Offscreen Activities

[Cresselia92]

[Since I’m on vacation and I won’t be able to post anything for a while, I’m gonna drop this little behind-the-scenes and possible directions for Silver.]

---

Before gearing up for another day of training, Silver caught a few tidbits of a failed mission of some group that tried to sneak into the so-called Terminal Two… with little preparation. Many annoyed thoughts began swirling into his mind…

Seriously? What kinda plan did those morons concoct to enter into some high security place, anyway? Sneak in and pray the gods for the best? Are common sense and self-preservation alien concepts around here, or—

… but his inner criticism was instantly silenced by stunned shock upon noticing their sorry state and finding out how they received those wounds. The lingering scent of freshly lost blood and those horrifying scars made him realize how weak everyone and, to an extent, himself still was, and that made him worry about the deadly dangers lurking in the horizon.

Spoiler: Musing about Shadow Pokémon, Team Rocket and Arlo’s lore

“What the hell is this place?! Is this some kinda horror landscape or something?” Silver mumbled to himself, pacing back and forth in his room, ears flattened in concern. “Witches, vampires, phantasms, and now zombie-like freaks! We’ve got the entire monster circus here!” He laughed bitterly. “What’s next? A rampaging kaiju? A bloodthirsty chainsaw killer? Or maybe some twisted yōkai?”

Tired of his fruitless rant, he plopped on his bed and glared at the floor. “Hrrrmm… What did they say, again? Something about… ah, Shadow Pokémon? Right. Shadow Pokemon.” Silver began rubbing his chin contemplatively. “…Sounds eerily similar to what happened in Orre, with that Team Cyber or whatever. And also,” he sighed somberly, “with Arlo.”

A faint memory flashed into his mind. He recalled the moment he infiltrated one of many Rocket hideouts and found that file while rummaging through the database. Arlo’s Scizor, surrounded by an ominous, sickly purple aura and its narrowed eyes gleaming with a malignant red glow. In one of the recordings, it dealt many heavy blows on a Rapidash, who looked genuinely terrified as it was forced to endure the vicious slashes of that cold-hearted bug. And all the while Arlo cackled in triumph, a manic smirk splattered on his face as he relished the power of his Shadow Pokémon.

Just… What did his cousin do to his own Pokémon to turn it into a war machine?

But unfortunately, there was no way to investigate that matter, so Silver focused once more on the situation at hand.

“…Could those human supremacists have something to do with any of this?” He lay down on his bed, his gaze trailing the ceiling. “Hmph, that would track! Sounds like the kinda stunt a bunch of megalomaniac humans would pull off, after all! Turning Pokémon into tools of war…”

He sighed again, frustrated by the lack of a clear direction and the nebulousness of their situation. Uncertainty bred overthinking, and overthinking bred paranoia. But in that moment, Silver finally made up his mind.

No more dillydallying and flailing around like a waterless Magikarp! He wasn’t going to wait for some horde of Shadow Pokémon to potentially rush into town and spread deadly mayhem around! At least, he wasn’t going to wait without preparing himself for a potential apocalypse.

It was time to regain control of his own future and react — now!

Spoiler: TLTR of the above

- Silver has some vague knowledge of Shadow Pokémon, mostly through some records he found in a Team Rocket’s database;
- It’s revealed that Arlo has turned his own Scizor into a Shadow Pokémon (mirroring the events in PoGo), and that he used Shadow Scizor against a Rapidash (hint: It’s related to another PoGo character);
- Arlo is Silver’s cousin;
- Tired of feeling without direction, Silver decides to do something about the situation.

After mulling things over, Silver talked with Rodion about recent events, and told him to discuss the matter with other ‘mons and former humans he knew.

Feeling relieved after sharing his concerns with someone he trusted, Silver did his own research on Witching Beasts, aka the Shadow Pokémon, and noted down reports of attacks and potential hotbeds. After spending many days researching and gathering enough supplies for a long trek, he decided to venture out of Frontier Town (hopefully alongside some ally) and look for more answers elsewhere.

 

[Phoenixsong]

Leaf asks after the folks involved in the wagon incident, especially Koa, aiming to make sure they're doing okay rather than beat them over the head with questions. (She is being very good about not having immediate answers to questions lately.)

