Sojaveña Wilds Totally Normal Bulletin Board

[Weazel]

Having decided to take Bellatrix’s advice, Archie had made his way out of Frontier Town – probably for the first time, definitely the first time this far out – and to the tent city that had sprung up around the strange bulletin board. He wasn’t exactly sure what to expect, but, to be honestly, the whole thing seemed almost plain. Certainly, the board wasn’t exactly what he'd imagined when he’d heard “magical bulletin board,” but, well, appearances could be deceiving.

By the time the Oshawott had arrived, the latest big rush for jobs was well and truly over. Most of what was left was the sort of low level grunt work that didn’t exactly appeal to the daring-do sort who’d made this glorified campground home, abstaining from even the few creature comforts the major settlements in this part of Forlas could offer. Which, actually, probably made them the perfect sort of jobs for a bunch of randomly chosen multiversal heroes who really needed some cash and to get their strength back. That did, in fact, include Archie.

So, swallowing his disappointment at the lack of anything, well, exciting on offer at this moment, the Oshawott started giving each job a thorough look over. Maybe he’d just start with one for today...

 

[Mr.RMA]

The newly-turned-ralts should've expected weird dreams to pop up in these circumstances, but Corey still wasn't sure what to make of... whatever that had been. All he knew was that, by the time he'd woken up, a new day was coming, and despite some rather encouraging strides in his self-training, he wasn't exactly getting anywhere when it came to finding steady work, much less taking on that rather hefty mission of Lorenzo's.

He'd have to take a more proactive approach and see if there was anything simpler out there to take on if he really wanted to keep pace with the others, which is exactly what led him all the way over to this distant bulletin board which supposedly was the place to go to find the newest gigs. A shame it couldn't have been in a more convenient location then...

Well, on the bright side, at least he had some increasingly familiar company, as it appeared Archie had a similar idea this morning.

"I'd ask if there's anything interesting left, but, judging by the vibes I'm picking up, that's probably a no, huh?" he said, having given a wave in greeting to the oshawott as he approached. "Well, gotta start somewhere at least..." At that he likewise began to peer at the board.

"Got any more leads on the gala invites, by the way?"

 

[Weazel]

Archie had done that thing he often tended to do. The one where he shut out the world and got tunnel vision over his current task. So, naturally, he’d had no idea Corey had arrived on the scene until the Ralts spoke to him. This caused him to jump, and look around wildly, “Huh?”

Only then did his eyes settle on the Ralts, “Oh! Uh, mostly just busywork looks like. Kinda sucks having to go back to this sort of stuff after what I used to do back home. You know, there’s not even a single dungeon on offer! Guess the others got to those first.”

The Oshawott sighed, looking up at the board again. He was starting to realize how much Spencer had rubbed off on him. The Treecko had always been excited to go spelunking, and the wide variety of dungeons on offer kept them pretty busy. Wait, Corey was still talking, he can’t go drifting off into his thoughts again.

“Uh, nothing yet, no,” Archie shook his head. The paper had been a complete bust, more a gossip rag than a serious news stand. At least it had been useful for getting some idea of how the people around here thought. Mostly, they thought terrible things about each other, their government, the rest of the world, everything really. Yet another reason why the universe had to look to outside help to fix its problems.

“I’m not exactly sure how we’re meant to go about this whole thing,” he sighed again.

 

[Mr.RMA]

So, right about where they had been... As was expected, but hey, it was worth asking at least.

"Well, let's not get too disheartened. We've only just begun, right? If you're anything like the Archie I knew, you'll find a breakthrough eventually, it's what he did." Hell, that's one of the reasons why Corey was adamant on sticking by this alternate counterpart. More than once the ranger Archie had pulled his entire research team out of a tough jam, usually with hostile wild Pokemon they'd accidentally aggravated. He seemed to know exactly how to get out of any kind of life-threatening disaster in the making with only a few scuffs and bruises at worst, like someone out of an old action adventure flick. Surely with time to plan, this version would render a similar result... but of course, Corey could probably stand to help out a little more as well.

"Mayhaps we ought to just keep an eye open. The gala's not for a little while yet, and those outlaws aren't gonna just be sitting on their haunches and twiddling their thumbs, paws, claws or what have you... Those lower level criminal types, I don't think they have that kind of patience, otherwise they'd be much more big-time in their 'trade', y'know? It seems only a matter of time before someone of that nature will pop up, probably to bully some relatively innocent folk. If that happens, we can spring into action, and hey, maybe we'll get lucky and they'll have one of those invites stashed away on 'em!" That was a whole lot of conjecture at best, Corey knew that much, but really it all came down to maintaining vigilance.

