Circhester's Safe House Hallway vs. Ananpi and the Illusion Bois
Ciara falls over from the Phantom pains and being sideswiped. Once they've recovered from the ringing in their ears from the strike, they make a rather impassioned mental plea within the recesses of Mason's mind. Usually they'd try for their sense of pity or try to manipulate some other emotion, but this time she's going right for the parts of the brain in charge of reason.
Ciara: ~Listen—Mason, is it?—I'd love to draw this out and make it look really good (and we honestly should; it's more convincing). I'm this close to getting Dr. Circhester within striking range and while I'm willing to play along, I do not intend for any of you to blow my one chance of really crippling the school where it hurts. If you want to be a do-gooder, take out his Ditto. Also, I've an image to uphold, so I'm sincerely sorry for this.~
They use the pole to get back up and, within a split second, attempt to strike Mason with it right around the solar plexus. If Rory isn't distracted, he'd be hearing the entire mental conversation as well.
Ciara: ~And this goes double for you, Donte. I'd have just told Carbon here to tell you or not, if he happened to think that's funny. But I'd rather keep you all in the loop with the kayfabe. Let's play it out for a moment. Make it look convincing. And do sock that Ditto extra hard for me. He is absolutely insufferable, and I've had to eat at the same lunch table with Ferrum.~
She then musters up enough energy to attempt to strike Ananpi with it. Any attempt from the latter to use electrical moves will be all for naught, as Ciara is in fact wearing a rubber glove on their pole holding hand.
Should it make contact, it would feel more like a gentle poke than any attempt at squishing them, though it certainly looks the part.
Ciara: ~I'll tell you what I've told the wispy Nancy-boy and his edgelord friend next to you. I've worked so hard to get Dr. Circhester within striking range and I will not let you blow it. Your friends shackled up the one person in this organization who knows I've defected and honestly I am grateful for that. Now play along and make it look good.~
The attacks meant for Amora, meanwhile, were intercepted by 108.
Amora: <Hassium!>
108/Hassium, rather weakly: <Don't worry about me, beautiful. Go dodge that big palukka coming at you fast.>
Ciara: ~They've gotten the memo; say no more about this, you two.~
Hassium: <Sorry, boys. Gotta do what the boss says. No matter how distasteful they might be.>
With her remaining strength, she fires a Payback at the bronzong. She knows what Amora and her trainer are up to and has done great pains to make sure Dr. Circhester or his lackeys don't pick up on it. She didn't bother making it too accurate, though if it does hit the resulting effects will make it look realistic.
Adam: <I have no time for you; I must serve my father.>
He fires a dynamic punch at the presumably close lucario before turning around and attempting to intercept the incoming Pangoro with a hammer arm.
As for Ananpi's attacks? They were intercepted by a sandslash that came out of nowhere. The sandslash proceeded to bulldoze the bronzong and eevee before doing a super-cool flip and doing a Three-Point Landing, upon which they revert to their previous form—Igor. Once in his human form once more, he dons a cocky expression and hair flip, before turning his left hand into the arm of an exceptionally burly conkledurr, grabbing the rocket with his bare hand, and crushing it.
Igor: Betcha weren't expecting this, huh Donte? There's a reason Dr. Circhester hasn't needed a templar in a long time. Kachow.
Dr. Circhester: Do try to keep up, Ciara. These are cheap conjurors of illusions from an earlier time.
Ciara, muttering mentally: ~Easy for him to say, he's got security cameras pointed at us.~
"Not to worry, chaps." Says a voice behind them. "I've got this covered."
As that happened, the entire hallway turned into what appears to be an extremely large medieval hall, and approaching them is an adolescent boy of about 15, dressed as a pompous [Hungarian] nobleman from the 15th Century. Beside him was a rather feral-looking lycanroc on one side and a fairly muscular boy of the same age on the other, dressed as a knight.
Igor: Doc, is this really necessary?
Dr. Circhester: I figured you two would need an illusionist of your own. A significant improvement on the Phantoms, but without ever needing to dabble in the Obscuric side of the spectrum. Everybody, meet Oganesson, last of the 2021 batch, and likewise his partner Krypton, 36th of the batch.
Oganesson: Alright, doctor, do you want to let us take these cretins on or not?
Dr. Circhester: Attitude could still use a little adjusting; we never expected haughtiness to be genetic.
Ciara mutters to themself: This changes everything.
Dr. Circhester: Once you've dealt with these genetic rejects and their miscreant allies, I expect all of you back in my pod. The coordinates of this will be sent to Oganesson's porygon.
Igor: Hey!
Dr. Circhester: I don't expect any complaints to the contrary.
Oganesson: Yeah, Igor. Listen to the doctor. "Yessss, maaasterrr," and all that. But sure, have it your way.
With that, Dr. Circhester's hologram disappears, presumably so he could run away.
Oganesson, petulant voice: Krypton and I will stay here if you need us. It'll be entertaining to watch you fail.
Igor: If you behave yourself I'll be sure to leave a femur unshattered for your lycanroc to chew on.
Oganesson's illusion not only looks realistic but somehow feels real, down to the whiff of smoke coming from the roaring fire he's sitting behind. Any Braviary-eyed person will notice that the two School children have left their Pokeball chains dangling on their waists. When mobilized, they can easily escalate the situation in favor of Circhester's lackeys... unless these balls were taken away from them.
Edited by MasterJayAM on Oct 16th 2022 at 10:33:56 AM
Damien: "Well, suppose it would explain why you're so adamant to get yourselves killed for it."
Maggie: "I mean, lots of Templars have gotten themselves killed trying to deal with what they think is a threat to the School."
Damien: "Quite frankly, I think you are a threat to the School. Not because of you doing your own thing but because
Maggie: "Well... let's say you're correct and we Don't manage to take down the school. If you don't believe that Zee doing her own thing is a problem, they're still going to send you to take care of her and people like her. And what'll happen to you if you don't."
Damien pauses for a bit in response.
Damien: "I would say while I do still enjoy my life thus far at the School I am not particularly keen in losing my life hunting down a truant who fails that goal and outmatches me as has happened here. I suppose this has put me in a bit of a Catch-22."
"life is just a series of increasingly canon-eluding ao3 tags" ~ everydunsparce "Keep your hellfruit away from me, tempter" ~ also Every
Priest of the Temple of Syrinx
The Underground
Owen and Stipax's eyes went wide in an instant.
"<TRICKY!>" they cried out.
Immediately, Stipax and Gwana headed straight on the attack. Stipax immediately launched forwards with a massive Electroweb which hit every mon on the field, while Gwana promptly stomped on the floor again. Seconds later, she turned to face Mark.
<Nah, I wasn't holding back,> she said. <I just knew that Stipax would take neutral damage from Ground-type moves. Because Bug resists Ground.>
Veilstone City- vs. Maylene
After a bit, Maylene returned her fainted Breloom, while Owen returned the newly-evolved Saura back to her PokeBall. Maylene chuckled to herself as she returned her Breloom.
"Well," she said. "I wasn't expecting to see an evolution like that. Congratulations."
"Thank you, Maylene," said Owen.
"Of course, we've got no more time for celebration," said Maylene. "We have a battle to continue with, after all... so it's time for my next Pokemon!"
Immediately, she threw out a PokeBall.
"Go, Heracross!" she cried.
The ball opened up, and immediately a Heracross appeared- with a heart-shaped horn, indicating that this one was a female as well. Owen noticed that she was also carrying a blazing orange orb in her claws.
"...A Flame Orb," he suddenly realized.
<Yippee~!> cried the Heracross. <I can't wait to battle!>
Owen glanced down. This mon was, as he knew, part Bug-type. He could send out Teryx, but he knew full-well that Teryx would be too frightened to battle. What he did know, however, was that Bug was also weak to Fire and Rock.
And there was only one mon on his team that knew Fire and Rock moves.
"Alright, then!" he cried, pulling out a PokeBall of his own. "Gwana, let's do this!"
The ball opened up, and in an instant, Gwana emerged— and wasted absolutely zero time. Immediately, she opened her mouth and released a massive burst of fire dead center at the Heracross.
The move succeeded in catching the Heracross off-guard, knocking her backwards.
<W-whoaaa~!>
The Heracross soon found herself against the wall, and when the dust settled... that wasn't all.
She also found herself burned.
Gwana smirked— but so did Maylene's Heracross. She tossed off the Flame Orb, given that now it was effectively useless.
<Well, good for you!> she said. <You made this useless— but it doesn't matter a bit! Not only do I have Guts as my ability...>
She grinned.
<I also have THIS!>
And soon afterwards, she ran forwards, her body glowing in a bright red energy.
Owen grimaced, recognizing the move immediately.
"Gwana!" he cried. "Look out; that's Facade!"
Gwana nodded— and immediately dodged the attack by diving into the ground.
The Heracross promptly staggered backwards, ceasing the attack.
<Huh...?> she muttered, looking around. <Where'd she go...?>
And then the burn hit her, and she flinched back.
Ultra Space- Ultra Megapolis
After a bit, Kim, Elton, Gallag, Joel, and Debussy all stepped outside- to find themselves in the middle of a massive city made of crystals. Surrounding them were strange-looking people they'd never met before dressed in mysterious suits, and in the middle of the city was a massive crystal spire with glowing, brilliant diamonds shining off of it. Elton, Gallag, Joel, and even Debussy couldn't help but glance up at it in awe.
For Kim, however, the architecture wasn't the thing that she was most focused on at the moment. What she was focused on the most at the moment was the other thing she noticed: a group of Poipole and Naganadel, talking to each other.
Perfect, she thought to herself.
She got out her notebook, ready to start theorizing and gathering evidence.
<I-is that...> muttered Elton in excitement.
Kim nodded. "That, Elton, is Ultra Megapolis. The biggest city in Ultra Space... and the place where we're about to conduct a ton of UBese research."
<Whoooaaa~!> cried Gallag. <This place is sick, dude! Look at that awesome crystal spire they have here!>
<Certainly is intriguing, hmmmm...?> asked Joel.
Debussy just stood there in awe and dead silence, not even saying a word.
Kim nodded. "It is. But that's not what we're here for. We're here... for them."
She pointed ahead at the group of Poipole and Naganadel, then motioned ahead to her Pokemon.
"Come on," she said. "Let's go."
Excitedly, her Pokemon followed her, save for Debussy, who merely glanced around at the immense crystal structures surrounding him in awe as he walked.
Eventually, Kim got close enough to the Poipole and Naganadel to the point where she could hear them. She sat down, then took out the "UBese" text that Jigsaw had translated for her. Elton, Gallag, and Joel all gathered around it.