Beyond that, she's eager to learn more about the rangers, and takes advantage of Nico's visits to Frontier Town to ask him about what they do and where they go, both the dungeons they explore and the other places they travel to, as well as to train and practice in general.

She digs out the piece of red ribbon Nidoran gave her at the library. Doesn't go super great with the scarf itself, not without her starting to look like a sleigh ride pony, but she does tie it around the strap of her saddlebags.

One evening, Leaf writes something on a spare sheet of paper. Several sheets of paper. Let's just say the maus are going to have some extra recycling to take out in the morning. Most attempts are illegible, sometimes because she's still not used to writing by thinking at the pen real hard, mostly because she has no idea what to say or how to say it in a situation like this and one page can only stomach so much scratching out. After some frustrated swearing and lamenting the absence of Ctrl+Z in Cowboy Land, she ends up with the following:

Spoiler

Hello! My name is Leaf L Ponyta Leaf. I met Nidoran at the library and I've seen him around town. He's very sweet! Was he at the library to pick out books for you?

I don't know who you are, but if Nidoran's helping you out, I hope nothing's wrong everything's okay. Thanks for making the nametag if that was you. Sometimes folks in town get confused about him, so it's great that it stops most of them from bugging him.

Did you give him the PRESS IF TROUBLE button too? If it's not alright that he let us have it I can give it back to him. I definitely haven't pressed it yet (maybe you can tell? maybe not? maybe I will have to press it before you get this??? how does this work actually.) and won't unless there's trouble. Sorry if pressing it is annoying.

You don't have to write back if you don't want. (And if you don't want letters, don't take it out on him—I asked him to bring you this, it's not his fault.) But I hope things are going good well for you anyway, even if you ignore this. Nidoran gave us the Trouble Button, but my friends and I know sometimes things get weird around here and we're here to help solve problems too. If you need help with anything you can find us at the Traveller's Maus Haus in Frontier Town. Or send Nidoran if it's safe for him and you can't go yourself, he'll be able to recognize us.

Thanks and good luck with whatever the rocks are for!

Leaf

She keeps the note tucked safely away in her bag for now, next to the button.

((For the GM: If the Nico interaction would be best as a scene rather than offscreened, note that I'm in no rush for it! It can happen whenever there's good time, even if it's not this chapter.))

 

[Hap]

Following the wagon incident, Ridley starts asking around to find out as much as he can about Witching Beasts/shadow pokemon. He also checks to see whether Frontier Town's library has anything on the topic.

 

[Inkedust]

After a few discussions with some of the party, Bellatrix tells Jaak that they're ready to depart for Blaguarro as soon as possible. They agree to depart next morning.

At the break of dawn, a maus appears in the rooms of Wes, Ridley, Odette, Andre, Isidora, Dave, Astrid, and Kimiko to awaken them. They are then led by Bellatrix to the station where they are to promptly depart.

Spoiler: Pings

@HelloYellow17 @Hap @Sinderella @canisaries @JFought @Butterfree @Goat @Shadow Serenity

 

[Sinderella]

After talking with Sonora and meeting Kimiko, Odette uses her moment of spare time to try to find someone to teach her how to use the gun she found. When Bellatrix approaches her about going to Blaguarro, she agrees and spends some time in a secluded area on the outskirts practicing with the gun before returning and going to bed.

 

[JFought]

Upon hearing about the attempt by some of the group to find Terminal Two and the way it horribly ended, Isidora makes it her business to be a part of the followup operation in Blaguarro. It sounded like a lead, and if it’s dangerous she figures that’s even more reason for her to go. (What else am I good for? Maybe if they brought better fighters things wouldn’t’ve gone as badly, she thinks to herself.)

Before leaving, Isidora prepares by buying a few items. After a hard time deciding, she decides to buy both a light blue Mobile Scarf, and a Sneak Scarf colored a dark bluish-gray similar to her fur. She had been somewhat skeptical of them at first, but the Mobile Scarf did make her feel different when she tried it on, and she figures a scarf would at least look neat on her. For now, she puts on the Sneak Scarf and keeps the Mobile Scarf in her bag.

