more interested in what they and Emmet were seeing? Still, they were taking notes the whole time, even before asking them...]

[outbounds]

... They did not say or describe what it was they saw.

[ With a huff of breath, Emmet is going to give up on the Dialga illusion as a bad job and— right, here we go again. Maybe it's just the unfamiliar shapes he's been forcing himself to take, maybe it's Froslass' blessing, but shaking his way free of the illusion simply doesn't happen. From an observer's point of view a Dialga as if drawn by someone who'd only heard about it and attempted it from memory attempts to shake the fur it does not have, and only ripples its way back into a semi-Palkiaish shape instead.

He just gives Ingo a look like 'help, please.' ]

[outbounds]

[ The jury is out on how much Hisuian Zoroark can pick up from their target's mind outside of just enough to craft their illusions, we're afraid. Alas. ]

'Normal'? I can ask why you think I am mocking you. Buuuuut I think I will not.

[ Without a head to tilt, the other Sunkern just opts to approximate the gesture with a lopsided dip of their leaves instead. ]

Even if I did exactly what you said. That will only fix the now, right? But what you're complaining about is more than just that. What you are mad about will not go away even if I do.

Why are you so mad at Froslass, anyway?

[ Did he just selectively not hear the brainwashing thing properly or what. ]

[offtracks]

[ That's...new. Ingo has questions about Oranguru's level of involvement here, but he's immediately distracted by what seems to be Emmet's predicament. ]

Are you alright, Emmet?

[wolfcut]

[ He rolls his eyes at hearing his own answer thrown back at him, in another question no less. Why do mirrors always feel the need to insist upon themselves. ]

Spoken from experience, I imagine. [ If only he knew the half of it. ] And how do you think we should make the best of it?

[ He gives a pointed look at his not-self self-grooming. What cute ears they have. ] ... Don't do that. [ Disturbing to think that's just a habit now. ]

[friendlyflower]

Ugh, I forgot you brainwashed types are too indoctrinated to hear anything bad about Froslass. Follow me. Or don't, I don't care.

[He hops further toward the edge of town. He halfway expects Emmet to either turn back to his normal form- hopping is slow and annoying- or to not follow him at all.]

wildcard

[hasapoint]

It's mealtime and the Oran Berry dining hall is noisy and crowded. Unless you're taking the time to look, it's easy to miss if someone isn't eating what's in front of them. Or to mistake them for the Pokemon that don't eat, or anyone who's already finished or is just pausing to chat.

Need was recently brought in by Mightyena. As a Doublade she's a bit under three feet from points to pommels and so has been positioned at a table with a low stool, so her wall crest can rest and even if her swords aren't drawn they can see over the table. She's looking, but that's about it. The tassel-arms on her pommels hang limp and she does not move, busily dissociating. Need's gone too long without a body and this doesn't feel like something that belongs to her at all.

There are a few Honedges and another Doublade or two in the hall, if not at the same table. As possessed swords they don't have mouths or much in the way of facial features and so they're expressive in a different way from most around them. They gesture and pose, their eyes move and blink and contrive to suggest feelings. The others don't, at the moment, look inanimate.

[outbounds]

[ All the better to hear each other with, aren't they? That said, he doesn't immediately respond to the question, ears twitching just a little at the comment he addresses instead. ] Don't do what? ... Groom? Is there something else we should do to not let them become a mess instead?

[ Though the mirror pauses, thoughtful. ]

Or is it that this form is not ideal? ...Unfortunately, again. The truth does not change just because we do not like what it is.