Week 8.
WEEK 8 Snowpoint City remains as cold and unforgiving as ever, through no fault of its residents. The city itself doesn't seem to see much change in the passing days; there's something you'll all become rather aware of on Sunday as the day goes on, and after so long with no incidents along those lines it's likely an unpleasant thing to deal with. There's also the fact that the changes to the world seem to be slowing; though the one alteration that's immediately obvious is a major one, it seems that things may be beginning to stagnate again. Will there be a slip back into apathy again, if this continues? Or will the changes you've affected already continue to hold? Only time will tell, really. That doesn't mean that nothing has changed, however - thankfully enough, the slugs seem to be settling. Or...well, more accurately, once in a while they stop huffing at each other long enough to drive up piles of snow with their heads and stare at them like they're trying to work out what they're attempting to create, but at least it's a collaborative effort. Are they attempting diplomacy? It's difficult to tell; after all, they are just slugs. But at least there seems to be a little less open hostility. Improvement...? Perhaps. The local ghost Pokémon also seem to have taken an interest in you lately, though precisely...how is a little mixed. They don't seem overly mischievous or malicious - they seem about as odd as the rest of the wild Pokémon in the region - but they do seem more inherently trusting of you and your traveling group. They've taken to following you from time to time, and taking a general vague interest in what you're doing. So that's...new. POKEMON AVAILABLE: WITHIN CITIES SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY [OOC: Welcome to week eight 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.] |

SUNDAY
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However.
When Sunday morning comes around, it'll be noticeable that your numbers have dropped by one - Linda can't be found anywhere around the city or on the surrounding routes, no matter where you look, and her Pokémon and personal belongings are gone. As though she vanished without a trace in the night, despite the fact that she didn't seem capable of it last night.
Again, it's as though the world is trying to convince you that she was never here, no matter how much your memories tell you otherwise.]
exploration group!
keith stands in front of the shattered ice, bag on his shoulders as he looks up at the temple. ]
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Going with people seems like a fine solution to all of this.]
If I'm not allowed to go places alone, I don't see why you would be.
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Hey... have you seen Linda anywhere?
[Her belongings and Pokemon are gone, and while this looks like what happened to the other people in their group that have disappeared, Ari still makes the effort to try to look for her everywhere he can think of, until finally he is forced to come to the conclusion that she is gone.
As a result, Ari can be found later sitting in the Pokemon Center. He's worried about Linda and feels rather useless for not being able to find out where she went, but... for now, he tries to find something to distract himself with, in the form of two of his personal items sitting on a table in front of him. His music box with this tune sits open playing it's music, while he has a second box in front of him that appears to contain... gears. Little mechanical gears of different shapes and sizes that, judging by the way he is attempting to put them together, appear to be able to form something. However, no matter how he arranges them, it doesn't seem to form a coherent shape and is just a strange puzzle. Even his Klink floating by and watching seems a bit confused by whatever this is supposed to be.
Eventually, he can be found again later in the evening, outside with his Pokemon as he attempts to train them. If Linda was, god forbid, kidnapped or something, it would be best to make sure that he and his Pokemon were prepared if they ever had to confront the reason for her absence.]
Morning
Oh- oh, Linda...?
[ She doesn't know Linda well uh- ]
... No, I don't think so?
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Sunday morning;
[ He has a bad feeling about it, but it can't hurt to help out, right?
He promised he'd do his best, so... Ventus is definitely not going to leave Ari alone in this. ]
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Outside
Ari, dear?
[She's mostly hoping not to scare him. Of course, once that's said, then the mothering comes out.]
Do be careful, won't you? You don't want to overdo it in this sort of environment.
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Later in the afternoon he can be found... well. Constantly looking over his shoulder while trekking through the snow. It takes no more than a moment for it to become clear why, because a Gastly is following him closely, not doing much, just... watching him, and it's becoming increasingly clear that he's actually a little unnerved, but spends most of the day helping out the citizens of the city with small tasks, trying to ignore the new friend he really, really doesn't want to have.
By the evening, the Gastly has left him alone, and Bucky can be found in the Pokemon center with his Pokemon wrapped in blankets. It doesn't look like he's going to be sleeping anytime soon, but that's absolutely nothing new. At least he's not right next to the door at the moment.]
temple
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You're almost getting closer than I'd be willing to get.
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Afternoon
Heyyyyy, Bucky. You doing ghost stuff, too?
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MONDAY
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...at least, she would, if her and her Pokemon weren't constantly being followed by at least one curious Gastly or Misdreavus. The Pokemon don't seem interested in food (as Rey has already tried offering some), just following along wherever she goes.
It's...weird.]
Honestly, what do you lot want?