 

[Ambyssin]

Nova eventually learns about what happened with several folks and some sort of wagon. He doesn't respond. In fact, he's mostly just been going about his business. Literally. Nova's been working rather hard to try and give himself a decent little savings pot. He has a feeling he'll need it eventually. Though it's leaving him mostly ignorant of whatever's going on around him. Perhaps a bit lonely, but he doesn't appear outwardly sad. He's wearing a mask, so it's not possible anyway hue hue hue.

 

[Tetra]

Leaf asks after the folks involved in the wagon incident, especially Koa, aiming to make sure they're doing okay rather than beat them over the head with questions. (She is being very good about not having immediate answers to questions lately.)

[[figured I wanted to give a quick reply]]

Koa seems pleased to have a visit from Leaf and tells her he's mostly doing fine and is just ready to get back to training and figuring out what's going on. He does lament that they never found Terminal 2 but is intrigued to hear about her dungeon expedition and offers to accompany her sometime if she goes into another.

 

[Panoramic_Vacuum]

After learning about the witching beast that ruined the wagon mission from Koa, Steven uses his position as Lucien's aid to sneak a peek at less-then-public records. He's searching for any information about a Charmeleon who lived in or around Frontier Town during the last five years or so.

 

[Inkedust]

With investigations of Blaguarro complete, the group spends the rest of their stay at The Dragon's Cellar to figure out what they learnt and to compare notes from each side of the investigation. After putting the pieces together, Bellatrix decides that it is imperative to head back to Frontier Town as soon as possible and report back to the rest of the group. The information is as follows:

• Wild shadows roam the Blaguarro Outskirts at night. They are extremely dangerous but seem to strongly dislike the light.
• They have a collected sample from the shadow skorupi for study.
• Blaguarro was once a mining town and has many underground tunnels that led to the mines running beneath it. Mav hears that they're very confusing.
• Mav has seen wagons come through town at dawn but has no clue where they go once they reach the west side of town.
• Mav suspects that the building of the rail has something to do with the presence of witching beasts though isn't sure how they connect to the wagons.
• The disappearances seems to be the work of the move Dig and are not a single-mon job. One does the digging and kidnapping while the other patches the hole left behind.
• The wagons appear to have been led to and hidden in an abandoned slaughterhouse in the west side of town. Prisoners were then blindfolded and taken into the underground tunnels.
• With this in mind, all likelihood points to Terminal Two being located underground.
• A blindfold and one of the scarves one of the suspicious pokémon was seen wearing was collected.
• One of the suspicious pokémon Anite spoke of, the zweilous Alex, seems none the wiser to the odd happenings in town. He likes soup.

While Bellatrix is none too happy with what happened at the watchtower, she's at the very least relieved that it only went as far as them being shaken and Odette receiving a few light scrapes.

The next day, Jaak takes the team back to Frontier Town.

During the train ride back to Frontier Town, Bellatrix swore that she heard some light scraping and banging in the car next to her on the way back. It was hard to hear over the sounds of the moving train but she made it a point to see what was inside once they stopped.

...Only to see nothing once she looked inside.

Probably just her imagination.

Spoiler: Pings

@HelloYellow17 @Hap @Sinderella @canisaries @JFought @Butterfree @Goat @Shadow Serenity

 

[Butterfree]

On the train back to Frontier Town, Dave fights through his hangover to ask Jaak about his employers. Are they from the Commonwealth? What are their names? Where else does the railway go to? Has he heard any rumours or such about their motivations, other business, what they're up to?

 

[MintyMimix]

Having been intrigued by all the human related ongoings, Ghaspius asks the Voice if they summoned or even know about Jesse Stranger, or if they have ever summoned anyone else before. Especially other Pokémon that weren't human.

 

[Chibi Pika]

After hearing about the battle against the samurai trio from Leaf, Jade works up the nerve to go visit them by the riverbank one morning to see what she can learn from them. She's not looking to learn any sort of decisive finishing blow--she wants more options to disarm and disable opponents. Those have always been the most valuable for her and her team back home.

Being in a Meowth body means having an affinity for a weirdly large variety of elements, it seems. After watching some of Kyoko's training, Jade decides to try her hand at using water.

 

[Sinderella]

After being woken up in the dead of night by her dream, Odette paced her room trying to run through everything she knew so far about the shadowy Pokemon and Terminal Two. At some point, she slips notes into Ridley and, reluctantly, Kimiko’s, rooms telling them to meet her in the dining hall when they woke.