<That's... that's the UBese text that Jigsaw had you translate, isn't it?> asked Elton.
"Yes," said Kim after a few minutes. "Though, of course, this is assuming that what I have on this paper is, in fact, actual UBese. But I have a theory."
<A theory?> asked Gallag. <Already?>
Kim nodded. She promptly took out her notebook and began to write down some notes.
June 23, 2022. My quest for UBese knowledge has officially begun. Already, I have a theory as to the origins of the paper that Jigsaw gave me back on Halloween night to translate. He claimed it was UBese text and that translating and understanding UBese was impossible for humans. My current ideas, however, suggest that this was a lie. This is not just due to the fact that Jigsaw is, frankly, an extremely manipulative glitch Mr. Mime, but also because the UBese text, when translated, appears to have words very similar to that of words from several other languages. At least, on the surface. While I'm still not sure as to what the words mean exactly yet, I do have a few theories in mind. I'm still not even sure as to how they're said, though I'm sure I'll find this out later.
For now, my prevailing theory is this:
LATIN-ESQUE TEXT WHEN TRANSLATED-> LATIN ALPHABET -> HUMAN LANGUAGES -> POIPOLE LINE CLOSEST TO HUMANS -> POIPOLIAN UBESE?
More research is sure to come in the future.
Elton, Joel, and Gallag approached the notebook and glanced down at it, reading through it for a few moments. Eventually, Joel turned to face Kim.
<So...> he said. <If I'm reading this right, ya think that the UBese language that Jigsaw gave ya...>
"Is Poipolian UBese, yes," Kim finished. "I'm still unsure as to what any of the words mean, but..."
She turned to face the group of Poipole and Naganadel, and began listening in on their conversation, taking note of any sounds that she found familiar and seeing if she could link them to the translation that Jigsaw gave her.
Or, perhaps... see if she could link any of those sounds to her own theories.
She leaned in, desperate to overhear what the Poipole and Naganadel were talking about.
{■♦∞:♫☣√!} she heard one of them say.
"...PRAIKSH-eh...?" muttered Kim to herself, writing down in her notes:
Word discovered, apparently pronounced "PRAIKSH-eh". Appears to be a greeting; unaware if it literally translates to "hello" or if it means something completely different.
This supports my theory that Poipolian UBese bears a greater resemblance to human speech than, likely, most other forms of the language, as it appears to have sounds resembling, or identical to, the sounds of the English P, I, K, and SH. The R appears to be a tap, akin to that of a Japanese R; the last sound, the "eh", is akin to the "ash" sound of Old English. I am unsure of how to transcribe the sound yet, but it is very clearly a greeting.
She kept listening in, and heard another Poipole similarly respond with:
{■♦∞:♫☣√!}
{■∞☣√♠♫?} asked another Poipole.
"Well, that's clearly something akin to 'pee-EH-tok'," muttered Kim. "Not sure what it means, though. Is this still a greeting?"
<I'd assume so,> whispered Elton.
They continued listening in:
{▼♠∞▼ ▓∞:é♠♫, √•♫◙≥:▼.} said a Poipole. {♀•≥... ■∞☣√ éé•≥√ •≥√≥:♫?}
Kim flinched back a bit.
"...huh," she noted. "That's a bilabial trill."
<A what...?> asked Gallag.
"A bilabial trill," Kim explained. "It's the sound you make when you're cold and you start puttering your lips. You know, that sort of-" BBBBBBBRRRR- "-noise."
<Ohhh...!> cried Elton. <So—>
He sputtered.
Kim nodded. "That's the one. And on top of that... was that a [Welsh] LL sound, too?"
<I don't know...> said Elton.
"It sounded like it to me," said Kim.
She kept listening in.
{▓∞:é♠♫,} responded the other Poipole.
<Heeey~!> cried Elton. <It's that word we 'eard before!>
"It is," said Kim.
She took her notebook out and wrote down the following.
Based on what I am currently hearing, it appears that the dialect of Poipolian UBese that is present here contains several additional sounds not present in English, but very much present in human languages. It appears to have a bilabial trill, as well as the Welsh "LL" sound. Additionally, I have heard a word pronounced, approximately, "BBBBAI-lawk" multiple times, with the first sound being the bilabial trill I mentioned earlier. I still am unsure as to its meaning, but I'm starting to theorize that this dialect of UBese is a consistent one, with words of its own, that apparently mean something.
I believe that this discovery, if brought out to the public, could have major repercussions as to people's understanding of the UBese language.
The only question now... is to how to romanize the sounds I'm currently hearing.
But we'll get to that later...
Textspace- Response to Kim
Lumiose Pound- Hospital Wing
CW: near-euthanization of pet
Braker, Walter, Cuddles, Caboose, and the lady who had been at the front desk approached the hospital wing of the pound, which had a window for them to peek through. Seconds later, a group of muscular, heavy clothed men dressed in uniforms entered the room- clearly, these were staff members associated with the pound- followed by a doctor. Said doctor was carrying a whimpering, crying Houndoom, who Braker noticed had rounded, expressive eyes compared to the more sharp and angular ones of the rest of the members of his species.
This Houndoom, clearly, was Thanatos.
The doctor placed Thanatos on the table in front of him, and all the while the poor thing was shaking and whimpering, glancing up at the doctor.
<W-why... why are you doing this...?> he muttered. <I haven't done anything wrong; I'm not a bad dog... I thought I was going to get adopted...>
The doctor shook his head.
"Thanatos, I'm terribly sorry that this has to happen to you," he said. "I'll be administering the sedative shortly."
From the outside, Cuddles' eyes grew wide with shock, and Walter turned to face Braker.
<Braker,> he whispered. <Get Caboose to open the door. As soon as the doctor begins to administer the anasthetic drug... throw the PokeBall at him.>
<...Wait, what?>
Cuddles stopped dead in his tracks.
<That's it?> he asked. <We're just going to... throw it at him? No paperwork, or adoption papers, orrr...?>
Braker and Walter glanced at each other.
"It'd be far more efficient," said Braker simply.
<But... Lenny... wouldn't that be stealing their Pokemon...?>
Braker paused for a bit.
"Well... normally, yes," he conceded. "But if there's one thing I've learned in my studies to become a reporter, it's that sometimes people need to do the 'wrong' thing... in order to ultimately do the right one. And mark my words, Cuddles: I'm not letting the executives of this place get away with killing this Houndoom just because they think he's an omen of death."
Cuddles' eyes widened in shock further.
Braker, Walter, and Caboose turned to face the door, as a doctor began to walk forward with a needle.
"Now... this isn't the euthanasia, Thanatos," he said. "This is merely a sedative. You'll feel sleepy and relaxed after this, but you're not going to be dead."
A pause.
"Yet."
Thanatos started whimpering further, even barking a bit.
<No... NO!> he cried out. <P-please... please don't kill me... you don't understand; I've waited to get adopted ever since I was a Houndour; I can't—>
But then he found himself interrupted by the doctor jamming a needle into his back. Instantly, he whimpered a bit, but after a while, his eyelids drooped and he fell asleep. Braker watched, in horror, as the doctor went over to grab another needle.
This one, he knew, had to be the euthanasia.
He nodded over at Caboose, signifying that he should open the door.
As quietly as he could, Caboose floated over and inserted himself into the doorhole, before turning himself.
The door quickly unlocked.
Cuddles gently opened it up a bit.
He, Walter, Caboose, and Braker all peeked out over at the door as the doctor grabbed the needle that he would use to euthanize Thanatos and walked over to him.
For a few moments, he stared down at his sleeping body.
"I'm terribly sorry, Thanatos," he said. "It's time."
Braker immediately readied a Great Ball.
The doctor raised the needle—
—only to be immediately interrupted by a Great Ball being thrown through the room, landing on top of Thanatos, and sucking him inside. The ball shook three times, before the center of it glowed a bright yellow, signifying capture.
The doctor and the staff members all looked on in shock, before eventually Braker, Walter, Cuddles, and Caboose entered the room. Everyone glanced at him in shock as Braker calmly walked over to the Great Ball and picked it up.
"I'm terribly sorry, sir, but I regret to inform you that this Houndoom is mine now," he said.
The doctor blinked in shock.
"E-excuse me, sir," he said, "but you can't just throw a PokeBall at a mon that's owned by the shelter!"
In response, Braker gave him a hard glare.
"That's the thing," he said. "He's no longer owned by you anymore."
He left, heading out to the backrooms, and turned to face the counter lady, who was standing there in pure unbridled shock. A smirk crossed Braker's face.
"I'd like to adopt him," he said.
Hulbury Stadium- vs. Nessa
As Ingrid, Nessa, Nessa's Quagsire, and the mass audience of thousands of people looked on in shock, Amity's body became surrounded by a burst of flame which melted the ice that she had been surrounded in. Seconds later, "Slipping Through my Fingers" played throughout the stadium, and Amity's body slowly started to change.
EVOLUTION SEQUENCE: Drifloon --> Drifblim (Amity)
The transformation that occurred to Amity was actually a lot shorter than anyone, especially Ingrid, had been anticipating. As everyone looked on in disbelief, Amity's body grew much, much larger, with the bottom thinning a bit to give her body a shape more akin to that of a hot-air balloon. The cloud on her head, however, remained the same size, but switched direction so that the "wisp" that came off of its tip faced to the left rather than the right. Her tassels thickened, the heart-shaped ends fusing together with the rest of the body as the tips sharpened, and a third end split off from the other two, changing the tassel ends from a heart shape into a three-pointed end. Soon afterwards, said amount of tassels promptly doubled, as two more tassels split away from the other two. Amity promptly raised them, and crossed them in front of her as a burst of flame emerged from their tips. She proceeded to uncross them as the flame swirled out and completely melted the fire, while the blue light that had been surrounding her body promptly exploded off into particles of glistening material.
The crowd absolutely lost their minds as the newly-evolved Drifblim made her appearance.
Hulbury Stadium- Post-Evolution Sequence
For a few moments after the evolution ended, Ingrid glanced on in complete disbelief at her newly-evolved friend, at that moment feeling the need to sit down for a while. Ananpi, meanwhile, could barely sit down, and began jumping up and down in absolute joy.
<SHE'S DONE IT, CHUU~! SHE'S DONE IT~! Amity has officially evolved into a Drifblim, ladies, gentlemen, enbies and— oh, you get the schtick by this point already, don't you, chuu~! Now, let's get this battle back on the road and see how things go!>
Eventually, Ingrid glanced up at Amity with Tears of Joy in her eyes, giving her a quick nod to let her know that it was okay for her to go straight into battle.
