Week 10.

[azumods]

WEEK 10 You've found a few new friends this past week, and along with them, a new town to explore. Granted, there doesn't seem to be much, particularly when compared to the cities you started out in; at the same time, the air is fresh with the scent of flowers and honey wafting on the breeze. Along with the usual Pokémon that can be found in populated areas, it seems that several Combees have made their home here - they can be found drifting along idly, seeming no more capable of true emotion than anyone or anything else, but perhaps they're trying their best. It's a little difficult to say; they are still bees, after all. That said, the world continues to change around you, bit by bit; you still have a long way to go before you've saved everyone, but for the time being you should probably recharge, and take some time to sort through what should happen next. Talking to the locals may net you the information that there's something odd about the meadow north of town; perhaps a few of you should go to check it out... CURRENT LOCATION: FLOAROMA TOWN POKEMON AVAILABLE: WITHIN CITIES SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY | FRIDAY [OOC: Welcome to week ten 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.]

Comments

[azumods]

[Oh my god, flowers for everybody. It's not like you're going to get in trouble or anything for taking some of them, and there certainly are plenty to go around, so feel free, really.

That said, the patches that seem to be having...difficulty do seem to be getting worse the further in you go; in some cases the color is just less vibrant on the petals, but in others the flowers appear to be actively sick or dying, wilting and turning dark and curling in on themselves.]

[takestheblame]

[Kiryu isn't sure if this is normal or not. Flowers and plants die when not given care and attention, so maybe this is normal? Hm.

Better take a closer look, just in case. Is there anything hinting the cause of this?]

[anythingforyou]

Be careful, Kiryu. This looks like more than simple negligence...

[Camilla's going along with him, honestly, and Arion's kind of sniffing the air himself. Maybe there's something smelly or weird around here...]

[azumods]

[It doesn't seem like they're diseased or anything, but they are dying in weird ways - the damage seems to be radiating out from the center of the dying patches, getting less severe as you move outward toward the edges and getting worse toward the middle. The edges of the patches are all surrounded by perfectly healthy flowers.]

[hyruglyphics]

[ Now with Miphanus having a flower in hand, Zelda catches up to this and examines about the same thing Kazuma is examining and... well. Her opinion, which she glances around for what they think: ]

It appears to have been the result of something moving outward from an epicenter.

[divinedescendant]

[hhhhuh. that's weird.]

How strange... I might think it the result of something contaminating the soil, but there are so many similar patches.

[Are the dying spots denser any particular direction instead of being scattered all over the place?]

[azumods]

[They seem to be denser the further in you get - as you move away from the town, in other words, and closer to the woods.]

[anythingforyou]

[Jesus...]

...There's likely going to be something dreadful waiting in those woods. Be on your guard, everyone.

[This sounds like an absolutely bad idea waiting to happen, and Camilla can hear Arion make some sort of noise as she says that; it prompts her to pet his head a bit to try and calm him.

He's going to go on ahead to scout with Camilla following relatively close, but god, those woods are gonna be a disaster zone aren't they.]

[divinedescendant]

Duma, best behavior. Hm... Latona.

[Out of her ball and into Emmeryn's arms, piled in with all the flowers, goes her Nidoran, who has approximately no opinions about what's going on.]

The only thing that takes her interest, I have noticed, is any noise out of place. If anything is amiss, we may be lucky enough that she hears it. Come along, Duma.

[such is life when the only personality trait you've had for more than like three hours is "alert to sounds," anyway. and off we go...!! surely this will be fine]

[azumods]

[The trees are densely-packed, the canopy above blotting out most of the sunlight from streaming down, but there's enough light that you probably won't straight-up fall. That said, you won't have to go too far into the woods before Latona and Arion will likely notice something; there's a downed tree nearby that seems to have light noises coming from inside the trunk, which seems to have been hollowed-out. The noises are soft and do sound animalistic in nature, though anything outside of that is difficult to discern.]

[anythingforyou]

[Yeeep, Arion's definitely starting to become concerned. He's gonna yip a bit at all of them to try and get their attention.]

Arion, did you hear something?

[One affirmative yip, yes! He points his head in the direction of the dead tree, more than ready for what's to come next. Hopefully it's not too too bad, but...]

There must be something in that tree over there. Should we send one of our Pokemon to try and peer inside?