Once down there, she pushes through the awkwardness to tell them about the dream she had. She asks them if they had a similar experience, and is unnerved to find out they didn’t. She prods Ridley some more about the one he had previously, and they discuss it some more. They come to the conclusion she’s likely the only one who heard the ominous voice because she was the only one who the skorupi hit.

This just raises more questions, and a lot more concerns.

 

[Inkedust]

On the train back to Frontier Town, Dave fights through his hangover to ask Jaak about his employers. Are they from the Commonwealth? What are their names? Where else does the railway go to? Has he heard any rumours or such about their motivations, other business, what they're up to?

Jaak replies that he works for Antlered Rail, which is registered in Landsverd, the same as all railway companies. He assumes most of the bigwigs are Commonwealth citizens. The rail goes all the way from Frontier Town, which is currently under construction (as they already know) and extends all the way out to Landsverd, where it branches out into a fully fledged network that cuts through any notable landmark out east. It goes as far north as Tyrrier's border and as far south as Trendy Town-Modarano. Hopefully, once they've branched all the way out west, Frontier Town and its surrounding areas will see something similar.

Jaak isn't sure how to respond to Dave's next question. He does know that there are some rival companies out there who aren't afraid to dabble into shadier dealings such as working with the Army and having secret tracks and a railyard having become a Mystery Dungeon. The former is just urban legend while the latter has the veritable proof of his friend's cousin's stepsister's spouse saying so.

@Shiny Phantump -
After a day or so has passed, Farin, expecting that he has selected a group, encounters Gladion again to give him directions towards their meeting point, Bedaurejo Castle. which lies further south of Frontier Town.

 

[Shiny Phantump]

Meant to get this in before walkup but I thought I'd have this evening before then.

On top of spreading word of the invitation around, Gladion's also got thoughts to share with a few people about things they've talked about in the past. It may have to be delivered for time reasons by just leaving a letter in the Haus room, especially for Wes if he's in Blaguarro on the Crossing.

Laura: @Jackie Cat
-The Coven's tech is unusually advanced, the extent of which is unknown. However, the idea of a Null being engineered here is nonetheless looking a lot more plausible. However if someone made a direct one-to-one recreation it probably wouldn't be the guy who fell through dimensions since the RKS system postdated him entirely and therefore he could never have known of or recreated it. He still doesn't think someone actively deciding to recreate an Arctozolt on purpose is sane or plausible though.
-What the fuck is a Drakesday and how soon is it?

Wes: @HelloYellow17
-The Coven jumped the tech tree ala the above for Laura. Instead of Null stuff, though, it's instead the context of shadows he finds it worth bringing it up in. Creating them is possible and also probably ties anyone involved to The Coven pretty directly.

Nova: @Ambyssin
-This one is definately being left as a letter even if it could be said in person, Gladion doesn't want to talk about it with Nova right now.
-Coven tech tree stuff, they're a plausible explanation for Nulls being "compatible with this world" but Gladion will probably leave it at that instead of going into detail a la with Laura. Partially he finds talking to Nova awkward, partially he just assumes Nova knows what's up surrounding the Nulls and that it's similar to his world.
-He's likely to realize he hadn't shared that "compatibility" info with Nova yet late on account of the whole awkwardness thing, and tack that info on to the end.
-And to all of them he'll pass on that they use tech as some kind of recruiting tool, and that one of them is a Greninja

 

[Virgil134]

After getting food with Sonora at Founder's Square, Rodion spent the rest of Autumn Crossing with her. At one point he asks how she's liking her new job at the Wanderin' Zera. He also asks her what she thinks of her new boss, and mentions that he doesn't really trust Gerome himself.

In the evening Rodion joins the rest of the Las Picaras gang for some drinks. He ends up telling them some basics about himself and his world, and when asked will the gang a story or two about some of the things he has done as a pirate.

 

[Jackie Cat]

Gerome makes good with his offer to Sonora, and has a position open for her as a bouncer at the Wanderin' Zera.

She takes well to the work, already being accustomed to reading the room in a saloon, and she can send just about any rough customer on their way. She's hypervigilant for a while, ill-at-ease without a looming threat, but she's good at the job.

