Week 24.

[azumods]

WEEK 24 It seems that Giratina is feeling reasonable as the weekend continues on. There's something a little jarring about being returned to the flowing time and reconnected space of Mount Coronet; it might seem a little darker than you remember, a little harsher after so much time in a place where gravity was malleable. But for the time being, there's only one way to go if you want to eventually find Spear Pillar, and that's upwards and onwards. Some of the areas within the mountain have been carved out, the paths leading you through openings that will bring you around outside; you have a good view of the region from up here, though it's a rather cold one - the outside areas are covered in snow, so you might want to watch your step. But there's grass out here, and a few different kinds of Pokémon, and it generally might be good to get some fresh air while you're here and see the mark you're making on the world. Of course, the trek inside the mountain continues to be a journey; the paths do make ascending a bit easier, but a good amount of it is still climbing upwards. There are several chambers here and there to explore, however, the walls sparkling with what might be gemstones and the reflections of water shimmering off the walls - there are pools of it here and there, good places to rest near if you need to. The caverns seem safe enough (safer than the climb, anyway), and on Sunday... Well, on Sunday it seems that one of them holds a surprise for you... CURRENT LOCATION: MOUNT CORONET POKEMON AVAILABLE: CAVES SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY | FRIDAY | SATURDAY [OOC: Welcome to week twenty-four 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 this weekend!]

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SUNDAY

[azumods]

Reunion.

[azumods]

[The area you've been left off inside Mount Coronet is reasonably close to the spot you were taken from; it's likely both a relief because it's familiar, and somewhat discouraging because, well, you've got a long way to go. The paths and ledges wrap back in around themselves just as much as they did before, difficult but not impossible to navigate; however, you won't get too far with regards to exploration today before you come to one of those caverns, one of those chambers with cool water and glimmering reflections off the walls.

It contains something you've lost recently, something that's being returned to you now.

Not something.

Someone.

She's in a place that's easily found, a place that's safe and warm for the time being - and it seems that no matter how hard the world tried to convince you that she was never here, you knew better, didn't you? She looks exactly the same as she did when she left you, after all.

Aya Maruyama has been returned to you.]

[niceoppai]

What the -- hey!

[Chelsea runs forward, stumbling over some rocks.]

Guys, it's another one! Aya!

[gekkaju]

[It almost...doesn't feel real, when they find her. Atsushi had just been talking about her to Michael, it feels like....wondering if she was okay. Wondering if she made it back to her friends...wondering if she remembered them.

He's considerably in larger company since the last time they saw each other, but with the Distortion Zone being as unnerving as it was, he only has Chazuke out for the time being...just in case.

But he finds her, and she's here again, somehow. And he's not even sure what to do at first but stare.]

A...aya-chan?

[...and then his legs are moving before his brain is to say anything else, rushing over to her with Chazuke rumbling a bit more slowly behind.]

Aya-chan!

[anythingforyou]

[Camilla honestly isn't sure what to do at first--after the Distortion World and the like, she may have thought that it was just a trick of the eyes or something similar, but...

Well, Camilla's running over to give Aya a hug--there's little preamble there, other than Camilla just looking so happy to see her--]

Oh, Aya, darling! You're okay!

[eudaimonikos]

Aya!

[Is...woah, guys, is Michael going in for a hug? The fuck is this?]

[semistableman]

Aya!

[It's not the first time it's happened-- even if this is only the second time, but he's relieved to see the girl, and it shows on his face.]

[enjoymyatelier]

...ah!

[he sees the crowd talking about it and, well, rushes on over-]

Well, it's good to see you returned to us, Miss Maruyama.

[takestheblame]

Glad to see you're okay.

[You're a sight for sore eyes, Aya. Welcome back]

[ventulus]

...Aya! You're back!

[ Ventus looks pretty happy to see her too - he does remember she went away too, before he had. Looks like his return started a lovely chain reaction of events! ]

I just came back too, you know...how about we do a returnee high-five?

MONDAY

[azumods]

[radiantflame]

[Having gravity back is more disorienting than Morag would like to admit. As nice as it is to feel actual, solid ground below her feet instead of boulders floating in the void, she feels heavier after several days in the distortion world. It makes navigating the terrain difficult, and she keeps stumbling over nothing.

She wants to keep going, but after a day she realizes she needs to re-acclimate herself. So, picking a spot near a large, jagged wall, Morag sheds her coat and hat and starts hauling herself up. It's slow-going at first, as she loses her footing a few times and slides down to the bottom, but she's determined not to stop until she can get to the top in one go.

Her team are just as invested- well, maybe not Tropius, but Sorcha and Jurgen are doing their best to climb, too. Agatha's ascent is... more unconventional.]

[niceoppai]

Whoa. She's doing the climbing goat thing and everything.

[Chelsea has to stare a little, even as she's shaking in her climb up the cliff.]