In response, Amity turned to face Nessa's Quagsire and took a deep breath, before her whole body turned a dark black as she ran forwards towards said Quagsire.
<You're not going to freeze me again!> she cried out, instantly hitting the Quagsire with a massive burst that knocked him backwards into the wall.
After a few moments, the dust finally settled, and when it faded, Quagsire was lying on his side with swirls in his eyes. Amity, Ingrid, and Ananpi all stared in shock for a few moments, before eventually Ananpi spoke up.
<...Well!> he said eventually. <That was rather quick, chuu~!>
note
Ingrid paused for a bit, before turning to face Amity.
"...Well," she said. "That... happened..."
<Apparently,> said Amity.
"Oh, but I'm so happy you evolved~!" cried Ingrid, immediately going in to hug her friend.
<So am I!> cried Amity, hugging her back.
<And that's two down, chuu~!> cried Ananpi. <Now... let's get this fight finished, shall we?>
note
<You'll see what I mean later.>
INGRID ANDERSON HAS DEFEATED NESSA'S QUAGSIRE
NESSA HAS THREE POKEMON LEFT
Vs. Brad
"Good," said Braker. "That's two down. Now... let's finish off that Mega Tyranitar, shall we?"
And then the Earthquake hit.
<Nope!>
Instantly, Bindi jumped up into the air, avoiding the attack, while Serkis, Romea, Heracles and Chernobog were all knocked backwards slightly. They shook it off, though, and eventually everyone began to attack the Mega Tyranitar.
Serkis ran forward, shooting out multiple Water Shurikens at him.
Romea, now further fueled by her desire for Revenge, glowed orange yet again as she ran head-first towards the opponent.
Chernobog proceeded to let loose with another Energy Ball.
Heracles, now fueled by the power of his own Mega Evolution, ran forward and stuck a fury of punches at the Mega Tyranitar.
Finally, Bindi jumped down from the sky and let loose 10 strikes— one for each member of Ingrid's team.
And then the arrows began to fall, and Bindi, noticing this, [[Toon Physics immediately pulled out a hammer and multiple boards of wood and proceeded to build a massive barrier in a matter of seconds, protecting the entire team.
Caboose, still watching from the sidelines, just giggled.
Vs. Circhester
<Hey~!> cried Ananpi. <That's my sides, chuu~!>
note
<Wait, who?>
note
<Why, I'm glad you asked, me! It's because... huh. Huh. Well.>
He turned back to face Ciara.
<Aaaalrighty, then~!> he said cheerfully, pulling out a show bible and placing his pedipalp on it. <You can rest assured that I, Ananpi, shall no longer attack you directly in any regard!>
Then, turning to face the camera:
<Though of course, this won't mean I won't still spread chaos, chuu~!>
note
<The Sandslash? Why not the Dusku—- oh. Ohhhh... right... Alright, then! GET HIM~!>
And he promptly let loose with a Giga Dr—
note
<No other move I have's gonna work, chuu~! Let me break my rules for just a bit!>
—ain.
Meet The New Boss
School Raid Palooza
Advance Team
Alex: You are a sad little man, Damien. Almost as sad as Owen here.
Owen: "HEY!"
Assault Team
-The Volt Tackle is strong. Very strong-
-The result takes out Pavo and leaves Chibi barely hanging on from the recoil-
Melia: -chirps worriedly as Pavo collapses-
Maurice: "...We gotta go."
Victor: "But-
Maurice: "WE GOTTA GO!"
-Maurice, Victor, Pavo, and theikr mons are all teleported out-
-Leaving everyone else to stare at Jade and her very strange Pikachu-
Jade: "...I can explain."
Patoria City
Horatio: "Fascinating!"
Gwendolyne: <Disturbing.>
Snowpoint Temple
-Merlin claps-
-Fou groans-
Alpha Hisuian Zoroark: -does the equivalent of an eyebrow raise- <Odd way of demonstrating your powers, but you've convinced me... Still, what are you doing here?>
-a Hisuian Zorua peeks out from behind her-
Lavender Tower
-Jackie and Olivia somehow manage to squeeze everyone into the elevator-
Contact Me!
Flying Colors
School Safehouse — Fight Fire With Fox
-Frumpkin is bitten and drained, and seems displeased, but does not retaliate. Instead, his ears flatten and his eyes glow, and a hexagonal lattice forms around him — a Protect barrier, for what comes next.-
Bren: My apologies, then. I simply wanted to commend you on your abilities, to extend my respect.
-The snow finishes electrolysing, filling the room with oxyhydrogen gas. After all, water remembers -- it was born in fire.-
-And the oxygen and hydrogen recombust in an inferno.-
School Safehouse — Illusion Bois
Mason?: ~...Sorry, I don't think I'm the person to relay that message.~
-The mental voice that responds to Ciara is is not that of Mason. In fact, once again, the image disappears upon being tapped, revealing a Kommo-o retracting her leg after a Low Kick, evidently not the source of the Night Daze pains.-
Corrin: ~I'd love to trust you myself, but... we've both dealt with a lot of manipulation in our pasts.~
-Mason, in fact, did not hear Ciara's telepathic speech at all, and it's impossible to get a bead on whether the new image of Mason halfway across the room is the real deal as well, because he's blocked out his mind via Dark Obscura. Again, though, the figure that might be Mason speaks.-
Mason: Hah. Fancy, but there's no such thing as a "significant improvement" on the Phantoms. You don't inject Annoski's DNA into a test tube baby only to call it a failure when it outdoes you. That's just poor science, Doc Circus.
-The smoke from Oganesson's illusory fireplace thins out into a haze, gradually filling the room and casting it into a gloomy, dusky hue. The heat of the fireplace gets a little less hot, Ananpi's sparks get less volatile... and the lights on the surveillance cameras flicker as the power supplies within the walls encounters unusual resistance, before they power off completely.-
-The Payback rings Doty's bell; he's not as durable and battle-hardened as, say, any of Kai's teammates, but he manages to take the attack.-
Taryon: <Ahem— "and so, Mason revealed his secret technique, derived from the Twilight that his ancestors perfected! But Taryon knew that any other weather magic could thwart this technique, and so devised a brilliant plan to ensure his friend the advantage!" Doty, Imprison their weather techniques!>
Doty: <Tary.>
-A molecule-esque lattice of bonds appears throughout the haze, sealing moves shared with Doty — particularly of note, Sunny Day, Rain Dance, and Sandstorm.-
Mason: Corrin, now's as good a time as any to put that Dragonstone to the test.
Corrin: <I hope it doesn't break.>
Mason: We can only hope.
-The figure of Mason raises a hand, holding a Key Stone aloft. A cracked Mega Stone, embedded in a necklace worn by Corrin, shines along the fracture line — and with the faintest cracking sound, the Kommo-o changes forms, not into a known Mega Evolution, but into her ''original'' draconic form.-
-Corrin roars, staring down at her opponents. A swirl of water generates around her, rippling with her roar and tearing into the opponents. Sure, the razor-like torrent of water droplets is dulled by the haze, but in the especially likely chance of a crit, that won't matter, because a critical hit from her world is particularly deadly.-
Edited by BittersweetNSour on Oct 3rd 2022 at 8:19:02 AM
The Wanderer
Advance Team
Zee: -Just shakes her head- I don't know, maybe you should try doing something that isn't just what the School tells you to do.
Advance Team - VS Brad
Mega!Tyranitar: -This time, already weakened from before, the combined attacks are enough to faint the Tyranitar-
-The moment the arrows cease/are blocked, the mons go on the attack, Ginny and Luxray to the sides while Gaia and Hitodama stay in front, attacking faster than Brad can aim after Kendall's attack places him right in their attacking range, supported by my other mons-
Hitodama: -Fires a Fire Blast-
Luxray: -Let's off a Thunder-
Ginny: -Slashes with Megahorn-
Gaia: -Fires more Seed Bombs-
Brad: -Manages to dodge most of the attacks but is clipped by Ginny's slash and has to warp space to dodge Hitodama's flames-
Roc: -Screeches as he falls upon Brad with a Close Combat, the Templar's powers being the only thing that keep him from just getting torn open by the Staraptor's beak and talons as opposed to just having some nasty slashes along his chest- <We said we'd get you.>
-Auric Charges in order to get close enough to Brad and engages in a bit of hand to hand combat, staff construct and chains to pistols- before getting pushed back and this time managing to dodge his explosive shots-
And that's Step One.
Dactyl: -Flying over- <Chiyo!>
Chiyo: Right!
-And a barrier forms around Dactyl along with barrier chains as Chiyo rushes the Templar, his shots deflecting harmlessly off her armor as he's forced to go higher up again as she sends out explosive stars at him and strikes out with her meteor hammer construct-
-It's at this moment that the room has started to contract enough that Braker and both his and Kendall's mons are close enough that they can join in on attacking Brad-
Concentrate your attacks, keep him off balance!
Edited by rmctagg09 on Oct 3rd 2022 at 10:26:30 AM
Eating a Vanilluxe will give you frostbite.
Maggie: "...Yeah, kind of both interesting and disturbing."
"Though... anything else you wanna know? Probably going to get going to see how that goes if not."
The temperature around Damien seems to be going up a little as others are looking at him and seeing him as pathetic.
Damien: "You want me to do something that the school doesn't want me to do? Fine. How about you take me back to where you live in the woods and show me what's so great about it?"
Edited by CorvusAtrox on Oct 4th 2022 at 6:24:14 AM
"life is just a series of increasingly canon-eluding ao3 tags" ~ everydunsparce "Keep your hellfruit away from me, tempter" ~ also Every
Some Rando
Vs. Brad
As Roy seemed to materialize into existence on the same floor that Kendall did, Magnavox and Pyukumuku soon following as well, Kendall let the latter two return while looking into Roy's eyes with a similar crazed smirk, one lost in the heat of battle and his Mega-Evolution, the other with a heart blackened by Obscura and indignation.
Passion renewed with their victory surefire, they both turned to look at Brad, a slight lean in their posture as they both vanished in a blinding fast jet of fire and an invisible trail of blackness, both meeting and intersecting at where Brad stood while Kendall and Roy became visible once again, Brad unscathed by their assault.
<Light him up!> Roy barked.
"Black him out!" Kendall refuted.
Without another word, a brutal series of hits from all sides, from an indeterminate source, would rack all over Brad's body, each hit harder and hotter than the last as Roy's flames burned brighter and brighter.