[It doesn't take her long to work out exactly what she can use the Ghost Pokemon for, though - if you happen to see Team Rey throughout the day, they'll engaged in a number of rather enthusiastic brawls with the local Ghost population, including the odd Rotom. While Golett and Riolu appear to be holding their own, Rey is desperately trying to catch her Cleffa, who doesn't quite seem to understand what 'battling' is...or so it seems.]
Cleffa, don't kiss them!
[Evening will find Rey back at the Pokemon center, in the kitchens - she's got a large group of ingredients laid out in front of her, including a number of berries, and she's looking at them with a mixture of excitement and trepidation.]
Right. Surely it can't be all that difficult.
[Spoiler; it is all that difficult. How....how does one....cook.]
day
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evening
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Day
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Luckily, before he can run completely out of patience, he remembers: he's surrounded by humans. Humans can just ask each other for help with these things; they actually do it all the time. There's a word for that and everything...charity? Yeah, sounds right.
So today, there's a little table and cashbox set up outside the PokeMart, with a sign that reads THE JANE DOE FOUNDATION FOR WANDERING SOULS. The sign also has a very nice cartoon Gastly. In the morning, Michael will be there pitching his new and totally legitimate charity to passing townspeople.]
Hi, there! Do you have change to spare for the poor, lost spirits of the dead, still trapped on this mortal plane? It's a great cause! Just a few bucks could help a ghost who's been attacked by a terrible wild Sneasel. It could be your own deceased grandmother, you don't know! Just look at this face.
[He grabs the real Jane Doe, insomuch as he can, and holds her up. While she was previously instructed to look "pathetic", this has mostly translated into "more intensely blank than usual". It's...well, it's a look.
Obviously, Michael isn't going to stand here and do this forever. There's meetings to attend! He has to go talk about how he was obviously in the right down there, and people should just let him do his thing! When he leaves, Quaver is placed in charge of the cashbox. If anybody messes with it, he will begin to scream like a Spiritomb.
That evening, Michael's in the Pokemon Center, sitting up against the wall and counting his earnings. He's been spending a lot of time outside lately, plus going through that freezing temple...that's probably why he seems a little sniffly, right? He's sure it's nothing. Just have some hot kompot and get some sleep tonight, and he'll be good as new tomorrow!]
Hey, since this is a non-profit, and I'm its employee, I get to pay myself some of this, right?
pokémon centre
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morning
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pokemon center
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Morning
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meeting!
Meet back here at noon for food + meeting. Some of us went into the temple yesterday, and we have things we need to discuss. -Keith
[ then when everyone's gathered around, with food provided by ignis, keith moves to the front of the group, his shinx perched up on his shoulder.
there's also a glaceon standing at his side, right next to his feet. ]
Michael [ u filthy handlicker ], Ignis and I went to investigate the temple yesterday. At the very bottom, there's a really huge...rock-like...Pokemon. I can't really describe it well--anyway, I don't know what its name is, but...we also found this Glaceon with it. We found out that these two had been trying to seal themselves off from Team Galactic.
[ ...after a bunch of quarreling and ignis being done with michael and keith's shit. ]
The rock Pokemon started making these sculptures to try and communicate with us. One of them was of Jupiter. The other one was of a girl named Candice, who's apparently the leader of the gym in this city. It sounds like something might have happened to Candice. This Glaceon is one of Candice's Pokemon. It wants us to find her, and we should.
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Re: meeting!
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TUESDAY
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[For most of the early evening, he was back at the edge of the city training again; this time he seemed to be focusing on his Swablu and Larvesta. The former seemed to be floating around eagerly enough, but the most the latter did was shake off a few embers in an apathetic try at attacking.]
pokecenter
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Pokemon Center
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Pokemon Center;
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He spends most of the day there, lounging around on the benches and sneezing a lot. To be fair, he legitimately does look like he has a pretty bad cold; to be fair in the other direction, any actual human would probably be soldiering on. Instead, he seems to be trying to teach his recently-evolved Haunter - a phantasmal cloud of shadow who is truly upsetting in size - how to play card games with her new hands. Lena, the other party member with thumbs, is also playing, although Cat Janet seems to be the one running that show.
When a human enters, Michael looks up and says something like:]
Your physical body is a vile, slime-laden burden. [Or perhaps:] Human beings should all be burned.
[You might also catch him napping. Cat Janet and Lena are also asleep, but Jane Doe is awake.
Watching.]
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WEDNESDAY
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That's why he's hanging in the entrance, looking inside. Daigo is there, impatiently pacing around, waiting for his trainer to take the leap. It's not that Kiryu is afraid, it's more that he doesn't want to get into a problem he doesn't know how to get out of.
Later he takes a walk to the outskirts of the town. Slowly, more and more Gastly flock around him. At first it doesn't bother him, but once there's a dozen or so around him, apparently curious where he's going, he stops]
Why are the ghosts so interested in us now?