Mhynt tries to research further into saints, legends, and other tales, seeking out travelers and foreigners to the town to see if their tales are at all different from more common stories.

She learns some things. The Tsainanese residents and visitors in Frontier Town have their own mythologies, and there are a few 'mon around from further afield with their own stories.

Whatever agenda the bulletin board follows appears disjoint from Frontier's priorities.

Lucien begins keeping a record of what jobs appear and are fulfilled on the board as best he can. If the party collaborate and take notes, they should be able to help build a picture of the board's trends.

It prompts him to start looking around for maps of the continent, specifically to try and gauge just what the known boundaries of the continent are. He also asks around idly of what, if anything lies may lie further beyond.

[[OOC: Map's coming. Just don't have enough RAM to upscale it to a decent quality and edit it properly. The campaign isn't meant to be intercontinental and that wouldn't meaningfully be a larger world in any case – not sure how to answer this one in much detail, I'm afraid. Luctemar is pretty comparable to North America, and there's an Old World comparable to ours.]]

Dave wonders if they could find the Mudsdale who fled, who presumably knows where the wagons actually go, right? Before and after the cabin investigation, he tries to ask around about whether anyone knows who it was, and keeps an eye on whether he spots a Mudsdale around town.

She doesn't show up in town. Some of the industrial workers know a 'Mudsdale Allie'. She doesn't say much, and doesn't live in Frontier Town. Dave didn't catch wind of her in Blaguarro, either, but apparently she moved there a while back. Sounds like she spent a lot of her time quietly labouring away or walking the route between the towns, rather than socialising.

Feeling relieved after sharing his concerns with someone he trusted, Silver did his own research on Witching Beasts, aka the Shadow Pokémon, and noted down reports of attacks and potential hotbeds. After spending many days researching and gathering enough supplies for a long trek, he decided to venture out of Frontier Town (hopefully alongside some ally) and look for more answers elsewhere.

Silver's collating of Shadow 'mon incidents may pay off later. He combines it with his knowledge from gossip at the salon, some of which relates to livestock 'theft' and the like to get a better idea of the areas most at risk.

Beyond that, she's eager to learn more about the rangers, and takes advantage of Nico's visits to Frontier Town to ask him about what they do and where they go, both the dungeons they explore and the other places they travel to, as well as to train and practice in general.

Some of this was covered in conversation already, but Leaf learns a little about some of the dungeons in the Soja', including Bedaurejo Castle, which is at the southern limit of the Ranger Union's reach.

Grand Quarry is still in mundane operation as a sandstone quarry, but a minor local MD regularly interferes with work. Sometimes the rangers get called out to pacify it, or rescue some idiot who got lost inside.

Miners' Folly is a former mundane industrial extraction operation, and is now a true prospectors' MD. It's lucrative and full of dungeon gold, but it's universally considered deeply haunted, and prospectors have been known to die down there.

Quartz Forest is an ancient dungeon notable for opalescent fossilised tree stumps, and considered sacred to locals. The rangers visit it often, sometimes for cultural reasons, but also to police it from looters.

Brandsand Crevice is another natural MD known for being hotter than anger and drier than despair. It's located in the middle of a salt waste that is itself hostile to most life. Missions there are rare, but are a milestone for any ranger that earns them enormous street cred.

You get the impression there's another dungeon he routinely visits but is reluctant to talk about.

Following the wagon incident, Ridley starts asking around to find out as much as he can about Witching Beasts/shadow pokemon. He also checks to see whether Frontier Town's library has anything on the topic.

There's nothing explicitly about Shadow 'mon, and "witching beasts" is a new term not often put in print, but Ridley may consider some old accounts of mysterious attacks, murders and livestock theft to be evidence of their activity, and he may find some old myths to be comparable – in as much as any story about sinister monsters in the darkness is proof of Shadow 'mon.

[[I think you've heard a fair bit from NPCs in scene by now!]]

After talking with Sonora and meeting Kimiko, Odette uses her moment of spare time to try to find someone to teach her how to use the gun she found. When Bellatrix approaches her about going to Blaguarro, she agrees and spends some time in a secluded area on the outskirts practicing with the gun before returning and going to bed.

