Week 25.

[azumods]

WEEK 25 This is approximately the third week of mountain-based hell that you've been dealing with; fortunately, however, the terrain seems to change a little that you're higher up. The paths here seem deliberate rather than natural - the walk is far easier, and there are infinitely less ledges to climb up - and perhaps as a point of interest, the walls appear covered in elaborate carvings, depicting things that are likely related to the creation of the universe in some way. Triangular shapes seem to be a recurring theme, and there are a few Pokémon that you may recognize here and there - crude representation of what appear to be the Lake Guardians, as well as Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina, are present; it's difficult to tell how recent they are, but they don't seem to have suffered too much wear. Granted, what with how malleable time has proven to be around here, that doesn't necessarily mean much. That said, it seems that your journey may be coming to an end soon; Sunday will reveal that once again, you've recovered something that once was lost, and as always, the world continues to change around you. Even so, you may want to take time to recover yourselves and prepare for the hardships ahead - and a few days into your journey, there may be further signs that you're not as alone here as you thought you were... CURRENT LOCATION: MOUNT CORONET POKEMON AVAILABLE: CAVES SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY | FRIDAY [OOC: Welcome to week twenty-five 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.]

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SUNDAY

[azumods]

Reunion.

[azumods]

[As always, the sheer scale of Mount Coronet is imposing; the paths are easier from here, but that doesn't mean that there aren't ways to distract yourselves - outside of the carvings on the walls, there are occasional outlets and paths branching off into various caverns glittering with the reflection of lightly rippling pools of water, places that are safe and perhaps surprisingly warm.

It's in one of those chambers that you'll find something - something that you've lost recently. Something that's being returned to you.

Or, more accurately, someone.

Again, he's somewhere easily found, despite the difficulties the world has tried to give you in remembering him - it's been insisting so much that he doesn't exist for you, but you've always known better, haven't you? It's almost as though he'd never left.

Keith has been returned to you.]

[niceoppai]

Hey! Hey, guys, over here!

[Chelsea waves the others down and runs into the room.]

Keith, that you?

[divinedescendant]

[Emmeryn has (internally, out of politeness) given Mt. Coronet a lot of grief over the past few weeks for daring to exist so high up, but, like. All right. Credit where it's due. If all its secret passageways and cliff-side chamber nonsense are going to keep having hidden friends in them, it can't be so bad.

Give her a minute to make her way through from the back of the group (hiking is so hard, cave-crawling is such bullshit) with her team in tow—featuring a new egg (long story! we'll catch you up later) which she hands off to Latona, but sans Duma right now, actually?—but when Emmeryn sees Keith, her whole face lights up.]

Keith! Oh, goodness, it's so lovely to see you—Are you all right? Have you been safe here?

[fuss fuss fuss fuss!!!]

MONDAY

[azumods]

[gekkaju]

[If anybody is looking for Atsushi this morning, he's hanging out inside the caves, though he's not doing any intense exploring. On the contrary...he's been studying those carvings on the cave walls, sitting on the cave floor near them and writing stuff down in a notebook. The notebook itself is a little worn and halfway full....it looks like he's been taking notes on things for a while.

Later on, he can be found a bit deeper inside, again just...sitting, though this time he's lounging with his Pokemon as opposed to exploring the mountain and running into trouble again. He has all six of his Pokemon out of their balls and with him for once, two new additions in the form of an Absol laying quietly next to his side and a Riolu sitting in his lap along with his Eevee Grace. As he sits there with them, Natto completely asleep with Chazuke and Mizushi not too far behind, he rubs his thumb over what looks to be an evolution stone of some sort in his palm. He looks thoughtful, but doesn't make any moves to use it.]

caves

[niceoppai]

[Chelsea peers over, followed by Sunflower tottering along.]

Carvings again, huh? I don't blame you. All this stuff about the ancient world keeps turning out important. And it's kinda cool, too, right?

deeper

[radiantflame]

[Morag is patrolling through the caves, flanked by her own team, when she comes across the scene. She gives him a nod.]

Is everything all right in here?

[eudaimonikos]

[Climbing, climbing, climbing. The travel's easier here, with the carved-out roads, but Michael still spends much of the day lounging on Jane Doe's back, letting the ghost ferry him along. His head is pillowed on his arms, atop Jane's big ghost head.]

I miss the sun. I don't even come from somewhere with a sun, why do I miss the sun?

[After everyone's stopped for the evening, Michael lets his Pokemon out of their balls and wanders off with them to check out the cave art. Most of it is...not all that interesting. Nothing he hasn't seen in the ruins of Celestic Town, at any rate. But that's not to say that there's absolutely nothing of interest in the caves...

A little while after Michael disappears, a fucking Spiritomb scream echoes through the cave.]

[greydients]

[WHAT IN THE GALAXY WAS THAT-

Fortunately Rey and her Garchomp are also exploring the caves, so they'll make a prompt direction change to wherever that scream came from.]

Michael?! Are you alright?

TUESDAY

[azumods]

[azumods]

[It's difficult to say when you decided to fall asleep.

It's likely not surprising; the journey has been hard, and it's been a long time since you've seen the sun properly, hasn't it? It's only natural that such a thing would start to wear on you after a while; it only takes a fleeting thought, a brief idea that maybe lying down doesn't sound so bad, and just like that, you find yourself somewhere else. Somewhere pitch-dark, the inky blackness tight and oppressive around you, and there's an overwhelming feeling of pressure there - though it's one that you might find familiar, if you think about it.

