Frontier Town Sand Veil Archives

[Phoenixsong]

It was a pity that Frontier Town's own library wasn't as expansive as Little Scriven's. More books meant more information, more to work with, more stories. And more time on the really cool tall sliding ladders in the stacks.

Fortunately for everyone who wasn't Leaf and who likely would've appreciated some actual work getting done, the Archives' smaller selection also meant fewer distractions. The pile of detailed dungeon-related books was disappointingly small, but at least it'd get to the point that much faster. "Hm, Silver Ravine, Silver Ravine..." she muttered, horn flickering as she tried to turn the thin pages one at a time, and also to ignore the mild headache that level of finesse was giving her. This had been easier when it was a menu filled with overpriced made-up cocktails.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Jade let out a sigh as she folded up another newspaper. She'd been scanning the headlines for anything involving the name "Escarpa" but it all seemed weirdly sensational despite never bothering to mention why the Escarpa were so scary. As far as Jade could tell, they... pretty much sounded exactly like the Pokemon she was used to back home. Didn't live in towns, had a lot of battling culture... Maybe that just didn't mesh well with Pokemon who did do humanish stuff like live in towns and use money.

Though things like that weren't humanish here. She'd have to remember that.

Jade leaned back in her seat, tapping her paws on the edge of the table. Big research binges weren't exactly her strong suit. Normally she'd just head to the library to use the computers, or read storybooks to Swift. Couldn't really do either of those here, though.

 

[Shiny Phantump]

It was, in the end, not a clear and focused research question that drove Gladion to the archives as had been the case every time before. This time, it was a deep-seated discomfort crawling beneath his skin, a tension borne of the hunch he was so close to understanding a great many things, but all of it missing any would-be last pieces he needed to put it all together.

How could the voice possibly have known of his species, how could it have been here before? But he'd looked here for those answers before and found nothing. Fervently rereading everything he had before wouldn't help him.

Was Voclain actually a Kalosien aristocratic surname, if did it just superficially resemble one? If it was the former, why wasn't Ignatius one, too? (Was Lucien a Kalosien name, or Unovan? It could pass as either.) But those were questions nothing here would be able to answer, things that could only ever make him wish he had access to resources back home but hadn't thought he'd ever need to know off the top of his head.

But the only possible balm for the itch left by these mysteries was to learn something, anything, that might help him put them to rest and so he was compelled here anyways,. Drawn in, like a character of eldritch mythos who when learning snippets of truths beyond his comprehension could do nothing but swim further into the tide.

 

[Mr.RMA]

How on Earth... or... on Forlas, to be technically precise... had he not stepped foot in this place yet? Corey truly felt right at home in the presence of so many books, tomes and documents to pore over. Irked as he was that he couldn't immediately go out there and do some more active quests so soon after his injuries sustained in the gala, he had to admit, this sort of environment helped alleviate some of that negativity.

Telekinetically grabbing as many archived editions of the Frontier Gazette as his mind could lift, he dropped the pile down on the nearest table and eagerly began to glimpse through them. He figured past events before their arrival might well hold a few extra clues that could help clear up a few lingering mysteries... maybe even regarding these earlier human arrivals at that...

"There's gotta be more about them somewhere in here... Can't be stirring up controversy like 'human supremacy' without getting in the papers a few times at the very least..." he mumbled to himself as he read, his focus entirely on the printed page before him, everything else seemingly fading entirely from his perception... which wasn't too difficult with his peripheral vision muddled by the bandages.

 

[JFought]

With the gala far behind her and some time to kill, Isidora figured it was finally time to start researching some of those topics she had been wondering about.

"D'you know, 'angel' and 'human' are the same word in Tenacindean?"

'Tenacindean.' That's what she was curious about right now. It probably had nothing to do with their current situation, but it was something new and interesting. And who knew, maybe there was a good story behind why 'angel' and 'human' were strongly correlated, one that'd prove relevant in the future.

So, she found a world atlas (I can probably find somethin' in here) and took it with her to sit down at a table, keeping her claws sheathed as she very carefully opened it to read.

 

[Mr.RMA]

Back to studying... It was really all Corey could bring himself to do after the eventful few days of sparring with samurai, mythical encounters, and strange bar room conversations. He was closely reading through every newspaper article available, looking for a sign, any sign whatsoever, that he was getting close to something useful.