[ventulus]

...Are you training them to do some rock-climbing?

[ Ventus spots them doing their thing, and re-acclimating has been tough on him too but he didn't even think of scaling up that cliff. ]

TUESDAY

[azumods]

[divinedescendant]

[As it turns out, how much Emmeryn hated the Distortion World has not made her hate the cliffs any less.

On the bright side! Some of us are getting over our differences and having a good time, which is why this morning, this horrifying blood-colored beacon is trudging around (he is a ghost! he is intangible! how does he trudge! this is awful!) princess carrying Audhulma in his big awful grabby hands. Audhulma asbolutely just spent the past few days starting shit with this poor creature until it made him evolve and now she's fine with him because he can carry her? Not that Audhulma needs the help, what with the teleportation?? But with Audhulma holding the Phione egg, Forseti the terrifying cyclops holding Audhulma, Heim fluttering about as per usual, and Duma...doing his best, Emmeryn can let Latona aid her up ledges without interruptions to babysit. Somehow she manages to make sitting on Latona's shoulder or against her arm look kind of graceful, even when she clings too tight to ever-patient Latona, but god, climbing is so hard. She's suffering constantly.

She always ends up lagging behind some, but if she notices anyone else struggling at all, she can't help but fuss—] Are you all right? Latona should be able to assist, if you need it.

[She suffers marginally more and then marginally less in the afternoon when she follows Heim through an opening to the outside of the mountain. He zips right on ahead—not too far; he doesn't much care for the wind and cold—flips a little in the air, and comes back again. He coos, overjoyed, and flits and twirls up and down, towards and away from her again and always in sight.

Unwilling to actually go outside onto the ledge path, Emmeryn watches from the entryway. Behind her, Duma sort of...awkwardly nudges his face-body-front against her legs, but when she murmurs,] No, Duma. [he doesn't make any attempt to trod off and get himself killed as per usual. The pats he receives for his good behavior seem like a worthwhile reward, given the happy little rumble he makes.]

Not for too long, Heim, we mustn't fall behind! Oh, but what a view... [Not that she's going out far enough to take in most of it... But she and her awful orb son are taking up a lot of room in that exit, so she's quick to step back and out of the way so anyone coming over might be able to pass through.] Oh, pardon us.

[Duma spends the rest of the day on his best behavior—ever since emerging from the Distortion World again, he's been surprisingly well-mannered. Emmeryn doesn't suspect a thing.

In the evening, as the crew winds down and settles in to sleep for the night, he receives his chance to escape. Emmeryn is an early to bed, early to rise sort, so this poor lady's out there trying to get some rest while her idiot dragon child runs off to kill himself or whatever—toddle toddle out of camp, along the cave ledges, uses his one whole manner to actually go down the path of one cliff. Forseti just sort of...frighteningly looms a short distance behind him and makes unfortunate ghost noises, which actually just translate to something like I don't know, she doesn't like to lose things, you shouldn't get lost... Duma remembers this way, and toddle toddle trudges his way through a narrow opening to get outside the mountain. The snow must bother him, because he takes care to shake it off his feet with each step, all the way towards the end of the ledge. This should do it, he's sure; he feels about ready to burst out of his shell, and the sky looks so close...

And so he yeets himself off the cliff.

He ricochets off the edge of some jutting-out part of the mountainside on the way down and something goes crack when he does, and then he just keeps falling, so he's...probably just dead now...... This is so sad Forseti play horrific ghost wailing noises of distress.

...Is there something roaring down there???]

WEDNESDAY

[azumods]

[thunderwolf]

[Wednesday morning begins with...a mild crisis, to put it lightly. Eustace can be found darting around the caverns nearest where camp was set up for the night before, seemingly panicked. He's trying not to look panicked, but he's definitely panicked. For those who have gotten to know Rose, the fact that Eustace is clutching a busted up Pikachu costume and pink scarf without their owner should make his source of concern pretty clear.

He'll come up to anyone nearby with a very serious warning.]

If you're doing some exploring, be careful. Rose is...I don't know what happened, but she's around here somewhere without her costume. I'm trying to find her.

[...]

Just...don't shine your flashlight carelessly, all right?

[It's a very delicate (and spooky) situation, considering what Rose is. Eustace is too...himself, to admit it, but he could honestly use some help tracking the rogue costumeless Mimikyu down.]

THURSDAY

[azumods]

[discutio]

[It wasn't that Ignis was unhappy that Ventus and Aya had returned; precisely the opposite, of course. He wasn't so cold that he'd be bitter over something that fortunate. But it still bothered him, in a way that he didn't dare speak about lest he sound as though they didn't matter to him. Of course they did, it was just...]

[Complicated. Like most things in his life, apparently.]