"Until then, it couldn't hurt to get in better graces with the Pokemon around here. If they're the gossipy types, then let's give 'em something positive about us to gossip about!" He could already feel a bit of fatigue just from acting so chipper and optimistic, but it was more productive than letting his meeker side win out.

 

[Keleri]

Laura was really nice and gave good scritchins! She had been a trainer before, so Tarahn went to the bulletin board like she said. It was probably a good idea to go see, and it was easy to follow the road north. There were other pokemon coming and going, some intent but not urgent or frightened, and he didn't see anybody really roughed up, like they'd just been in a battle. No smell of blood or sap, nobody stumbling from poison.

Tarahn was much more interested in the empty tents arrayed around the board and peered into a couple, pretending to look for someone, but they didn't have much interesting in them. Nothing shiny he could soft-mouth and carry away, certainly. Eventually he made it to the board proper, but he didn't know how it worked; Moriko and other humans sometimes stared at things like it, covered in different colors of paper that had spots and scratches on them. Someone might come along to show him how, so in the meantime, he had a nap.

Voices woke him, and Tarahn recognized Archie the Oshawott and Corey the Ralts from before, when the cloud had been talking to them.

"Hey guys," Tarahn said, crawling out of the bushes. "My friend said you can get missions here but there's just this wooden thing?"

 

[Weazel]

“Is that right?” The Oshawott hummed, looking at Corey out of the corner of his eye. To be honest, it was a little strange hearing about some other version of himself. Still, he couldn’t pretend he wasn’t interested. He put his paws on his hips and shot the Ralts another grin, “Well, sounds like I have some pretty big shoes to fill.”

The Ralts was right though, this would hopefully get their names out there, and tracking down a few outlaws here and there would be a pretty decent way to get their names out. And, likewise, it’d be pretty likely their ticket thieves would strike again. It was actually kind of funny Corey was the one pushing for going out there and getting things done. The Corey he knew wouldn’t be caught dead leaving Treasure Town – not unless Bruno or his sister were escorting him.

“You know, I heard some of the more experienced bounty hunters are willing to allow tag alongs. Help out with scouting and information gathering and the like, get a small cut of the profits. Thinking of focusing my efforts there for a while,” Archie said.

Their conversation was interrupted, however, by the sudden appearance of Tarahn, crawling out of a nearby bush. Of course, they’d been looking for the Toxel and he was ultimately the one who came to them. It felt poetic, somehow.

“Tarahn!” The Oshawott couldn’t completely cut the surprise out of his tone, “Uh, hi!”

He looked from the Toxel to the board. Apparently someone else had also informed him about the job postings? “Um, from how I understand it, you just take the job you want, and then bring back proof you did it, and the board magically gives you whatever reward the job offered?”

It sounded really dumb to lay it all out like that. But, it seemed a lot of Pokemon swore by it. The Oshawott, however, had other questions on his mind.

“Where have you been? Corey and I both ended up in town, but we haven’t seen you around?” The Oshawott asked, incredulously.

 

[Mr.RMA]

Bounty hunters, huh? Well, it wouldn't be a wild west without those vigilantes about. It'd be dangerous work, but then again, so was nearly everything in this environment, and no doubt it would give them some of that much-needed experience.

"Well if you don't mind me coming along as well, that sounds like something I could work with... At least regarding intel for the moment..." He'd started to respond before likewise noticing Tarahn popping out of the bushes. Well ain't that just a pleasant coincidence!

“Where have you been? Corey and I both ended up in town, but we haven’t seen you around?”

"Yeah, honestly I was starting to worry that you and the rest of that bunch got flung halfway across the world or something..." It still felt just a tad weird to be grateful seeing Tarahn of all people, but again, different universe, and the closest thing to a familiar face in this world was worth keeping around.

 

[Keleri]

“Where have you been? Corey and I both ended up in town, but we haven’t seen you around?”

"Yeah, honestly I was starting to worry that you and the rest of that bunch got flung halfway across the world or something..." It still felt just a tad weird to be grateful seeing Tarahn of all people, but again, different universe, and the closest thing to a familiar face in this world was worth keeping around.

