Week 4.

[azumods]

WEEK 4 Backtracking may not seem like an ideal situation, especially not given the situation on Sunday morning, but it isn't without reason or merit; after all, Lake Valor is within a reasonable distance, and perhaps more importantly, there's reason to believe that something may be there. Whether it's one of the Guardians you seek or something else entirely has yet to be seen; there's only one way to know for sure, however. So back onto Route 213 it is; you should reach Route 214 by Tuesday afternoon, and the entrance to Lake Valor by Thursday night; you may want to wait to explore the lakefront proper during the morning, however. Who knows what you may run into... You've seen at least some reasons to not give up hope as you left Pastoria; for the time being, let that hope give you strength. CURRENT LOCATION: ROUTE 214 POKEMON AVAILABLE: PLAINS/FOREST / MOUNTAINS/ELEVATED AREAS SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY [OOC: Welcome to week 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 next weekend!]

Comments

[eudaimonikos]

Yes, there's twenty of us.

[He answers immediately; apparently he'd already taken a full headcount at some point.]

Shirou, Johan, Alice, and Chitanda are gone.

[discutio]

I'll take your next shift with you as well as my own with Emmeryn until we can make a second set of pairs.

...Do you think it's Team Galactic? Or something else?

[eudaimonikos]

Is that going to be alright? You humans need your sleep - taking it away's one of the easiest ways to torture you.

[A normal person would have phrased that SUPER DIFFERENT but there's probably concern somewhere in it]

I don't know. Team Galactic doesn't seem prone to subtlety. Every time we've seen them it's been en masse. And the only person around to direct them right now is Saturn. [Michael frowns, realizes Ignis can't see it, and keeps frowning.] But it wouldn't be a bad idea to stick closer together.

[discutio]

A couple sleepless nights is nothing. I'll manage.

[yeah you're a weird dude and all but he's 90% certain you're not going to kill them all so let's roll with it]

Perhaps it's a relapse in the mental conditioning. We should be as cautious as possible.

[eudaimonikos]

No one's been able to find them.

[He doesn't sound like he's arguing the hypothesis, though; more like he's already been thinking about it.]

Not standing around on the road, or in Pastoria, like those townspeople. They're just gone. If they did relapse, they might have defaulted to some kind of previous orders - to go back to Veilstone, maybe, or find the group of them.

[discutio]

It does sound plausible; the risk of leaving them in the middle of nowhere in the event of such a relapse seems like something that would have been accounted for. My guess would be Veilstone, back to their headquarters proper.

[eudaimonikos]

I'm just surprised no one saw them pass us on the road. But -

[Shrug]

- Team Galactic is good at cutting us off. They could have remembered a quicker way around.

[discutio]

That's another thing I've been thinking about. How could Saturn possibly have gotten ahead of us as he did? Obviously we don't know the terrain, but even with that advantage...that was unbelievably fast.

[eudaimonikos]

Right?

[GOD, every time he's pointed that out, people were all "they know the terrain better, Michael"]

If it were only him, I'd accept that he might have flown here on a Pokemon or something, but he brought a small army with him.

[discutio]

[Ignis frowned, bringing a hand to his mouth in thought. He'd had the slightest suspicion ever since Saturn cut them off from the lake, but...there was no evidence to support the hypothesis. Nothing but the vaguest idea, and that was hardly enough to draw a conclusion off of.]

We know Galactic has some way to transport people; else none of us would be here in the first place.

This sounds ridiculous to say, but...do you think it possible such a thing works in a more localized sense? Teleporting, in other words.

[eudaimonikos]

[Hm. Now, there's a thought.]

If you're going to work on trans-dimensional travel, localized teleportation might be a step in that direction. Just start bending the space you're already in, first. [Michael considers this for a second.] You'd probably kill a lot of people in testing.

[discutio]

Perhaps so, which hardly lines up with Saturn’s adamant dislike of lethality. Teleport panels are ancient magitek where I’m from, so I can’t even begin to hypothesize how they work or what goes into their construction.

[eudaimonikos]

We're not exactly big on teleporting, but we do have portals where I'm from. Takes a lot of energy, you've got to - [He mimes this out.] - fold the fabric of space over on itself. Preferably leaving time the way it is, unless time travel's what you're going for.

[discutio]

[michael honey, the visual aid is flying clear over his head]

Of all the things I never thought would make sense to hear...Either way, the point is that I’m having trouble coming up with a better explanation for how a small army beat us to the lake undetected. Transportation on that level sounds highly unlikely whether by your definition or mine, and yet I remain unconvinced it’s a mere matter of home terrain advantage.

[eudaimonikos]

[Doesn't matter; he's a hand talker]

I've never known humans to get close to working with portals. You can only detect what, four dimensions? But they do seem to be tapping into something with the Pokeballs. Zelda thinks they might transmute the Pokemon into energy - which could be a step towards a different type of fast travel.

[discutio]

...hm.

[He fell silent for a moment, thinking that over.]

Converting things into energy is also something I'm vaguely familiar with, but that's...much different. I'm not sure I can really support the theory I've put forth at all, so it's more like the faintest of suspicions.

[eudaimonikos]

We can theorize all we want, but we won't find any answers out here. Something to keep in mind, though.

[Maybe if they ever have to pass through Veilstone again, they can...do something? Personally, Michael doesn't think they should ever go back there to begin with, but things have been terrible so far, so.]

What do you think we might find at the lake?

[discutio]

In all honesty, I think the likelihood of us finding anything hinges upon whether or not Saturn and his underlings found something first.

[eudaimonikos]

Yeeeeeah, not super hopeful either. But we don't have anywhere else in particular to go.

[Michael shrugs, continuing to do the thing to the blind guy.]

Maybe the Pokemon god will bless us.

[discutio]

Gods are capricious beings. If the lake's guardian is still there, it might well do just that provided its interests align with ours.

[eudaimonikos]

Have you met a lot of gods?

[That kinda sounds sarcastic but it's an honest question]

[discutio]

I've been in the presence of several, though I can't say I've exchanged words with them directly.

[eudaimonikos]

Huh. I know the closest thing we've got, the eternal judge of the entire afterlife. She's...yeah, she's kinda weird.

[discutio]

...I don't think we have one of those.

[Surprised, but still casual enough. because honestly he's seen weirder.]

[eudaimonikos]

Might be for the best. I'm pretty sure I care far more about humans than she does, and I've spent most of eternity actually actively torturing you guys, so the bar's low.