[Us as in the entire group of travelers. He's been wondering that for a while already.
Finally, at the gym, Kiryu decided he should go examine it. He barely gets a few steps in when the Pokemon he's with -- his Nidoran, still unnamed -- jumps off his arms and onto the floor. Before Kiryu can do anything, he walks forward and slides on the ice until he hits a pile of snow. Apparently afterwards the Nidoran isn't too concerned about the cold and just...stays there, like a fuzzy poison ball]
That's the most energy he has shown so far...
[Well he can't leave Nidoran out there in the cold, anyway. It's still a baby! A baby he has trained, yeah, but that doesn't change the fact he hatched like three weeks ago. Better try to reach him. Kiryu starts walking on the ice, moving slowly and measuredly. He doesn't want to fall down and get hurt, yep]
gym
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outskirts
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outskirts
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Outskirts
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Temple
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temple
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Investigation
But then, in the late afternoon she's back at the Pokemon Center, still fiddling with her Sheikah Slate. It's been having errors for a while now, and she can't help but... ]
Oh honestly, you aren't broken, are you...? I hope not...
[ Frowning at it. Or well, that's some of what she does - she notices that there's actually similar errors on the screen for the PC in the Center! She... huh. She's not really touched these things yet, but they did look similar, so she'll be messing with the PC. ]
Pokemon Center;
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THURSDAY
g-g-group mingle
All of the posters seem to be hand drawn with almost childish handwriting on them, and the drawings on them are...well, they look like doodles of Pokemon fighting each other, but. Um. The artist tried their best, okay? If you're up early in the morning, you might just catch them in the act and have them explain themselves.
Anyways, what's more important is what's written on them, which seems to be an invitation for a Pokemon Battle Team Practice Session at the outskirts of town in the afternoon.
Heading over there early will have one find Sena clearing out a large area of snow with Monta. He's done this before for his own personal training, so this isn't a surprise. The real surprise is that it's a larger area than normal, clearly intending for company. There's even a small contingent of ghost Pokemon crowding around with interest, and Sena doesn't seem...well, he at least seems used to them.
Whenever he's got a sizable amount of people around, though, he'll finally explain himself.]
Uh, thanks for coming! Anyways, with everything that's been going on, and all of us are starting to get more used to battling and stuff, and Team Galactic's starting to get more involved with us and everything, um...I thought a group practice would be a good idea!
[Anyone could guess that much if they saw the posters or talked to Sena ahead of time. His actual reasoning for it, though?]
I thought that our group was kinda like our football team back home...like, everyone has their position to play, so they all have different skills they have to practice, right? So everyone practices the skills that they either need to know or are the best at, but we also have to practice together as a team too, or our individual tactics won't work together on the field. And so, um, I thought that like...we all have different ways of training our Pokemon and stuff, so, we could help each other...?
[He laughs nervously.] So if we could, um, share our own methods for training, and maybe we could figure out how to battle with each other, or teach each other things? We could start with just our starters for now, since there's a lot of us, and once we figure out a system or separate into groups or whatever we decide we can take out our other team members? I-I don't really have any big ideas, though, since I'm not sure on how we all battle yet...
[Silence. He seems to have been slowly shrinking as he talks, as if the longer he goes on about it the more he's convincing himself it's a bad idea. Still, there's some kind of determination in him. He hasn't darted off in embarrassment yet, and he's still looking everyone directly in the eyes.]
If you, uh, don't think it's a good idea or anything, you can leave! I won't keep you! But if you wanna stay, uh, then we could...um. Talk?
[Ahaha.]
[ooc: so basically y'all can have group mingles with ppl anywhere, either talking at one of the posters or volunteering ideas at the meet. tag in and interrupt each other like a regular meeting post or whatever. yay? yay.]
meeting
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meeting
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...But well, Wednesday sees her a little flushed looking and congested, today sees her getting a fair bit of retribution for not taking care to slow down a bit. She's not really going to be doing any work today, though the morning sees her out with all of her Pokemon in tow, bundled up and with a scarf to obscure a fair bit of her face. The last thing she needs is anyone getting worried, after all.
Of course, it's not so easy for Camilla; it seems that her Pokemon have elected to join a little bit of a playful snowball fight with some of the local ghosts. The ghosts are...winning very effectively, to say the least, and Camilla sits on the ground along with Altena, who stays seated on her lap.]
So, who do you think will win? I don't know about you, but I think our darlings still have a shot.
[...If Altena has any sort of response, it's buried underneath all of the snoozing she does on Camilla's lap.
Camilla will be staying in the Center by the evening, though, passing the time idly with some yarn she still had in her bag. She feels like it could've been used a little earlier on in the week, in hindsight, but...ah, well. Her Pokemon are definitely sitting with her, though, if mostly to ensure their trainer doesn't go too far out of their sight.]
morning;
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Morning
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