"Me and some other people got teleported to a camp and we were going to join a gang, but then they left without us, so I guess they changed their minds. They gave us clothes though! Then we walked to town and I saw my friend Laura." Tarahn dropped his voice conspiratorially. "Hey so, did you guys know that this is the world where there are no humans, only pokemon? Did you guys used to be humans too? I was a different kind of pokemon." He licked the back of his paw and rubbed it above one of his eyes thoughtfully. "I wish Moriko was here, but I guess if she was, she would be a pokemon too. A green and brown one, maybe."

“Um, from how I understand it, you just take the job you want, and then bring back proof you did it, and the board magically gives you whatever reward the job offered?”

Tarahn looked up at the bulletin board, leaning on his front paws resting on the board's surface. He looked at Archie. "Can you show me how it works?"

 

[Weazel]

Archie nodded, thankful at least to have Corey’s assistance. This was the kind of lifestyle he was used to, even if it wasn’t 1:1, it was still nice to hear his skillset was mostly transferable to this strange new world they’d found themselves in. Tarahn’s explanation of where he’d been, on the other hand, did cause the Oshawott some amount of stress.

“A gang? Sounds like you were in a pretty dangerous situation,” he frowned, folding his arms. It was good they weren’t immediately hostile. Imagine if some of them got teleported to this world only to immediately be killed by evil Pokemon! … Archie still wasn’t sure everyone was accounted for, actually.

“Yes, I’d heard that humans are considered a myth in this world,” Archie said, lowering his voice a little. “But some Pokemon believe humans are real and are searching for them to do bad things. So try not to give anyone a reason to think you might be one.”

He left the question of his own humanity left unanswered. And, to be honest, he didn’t know if Tarahn had anything to worry about on the human front. He was presenting much more… Feline, than anything else. The Tarahn of his world certainly had some cat-like traits, but nothing quite as much as this one did. Apparently this Tarahn hadn’t always been a Toxel, which explained a lot. As for how the bulletin board worked…

“Well, I’ve never seen it in action, but I believe we just…”

He plucked a paper at random from the board. It was a lost item request, apparently someone had dropped something called a “Smile Pebble” – a crude drawing included with the job depicted a rock with a smiling face crudely carved into it. Apparently it was a lost good luck charm, and while not particularly valuable itself, it’s owner was still beside themselves without it. Apparently, it had been dropped somewhere along the road between the town and the tent city sometime after the morning job rush. He showed the picture to Corey and Tarahn in turn.

“So now we just have to find this item, and then leave it in a basket here, and then the board will give us our reward when the jobs update,” Archie explained.

 

[Mr.RMA]

It was increasingly strange to see Tarahn acting... well.. like a Pokemon. In Corey's world, the crafty bugger considered himself something of a cat-burglar... and now here he was, acting quite literally like a cat, and in the body of a reptile to just up the quirkiness of the whole thing.

"Hey so, did you guys know that this is the world where there are no humans, only pokemon? Did you guys used to be humans too? I was a different kind of pokemon."

"Well, funny you should mention that, actually I..." He'd begun to respond, but then he let Archie's own response sink in, and at the realization that apparently revealing human origins was potentially a faux pas at best, and a dangerous taboo at worst, he decided to keep quiet about it as well... About as quiet as he could be after what he'd admitted already at least.

He proceeded to watch Archie demonstrate how to take on a job, watching keenly, rather impressed by how this magic board operated, if that really was how it worked.

"Alright, so... we're looking for a rock? With a smiley face on it?" And out here in a rather rocky desert too... So, their first quest was a scavenger hunt. Simple enough, yet... he could only hope they'd find the damn thing before the sun went down.

"Guess we'd better get started then, huh? Don't think you guys need me to tell you there are... a lot of rocks to check from the town to the tents."

 

[Keleri]

"That sounds fun! I'm good at finding lost things." Tarahn wanted to add that sometimes he found things that their owners hadn't realized they'd lost yet, but he remembered how Archie had sounded like a police officer when they first met, and figured he might not be the best audience. He still didn't understand how the paper made the mission, but if Archie understood it, it was probably fine. Unless Archie was tricking him!