Interspersed with the invisibly fast Close Combat, Kendall's Assurance followed up the sting of Roy's own assault, every burn wound, every bruise, stinging that much more as Kendall's own annoyance became that much more pronounced, his Dark Pulse building up in his hand as Roy's fire reached a fever pitch.
Turning around as their impossibly fast assaults finished, Roy's fire reached a dangerous extreme as Kendall's Dark Pulse joined in on the Flare Blitz, a black explosion of fire punctuating everything the two of them did to the Templar in their haze of glory.
<Burn bright,> Roy spat.
"And faster," Kendall finished.
Hamlet, Past
With no other real options, Kamui's pursuit continues, but pauses.
"Pent? No, you're not. I'm looking for… we lost you as…" she trailed off, before she held a flame between her fingers and threw it forward at the stylish stranger.
Edited by AbsentCoder on Oct 4th 2022 at 8:38:01 AM
[Insert Unoriginal Stinger Here]
Fwomph
Lavender Tower, Elevator
-Gale makes a few uncomfortable noises as she has to squish up in the back corner of the elevator-
Okay, gah. I'll catch you guys at the top, okay?
-She ducks down and suddenly her corner of the elevator is one person less crowded-
PEFE Testing Bunker
Sure thing Cap. I can scurry on back to the Wing; used to the kitchen there and I can use my own supplies without much guilt.
-She gave a wink as a little flourish to her confidence and backed off towards the doorway leading out of the testing lab-
Just Outside The School Comms Relay
-The Nightingale did a little spin in place as her brief call to Tagg ended with what could basically be considered abject permission to do what she wanted to do. After her spin was complete she fiddled a little with her gear, retrieving that crystal Pokeball again and also fishing a certain fountain pen from a compartment in her suit's wrist-
Alright, so the Cathedral is closeish... Are we on a leyline?
-She stomps her feet in the snow a bit as though that helps any-
... Well, hopefully we are. Anyway, let's see if you can fabricate Galar Particles.
-Gale lifts the pen and tries to route a distributary of the possibly raging torrent of united Auric energy far beneath her feet through herself, through the pen and into a new existence as some blend of tame Galar Particles and the wild mutative energy of Ikoria-
C'mon, please tell me I'm on the right track here...
The School Comms Relay, viewed from a slightly further back angle
-There is moment of silent suddenly broken as the frankly terrifying form of a tower-sized Tyrantrum manifests into being and roars out in warning. It's a good thing this icy tundra is flat rather than situated on a mountain because it probably would have caused an avalanche in that case-
-Of course, Gale really didn't have any kind of fight in mind when she went to do this, so the big dino just kind of starts wandering around the area being big and imposing. Gale, who I'm going to say has scrambled into the doorway of the building, kind of hopes it will dissuade any reprisal attacks from the School-
...
-She takes a glance inside the building-
They've all run off without me... Well, guess that means I gotta stay and guard the place.
-She fishes out one more object from her suit's pockets: A thermos flask. She pours herself a cup of hot chocolate-
Cheers, big guy.
-She goes to sip it and realizes she can't with her helmet on and starts fishing around in her pockets for an emergency induction port-
It's clearly a case of backroom political albumizing.
No voice to cry suffering
Sinnoh, Safe House
-that's right-
-everything was, and is, and will be as it should be-
#42: -leans over, pressing a kiss to PEFE!Every's forehead-
Hearthome, Apartment
Rhoda: -shakes her head-
(-she seems—incredulous, a little, and dazed-)
(-she's thinking back to when she was an actual child, or as close as she came—a time she thinks little of, and would like to never have again-)
(-but Schoolkids never forget, and if there's anything the Schoolkids that survive learn, it's to draw conclusions very, very quickly under duress-)
-first: Adelinde's stronger than Rhoda, and better-trained, and more certain-
-but she's not older-
Rhoda: -softly- ~Melinoe was a terror. She used...psychic blades, like yours, as well as you—and she loved using them.~
~But her strength was her telepathy.~
-a memory of...a mind like burnished steel, with as much sympathy-
Rhodium: ~Something about...her presence...~
~She could get into someone's head and kill them with a thought. A conversation. In seconds. Before her blades even broke skin.~
-she shudders-
Rhodium: ~She could've been a Magi. She could've been anything.~
-with effort, her thoughts turn back to Adelinde-
Rhodium: ~She was your first try.~
-...-
Rhoda: ~Of course they'd never tell you.~
Haru: -undefinably- Rhoda...
Rhoda: ~She liked hurting people. Like you. She liked breaking people. With her swords, then her mind, then just her voice—~
-Rhoda goes rigid, remembering-
Rhoda: ~She killed someone—by looking at them—and smiling—~
-she keens, high and pained-
Rhoda: ~I—was expecting her here today.~
-no, that's—definitely laughing now, high with hysteria and a strange, terrible joy-
Rhoda: ~But that face was the last anyone will ever see of her, wasn't it?~
-she looks at Adelinde, her junior, and smiles-
Rhoda: ~She knew, then. She could do it any way she liked. So easily. When she stopped having to try? When there was nothing left to improve? When it stopped—satisfying? It broke her.~
-smiling wider- ~She turned her blades on herself, and there wasn't enough left to be grist.~
-Rhodium was among the Schoolkids rejoicing that day-
-in the background, she recalls the scientists, clustered around the smear, discussing in low tones-
~They had perfection. And then they had you.~
-Rhoda opens her mouth, and blood spills out-
-blood she spilled herself, high on hope, in her own way for her own reasons-
Rhoda: -rasp- You were—made with purpose, Adelinde the Dedicated. To fail where—she succeeded.
How does it feel?
Edited by Asterisk395 on Oct 4th 2022 at 11:55:19 AM
No mind to think. No will to break.
Dunsparce Cloud
With Aster's permission. CW for death.
Hearthome, Apartment
-Adelinde listens patiently-
-the gentle smile gradually fading from her face-
Adelinde: ...
-Rhoda feels a mental intrusion. It's nothing special, and entirely unsubtle, but it's both sharp and forceful-
Adelinde: ~You're telling the truth. Huh.~
-...-
-she's silent for a very long time-
-her phone starts buzzing-
-she checks it-
Adelinde: ...
To: Logan Shockley-Voltaire
From: Adelinde Taylor
I apologize, I won't be able to get back to our date. Something urgent's come up and I have to go in to work.
-Adelinde puts her phone away, and does not move from the couch, staring down at Rhoda and Haru-
Adelinde: ...
...
...
...
...
-until finally Tellurium and Lutetium return-
Adelinde: (quietly) All clear?
Tellurium: Yeah. Lutetium did a good job.
-she ruffles the younger Schoolchild's hair. He grins. Adelinde smiles slightly-
-she glances at Rhoda and Haru-
I'm sort of surprised—
-Adelinde snaps her fingers-
Adelinde: Tellurium. Since I handled the truants, do you mind cleaning up?
Tellurium: ...Not at all.
Adelinde: Right. I'll take Lutetium off your hands, then. Come on, kiddo, let's go.
Lutetium: ...
Adelinde: Lutetium.
Lutetium: Oh! Yeah, sure.
-the two walk out-
-leaving Tellurium behind-
-she stands in the room, swaying slightly in place-
-there's a sound of a drop on a floor, barely audible-
-Tellurium places a hand to a new, very thin cut on her cheek-
-she gets to work-
Dunsparce didn't stop being a thing or anything.
The Eccentric Electric
The Underground, Secret Base:
Mark would see Tricky barely withstand the cluster self-destruct attack, only to be rewarded with a Quick Attack to the face. “Fucking cheap shot...” He would mutter in disgust before shouting, “Come on Travis, you're not out of the fight yet! I know you have more than one pokemon!
“I know! Just, give me a sec...I'm trying to think...” Travis would reply before Haxx suggested, “I predict a 17% chance of victory if you were to try and use Wingo to battle due to bad type matchups and inexperience,”
Travis scoffed audibly, “Well that's reassuring...I'm guessing you wouldn't fair much better since I've mainly focused on your support functions and general skills...” A few calculations in a matter of micro-seconds later, Haxx would report, “I calculate my own odds of success to be approximately 42.6%”
Travis would shrug dismissively before saying, “I'll take what I can get I guess. If nothing else I can get some useful field data to improve your combat functions...” Moments later Travis would punch in a few Poketch commands before the neon pokeball would light up, catching the attention of some of the Team Lightning Sparks who would collectively and asynchronously ask questions such as “Hey where the hell did you get that?” or “How in the fuck did you get one of those?!” Travis would ignore these questions as he summoned Haxx the Porygon-Z, appearing in the physical world for the first time in a while with (relative) added stability, only glitching out and stuttering occasionally.
“About time you decide if you're going to keep battling...not like it's going to make a difference. Your own pokemon know they can't win and how much you suck as a trainer!” Lyndis taunted before any continued conversation would be aggressively cut off by Mark calling her and the Sparks out.
“Shut up bitch! Nearly half your goon squad taken out by a single move from a newly captured Cubone, and you had to sacrifice the rest of your voltorbs to bring Tricky down to her last legs relying on a cheap last-minute basic bitch move to make her faint. With only 5 of the original 20 pokemon you all started out with and only one of ours taken out, I wouldn't start talking shit because you're all fucking pathetic!” Mark would say, not holding anything back before the party would notice the remaining opponent pokemon get covered in electroweb. Even though this attack by itself wasn't very effective, it would slow them down enough to magnify the destructive power of Gwana's bulldoze attack by preventing all but one of the remaining pokemon from the Team Lightning Sparks from evading the attack and being taken out with quick ease.
<You sure you weren't a released pokemon someone used to train? I can only imagine how tough you'd be evolved and trained to take on the Elite Four,> Mark would compliment before noticing the one remaining elekid and recognizing them as the mon that barely defeated Tricky before singling them out. “Chopper, Mega Punch this punk elekid right in the face! Not even going to waste energy with Retaliate,” He would order before the machoke pursued the fleeing elekid. Chopper would leap, practically throwing himself up and over the elekid, causing them to crash into the machoke's left knee and fall sitting up before taking a Mega Punch fist straight to the face that resulted in an instant KO as the elekid would instantly slam face-up into the ground with dizzy eyes and a concussion.
