Sojaveña Wilds Timeless Oasis

[Namohysip]

"...Do we die if we interact with ourselves?" Mhynt murmured, keeping her eyes ahead as if to avoid looking at herself in the future.

 

[Tetra]

For some reason, looking back and seeing himself made Koa cringe, and he looked away. If this place could cause devolution, maybe he'd evolve here? Leaf had already too, and if Steven had, maybe that meant he would soon. He had been training relentlessly.

He sped up to walk closer to Sybil. "What other Divine Dungeons have you been in?" He wondered how many Saints had dungeons.

 

[Weazel]

They weren't getting long to rest. Archie shot another concerned look Koa's way, but it seemed like the Electrike was rallying. It was cooler now, and there was decent shade as they began moving into the woods. Hopefully everyone would do alright. They didn't want any stragglers.

As for their past selves... Well, best just to ignore that. If they were going to interact, it would've happened already from Archie's perspective. That was how linear time worked. And he wasn't going to spend any time getting distracted mulling over it!

Koa soon wandered over towards their Wyrdeer guide. Archie had half a mind to check in on Wes, but then he remembered what Koa had told him. His eyes drifted down to his Scalchop. If Alex could take control of them at any time, maybe now, when he had a blade made of pure Water Type energy in his paw, wasn't the best time to be hanging around his Rock Type best friend...

So he got to work cutting a path, instead, following close after Sybil. It really wasn't all that necessary, Archie was one of only a small number of their group that was still unevolved - and thus, vertically challenged - but it gave him something to focus on that wasn't his own thoughts. And Koa was still close enough to electrocute him into submission if he suddenly turned his blade on anyone else.

 

[Ambyssin]

Nova's ears twitched at Mhynt's comment. Sardonic, maybe? "Nah, I think we just cause a paradox. If you see people running upside-down and sideways, then maybe we've got something to worry about."

He was just speaking nonsense. Nova was still fixed on the whole "divine" part of this dungeon title. Dungeons could do crazy things, sure, but this made it sound like the dungeon itself was godly in nature.

 

[HelloYellow17]

Ooookay. Seeing his past self was unsettling as all get-out, to say the least. Wes tore his gaze away from the sight and tried to face forward, forcing his bristling fur to lie flat. Focus. They just needed to focus and get this over with. Mhynt and Sybil had the right idea.

He forged ahead, keeping a little ways behind Archie as he cut a path for them. Was is just Wes’s imagination, or was Archie avoiding him…? He shook his head and tried to ignore the uneasy feeling in his chest. No, he couldn’t let himself think like that, especially not while in a place as unpredictable as this. Still, he allowed Archie his space.

Instead, he did a double take at a flash of metallic blue. “Steven! You evolved!” He gave the newly evolved Metang a grin and unconsciously wagged his tail. “Bet it feels nice to actually have arms and hands again, right?”

Was a congratulations in order? Was that what you said to someone after they evolved? Gods, he had no clue. It was weird enough to think about by itself, but now Wes found himself wondering if it was a thing for people to buy a cake and throw a party for their friends after evolving. Who the hell knew. Definitely not him.

 

[Panoramic_Vacuum]

It seemed the group was in better spirits as they pushed deeper into the shady forest. At least until the murmurs of time paradoxes began. Steven kept a close eye on their guide as she kept up a decent pace through the dungeon. A Divine Dungeon no less. He listened in when Koa asked more about them, to see if he could learn anything else about the place.

But as they moved on further into the dungeon, even the cooler, more humid air couldn't keep the sense of nausea from returning. Steven wasn't even sure if his species could get sick to their stomach, but that wasn't quite it. It felt more distant, like he was unbalanced, as if a part of himself wasn't quite there. Was this being caused by the time paradoxes the others were wondering about?

Steven swiped at his brow, trying to will the lightheadedness away, when a familiar voice called out to him. He turned to find Wes giving him a toothy grin. That's right, he hadn't seen the Lycanroc all that long ago, but a lot had happened since then...

"Ah, so I did," he said. "It's definitely more familiar, in a way." He brought both arms up and waggled his claws for emphasis.

The evolution itself hadn't been... ideal. But Wes more than anyone knew something about that. His enthusiasm was genuine though, if his wagging tail was any indication.

"A welcome change," he concluded, returning Wes's smile.

 

[Shadow Serenity]

Kimiko hung back towards the rear of the group, as she usually did; not purely because her tiny legs made it difficult to keep pace without scrambling, but... it was factor. It left her in a good position to overhear bits of Wes and Steven's conversation.

It hadn't quite struck her on the walk over, but now that she could see most everyone in one view, she was a little surprised to see just how many of them had evolved recently. More of them than not, it seemed. Koa hadn't, Ridley hadn't... and she hadn't.

