Week 2.

[azumods]

WEEK 2. The new week begins with new surroundings. The city you've been growing accustomed to over the past week is now well behind you as you set out on your journey proper; the terrain still seems rocky and steep here as you move downhill and to the south, dotted here and there with small ponds to the east and rocky outcroppings that you can climb on to the west. There are also large expanses of tall grass here, and the entire route is flanked with tall trees leading off into the forest a short ways. You're more than welcome to explore; just don't stray too far from the group - you wouldn't want to be left behind out here, for any reason. Wild Pokémon are abundant here, as anyone venturing into the tall grass will discover; they aren't inclined to attack you, however, simply watching with dull, dead eyes as you stumble through the area they've come to call home. The trip is difficult, and it's a lot of walking, but it's not unmanageable; fortunately enough, the route you're on should lead you directly to Valor Lakefront, assuming there are no complications along the way. From Thursday and beyond, the route takes a sharp turn west; in front of you lies what's clearly the ocean, large rocks jutting out just offshore tempering the waves. It's safe to go in the water if you so choose - assuming you can swim, that is - and the forested terrain has given way to a large beach with patches of tall grass here and there. Interestingly, there's a house located on the beach; whether it's inhabited or not is difficult to tell. Of course, exploring slightly north of the beach will reveal a path. Maybe it leads somewhere important... CURRENT LOCATION: ROUTE 213 POKEMON AVAILABLE: NEAR WATER SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY | FRIDAY [OOC: Welcome to week two of Azume; feel free to make as many top levels as you'd like and tag out to other characters! This post is for all of your interactions this week... at least until the weekend. Don't forget that a write-up is due next weekend!]

Comments

[bloodspent]

[Jake shrugs a bit at that; he doesn't mind that Yuri's here, nor does he seem started despite seeming so off in his head. Just...thinking, sorta.]

Couldn't sleep. Weird dreams tonight, I guess.

[fatalstrikes]

[Once Yuri's settled he motions for Roc to join him. She does after some hesitation and he reaches out to pat her on the head.]

Yeah, same here. I haven't had much trouble sleeping, so I guess it's finally catching up to me.

[Or maybe it's the fact that we weren't traveling as much today and he didn't wear himself out enough. Who knows.]

[bloodspent]

That makes one of us, I guess.

[Sleep has been sucking so bad, Yuri.]

[fatalstrikes]

Hopefully you'll be able to catch up on your sleep when we hit Pastoria.

[Being in a city will probably help, right...? There are at least beds there that you can probably borrow.]

You're not doing too bad otherwise though, are you?

[bloodspent]

[Oh, that's.]

I'm doing okay. Do I seem like I'm not?

[fatalstrikes]

You've been avoiding the water all day. Seems like you're a little antsy, maybe.

[He leans back a bit, but he's looking at Jake now.]

[bloodspent]

[He just...shrugs again.]

Never really had anything good come out of the ocean, that's all. I've been avoiding it for a while.

[fatalstrikes]

I'm guessing there are aquatic B.O.W.s too?

[bloodspent]

...Yeah. Something like that.

[fatalstrikes]

We've got aquatic monsters that can be a pain to deal with, but I haven't seen anything like that here. There are plenty of Pokémon, but they mostly just ignore you.

cw: resident evil? body horror descriptions.

[bloodspent]

Yeah, I figured as much.

[It just...isn't really something that he can shake very easily, that's all.]

...I told you about that lady, Ada, who kept sending that guy after me. The one who wanted something I've got. She was one of our crazy people that tried to end the world - her and her boyfriend both, I guess, they were working on the same thing. She created this fucking huge...thing that was designed to kill everyone, she was making it in this big underwater facility. It looked a lot like what you'd get if you ripped a person in half at the waist - just...organs and whatever dangling out of it. It didn't have a face, either, just skin stretched over where its features should've been. Probably a hundred, hundred and fifty feet high.

I got to spend some quality time locked in with it for a while. Not really a good time.

[fatalstrikes]

[WHY WAS YOUR WORLD LIKE THIS]

...Wow. Even at their worst, none of our monsters are anywhere near that disgusting.

That sounds terrifying, though. What happened? Did you guys kill it somehow?

[bloodspent]

There were three other people with me - two guys and Sherry. My job was to get Sherry out of there, because she had something that could save the world. So that's what I did. The two guys stayed behind to try to kill it, and we left them there to...probably die. Sherry was really mad about it, but it's what they wanted to do, and they knew what they were doing when they decided to stay.

They did kill it, though, and one of them made it out afterwards. The other one didn't.

[fatalstrikes]

Oh. I'm sorry to hear that. It's good that the thing was killed and I'm glad one of them made it out, but...

[Well, that still sucks. At least Jake and Sherry were okay...?? Yikes.]

[bloodspent]

[Piers kind of didn't deserve...whatever happened to him, he's pretty sure. The guy was a jackass, but...]

I didn't know the guy all that well, and liked him even less. I was kind of pissed that he died, but it was for a really bad reason.

[fatalstrikes]

Yeah? What reason?

[bloodspent]

The other guy is someone I've got a personal issue with.

[...Piers was a jackass but Chris deserved it more.]

[fatalstrikes]

...Well, yeah, that's a bad reason, but I'm curious now. What did he do?

[bloodspent]

[...]

He killed one of my parents. My father.

[fatalstrikes]

Oh.

[Hang on, give him a second, he's kind of bad at this—]

I'm really sorry to hear that, Jake. That's... Man, that's gotta be really hard to handle.

[bloodspent]

Hey, don't worry about it. My father was an asshole who got what he deserved. I never even met him, anyway, so it's not like I was close to the guy.

[He's watching the water a lot more than he is anything else, though.]

It just still kinda bothers me, I guess.

[fatalstrikes]

[So it's not as bad as he thought it was, which is... good? Nothing about this situation is good.]

I think I can get why. Even if he was never in your life, it's still a terrible thing to learn.

[Yuri leans back a bit and glances up at the sky.]

...What about your mom? Did you know her?

[bloodspent]

...Yeah, I did. She was great, you know? Always looking out for me, made a lot of sacrifices so I didn't have to go without. Never got over the asshole, though - she talked about him a lot, about how much he loved us and when the time was right he'd come back for us, and about what we'd do when he came back. Obviously, he never did.

But my mom... Like I said, she was great. Loved her more than anything. She died when I was still a kid, though.

[fatalstrikes]

She does sound like a great person. I'm sorry to hear she passed when you were still pretty young, though. Where'd you go after that?

[bloodspent]

[He shrugs.]

I was already doing the whole mercenary thing by then, so...