“You beat my Sparks, which shouldn't surprise me since a lot of them are noobs...but remember when you were counting earlier? You missed one!” Lyndis would concede before aggressively pointing at Gwana with a finger gun snap as she yelled, “Sick 'em Hunter! Use Throat Chop!” Without a sliver of delay, the Luxray's eyes would shine aggressively before suddenly leaping and bounding toward Gwana, assessing her to be the most dangerous opponent that needed to be destroyed first. Hunter would attempt to pounce on the cubone with hostile intent, intending to land his front claws right into the cubone's throat.
Veilstone City Gym:
“Changing pokemon so soon? Saura barely got any time in the spotlight,” Travis wondered aloud before Mark replied, “She's done enough. Already got to see what she was capable of before and after her evolution, and the rest of Owen's pokemon need their training too,” After Gwana and the Heracross were summoned and their fight began, Mark, Travis and various spectators would be taken aback by Gwana's powerful flamethrower attack, with several people expressing surprise that a ground type would know such a move.
“I stand by what I said earlier today, Gwana's going to go far. I'd actually pay to watch her take on the Elite Four here or anywhere when the time comes,” Mark said after the Cubone avoided the Facade attack via digging. “That's cool and all, but I don't understand why so many pokemon around all these self-damaging items. I kinda get Life Orb, but what good is holding an item that burns you when holding it? Is it like a Thief deterrent or something?” Travis wondered, confused at the overall strategy of the gym leader.
Living The Fever Dream
chaos catby with a flannel shirt addiction
Stormchaser medbay, past
Micro: So I've heard. I know there are some people from where we came from already here. I don't think they like us very much, though...
A school safehouse, past
Chase V teleports in, having just "liquidated" Chase II.
Dr Coleman: Is it done?
Chase V: Yes. There is no more Chase II.
Dr Coleman: Good.
Dr Coleman turns around and notices Chase is a bit scuffed up.
Dr Coleman: Hmm... He was able to fight back, even without any Pokemon?
Chase V: Not him. His runt of an Espurr. It evolved and tried to save him, but we were able to overpower him.
Dr Coleman: Interesting. That would explain the extra abilities he seemed to have. I'm sure Ada can fill me in on the rest.
Dr Coleman holds her hand out expectantly. Chase hands over Ada's poke ball.
Dr Coleman: Go clean yourself up, then I've got some more errands for you.
Chase V: Okay.
Dr Coleman: Don't forget, there can always be a Chase VI.
School raid, chaos team
Hazel sends some books, DV Ds and the occasional mobile phone under some doors with various extensions of her shadow.
In the distance a figure can be seen hurriedly teleporting around trying to pick up as many boxes test tubes and freezers as possible and somehow stuffing all of them into their pockets and a backpack.
I used to plug my deviantart here but turns out the link was too long.
Priest of the Temple of Syrinx
Vs. Brad
Braker, Walter, Caboose, and the rest of the group (excluding Bindi) looked at each other for a few moments, all of them clearly thinking the same thing:
Brad's basically done for by this point. There's no way we'll be able to defeat him.
Everyone turned to face Bindi, who immediately cracked her knuckles.
<Don't mind if I dooo~!> she said.
Immediately, she turned to face Brad with a cheeky grin on her face.
<Hey, Braaaad~!> she cried.
Seconds later, she immediately launched herself forward and threw multiple TNT bombs filled with seeds at him— as well as a pie to the face.
The bombs promptly exploded.
No voice to cry suffering
Raid, Megan...?
-she returns to herself in a world tinted gold-
-she can't move her arms when she tries-
-her Vaporeon is shrilling her heartsong in her ears-
Megan:
-that's nice-
Megan: -looks up- -she expected more snow through the hole she made-
-maybe doesn't apply when that...wyrmwind...scours the clouds and sun from the sky-
-but what's that miasma?-
Megan: ...
-ah, blood-to-Aura conversion-
-good to know it works at scale-
Megan: -glances around-
-and...yes, those would be where the blood came from-
-cool-
-her nerves feel fried, adrenalin comedown leaving her shaking-
-she aches...like a workout pushed too far, and bruising where blunted telekinesis rippled through armor, and spent Aura-
-and off-balance-
-there's a Dottler crushed under her boot-
-and what appears to be a very powerful Psychic teenager held up at arm's length-
Smolybdenum: -sniffles-
-and trident-point-
Megan: ...
-this is fine-
-this is fine-
Pippy: -lowering his wings, slowly-
Vee: <<Alright, just...gently...>>
-Megan lifts her foot, the kid kicks free, the Dottler tackles the child in a hug and they vanish and Megan screams and screams-
Raid, Stormchaser
-Logan pumps a fist, tracking the teams' progress-
Logan: Alright, no big injuries so far, no...
-...-
Logan: Wait, Megan's where?
Styler: -bleep!-
-on reflex, they suspend their monitoring to glance at their socials-
-aw, new acquaintance can't make it—though they themself'd have been late anyway, given their state of occupation at...-
Logan: ...oh, balls.
To: Adelinde Taylor
No prob! We can reschedule for when you're less busy. xoxo, hope there aren't too many fires to put out
Logan: -through a wince- Big. problems. We need to accelerate our timetable.
Addie: -roused by their panic- <Who—?>
-they show her-
Addie: <Oh.>
-they take only a moment-
Addie: -on any channel available- <Everyone! Adelinde—a very dangerous Templar, is on her way. Maybe others. Word's gotten out, this isn't an ambush any more, get what you've got, fix fight to fought, and get out of there!>
Zayna: ~...you, you have the contact info of—~
Logan: Later!! We need to act fast, there's no telling what
Megan
Pippy: <Okay, so—mixed results. Just breathe—>
-she staggers forward, away from his outstretched flippers-
Megan: Don't—don't touch me, I could still hurt—hurt—
Pippy: -soothing, despite fatigue- <You won't hurt me. You can't. So—>
(-he's talking, but it's all coming in through water-)
(-the hackles in the back of Megan mind become aware of Teleport's lingering aftertaste-)
Ramona: Hi, Meg.
-Megan slashes wildly at the source of that voice-
She won't be controlled again! She won't be controlled again, she—
Pippy: -ghk-
-...is...utterly consumed by horror-
Megan: -drops her trident-
-she sees, with vivid clarity, the space the tines slice in his pectoral-
-every tick of steel feather displaced, every note of startlement and pain, every lumen his wing emits as it comes up blazing and-
-her own construct automatically sunders her armor from shoulder to hip-
Megan: GAAAH!
-as it clatters on the floor with her, her trident's light flickers out, the mass of suspended Aura starting to dissipate into air-
Ramona: -in front of her- ~Didja miss me?~
Vee: -shrilling fury- <YOU!>
-Vee doesn't know who she's talking to-
Vee: -eye flicking about- <Don't—try that with me, you f—>
-or what she's wasting time on-
-her Trainer's hurt-
Vee: -hitches-
-and so is she-
Ramona: You've interrupted a very nice evening. I hope you're happy.
Raid, Hiro
-at yet another smoldering ruin of paper archives absorbed by candle-
Aegin the Aerator: Do you know how long those took to file?!
Hiro: -blocking, using someone's data-collection binder- No. Will knowing allow me to better appreciate the suffering I'm inflicting?
Aegin the Aerator: I...maybe?
Curry: -kicks, hard-
Hiro: I have very little respect for your work.
-her foot bashes against what looks like a white folded shield—this Templar's proficiency with paper as a medium has proven less straightforward to circumvent than Hiro's own power set would seem to make it, and has already left several stinging cuts-
Hiro: -torches the stains, though it's vanishingly unlikely they don't have his entire genome on file already-
-they burst apart-
-Aegin's secondary power—in-depth analysis normally reserved for boring grunt filing—sparks in his eyes-
-Hiro's so tired, but his eyes flash-
Hiro: ...isn't "Actuary"...a better moniker for the role you've been given?
Aegin: -hiss- That was taken.
Hiro: Get that a lot?
-the facility shakes-
Aegin: Depending on how thorough you freaks are? Not anymore.
Hiro: Feel like surrendering?
Aegin: Hells, no.
-another paper shiv flashes from his sleeve, in addition to—Reshi take the thought—more of those horrible folded shuriken-
Curry: <Ohoho! No.> =:3
-she kicks some smoldering debris into a Pyro Ball, paper burning into a smell like fallen leaves-
-...and Hiro gets Logan's call-
Reshidex: -vibrates, then accepts-
Aegin: Is your phone...squeaking?
-Pachirisu noises-
-better than ciphers, against the uninitiated-
Hiro: ...
Quests:
◇ Assist M. Nguyen UPDATED
◇ Set blaze
◇ Escape Li
-a paper ribbon wraps around the wrist holding his 'Dex, beginning to bite-
-Hiro sighs, heated-
Hiro: -pointing- ...either of your bosses that way?
Aegin: -snorts, hauling, lying- Sure. Just survive this, take a l
-Hiro fixes his gaze on him and taps into a wax reserve, filling the space with flame-
Edited by Asterisk395 on Oct 4th 2022 at 11:16:41 AM
No mind to think. No will to break.
The Wanderer
Advance Team
-Gravity might start feeling heavier for Damien, but only slightly as a sort of reminder-
Zee: -Hearing Damien out- ...You know what, why not?
-Shrugs-
I mean, it'd be pretty simple just to let your bosses think I killed you, and it wouldn't exactly be a lie to say you were captured.
Sickle: <What if he just backstabs us later?>
Zee: -To Sickle- Don't worry, I have ways of mitigating that happening.
Assault Team
Brad: -Is send flying by Kendall and Roy's combo attack and manages to shoot most of Bindi's Seed Bombs before they get too close while righting himself, but he does get pied in the face just in time to have a Seed Bomb explode very close to him-
Luxray: -Jumps out of the smoke and Crunches down on his right arm, breaking it with a snap-
Brad: -As one does when getting your arm broken by a lion biting down on it- Fuck!
-And floats higher-
Gaia, Frenzy Plant!
Gaia: -Glows green before massive thorny roots come out of the ground and just about everywhere else hurtling towards Brad, cutting off his avenues of escape-
Brad: Shit!
Now for the finale.
-And Brad is suddenly wrapped up in Aura chains, as I send Aura down them, activating the ofuda I had placed on him during our short skirmish-
Brad: -Tries to warp away... only to find himself unable to-
Chiyo, now!
Chiyo: -Having gotten above while Brad was being attacked, a massive number of star constructs above her- It's over!