The only thing you can see right away is...well, the group; you can all see each other here, though there doesn't seem to be much else. (It's likely noticeable immediately that everyone in the group can see - yes, even you, Ignis.) You won't be separated this time, however, and eventually something will emerge from the darkness in front of you - a figure, a form rising out of what's presumably the ground nearby, blue eyes glowing lightly as it fixes its gaze on the rest of you. It doesn't seem angry or malicious, however; just kind of...here.

It seems Darkrai has decided it has business with you today.

Of course, Cresselia isn't just going to leave you on your own, though she's far less one for overly dramatic entrances; instead, she quite simply is, shimmering into being a short distance away, feathers glistening a little bit as she settles.

Feel free to come say hello, if you'd like; at the very least they're doing this with far less horrorscapes as a greeting this time.]

[niceoppai]

[Chelsea takes a small gasp and steps back. She can't find words for a while, just staring.

And then she waves, because she has no idea what else she's supposed to do here.]

[discutio]

[Ignis took his visor off—eyes still scarred but very noticeably bright green—and blinked a few times to process the sudden surprise. It looked like there wasn’t any immediate nightmare, and by his count they were all together. So the question became:]

It’s nice to see you two again. To what might we owe the pleasure?

[eudaimonikos]

Ugggggh, why?

[He is still not a huge fan of this!]

[divinedescendant]

[yeah, okay, these past few weeks have been especially weird; this might the fuck as well happen, too. Emmeryn is mildly startled by their arrival but adjusts quickly to friendly cordiality.]

Oh—hello again. It has been a while.

[enjoymyatelier]

Oh... well, hello.

[...]

Thanks for greeting us in the normal way and not the... other way this time.

[semistableman]

[Oh.

Well. This is alarming, but at least it wasn't prefaced by nightmares about the village and his goats.]

Uh. Hello.

[hyruglyphics]

Oh... oh hello! I'm pleased to see you two once more!

[ Sort of.

Kind of.

But she's smiling all the same, to know that they were here at the end of it. Or close to the end of it? Close. ]

[anythingforyou]

[Oh, wow--Camilla can't say she was expecting any of this, but all considered, at least there's not...anyone trying to threaten death this time immediately?

Camilla's response isn't wary, but she will give a warm smile.]

Oh my, it's been quite some time--have the two of you been faring well?

WEDNESDAY

[azumods]

THURSDAY

[azumods]

[divinedescendant]

[So it took like an entire week but Duma finally has finally acquired one whole spatial recognition skill after evolving. He's been in and out of his Pokéball all week to keep him and the world at large out of trouble, but throughout the day, Emmeryn lets Duma interact with society again—from the back of the group, half out of consideration and half because hiking is still so hard. He accompanies her up the mountain paths, ever-sturdy Latona on one side to shove him when he unfurls one wing too far, and Emmeryn on the other so if Duma knocks anyone off the cliff side to their deaths in the process of learning where his left wing ends and the general populace begins it isn't one of her innocent friends who isn't constantly humoring all two hundred odd pounds of idiot dragon. Once, he almost does, and Audhulma teleports to Emmeryn's side to shove her back into place with a sharp scolding noise at Duma, who remains oblivious to why his trainer clings to his neck and doesn't move while she reorients herself. you're an awful child you're killing your mother etc

While Emmeryn has more than had it with acknowledging just how high up they are, Heim has never felt so eager in his life, and Duma's excitement over his new wings hasn't waned, so when they find another carved-out mountain wall reaching outside in the afternoon, Emmeryn lets them go gallivanting. Not that they can get far (and fine by her, minding them from the edge of the entryway), but it's better than nothing.

Whining and shivering, Forseti trudges back in from the snowy ledge, and, because he wasn't horrifying enough on his own, Emmeryn wraps him up in the spookiest cloak available like a mom making sure her kid's not leaving the house without a scarf—but even though he doesn't go back outside, those spooky rumblings of his sound a little cheerful.]

Ah—There's another step, and then you have another form in you yet, haven't you, Forseti? [He makes a confused pprrbrbrbrbrrrt sort of sound, and Emmeryn pulls the cloak around him a little tighter.] Are you warm enough, love?

[She's grateful when the crew settles in for the evening; they'll set out again tomorrow, and she can't let herself falter then, either, but for now she gets to rest a while. This last leg of the journey has been taking more out of her than she expected, for a few reasons she can name and another few she cannot, but for now, they get to rest.

Duma has regained the favorite spot he lost when he grew his shell; he curls up on the ground and Emmeryn leans against him, and he coils to rest his head in her lap. Latona sits at her side, and Audhulma at Latona's splaying herself dramatically against Latona's side; Heim intermittently flutters from Duma's back to his head, and Duma remains remarkably still, so the egg balanced against his head and her lap and her arm remains undisturbed. Forseti, now seven fucking feet tall and kind of terrifying, just sort of...looms...over all of them...... It's bad.

Emmeryn, at least, seems pretty cozy, which is good, because she's very obviously never going to be allowed to move from this spot ever again.

It looks like she's turning something shiny over in her hand, but it doesn't distract her from anyone coming by.]

Good evening. It really does feel like we're getting close, doesn't it?

afternoon

[niceoppai]

I thought he looked kinda creepy, but he's a little cute, isn't he?

FRIDAY

[azumods]