It's more common for people to be 'wandfighters' than gunfighters even in Frontier Town, but some residents do maintain gunpowder-based small arms and understand their use.

Whimsicott Greasewood knows how to use a derringer, but is not an expert. Although he finds them terribly distasteful and would prefer never to use them, he's kept a short-barrelled shotgun loaded with buckshot behind the counter for self-defense since taking over Sun Stone.

Alternatively, the Watchog family who provide most private security in town have a shooting range in their rather large back yard and occasionally provide lessons for a fee. They're a bit curt, but not hostile.

Doc Drungfield is regarded as the best marksmon in town and can put a bullet in a living thing from half a mile away with her hunting rifle. She's also a deadeye with a revolver, and a dab paw with uncanny projectiles. She doesn't give lessons. Not normally, anyway...

Nova's been working rather hard to try and give himself a decent little savings pot.

Nova's earnt enough that he could probably pay for a significant purchase of some kind, get himself better lodgings, or put his money in the bank to earn interest passively.

He's searching for any information about a Charmeleon who lived in or around Frontier Town during the last five years or so.

No member of the Char-line has ever lived in Frontier Town, apparently, but there was a Charmeleon visitor in Summer 180 CE.

She was apparently a monk from the Obstine Abbey named Shira.

Ghaspius asks the Voice if they summoned or even know about Jesse Stranger, or if they have ever summoned anyone else before. Especially other Pokémon that weren't human.

The Voice told you before! You are all their first time summoning heroic spirits, which is why they were so anxious about it going well or not.

They know who Jesse Stranger is – he's a human hero! – but they don't know him personally.

Jade works up the nerve to go visit them by the riverbank one morning to see what she can learn from them.

The samurai are happy to teach Jade. Kyoko in particular takes a distant liking to her, though she's too disciplined to express it as anything other than mentorly approval. The lesson is a success.

Laura: @Jackie Cat
-The Coven's tech is unusually advanced, the extent of which is unknown. However, the idea of a Null being engineered here is nonetheless looking a lot more plausible. However if someone made a direct one-to-one recreation it probably wouldn't be the guy who fell through dimensions since the RKS system postdated him entirely and therefore he could never have known of or recreated it. He still doesn't think someone actively deciding to recreate an Arctozolt on purpose is sane or plausible though.
-What the fuck is a Drakesday and how soon is it?

Laura's pretty sure that there are enough worlds with RKS that it's equally likely that another chimera fell through from another world as one was created here. Or it could be a parallel world's version of Gladion's guy who didn't disappear before the system was invented. Or some other guy. Or it's just convergent design because projects to make something like an RKS just make... this.

She doesn't know what to make of Arctozolt. The species is incredibly controversial in her world and she wonders if maybe their being here has something to do with the rules of whatever world they were from before, and only the component species existed (or exist) on Forlas.

Drakesday is a day of the week, traditionally the one you schedule competitions, grand openings, and duels for.

After getting food with Sonora at Founder's Square, Rodion spent the rest of Autumn Crossing with her. At one point he asks how she's liking her new job at the Wanderin' Zera. He also asks her what she thinks of her new boss, and mentions that he doesn't really trust Gerome himself.

She's doing alright. It's hard to adjust. She doesn't have a problem with Gerome – she likes that he's apparently made a habit of sticking it to Ignatius for the last decade or so.

 

[Jackie Cat]

Laura is fairly quiet on the journey back from Bedaurejo Castle, but willing to talk to the party about what they learned. Her perspective is that the Coven probably consists of a mix of bad actors and idealists, and the party may find that physically fighting some members and providing an alternative cause might be enough to do something. She's sure there's lots more they don't know, so she's invested in learning more on her own, or giving the Vanguard a good reason to better trust them the next time they meet. She wants to have a team meeting so everyone can get on the same page and stay informed.

She asks the Voice, before they leave the Mystery Dungeon, to pass around a message to everyone that can hear it to have their first proper team meeting ASAP. It should be possible to arrange one either in Sun Stone Saloon, or the Mayoral Residence, without too much trouble.

 

[Inkedust]

The very next day, after the team meeting, the Traveller's Haus falls silent. Not a squeak could be heard within the walls nor are any of the inn's services carried out.

To those more adept of hearing, a faint scraping sound can be heard within the walls.