The problem with such close reading of course was that such things tended to do a number on one's eyes, and eventually Corey, vision blurred and optics sore, simply thudded his bandaged head down against the newspapers. Whether he wanted to or not, he had to give it a rest for a bit.

 

[Tetra]

By now, Koa was beginning to feel like he'd run dry of relevant material to read at Frontier Town's library. He'd looked over the texts about legendaries more than once, and tried to read anything relevant about the world itself. So for once, today, he decided to just read for fun. Which meant reading about more legends. The idea of the Wandering Light and Stormbringer fascinated him, especially the idea that normal pokemon could somehow ascend to such a status.

Plus noon felt rather warm for his tastes, and he'd rather be indoors at the hottest time of day. The battle with the rangers had gotten his spirits up and he was in a particularly good mood. Maybe with the rangers help they stood a chance at whatever was coming next. And they could hopefully have a team meeting soon to actually figure out what was going on. He felt unfortunately certain by now that these 'shadow pokemon' were tied to it all...

 

[JFought]

Plans on what to do next had been circulating through Isidora's head in the days since the meeting. It was clear the group had reached a point where they had no choice but to finally start pushing forward on what they knew, yet unlike some pokémon, she was not going to debase herself for this 'Nolan' just to get a leg ahead. But the options were, admittedly, slim. The Vanguard had no intention of getting involved yet, and while they had gotten surprisingly far alone, if the group was to start splintering over the Coven issue then their ability to continue that work as a cohesive unit was compromised. And so the only major faction she knew of to turn to for help was the one Leaf had brought up in the meeting: the Ranger Union.

But Isidora wasn't going to just up and join them like that. She needed to know what they did. The whats, hows, and whys; the origin of the organization, its ideology, and its reach, capabilities, and limitations. Everything about what she was getting into. To determine anything less beforehand would be naive (and she had made enough rash decisions exactly like that to want to avoid it when it actually mattered). And so she went to the Sand Veil Archives with intention of looking deep into them, in addition to a few other things she needed research as well.

...Though, (and she wouldn't admit this to anyone,) she couldn't always make sense of the way the shelves were organized. And with how time consuming it could be to search the tall shelves, really it was just easier to ask. So she walked up to the reception desk, currently not operated, and tapped the service bell with a claw, its ring rattling a little in her ears. Then she waited.

 

[Shiny Phantump]

Gladion was back at the archives again, this time with a new idea— still a long shot, improbable if not impossible, but something he had to try anyway. At least it felt different from his aimless searches from before. He had a new term to look for: When before he’d only looked for Nulls or RKS Chimeras, he knew now that even in the slim chance they were documented locally, it would be as ARK Units.

Still, it was a long shot that was probably the least time-sensitive thing he had going right now, so when he saw Jade there as well, it seemed a good time to take a break and talk to someone. They’d fought together several times, it only seemed right to.

“You’re Jade, correct? You here for something you’d want a hand looking for, or about something else? Not gonna bug you, but if you want a hand or ear, I figure we’ve helped each other out before.”

 

[Sinderella]

After finishing one book, it was only customary to go get another one. Though, this time around, Odette wasn't quite sure what she was looking for.

She'd already breezed through the anger management books the library had had on hand (a whopping three), and couldn't find anything about how to sate secondary talking heads. At that point, she'd just opted to look for anything related to the occult, whatever that might have entailed for Forlas. Relics, witchcraft, pantheons, maybe the odd obsolete religion here and there. Just something to pass the time, and maybe help her with her continued familiarization with the land.

She'd already gathered a small stack of titles that felt like they would scratch that itch when she turned down another row of books. There was another 'mon standing there--a meowth--and it didn't take her long to recognize who it was. But, it felt like bad etiquette to strike up conversation with someone trying to browse books in a library. Even more so, what the fuck would she even say? Ideas flowed in, but none of them felt particularly sound.

In her attempt to squeeze behind Laura to get further down the row, she grossly miscalculated how close the shelves were to one another, and Jawile accidentally grazed Laura's shoulder. Offering a quick and quiet "Sorry," Odette scrambled a couple paces away and forced herself to stop and examine a few more book spines, despite them not being what she was looking for. Fuck me, she thought bitterly.

Well, that wasn't going to make things awkward. Not at all.