[Maybe let's attempt a stealthy thing? Maybe.]

[hyruglyphics]

[ Zelda, who had been keeping ip the rear thinks of her own ... Pokemon... if Camilla's idea is to try to be quiet about it all, while Miphanus is quiet, they aren't precisely small. She glances at he Metang, who glances back, and then she could send them over...?

But thinks better of it and sort of shrugs before agreeing, ]

Yes, that would be sound.

[divinedescendant]

[Latona's bigass ears are twitching up a storm, too, and while she shifts and points her face at the log to stare at it, she doesn't kick up a fuss about it, either. Her activity catches Duma's attention, though.]

Duma may be able to investigate, and he is more fit to defend himself than Latona, but...

[but he is so very much The Way He Is]

...if anyone has an appropriately-sized Pokémon who is a little less, ah, impulsive...that might be better.

[Duma hasn't been paying enough attention to know precisely what this conversation is about, but he gets enough of the gist to make an annoyed little rumbling sound.]

[takestheblame]

Bito, you up to this?

[The Heracross stares at the dead tree for a moment and nods. Things look disquieting but maybe if he's careful...]

We could send him. Heracross and other insects should be common enough to not make anyone or anything suspicious. That should be a good idea.

[He won't fit inside, but msybe taking a look from the outside first could be good. Just to know what they're dealing with]

[anythingforyou]

[...Hmm. Between all of their options, that actually does sound like a logically sound decision, so Camilla gives a nod to Kiryu.]

That's a good point, truly. Let's let him have a survey and see what we can do from there, hm?

[That seems legit enough to Camilla, at least. Good luck, beatlefriend.]

[takestheblame]

Be careful.

[Kiryu encouragingly pats Bito on his back, he takes that as his sign to go towards the tree. He moves slowly, trying to be as silent as possible. A bit hard to do when your wings are buzzing, but hey, he tried.

What's going on with this tree?

[azumods]

[There's definite motion in there, whatever it is seems to be shrinking back a little from the Heracross' approach at the entrance, but it doesn't seem to be bolting or moving too far back; it's just kind of trembling a lot, and once in a while there's a soft, almost sad-sounding chittering noise coming from inside.]

[takestheblame]

[There's someone inside, indeed. Sounds afraid. Bito considers his options and reporting back now, and decides to at least try to make contact]

Hey? Heeeey? You--are you okay in there? You got stuck?

[He's already kind of wondering if he'll have to break the tree in half to help whoever's inside.

For now, though, he waves at Kiryu and the other humans. No danger! Maybe! Most likely!

...

Don't take his word for it! He adds, maybe a bit belatedly]

[azumods]

[It's quiet, but. Hi, Bito, words were not exactly expected - ]

No.

[hyruglyphics]

[ . . . Well, uh. ]


... Perhaps we should move in closer? Danger does not appear to have started.

[anythingforyou]

Let's try not to crowd whatever is in there, hm? Perhaps they're injured, like the guardians we've encountered.

[Let's just try to get over there slowly, she supposes? ...Hopefully this thing doesn't have an adverse reaction to humans, that might be bad.]

[hyruglyphics]

That's possible, yes.

[ Both she and Miphanus kinda wanna see but yeah, that's a point taken. She puts a hand on her hip, considering the sight of Bito... chirping at it. Another Pokemon conversation, she assumes. ]

[divinedescendant]

We're apt to startle whatever is in there if we all surround it at once...

[So Emmeryn's gonna linger towards the back here, crouched a little in an attempt to get a better look at what's going on.]

If it does not seem likely to attack, though, Latona may be able to go inside if necessary.

[takestheblame]

[Not stuck. That means whoever's in there is there because they want to be there. Looks like he's not going to break anything today. That's a bit of a bummer. Disappointed, he chirps at the tree again:]

Sorry, we're just passing through. We mean no harm.

[There's someone hiding here, and the meadow is full of flowers. That's good enough for Bito, curiosity satisfied.

Looks like humans will have to take charge here, he walks back to Kiryu]

[anythingforyou]

[Well, damn. Camilla was kind of hoping the creature would come out, but...]

You did good work, Bito. Let me see if I can take a small glimpse.

[Arion stays relatively close by, but Camilla's at least gonna try to take a look at what's hiding in there as gently as she can, moving her bangs out of the way so she might be able to see what's going down...]