It left her feeling somewhat jealous. Had she just not trained enough? Was there more to it than that? Koa seemed to be training quite a lot, too, and if he hadn't evolved yet... but then, they were different. He was blue. She was yellow. Neither were standard for their species' colors. Maybe they were some form of... local regional variants that she'd never seen before? Neither of their original forms needed any special attention like a stone or a bond to evolve...

But no, there was Archie... he hadn't evolved yet either, and he looked like a perfectly normal oshawott.

On the other hand... all three of them had some involvement in the whole shadow business, too. Koa and Archie were the whole reason the infection spread to the team, and Ridley had decided to go for a swim. Maybe that had some involvement... but then, what was her excuse?

Stop that. Focus. Enjoy the shade.

She let out a tiny, frustrated sigh, but the voice in her head was right. She was doing exactly what Sybil had told them not to do. They had a job to do here, and she needed to be paying attention. So she marched on along, paying more attention to her allies' locations rather than their forms.

 

[Inkedust]

"I've bore witness to a couple and entered the outer rim of one other but I never delved deep enough to bear witness to that dungeon's full potential, so most of my experiences lies in the scrolls I carry," Sybil answered Koa, clearly impressed at his enthusiasm. "This will be the first time I see such a dungeon to the very end."

As Sybil and the Wayfarers continued through the dungeon, it became apparent at how winding their path through had become. Without trial and error, it was impossible to tell which parts of the forest would remain clear or grow into impenetrable flora at an accelerated pace or if said impenetrable flora would reverse their growth to create new pathways.

It seemed that their entire surroundings were prone to this phenomena to some degree as leaves on the trees grew and ungrew, the nearby river would flow forwards and backwards or remain still at random intervals and the shadows cast by the dappled light of the sun would rush through or crawl through several different times of day - even overlapping at some points.

Sybil watched all this unfold with wonder. If this was just the outer layer of the dungeon, who knows what could be in store for them further in. She stopped for a moment when she heard familiar hoofsteps off in the distance. "Not just our past," she whispered to the others behind her, "but our future as well, look." Not too far off in the distance, was Sybil and the others. The wyrdeer seemed to be holding a strange stone object telekinetically out in front of her, stopping when she noticed the team's present versions. The future Sybil muttered something back at the others before continuing down the path, vanishing from view.

"Should we follow ourselves?" Sybil asked after a moment. "They seem to know the way forward."

 

[Ambyssin]

"How do you know it's really the future, though?" Nova curled his claws in the dirt. Wasn't it just a possible future? Thinking it was set in stone made it no different from that group being their fate. It was giving them an illusion of choice instead of a real one. "Could they be dungeon projections trying to mess with us?" He gestured to all the timelooping flora around them. "Maybe the real way forward is by breaking these time glimpses and doing something different..."

 

[Namohysip]

Mhynt squinted at that. "But simply witnessing this future will run the risk of changing it," Mhynt said. "I could just as easily choose to leave in defiance of this right now, if I wished. Our fates are not etched into stone because we see the future there. This is merely a distortion. How can we be sure it's reliable? ...If I, in the future, sang a tune I'd never heard before, and because I heard it from myself, I then sing it at that time, who invented that song?"

She nodded to herself. "This Dungeon... must be predicting what we're going to do," she said. "I believe I can prove this. If we can deduce that... then we can then decide if we follow that illusion or not. Is it benevolent, or malevolent? Then we can follow those hints." She eyed the illusion ahead, looking at herself. Did she have any wounds on her?

 

[Tetra]

"I've bore witness to a couple and entered the outer rim of one other but I never delved deep enough to bear witness to that dungeon's full potential, so most of my experiences lies in the scrolls I carry," Sybil answered Koa, clearly impressed at his enthusiasm. "This will be the first time I see such a dungeon to the very end."

"You'll be the first," he mused out loud, with a sense of wonder. "Sick." And I'll get to be here for it. Despite his worries and reasons for being here, it was impossible not to feel drawn in by beauty of the dungeon. The way the landscapes would shift, or shadows would move, or it felt like trees themselves would simply ungrow.

See themselves again was less exciting, or at least, seeing himself again was. "What if we're lost in the future?" Koa mused out loud. "Can we start a loop where... where we just keep following ourselves but never get anywhere?" It'd barely been any time at all and already his head hurt just thinking about this. Timelines and paradoxes... Could Nova be right? What if they were projections, or perhaps just one of many possible timelines? Mhynt's words made him uneasy, for some reason.

If the dungeon was malevolent, what did that mean for what lay at the core? "Can a Divine Dungeon be malevolent?" he asked Sybil warily.

 

[Phoenixsong]

Seeing themselves standing some distance away was no less freaky than it had been the first time, although it was at least more confirmation that Leaf did, in fact, look heckin' majestic right now. Most of the others looked a little unnerved, too, but it seemed like they were getting on in their own way. Trying to puzzle it out, or having a chat to take their minds off it, maybe. (Wes was... talking with Steven? Pretty casually, it looked like? At least that meant he'd finally worked up the courage to apologize to someone after everything he'd done. If he really was avoiding Archie and Koa, though, y'know, the ones he'd actually attacked, clearly he hadn't done enough of it.)