-And then Brad is struck by what can only be best described as a massive meteor shower. He manages to warp space somewhat, but it's only enough to keep his body from being completely vaporized (From what I can tell it's a bit unclear whether he's lost body parts or not) as he crashes to the ground and is then buried by the subsequent rubble as the courtyard takes on its original shape-
Roc: -Landing- <Is he dead?>
Luxray: -Eyes shining gold as he examines the rubble pile- <He clings to life, but barely. He'd be dead otherwise if not for his powers.>
-Also peering through the rubble with Aura Sense-
His Aura is indeed very faint.
Chiyo: -A star rotating menacingly as she considers whether or not to simply finish off Brad now or not and be done with it
-It's then that with a whoosh, Brad disappears from the rubble pile, his Aura no longer able to be picked up-
Chiyo: ...Dammit.
-Hands on her knees as she bends over in exhaustion as her star constructs and barrier armor disappear-
He got away.
-Putting a hand on Chiyo's shoulder-
Well, we still won regardless, and he's probably not going to be a direct problem for a while from what I could see of him under there.
-And as I start getting a whiff of the numerous Templar corpses in pieces around the courtyard, and the smell of ashes wafts in-
And there's probably been enough death today anyway.
Hearts and minds, more like blood, guts, and ashes...
Trojan: -Coming in- It seems that a signal has managed to get out before we could stop it, and the School may be summoning reinforcements soon enough. Adelinde may be among them.
Chiyo and I... we're most likely not in a state to fight against Adelinde properly if we encounter her, even if allegedly she's been ordered not to fight me. She put a lot of energy into those final attacks...
We've got what we need, the overall commander's beaten so the base will be in even more disarray, no point in sticking around any longer.
Chiyo: -Shakes her head- Not yet, there's one thing I still need to do before we leave. We need to get to the command room.
-Forming a death disc as Ginny casts a Heal Pulse-
I can still fight, somewhat, if there's anyone still left there. I'm far from completely defenseless. Still not at 100% percent though.
-Nods-
Then let's get moving, we do your thing, then we head back to the Stormchaser.
-To Kendall and Braker-
Your choice whether you want to try heading back to the landing site, or stick with us. My recommendation would be to evacuate, Adelinde's at least as dangerous as Brad and it seems twice as cruel, but if you follow us we won't stop you.
-And without waiting for the answer, we start walking forward-
Command Center
-Upon entering there's a few Templars left, but they seem to have been looking at the cameras, weigh their chances upon going up against Chiyo and I even while we're not at our best (And therefore more inclined to end any battles brutally), and quickly clear out through another exit-
Well that's a relief, sometimes a reputation can be good.
-To Chiyo-
So we talked about this a little on the way over, what you wanted to do? Are you sure about this? It'll put an even bigger target on your back.
Chiyo: -Nods- Yes Tagg, I'm one of the few who can do this. "Hearts and minds", right?
-Pacing-
Trojan has complete control over the comms, the School won't be able to block us out, say what you want to say, quickly. Then we leave, because I'm pretty sure every Templar who still has something to prove will be gunning for us afterwards.
Chiyo: -Takes a breath as she starts to speak into the mike- Attention, one and all. My name is Chiyo, formerly Iridium of the 2001 School batch. I imagine most of you have never heard of me, I figured out a while back that the School tries to keep knowledge of my continued existence to a minimum, because of what it means that I continue to live. There's a lot of things I want to say, but I'll try to keep things short because we're on a schedule...
Edited by rmctagg09 on Oct 4th 2022 at 1:29:31 PM
Eating a Vanilluxe will give you frostbite.
That's just how it is on this bitch of an earth
Stormchaser Medbay
Aislinn: "You know people on board already? That's kind of a surprise. Well, I imagine they'll be a little more sympathetic since you've come here half dead and all."
Snowpoint Temple
Daydre looks at the Hisuian Zorua. After a second she rummages around in her bag.
Daydre: "Oh, we're looking for clues as to where that guy's boyfriend went like. A couple hundred years ago?"
She looks at Merlin.
Daydre: "Was it a couple hundred or a couple thousand?"
From the depths of her bag she pulls what looks like one of those liquid cat treats, though the packaging says it's specifically formulated for foxmons. She rips it open and offers it to the Hisuian Zorua.
School Safehouse, Uh Oh
Ama, to put it mildly, finds herself in trouble.
The superstition goes that Vampires are weak to the sun. That's not true, at least in this reality, but it sure feels that way as Ama is engulfed in flames.
The sequence of events, over the next split second, are as follows.
Hellebore is fainted almost immediately. Years of evolution (the slow, generational kind) prepared her for the harsh winters of Mount Lanakila's peak, not... this. Snowball's chance in hell, let's say.
Ama blocks out what she can with her arms and Obscura, but even her reaction time isn't enough to block the brunt of the explosion. She's going to feel that tomorrow, assuming she survives.
Somewhere in the background a pokeball rolls onto its release mechanism.
So, let's see what happens when we move time forward a little.
click.
Instead of releasing light... The pokeball explodes into darkness. A dark fog spreads like ink through water, and the flames go quiet. They're not... gone, but they certainly feel muffled. The rolling fog brings with it a kind of distortion, colors going negative and pale.
And with that distortion comes Something.
Something covered in swirling, inky darkness, like a cloak of feathers. Something with bright red eyes.
Something that is very much trying to rip Bren's throat out with its teeth.
Chaos Team
Daydre cuts herself on a piece of paper and looks up.
Daydre: "...?"
Rowan: <Something wrong?>
Daydre: "... It's nothing, just got a bad feeling."
Daydre: -leaning into Doc, making sure no one's paying attention- "Now that you mention it... "
Daydre: "Hey, sometimes getting the calm job is good, you know? Sometimes it's nice to not have to deal with injuries after you're done, or the mental exhaustion of thinking about the ethics of fighting people..."
Sometimes actual action is good. Don't you want to be doing the important job? Don't you want an excuse to beat up an acceptable target?
You get to do what you want, and you get to do it to people who don't deserve your sympathy. Win win for everyone involved.
Daydre: "...Or the feeling of blood on your skin that isn't yours, or dancing on the thin barrier between life and death..."
Daydre:-blinks- "...Er. Excuse me."
off the shits
Some Rando
En Route to Adelinde
<Our fight ends when we say it ends,> Roy spat as Kendall tossed him a Lemonade, which he eagerly downed after sharing a toast with his slightly winded trainer.
"As long as I can cast a shadow," Kendall started before downing his drink, only to then crush the can against his head with renewed vigor. "I can fight."
Somewhere Else
Cesium and Bismuth listen, swiftly becoming aware of every word that Chiyo will, would, or could say with her voice broadcasting over the intercom.
They nodded to each other, confirming that they both had all the branches memorized.
Edited by AbsentCoder on Oct 4th 2022 at 11:20:54 AM
[Insert Unoriginal Stinger Here]
Damien feels the bit of gravity increase as a reminder and nods.
Damien: "Hm, right, reasonable enough."
"And I'd have to form a very good plan to backstab you, but I hope you understand that while I have no intention of turning my flames on you again you likewise shouldn't expect me to do the same to my fellow Templars while I'm on this little educational trip."
Maggie hears Addie on the channels.
Maggie: "...Well, sounds like reinforcements are indeed coming. We did hold up pretty well, though, I think. Got this place pretty compromised."
Damien: "Back and forth nature of things. The School's been around much longer than you and it will continue after you're gone."
Maggie is about to say something but then Chiyo's voice comes over the comms and se listens to it, Damien definitely seems to be listening at least.
"life is just a series of increasingly canon-eluding ao3 tags" ~ everydunsparce "Keep your hellfruit away from me, tempter" ~ also Every
"Right," Silas said. "Everyone up for a meal? I've got some fresh ingredients and Gale's a wizard when it comes to cooking."
Roxy grinned and held up a hand. "I am."
Gav's Super Fang attack would find its way into the leg of a Dark Trooper, whose movement slowed but it ultimately ignored.
Hoops would find themselves stopped, their own body rebelling against their commands... "Bad form," Gabriel responded. "Stepped right into line of sight."
A smug grin stretched across Gabriel's face as the Dark Troopers ceased firing, he raised a hand to direct Hoops in front of him, right into the path of the oncoming Fake Out. "Thank you, for acting as the first meat shield."
"Now then... who can attack me first, without damaging your dear friend in the process?"
The Dark troopers lowered their blasters, and raised their left arms. Nozzles dripping with fuel appeared, before igniting and filling the room with flames.
"Of course, if you can even get up here."
Rory swapped back to a dynamo hand. "Okay rocket punch won't work... buuuuuut, I still have a few other tricks."
He tossed a great ball and out popped a Sigilyph, a white, gold, and blue coloured one.
"I had gotten this guy awhile ago, apparently he's scared of my Porygon... I needed a good name for him. Everyone, meet... Gabriel."
~There will be only agony for you.~
"I don't wanna play all my cards just yet," Rory admitted.
<Waiting for the right time to pop burst huh?>
At Oganesson, Rory smirked. "Improvement my ass, I could never properly channel my powers. I made up for it by sheer stubborness and physical health... though."
Rory put the sword away and drew a fancy looking revolver, the chamber however was solid and appeared to be made of grooved materials. "I got some new tools for that. What happens when you give a special effects expert props?"
Rory aimed at the chain and pulled the trigger, an obscuric blast roared out and flew right at Oganesson.
Gabriel threw a psychic right at Igor. ~BEHOLD!~
Armstrong took the hit, shook himself... and then threw a payback right at Adam.
Raiden joined Gabriel and tossed an aura sphere right at Igor.
Some Rando
Vs Gabe
Kamui cursed under her breath, muttering something about Follow Me and Substitute and how she never liked those moves.
She paused, however, recalling a move that Sunny knew, and that Sylveon was already using, Pixilated Swift stars arcing from her towards Gabe, the stars making every effort to leave Hoops unscathed.
Sunny, meanwhile, had been focusing, predicting, before something came through, a Future Sight attack coming in shortly.
9-Volt, meanwhile, had no compunctions about diving in with Infestation, refusing to break off and crawling around them both until he was stuck to Gabe's back and siphoning him with Giga Drain.
<Look me in the eyes?> He taunted. <Hard to do that with Compound Eyes!>
PEFE Bunker
"If Gale's cookin'," Kendall started. "And if Kamui's claims are true, we're in for something nice."
Edited by AbsentCoder on Oct 5th 2022 at 2:02:38 AM
[Insert Unoriginal Stinger Here]
Person, or Idea?
Mitchell peeks out from behind his cover shortly after the metal things stop firing, only to quickly duck back into cover right as the flame-throwing weapons fire. He knows it's only a matter of time before everyone in the room would get incinerated, except possibly for Kamui. Lucky her, he bitterly thinks, for being a Fire-type here. Those flames won't bother her much at all.