...No, Archie didn't seem like the kind of guy who'd trick you right off the bat like that. Both he and Corey seemed like the kind of pokemon who'd be as straight with you as possible unless forced to at the very last moment by a test of loyalty to a higher power they no longer agreed with but had to continue appearing to serve a little longer. They'd betray you but leave you an out obvious to you, but not to their master, and then you could sneak in to provide an edge during the final confrontation.

He thought, anyway. It was hard to know anyone, really, you just had to roll with it. Like how everyone was being cagey about humans. He didn't really get it, but he felt the others' anxiety like an aura.

"Guess we'd better get started then, huh? Don't think you guys need me to tell you there are... a lot of rocks to check from the town to the tents."

"Do you know who lost the rock? Maybe it still smells like them, or their type."

 

[Weazel]

Arceus he hoped he was doing this right. He was going to look, and feel, like a real fool if not. And of course, Corey had to go and make it worse.

“Er, yes, uh…” Archie frowned, looking at the job again. This was probably why no one had taken it yet. They were looking for a needle in a stack of needles. Maybe this was why the Branch Master always picked who’d go on what job, apparently they couldn’t be trusted to pick themselves. At least Tarahn had an idea. Archie wasn’t sure it was a good idea or not, but it was an idea!

“Uh, says here the job’s for a ‘Skitty Othello’,” the Oshawott said, for once appreciative of the strange naming scheme that seemed to be in use in this world. He looked at Tarahn again, a little skeptical, “Do you know what Skitty smell like?”

 

[Keleri]

He looked at Tarahn again, a little skeptical, “Do you know what Skitty smell like?”

Tarahn tilted his head to one side, his blank expression probably making Archie's heart sink further, but after a beat his eyes lit up. "Oh! I've seen them around! There's a Delcatty at my school. It's, normal type?" he said, halting, but neither of Corey or Archie seemed to leap to correct him. Memorizing hundreds of different possible opponents' types and abilities was for trainers, but he was pretty sure about Delcatty. Anyway, it wasn't on his hard-won mental list of pokemon that it wasn't obvious some of his attacks wouldn't work on, like gods-cursed Mawile or Lucario.

"Normal-type pokemon always smell sort of... pink." He twirled one of his paws to try to express that particular je ne sais quoi of pinkness. "Most of them, anyway. It's a kind of pink, furry, beasty smell. Pink and brown."

 

[Mr.RMA]

"Normal-type pokemon always smell sort of... pink." ... "Most of them, anyway. It's a kind of pink, furry, beasty smell. Pink and brown."

What a peculiar way to define a normal type's scent... but then again, Corey had never bothered to study Pokemon smells in the past, unless they were explicitly part of a particular species' defining traits in some fashion.

"Alright, so, pink and brown... furry and beasty... You think you can pick up a scent like that left behind somewhere around here?" If Tarahn's sense of smell was still potent enough as a toxel, then maybe, just maybe, this job wouldn't be so miserably strenuous.

"If it's a cherished item for this skitty, then it'd almost certainly have a strong remnant of its scent left behind. We just need to track down the... err... 'pinkest' smelling place, and I'm sure that'll lead us straight to the pebble." Provided it didn't just lead them straight into some normal-type inconveniently wandering about...

 

[Weazel]

Well, Archie’s hopes were cratering faster and faster. At least they had… Something? To work off of. The Oshawott took a deep breath, looking between the Ralts and the Toxel.

“Alright, well, we can probably disregard any of the scents coming from the tents themselves,” he reasoned, “Why don’t we walk down the road between here and Frontier Town, and Tarahn can tell us if he picks up anything that smells like it could be it? If it was lost somewhere along the road, it hopefully hasn’t gotten very far from there.”

Figuring he ought to lead by example, the Oshawott marched back to the road, scanning the path for anything that might stand out to him. But, really, they were going to have to rely on Tarahn’s nose for this one.

 

[Keleri]

Tarahn followed along on all fours with the Oshawott and Ralts, keeping his head down and his mouth open so he could super-smell, but he did find it overwhelming pretty quickly. Lots of people had come this way more than once, and some of them had been eating as they walked, or had left traces of blood as they limped back to town. Plus there were all kinds of interesting things besides trying to find Skitty's rock, like bugs and funny-smelling plants, and Archie and Corey had to remind him what he was doing.

Tarahn was also getting sick of being a little purple guy instead of a raigar; back home he'd be doing whatever he wanted, climbing and leaping easily, but here he could barely jump a body-length horizontally. Vleridin would've homed in on the rock with her Nature Power energy sense ages ago, while he was struck breathing in dust and people's foot smell.