Ignis didn't seem to have nearly as much trouble traveling as he had in the Distortion World; Hemera walked a bit ahead of him as usual, Highwind ambling along at his side. Rather than make the attempt, he just let the Altaria carry Ignis and his Absol both up the more precarious ledges. While rock climbing wasn't impossible, it was perhaps a lot to ask when it came to keeping the general pace of things.]

[...And he seemed very committed to keeping up pace, that characteristic (and possibly worrying) singleminded determination beginning to show itself in an unspoken need to keep pressing onward. That maybe--just maybe there'd be another fateful encounter or two yet left somewhere in the mountain.]

[When they stopped to camp, Ignis was as usual off to the side with his back against the large cotton loaf that was his bird. Highwind craned her neck to nuzzle at his head like an insistent cat, whistling softly in an off-key attempt at some kind of tune. He laughed faintly at the attempt to keep his spirits up, one hand brought to the Altaria's head as he started wordlessly humming a tune under his breath. Highwind was hardly as skilled in the efforts Quaver, but maybe he'd pick something up.]

[...Either way, at least teaching him was something to keep Ignis' mind off everything else for now.

[anythingforyou]

[Camilla has been taking traveling pretty well, all considered; she wasn't someone who was usually all too good at climbing, but this trip has allowed her to try to get some practice in with Melady serving as a bit of a security blanket so Camilla didn't fall. However, Camilla has found herself quite fond of going outside and taking a bit of a detour through there to train.

It's wonderful, watching her Pokemon fight the wild ones so freely and having it reciprocated--her Pokemon seem in very high energy as a result, and they're fighting their hardest against anything that happens to come across them. Camilla's more than content to watch over her partners rather than do anything herself this time, but then, something happens.

It's when Beruka comes over to Camilla for some healing, that the woman checks over her darling little baby Tyrunt with a smile.]

You've been getting so much stronger as of late, sweetie. I'm very proud of how much you've come into your own. [A sweet little kiss is pressed on top of the Tyrunt's head, earning a smile from the creature.] You can do it, alright? Show them what you're made of, Beruka!

[If anything, the Tyrunt takes that as a challenge--she headbutts an incoming pest, and she suddenly transforms, letting out a rather powerful sounding cry into the crowd of Pokemon in front of her and earning Camilla's awe as she starts to charge.

And that's when Camilla starts cheering.]

Go get them, you beautiful darling! Show them no mercy!

[LET IT BE KNOWN THAT HER AESTHETIC IS MASSIVE HELLBEAST, AND SHE IS SO HAPPY ABOUT HER STRONG DARLING? HOLY SHIT???

She'll. She'll wind up catching back up with the others in the late evening, just kind of settling down somewhere and starting to knit. Most of her Pokemon are asleep around her, given that Camilla sees no problem with keeping them out in a place like this--but she appears to be using this time to knit with what little yarn she has left. It seems to be a rather long looking thing, yellow and red interchanging, and it seems almost like a scarf in design. A...rather long one, really, jesus christ woman what are you doing--

Either way, she's more than here to chatter, but she does seem rather intently focused on her task.]

FRIDAY

[azumods]

[hyruglyphics]

[ So Urbin the Golem evolved sometime in the handwaved last few weeks is trying to show off now we've been at this hike and in these caves for the while! Like check it out anyone who'll look! It can totally fire this rail gun thing on his back and launch rocks and... little weaker Geodudes who are willing to play along into walls and laughing as he does! Showy? Showy but at the same time, Zelda can't help but scold him because ]

Urbin, please, you might collapse the cave!

[ That said, the two other Pokemon with Zelda (the Shiny Mr. Mime, now named Vali and the Porygon2, Daroh) mostly just seem amused at these shenanigans and are urging Urbin on. In fact, Daroh is doing so with a weird disc sticking out of his back and Vali is doing is while pantomiming out drinking some... invisible tea?

Why are all of her Pokemon weirdos. ]

SATURDAY

[azumods]

[bloodspent]

[It's one one of the paths outside the mountain that it actually happens; the longer they're here, the less Jake wants to be in those cave systems, so he's taken to jumping up onto the narrow ledges outside like a total idiot and finding somewhere to settle, keeping an eye on his Pokémon below.

Of course, Kandža and Albert apparently still have some unfinished business, by which we mean Kandža likes to pick on Albert when she thinks Jake isn't looking; this lasts, apparently, until Albert decides he's had enough, and "having enough" today apparently means turning into this thing.

Which is, you know, moderately terrifying.

And suddenly Kandža is up on that ledge with him, and Jake just kind of laughs and pats her on the head a bit.]

Serves you right, you know.

[He'll get down to check on Albert eventually, though, because this is cool? This is cool.]

...God, you're taller than I am, what the hell. Good job.

[Other than that, though, he can be found in one of the caves later tonight, off by himself and writing what appear to be letters to someone? He doesn't send them off though, like some people do; he just folds them and keeps them, and whatever he's doing, he seems pretty engrossed in it. A way to spend time, if nothing else.]