Here, Mitchell stops his train of thought, as he realizes something.
Wait a sec, Mitchell thinks. I've got a Fire-type, too! Maybe she can help melt these metal freaks, or at least thermally expand them until they stop moving!
Digging the trusty Pokeball out of his stroller, Mitchell tosses it over the top of his cover. "FIRE IN THE HOLE!", he screams.
The Pokeball opens in mid-arc, and Vasilissa the Ponyta emerges from it, already engulfed in her own flames and charging directly into the firing line of the mechanical monsters. <Here's your special delivery!>, she neighs, as she attacks with a Flame Wheel.
Meanwhile, Chris takes advantage of the momentary pause in blaster fire to dive down and scoop up Gav in her lower body. She feels his heart pounding in anger and terror.
<Lemme go lemme go!>, Gav protests. <Boss is gonna get-!>
<Hush, now,> Chris replies. <We both know Sav- er, Mitchell can take care of himself. Besides, someone else needs our help now.>
Gav takes a sidelong glance, and he sees Hoops, controlled like a marionette by the caped punk at the top of the room. Quickly averting his gaze, he admits <Geez, you're right. So, what do we do?>
<Improvise,> Chris replies, as she levitates Gav towards the wall to the caped figure's left, while she floats to the opposite wall. Once she is in position, she shuts her eyes and endearingly Growls at the caped figure and his enthralled victim.
When Gav finds his footing, he sees what Chris is doing. In response, he tries a cute little Tail Whip at the same people Chris is targeting, while keeping his eyes pointed at the ground.
chaos catby with a flannel shirt addiction
Stormchaser medbay
Micro: ~I certainly hope so. We don't know anyone here personally, but the last time we ran into someone from here they seemed pretty intent on, you know...~
He does the standard throat-slitting gesture with his paw.
Micro: ~But I'm hoping now we're here they'll at least tolerate us being here better than the place we just came from.~
Edited by QuantumMelody29 on Oct 5th 2022 at 8:59:49 PM
I used to plug my deviantart here but turns out the link was too long.
Priest of the Temple of Syrinx
The Underground
Gwana found herself hit and knocked backwards by the Throat Chop, but even so, despite this, she pushed herself back up, not willing to get up yet.
<Ohhh... you're going down,> she said. <That is something I'll make absolutely sure of.>
And seconds later, she turned to face the rest of the group.
<Stipax?> she said. <Use Bounce. Don't want you to get hit by this.>
Stipax nodded, and promptly jumped up into the air.
Gwana nodded, then turned to face the rest of the group.
<The rest of you... watch out,> she warned.
And seconds later, she stomped on the ground again— and this time, Owen felt it.
"W-whoaaa...!"
Veilstone Gym- vs. Maylene
Maylene grimaced.
"Your Cubone is strong..." she muttered to herself. "We can't let her get away with this! Heracross, you use Dig, too! Attack her from underground!"
<Right!> cried the Heracross.
She promptly started digging into the dirt herself.
<I'm going to find youuuu~!> sang Heracross.
Owen smirked.
"Perfect," said Owen. "Gwana! Hit her with a Fire Blast now and get her out of there!"
From underneath the ground, Gwana nodded. She let loose with a Fire Blast aimed in Heracross's direction— and then began swimming through the Fire Blast, causing her entire body to be cloaked in fire and creating what looked like a burst of fire shooting forwards from above ground. All of a sudden, the ground started to crack— and Gwana shot out of the ground, her body and bone cloaked in flames, throwing Heracross up into the air and up against the wall.
Seconds later, Gwana landed on the floor, smirking as a cloud of dust came up from Maylene's side of the battlefield.
<Not if I find you first,> she said.
Eventually, the dust settled, and Maylene's Heracross was lying on her backside with swirls in her eyes.
<Welp...> she muttered weakly. <I tried...>
Stipax's eyes went wide.
<Woah...> he cried. <Has she gotten even stronger since the Underground?!>
"Possibly," said Owen. "Either way... that is one powerful Cubone."
OWEN EDMUNDSON HAS DEFEATED MAYLENE'S HERACROSS
MAYLENE HAS THREE POKEMON LEFT
Ultra Megapolis
Eventually, Kim slammed down the notebook and put the piece of paper from Halloween next to it.
"Alright, then," she said. "Now... we need to find a theory as to romanization."
<Romanization?> asked Gallag.
"Basically, translating sounds from foreign languages into the Latin alphabet," said Kim. "Languages like Japanese and Chinese do it. It almost always applies with languages that have symbols for their alphabet... something that, apparently, also applies to UBese."
She flipped to another page in her notebook.
"I have a list of cipheric translations here," she said. "My theory, supported by this, is that while the UBese alphalogography employs a cipher alphabet- hence why I call it an 'alphalogography'- its sounds are completely different. This isn't a one-symbol-equals-one-sound thing."
<Hmmm?> asked Elton.
"So!" said Kim. "Here's how we're going to do this."
She glanced down at the ciphers on the paper.
"We're going to continue listening in on conversation," she said. "Any sound we pick up on, I'm going to write here, along with the cipheric translation as written by Jigsaw and my theorized romanization. We know from listening in that the language- at least this dialect- has the Latin P and K sounds, along with the JP R, the Welsh LL, and the "long I" sound in English. So..."
She wrote down:
/p/= ■ = P
/k/ = ♫ = K/C/Q
/aɪ/= •∞/∞: = Ï
<Hmmmm...? Why the umlauts on the I...?> asked Joel.
"Simple," said Kim. "The supposed cipheric transcription had dots next to certain letters. Since the infinity symbol on its own appears to be pronounced akin to 'ih', I decided to move the dots to the top so as to distinguish between the two sounds and two letters."
<Ahhh,> said Joel.
Kim nodded, then continued:
/ɾ/= ♦ = R
/ɬ/= éé(?) = Ł
<'Ey, wait a minute,> said Elton. <Why are you using a single letter for something that had two letters next to each other in the cipher?>
"I'm only assuming that the Welsh LL is written the same way in Jigsaw's cipher," said Kim. "I might come up with another symbol to represent this sound, but for now, this is what I have. Now... let's keep listening."
So they did.
What they found was rather interesting. For the next few hours, Kim did a ton of UBese research, writing down dozens upon dozens of sounds and finding several unfamiliar words she had never heard before. The "LLYDI:KEBU:KTLATU:S" word she had seen on the paper became "łydïkebük't'latüs", with the "U:" being romanized to "ü" and the glottal stops in between "bukt" and "latus" being romanized with apostrophes. She also decided to romanize the bilabial trill after hearing something closer to the English B sound being used in the UBese speech, and decided to romanize it as a capital B— additionally theorizing that the difference between whether or not a word used a capital or lowercase B was a rather important one in Poipolian UBese.
Eventually, after hours of research, Kim, Elton, Joel, and Gallag decided that they were done for the day, ultimately coaxing Debussy out and getting him to come back to the beaches of Alola with them. Soon, they stepped through the portal and out the other side.
Alola
Once Kim left the portal, she turned around to see if it had disappeared. To her immense relief, it hadn't. That was a good thing- it meant that she could go back later at any time.
"Phew," she said.
Eventually, Elton, Gallag, Joel and Debussy exited, and Kim promptly turned to face them all.
"Well," she said. "That was certainly a lot of research, but I think we're done for today."
She started to stand up.
"Come on, everyone," she said. "Let's head back to Striaton City and get Debussy acquainted with—"
<'Ang on a minute!>
Kim turned back and saw Elton running towards her.
"E-Elton?" she asked. "What is it?"
<You can't just leave all that info in your notebook!> cried Elton.
"...What do you mean?" asked Kim.
<This info you've found... this could change the world, dude!> cried Gallag.
Joel nodded sagely. <You were the one that said that no UBese papers had been released yet. Imagine how many more linguists could benefit from this.>
"...and how much more research into the language there'd be," Kim realized.
Immediately, she paused.
"Did I bring my computer?!" she cried.
<Yep,> said Joel, pulling out a massive bag and opening it up. <You sure did.>
Kim breathed a sigh of relief.
"Phew. That's a good thing," she said, grabbing the laptop. "Thanks, Joel."
<Ah, don't sweat it,> said Joel.
"Alright, then," said Kim. "Now... how do I set up a blog site...?"
ABOUT 20 MINUTES LATER...
Kimberly Bond's UBese Blog #1- On the Sounds, IPA, and Supposed Cipher of the Megapolis Dialect of Poipolian UBese
Greetings. In the event that you don't know who I am, my name is Kimberly Bond. I am a Pokemon Trainer from the Unova region. After three seperate losses in the Galar League and years of following other people in order to try and gain fame, I decided to come back home to do a bit of soul-searching, and ultimately decided to go to Ultra Space to investigate the UBese research and see if I couldn't come up with any theories about it.
What follows this is the culmination of a good 4 and a half hours of research following a visit to Ultra Megapolis. Bear in mind that everything I have written here is theoretical knowledge, backed up with evidence. The following does not guarantee immediate knowledge of the UBese language. As of now, there are still many things about the language that I don't know, and am still looking into. Consider this... Episode 1, if you will. More theories are likely to come in the future.
With that said...
THEORY #1: THE DIALECT SPOKEN BY POIPOLE AND NAGANADEL IN ULTRA MEGAPOLIS IS THE CLOSEST TO HUMAN LANGUAGES AND THE EASIEST FOR HUMANS TO SPEAK
Initial observations about Poipole have determined that they are the starter Pokemon of many humans in Ultra Megapolis. Assuming that the people of Ultra Megapolis have a similar, if not identical, sound system to regular humans, this likely means that Poipole have been around humans a lot. Due to their more humanoid body structure and their tendency to be around humans, I theorized immediately that a certain text that had been given to me some time ago, presumed to be "UBese", was specifically a variant on the Poipolian dialect, and even more specifically the dialect spoken by Poipole in Ultra Megapolis. Since Poipole evolve into Naganadel, one can make the assumption that this same dialect is spoken by them as well.
Said dialect is likely the closest to that of standard human languages, as well as, theoretically, the easiest for humans to speak (understanding it, however, is a completely different story altogether). To test this theory, I decided to eavesdrop on numerous Poipole and Naganadel having a UBese conversation, in order to see if I couldn't identify any of the sounds used. I figured that actually going up and having a conversation with them, especially in the event that they did not speak Standard English or Monese, would be far too complicated. What I found were numerous sounds that were either close to, or nearly identical to, sounds in either English or other languages, including a bilabial trill (normally present in certain [African] languages).
