Ankou squawks again.

Ankou: <Kalosian Grim Reaper? No no no, Yantreizhon Grim Reaper! It's a distinct distinction, yes! The people of Geosenge and Shalour would be rather bitter at you if you tried to imply that the Ankou were a part of the greater Kalos region's mythos! The Yantreizhons are notoriously proud of their heritage and land and bitter at the greater Kalos region and government, after all~ Tenacious folks, yes!>

Salvador's rather graceful and beautifully handwritten message reads as follows:

edited 25th Apr '18 8:01:54 PM by PippingFool

I'm having to learn to pay the price

Agrabah

As Sunny rested her staff on the ground to summon a Psychic Terrain, Rei summoned a ball of ice before shattering and having the shards fly at Jafar.

Colt drew his phone.

Colton Rever’s Legendary Snapshot Quest!

Kami Trio

Landorus

Thundurus

Tornadus

Behind his back, the rest of his team materialized, motivated by Xatu’s Tailwind to put in as much effort as they could from a distance.

Roy used Flamethrower.

Pyukumuku used Toxic.

Amaterasu used Fire Blast.

And all of them promptly felt the Earthquake. Roy, Sunny and Ammy most of all.

Colt followed Umbra’s example and blended into the shadows on the wall, running around while firing Dark Pulses and Snarling at Jafar when he extricated himself from the wall before hiding back in the shadows. It was fun being cheap!

Route 4

Sean led Colt through a bit of the maze before running down a Rabbid with a charging Bullet Punch. Colt stayed behind a fair distance and fired Pot Shot at the Rabbid.

“You gonna-“

<Nah, I’m good,> the Mega-Evolved Steel-type dissuaded, waving away Category 5.

[Insert Unoriginal Stinger Here]

 Lilycove 

-To Ankou-

Right, [Brittany].

-Looking at Channah briefly-

But... if I want her to be part of my life in a fashion similar to Sol... that means revealing all of it to her.

-And makes another text-

Eating a Vanilluxe will give you frostbite.

After a few minutes, Tagg receives another message.

edited 25th Apr '18 8:19:04 PM by PippingFool

I'm having to learn to pay the price

Channah: -takes a swig, blinking as she attempts to parse the past few minutes of conversation- Geosenge. That's where... where uh. Stuff happened. I think Big Savings got lost there. Yep. Got it.

Lo: <Dear Groudon.>

There is no disdain in nature, there is no humiliation.

Ever: I...am bored.

Breeze: <I picked up on that the fifth time you said it.>

-...-

Breeze: <And also I read your mind, and it told me you were bored.>

Ever: There we go.

Breeze: <But you explicitly saying it didn't hurt.>

Ever: Mezzo's in Kalos, Tagg is (rightfully) occupied with romantic drama, Brie is looking for Zemmalise, PEFE!Every's busy, who knows where Amanita is, Megan's off fixing Unova, Kai is...probably doing something important? Question mark?

...I could bug Jacob. But that would require sending a text, and my phone is all the way over there.

Breeze: <...>

Ever: ...Breeze, can you—

Breeze: -bats Ever's phone further away with Psychic-

Ever: Wow.

Breeze: <Unplug, yo.>

Ever: We can't all communicate telepathically with anyone and everyone we care about.

Breeze: <You should learn!>

Ever: I'm not sure I can?

Breeze: <Maybe you're just being narrow-minded!>

Narrow: <Hey!>

Breeze: ~_~

Ever: If it worked that way, I would have long ago learned to tune you out.

Breeze: (gasp) <You would never.>

Ever: Well, no, not unless they figure out how to make people Auric.

-...-

Ever: Hey, maybe I should ask—

Breeze: <No.>

Ever: Now who's being narrow-minded?

Narrow: <Hey!>

Ever: Why would you assume we're talking about you? It's common slang.

Narrow: <I didn't pick the name!>

Dunsparce didn't stop being a thing or anything.

 Lilycove 

-To Channah-

You wanna come with, it'll be quite... magical. Way better than any form of alcohol.

edited 25th Apr '18 8:42:40 PM by rmctagg09

Eating a Vanilluxe will give you frostbite.

Channah: -stands, wavering- Well yeah it usually is. Except that time in Mauville when we had to do the thing, I'm not uh, real big on underground shit. I mean it was okay but not as cool as that water tunnel or, or, or, the other place. Where we going?

There is no disdain in nature, there is no humiliation.

 Lilycove 

-To Channah-

Northern Glades, over in Kalos' mountains.

Eating a Vanilluxe will give you frostbite.

Channah: -picks up one of the last two beers and kicks the box and remaining bottle off the ledge- Cool, sweet. Yeah I'm good to go whenever.

Lo: <I'm feeling a tinge of doubt - >

Channah: You know, really doubt's, like good. Leads you on a path to better understanding and like greater faith and all that. So yeah. -to Tagg- Ready when you are.

There is no disdain in nature, there is no humiliation.

 Lilycove 

Alright, let's go. Xatu?

Xatu: -Blip-

 Somewhere in Northern Kalos 

-Looking around-

Okay, now where's Shaka?

Eating a Vanilluxe will give you frostbite.

Channah and Tagg blip away, leaving just Ankou (who looks a lil deflated about it)

Ankou: <Aww... they didn't take me with them. Nope, not me...>

She puffs back up.

Ankou: <It's okay, yes! I will just fly back to Kalos myself! Yes, good exercise to have, wing muscles get stronger! A good idea, indeed! Train and fly!>

Ankou gets ready for take-off.

Ankou: <An->

Ankou takes off with a blast.