Nova and Mhynt's theories were starting to float up over her head, though. "What would we do if we didn't go that way, though? Like, what other options even are there?" She looked around, wondering if there were any other paths beyond the one that they had just gone down or were about to go down or... or whatever. "And if that really is us, doesn't that mean that that's the safest way to go so far?" It didn't look like there was anything dangerous as she squinted down that path... did it?

 

[Panoramic_Vacuum]

"This will be the first time I see such a dungeon to the very end."

"You seem certain we'll reach the end," said Steven to Sybil, keeping his gaze on the supposed version of their future selves, and more specifically the interesting stone held in their guide's psychic grasp. "Yet by your own account, you've not been able to in the other Divine Dungeons you've visited."

As their other selves disappeared into the shifting foliage, Steven fully turned his attention to Sybil. At least focusing on her didn't make his head swim. "What's different about this one that makes you so sure we'll succeed?"

 

[Inkedust]

Mhynt would notice no noticeable wounds on herself but Sybil merely hummed at the ensuing question. "You operate on the assumption that time would be fixed in a place like this when its rules are more fluid in this domain." She paused, thinking, "But there is never any harm in trying something else to see what will happen and how the dungeon will adapt. Divine Dungeons only entrap those who fail to prove themselves worthy of seeing its heart."

Towards Koa's last question she gave a single nod. "If its Saint was malevolent, then yes, the dungeon would feed off and create something that matched it. However, no counts of the Purifying Spirit ever indicated that this was the case." She stood, waiting for the Wayfarers to do something to try and defy what they just saw. Her ear flicked towards Steven. "Hope, not certainty," she answered. "Anything is possible if you set your mind to it, wouldn't you agree?"

 

[Shadow Serenity]

Divine Dungeons only entrap those who fail to prove themselves worthy of seeing its heart."

"We're worthy," Kimiko said quietly. She wasn't sure why, but she felt it was true. It was familiar. Her voice rose a little louder. "There's no reason to second guess ourselves. Ce- the Purifying Spirit isn't malevolent. We'll be fine if we just keep going."

Her eyes lingered on the spot where their future selves vanished into the trees. "Sybil, did you recognize that stone your future self was holding?"

 

[Namohysip]

"...Very well, then," said Mhynt with a hum. "An alternate timeline when we are explicitly atomic souls from another world is... troubling. I doubt that would be an answer worth exploring. Therefore, what we are seeing is either an absolute future..."

Mhynt conjured her Leaf Blade in her right hand.

"Or merely a suggestion. Show us your truth, will of the Saint."

She jammed her blade into her left arm, cleanly slicing it open. She didn't even flinch as the wound ran free and down her arm and leaves.

She looked at her "future."

 

[Tetra]

Divine Dungeons only entrap those who fail to prove themselves worthy of seeing its heart."

People like you.

"Exactly, anything is possible! Then we should forge our own path." Koa projected confidence into his tone. "If time is fluid, then maybe that's just one possible future. But we don't know if that's the one where we find the heart. Is there another way to navigate the dungeon?"

His eyes widened in shock as he saw Mhynt stab herself. That seemed extreme but she didn't seem like it would be fatal or anything. Kind of dramatic though.

 

[Shadow Serenity]

But we don't know if that's the one where we find the heart.

"Do you have reason to believe it's not?" Kimiko argued lightly back. "If that was our future selves, then we chose that route, didn't we? I'm all for making our own path, but it's not as though following the one we just saw now is us bending to someone else's whim."

 

[Inkedust]

As soon as Mhynt jammed the blade into her arm, both the memory of what she initially saw and what she was currently seeing attempted to change. Mhynt still held the original memory and reasoning but the new, sudden one was that Mhynt jammed the blade into her arm was because she saw the slice on her future self's body. Quickly, this became a suggestion in the mind of everyone else there.

At Kimiko, Sybil simply shook her head. "I did not, hence my guess that what we saw was ourselves from the future." She turned to Koa, "I'm not sure," she answered honestly. "What do you suggest?"

 

[Tetra]

"Do you have reason to believe it's not?" Kimiko argued lightly back. "If that was our future selves, then we chose that route, didn't we? I'm all for making our own path, but it's not as though following the one we just saw now is us bending to someone else's whim."

"We don't know if it is," Koa pointed out firmly, though not angrily. "It-"

He stopped as he stared at Mhynt's 'future' self. What-? "I... It seems like nothing is set in stone then. If we follow ourselves then we're only doing it because we decide now to do it, so they probably don't know any more than us, right? So it doesn't really matter what path we take."