These sounds are documented below under theory #2.
THEORY #2: ROMANIZATION AND ALPHABET OF UBESE
If the piece of paper that I was given is in any way accurate, then the UBese language's alphabet— at least, the Poipolian dialect— is an alphalogography, a style of alphabet that employs symbols to represent letters of the English, or other, alphabets. In non-linguistic terminology, this is probably better known to you as a "cipher".
For example, in this alphalogography, the sound /p/ is represented with a square— ■. I noticed that several sounds that I have romanized as single symbols, such as a Welsh LL sound (different from that of the English L sound), were written as double symbols (two /l/ sounds next to each other) in the cipher, so I came up with new symbols for the sounds that appeared to have no equivalent. Those symbols, as well as all of the symbols, are below.
And with that said, below, from hours of listening and research, is the theorized alphabet of the Poipolian UBese language, complete with their respective cipherian symbols and romanizations.
THE THEORIZED POIPOLIAN UBESE ALPHABET
/a/ (as in "father")= • = a
/b/ (as in "boat")= ▓= b (always lowercase)
/ʙ/ (bilabial trill) = % = B (always uppercase)
/k/ (as in "car")= ♫/↨/♥ = k/c
/d/ (as in "dirt") = ≈ = d
/ɛ/ (as in "bed") = ☣ = e
/e/ = formerly ☣√; now & = æ
/f/ (as in "fail") = ♂ = f
/g/ (as in "gun") = ☼ = g
/x/ (Dutch G; Scottish "ch" as in "loch") = ♣ = h
/i/ (as in "see") = ∞ = i
/aɪ/ (as in "pie") = ∞: = ï
/ʐ/ (as in "vision") = Ω = j
/l/ (as in "like") = é = l
/ɬ/ (Welsh LL sound) = $ = ł
/m/ (as in "make") = ♀ = m
/n/ (as in "no") = ◙ = n
/o/ = ♠ = o
/p/ = ■ = p
/q/ (as in Arabic) = ♥ = q
/ɾ/ (Japanese R) = ♦ = r
/s/ (as in "see") = ▼ = s
/t/ (as in "touch") = √ = t
/t͡ɬ/ (as in "Nahuatl") = ^ = ƛ
/y/ (French u) = ≥ = u
/u/ (as in "soon") = ≥: = ü
/v/ (as in "voice") = ± = v
/w/ (as in "wish") = ¶ = w
/waɪ/ (as in the word "why" or the letter "y") = ♪: = ẍ
/j/ (as in "yes") = § = y
/z/ (as in "zoom") = → = z
/ksh/ (as in "decks" with a lisp) = formerly ♫☣; now # = x
Bear in mind that this is merely a theoretical romanization system; there could very well be undiscovered sounds that haven't yet been discovered. Under this system, a word that I overheard that is approximately pronounced "PRYKSCH-keh" would be written in the cipher as:
■♦∞:#&
and romanized as
PRÏXÆ
or, more accurately to this romanization:
prïxæ
I am not yet sure as to the meaning of this word, but in the conversation I managed to catch, this word was used akin to a greeting. It was followed by a word that can be transcribed as piætok and pronounced, approximately, as 'pee-EH-tok'.
Other mysterious words that I managed to catch included Bïlok, k/clïx, ƛanus, and łydïxbük'ƛatüs. Note that the apostrophe is the theoretical romanization of a glottal stop; in my extended cipher it is rendered as a simple period. Also note that while I had initially believed that the bilabial trill (B) was represented by a regular lowercase b, I later on discovered that apparently Poipolian UBese features a /b/ sound as well. This has led me to theorize that rather than a random collection of sounds, the Ultra Megapolis dialect of Poipolian UBese is its own seperate language, with its own grammar and phonology, as the /B/ and /b/ sounds appear to be used in very specific circumstances.
As for the meanings of these words, I have a theory for two of them. The aforementioned prïxæ, which I mentioned before seemed to be used as a greeting, possibly could mean something akin to 'hello', although the literal translation has yet to be discovered or theorized on. Bïlok, meanwhile, bears a bit of a resemblance to the word for 'good' in numerous romance languages, and particularly the French/Spanish bien. Ergo, until more context clues or ideas related to research come out, my assumption is that Bïlok means either "good" or something akin to it.
That will be all for today. More theories on Poipolian UBese are soon to come later.
— K. Bond
THE HASSLEMON INTERWEBS- Lumiose (Braker)
??? joined the chat.
???: ...huh? Where am I?
The Pound
Some time later, Braker, Walter, Cuddles, and Caboose had made it back to the front desk of the pound, along with the lady that had been at said front desk before. The lady turned to face Braker, smiling with gratitude.
"Thank you so much," she said. "I'm sure Thanatos will be very grateful towards you for saving his life and finally giving him a forever home."
Braker nodded.
"You're welcome," he said. "I'll be sure to introduce Thanatos to the rest of the team shortly. For now, we'll be heading off to see if we can't find a Heracronite."
The lady paused.
"Actually," she said, "funny you should mention Mega Stones."
"Oh?"
The lady promptly reached down into a drawer and pulled something out of it. As Braker got closer, he noticed what it was— two stones. The first one was a clear-looking stone with a DNA symbol on it, and the second stone was a light brown one with an orange-and-black double helix design in the middle. Braker's eyes widened in shock as he took the items from the lady.
"I-is this...?" he asked.
<Whoaa~!> cried Cuddles. <That's a Key Stone!>
<And a Houndoomite,> Walter noted.
Braker nodded, dumbstruck.
"T-thank you," he said. "Thank you so much."
The lady smiled.
"Oh, no problem," said the lady. "We had one on standby for Thanatos, but since he's yours now... you can have the Houndoomite. Figured you could also use a Key Stone too."
She paused.
"Do you have a Mega Ring?" asked the lady.
Braker paused for a few moments.
"No," he said, "but I do have a place where the Key Ring can be put into."
A glance over at Walter. Cuddles' eyes widened.
<Wait... Lenny, you couldn't possibly be suggesting...>
Braker smirked. "Oh... I am."
Lumiose City
Some time later, Braker had gotten his camera set up and was busy setting up the Key Stone inside of the viewfinder. Walter stared up at him with what would be a raised eyebrow if he had any.
<Are you sure about this, Braker?> he asked.
Braker nodded. "I'm sure. I'll only place it in here for the sake of Mega Evolution. If I'm filming anything I'll either take it out or use my phone."
Walter sighed. <If you say so.>
<Something tells me this is going to be fun~!> cried Cuddles.
Eventually, Braker finished setting up the Mega Camera and closed the back of it. He glanced around.
"Alright, then," he said, folding the camera back up. "Now... where are we going to find a Heracronite?"
Road to Adelinde
Braker nodded. "We're coming, too. My Pokemon can still fight."
<And I'm definitely still up for it!> cried Bindi.
Vs. Gabe
Ingrid and Benny looked on in disbelief at Gabe using Hoops as a giant meat shield.
"Oh dear..." muttered Ingrid. "This is not good..."
<The circumstances are very dire, General,> said Benny. <However, I believe that 'Hoops', as they are referred to as, shall be fine. Not only am I detecting a great deal of perserverance from this... 'Hoops', but I am also detecting the presence of one of the Commander's brethren. Gabe will be easy to deal with.>
A glance up at the flamethrowing weapons.
<As for them, however...>
Instantly, he shot forward and launched a Sky Uppercut at all 16 of them.
Battle Academy
Retek: You hear about the encounter Arubeg had with our uninvited guests?
Angela: There's nothing that happens in this facility that I do not know about, as you're already aware.
Retek: Oof, didn't mean to walk into your bad mood there, Miss Director.
Angela: ... You're right. I'm sorry. Have you read their books?
Retek: Haven't gotten the chance to yet, no.
Angela: The story they told was... all familiar.
Retek: ... Wait, you don't mean...
Angela: I understand now more than ever why Dune and Deziree trust us here. If this is the caliber of enemy that threatens these students, then we may be the most qualified faculty in this entire dimension.
Retek: Whoof. That got heavy, fast.
Angela: Indeed. To change the subject, how has recruitment been going?
Retek: Slow, at least for now. There's a lot of skepticism out there about this whole venture.
Angela: Makes sense. This place has learned to live with lowered expectations, especially for government-backed entities.
Retek: Can't exactly blame them, considering their recent history. But that raises the question of what we're gonna do about it.
Angela: I believe Desech referred to it as "a giant publicity stunt".
Retek: I heard him refer to it as a "culture bomb" before Arubeg nearly slapped his face off...
Angela: Unfortunately, Orre is somewhat lacking in the officially-sanctioned, personal-growth focused league battles that would normally make for good optics.
Retek: We could send her somewhere else to come back with a win under her belt.
Angela: ... Actually, that's not a bad idea. A new Galarian League is coming up soon. We have Xavier enter under our sponsorship...
Retek: And then she shows off the school colors while also getting hands-on experience that we can then replicate here at the Academy.
Angela: Precisely.
Retek: She's already got a good team balance going. She's got a generalist, a Fire-Type, a Water-Type, and an Electric-Type. From the sims, that's already, like, ninety percent of her setup done.
Angela: I'll admit I haven't been studying my team-building as much as I should. I do hope she provides an excellent case study.
Retek: I'll go run this idea by Dune and Arubeg first. Then...
Angela: Then, what?
Retek: Well, you saw how bold they got coming after me, and then walking straight into the Library. I want to follow her through Galar just to make sure nobody gets any funny ideas.
Angela: I do not believe that will be necessary.
Retek: And that would be, why...?
Angela: Because Dune will likely volunteer for such duty himself. Him, or his daughter.
Retek: Oh, right. Purple Eyes. Yeah, she'd probably be a bit less conspicuous...
Angela: You sound disappointed.
Retek: Look, this place is better than the Outskirts by a country mile, but desert is as desert does, and I'm getting pretty tired of seeing brown all the time...
Angela: Hm. I'll think about it.
Retek: W-what?
Angela: Don't worry about it.
Retek: Every time you say that, I just worry all the more...
-Xavier flops over in her bed. There's some angry wiggling underneath her for a moment before a Thundershock sends her tumbling out of bed. Sarge the Joltik sparks and sputters angrily at being almost crushed.-
Xavier: Why does this keep happening?
-She decides that this isn't a fight she's gonna surrender, grabbing a pillow off of the bed and yanking the comforter off, sending the indignant Joltik spinning through the air as she curls up on the floor.-