Ankou: <KOUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!>

The area of the Northern Forests Channah and Tagg blipped to is just like Salvador described in his letter. The ring of willows and wisterias who's pendulous branches, leaves and flowers form a natural shawl veiling the area have a faint, almost ethereal pale gold glow around them, the aura of Xerneas almost palpable .

Yet, alas, it seems like the elderly clockpunk cyborg Gallade is nowhere to be seen. But at least the sight is pretty.

edited 25th Apr '18 10:56:00 PM by PippingFool

I'm having to learn to pay the price

Channah: -looks around, seeming more dazed than usual after the teleport- Whoa. Okay. Ooh, willows. -to Lo- ...Does the air feel weird to you? Like unpleasant?

Lo: <...Vaguely sacred, more like.>

Channah: Oh. Huh. Eh, my atmosphere... thing... radar's all fucked up. -shrugs and cracks open her beer, watching Tagg-

There is no disdain in nature, there is no humiliation.

 Northern Forests, Kalos 

-Looking around-

Wow...

Muddy: <It's like the valley, kinda.>

Eating a Vanilluxe will give you frostbite.

Shaka doesn't seem to be around.

Salvador's message did say that if Shaka wasn't around to enter the glade, presumably he's meditating with Salvador at the moment?

I'm having to learn to pay the price

Erstatz alliance

Eva: Is that cupboard meant to explode? Ah yes, ok. I'll leave the money over here so you can get it later.

-puts money on counter-

I used to plug my deviantart here but turns out the link was too long.

 Northern Forests 

-Shrugs and walks inside-

Eating a Vanilluxe will give you frostbite.

As Channah and Tagg push through the last shawl of wisteria and willow branches, the true majesty of the glade shows. Everything feels slightly enchanted and posses a faint glow, flowers of all colours that don't seem to grow anywhere else on the planet bloom here, the rocks and cliffs have moss that grows in strange patters and looks like velvet - a testimony to Xerneas if there ever was one.

To the back of the glade small, soft flowing waterfall peters into a celestic-esque pool that takes up a decent portion of the glade's space. In the middle of said pool, a figure stands. Long hair cascading out behind him as he continues the practise of

Bathing.

Naked.

Thankfully for our two guests, only the back of his torso that isn't covered by hair can be seen, as Salvador continues to wash his arms. Singing and humming and oblivious to anyone else in the glade.

Salvador: Hmm, I wonder when they'll arrive? Hopefully enough for me to get r-

That is until he turns around.

Salvador: ...

A moment of complete silence passes, untll suddenly, it feels like the temperature has dropped a significant deal and Salvador's hair begins to trash about wildly as if it had a life of it's own. Salvador himself seems to be surrounded with a kind of aura that is best described as "something that runs in the family".

Before anything else happens, though, a sudden psychic force ganks Tagg and Channah out of the glade and back to the entrance. After doing so, the figure softly chuckles as looks at the pair

Shaka: Apologies. It seems that we may have missed each other by a second, I had momentarily departed to run an errand, you see~

There's something mischievous about Shaka's words as he turns towards the glade.

Shaka: The boy is horribly shy and easily flustered. Walking in on him in such a vulnerable state easily triggers his fight or flight response.

Thankfully, I was there to yank you out before anything troublesome happened~

edited 26th Apr '18 6:51:22 AM by PippingFool

I'm having to learn to pay the price

 Northern Forests 

-Is a bit too stunned to actually properly respond to Shaka before snapping out of it-

Right...

Eating a Vanilluxe will give you frostbite.

Channah: Heh. Okay. You're right dude, that's pretty magical. -snickers-

There is no disdain in nature, there is no humiliation.

Shaka laughs

Shaka: Just be thankful that none of this will reach Yveltal's ears. Unlike Levi, I'm not sure you could survive a knife to the head or a pike through the chest.

Shaka's laugh falters into a chuckle.

Shaka: You should probably thank Salvador for placating Yveltal into not turning you into brine juice after Lucius defected though. Salvador is surprisingly well adapted to placating and calming down violent and capricious individuals, even if you shouldn't think too hard about how one gets skills like that in the first place.

Shaka shakes his head slightly.

Shaka: Regardless, you should both wait here for a while. It shouldn't take Salvador too much longer to clean himself up~

I'm having to learn to pay the price

 Northern Forests 

-Facepalms-

Don't remind me, I'll probably be convincing her not to reap him immediately once Iron's little more than a bad memory.

Eating a Vanilluxe will give you frostbite.

Shaka: Well, Salvador himself was involved in that whole debacle. He could probably bargain something with Ol' Yv in that situation. Indefinite community service in Yveltal's name, perhaps? Who knows~

I'm having to learn to pay the price

 Northern Forests 

-Sighing-

If the impression I've gotten of what the whole thing did to him and Alice is correct, going by their Auras, "indefinite" will probably be exactly that.

edited 26th Apr '18 12:00:50 AM by rmctagg09

Eating a Vanilluxe will give you frostbite.

Virbank City Gym:

Considering that actively fighting someone requires a great deal of oxygen, there was no way Rookie wouldn't have inhaled the poison gas, and it wouldn't be long before they felt poisoned for the first time ever. It wasn't nearly as pleasant as one would think, as the Riolu found it impossible to keep standing straight and occasionally coughing.

"Fighting moves aren't very effective against poison, not very surprising..." Mark commented aloud, as if he were wanting to ensure that the rules of reality weren't postponed indefinitely. "Drop them before they drop you, use quick attack!" Mark then told his companion before the Riolu tried their hardest to make a midair mule kick at the enemy koffing.

Living The Fever Dream