Eighth.

[azumods]

ENCOUNTER. It's been days since you were brought here. Or, at least, you think it's been days; even if it's not something you're necessarily unfamiliar with, the stagnation of time and space are likely taking a toll, as is the fact that it's impossible to become spatially oriented in this place. The rotation of the walls to become ground beneath your feet, the floating patches of land with their bizarre floral biology, the pools of water flowing silently and horizontally directly above your heads... It's all a bit much to take in, a bit much to acquaint yourselves with. Perhaps it isn't meant for you to become acquainted with at all. The massive creature here with you has been becoming bolder over the last few hours; it's difficult to tell what's gotten into it, but its path through the shadows has been bringing it closer. Once in a while a sleek, sharply-spiked body can be seen twisting its way through the darkness; sometimes long, black tendrils with wicked-looking red tips are seen cutting through the shadows, each of them far larger than you are, before disappearing again into nothingness. It seems to fade in and out with the contours of the abyss; sometimes it disappears entirely, only to reappear so close to the patches of land you've taken to standing on that it feels liable to collide with them, that it seems almost like you can reach out and touch it if you wanted to. Whatever it is, your Pokémon don't like it. You can tell just by being in its presence that it's one of the old ones, one of those whose memories span far longer than most of you can comprehend - one that's always been, since the creation of the world. An ancient and powerful entity, and there comes a point on one of those passes that's too close for comfort that it doesn't pull away and disappear again. Instead it stays, and its head breaches the darkness, and it finally lets you see it. It's massive, alarmingly so, in the same way that Dialga and Palkia were massive - not just in physical size, but in the way that something about being in its presence makes you feel very, very small. Its body is long and graceful in a way that's almost repulsive; it doesn't set down anywhere near you, or anywhere at all; instead, it simply is, hovering before you in a way that commands the stagnant, empty space before you, floating over the abyss like it was meant to be in it, like it's been here for longer than you likely care to imagine. Those long black tendrils ripple a little as they stream out behind it; its body seems to glimmer in the darkness as it watches you from behind bright, red eyes. For the time being, it doesn't seem about to attack; just the same, it's watching you very, very closely. What happens from here is, evidently, your call.

Comments

[azumods]

[...You know, of all the things one would expect an actual eldritchy thing to respond to, it seems casual approaches do strangely well in this world; Big Blinky, at least, never seemed to mind it, and this thing is...

Well, it's surprisingly not eating anybody's face just yet, and that's got to count for something.

That said, it tilts its head a little bit at the greeting, and it seems to get something of a rumbling noise in response - sure, to the Pokémon it likely sounds like something that crawled out of R'lyeh crossed with the Black Speech of Mordor, but thankfully that's probably just sort of indecipherable to most people.]

[eudaimonikos]

[Jane Doe successfully merges with Michael's shadow in her terror! She'll just be there, hiding. Forever.

Michael slips his hands back into his pockets, glancing briefly around at the rest of the group.]

I'm Michael. Not too sure why my friends here are apologizing - you're the one who brought us here in the first place, aren't you? Glowing red eyes, all-consuming darkness, that whole thing...? Did you just want to see us, or - ?

[azumods]

[More of those odd, deep noises; as if in answer, however, some of that darkness that you noticed before you entered here will creep across the ground at your feet - it will avoid the shadow that Jane Doe is currently hiding in (honor among ghosts, maybe? who knows, either way it's not intruding) but it does allow the ground to just...flood with it for a moment before promptly allowing it to withdraw back into nothing.

A demonstration, perhaps. Confirmation that it did bring you here and all.]

[eudaimonikos]

[Michael raises his eyebrows at that and, probably to Jane's horror, reaches out a foot to try to touch the spreading dark. He's not quick enough to actually get there before Giratina withdraws, though.]

See that, guys? Chill out.

[It still didn't answer the question of what it wants. But it doesn't seem like any kind of comprehensible answer will be forthcoming.]

We were headed up the mountain to try to find Cyrus. [Would Giratina know Cyrus by name?] You know, the asshole human.

[semistableman]

[Was that a snort from Bucky at the mention of "asshole human"?

Probably not.]

[azumods]

[Oh, don't worry. It seems to know who Cyrus is.]