He was probably getting cranky because he was hungry, so he looked under a rock and found a centipede that he crunched on, contemplating the road.

It wasn't a road like humans made sometimes, carefully flattened and even; it was a path worn by agreement as feet and paws found the easiest path and the weather had its say. There were parts that were harder to cross than others, especially if you were a little guy. And even when he was big, places where he had to work were the places where he'd be more likely to drop something out of his mouth (or swallow it accidentally).

 

[Mr.RMA]

Corey followed closely as Tarahn attempted to pick up the scent, though he could tell the Toxel was beginning to feel overwhelmed by just how much he was picking up from the trail.

"Don't overexert yourself, we're not in a rush," he gently reminded Tarahn, rather confident in his belief that no one would have any reason to steal a mundane pebble with a face on it. If it was out here, they'd come upon it soon enough. In the meantime he'd wondered if a chat would help ease the mood a bit, as Archie was plainly feeling doubt over the success of this mission alongside Tarahn's own feelings of stress. But what to talk about? Seemed there was a concern over divulging a number of personal matters, particularly if one was once human or not, so that topic was definitely out the window...

"So ah... I dunno if we really had a chance to discuss this in full, but, do you guys remember what you were doing before you heard that voice and ended up in the company of that talking cloud?" Corey figured he knew the answer, and he'd begun divising a theory, one that didn't put him very much at ease regarding his own circumstances of arrival, but he needed a bit more info to affirm it.

 

[Keleri]

Tarahn kept trundling along, trying to pay more attention to little gullies or potholes where somebody small might trip or need to clamber over a step. He smelled normal-types, at least! Just, also a dozen other types and variations depending on the particular pokemon...

"So ah... I dunno if we really had a chance to discuss this in full, but, do you guys remember what you were doing before you heard that voice and ended up in the company of that talking cloud?"

"Ummm... going to sleep I think?" He flopped onto his side and rolled back and forth thoughtfully, then stood and reclaimed his shapeless hat from the ground. "I was at school, in Moriko's dorm room. It was night. I go out sometimes and wander around the campus or the town, but we were going to do exercises in the morning." He frowned. "I guess I missed them since I'm here. I hope Moriko isn't looking for me."

 

[Weazel]

Tarahn certainly had the right of it, as far as this road went. It was an irregular thing at best, neither flat, not straight, nor even clear. There were plenty of rocks and potholes that someone not paying attention to might trip over. Even worse, there were a few areas hardy desert plants had begun to sprout, uncaring about the concerns of the Pokemon that used this path. There were even a few young desert thistles, which would be a nasty surprise for anyone who didn’t notice their stiff bristles and tried to walk right though them. On the other hand, though, either of these potential hazards could mark places where their unfortunate Skitty might have lost their rock.

Archie was doing his best to avoid these hazards, himself. He tried his best to keep his eyes on his surroundings at the same time, but every so often he did come across a patch that required him to focus more on his footwork than on finding their lost item. And then Corey decided to fill the silence with some light conversation, which split his focus even more. Still, he couldn’t say it wasn’t nice to have something else to do while they looked.

“Spencer – that is, my partner – and I were traveling to Treeshroud Forest – that’s, uh, a Mystery Dungeon – to investigate reports of strange, translucent jellyfish-like creatures that seemed to be using the Dungeon as a home base while they went out and attacked passers-by,” Archie explained. “The next thing I knew, I woke up in a river.”

He stopped walking to give Tarahn a sympathetic smile, “And, don’t worry. I think that cloud said something about it being like no time passing in our homes while we’re here. You’ll all wake up in the morning and go to do your exercises like nothing happened.”

 

[Mr.RMA]

"So... no strange dimensional rifts or ah... vanishing islands or anything..." Corey weakly mumbled, likely not even noticing that he had spoken that observation aloud at all. He couldn't deny this worried him quite a bit... The Voice had inferred that everyone had been selected as representatives from their world, but if his concerns were indeed warranted, then he wasn't supposed to be here at all... Someone else had been called and, through circumstances still a complete mystery to him, he'd unwittingly taken their spot in this group.

Of course that would be the way of it... Story of his life, he never really deserved any unique praise or respect, that was always a fluke. All he ever truly earned was forgettable mediocrity, and now he was robbing this group of carefully selected heroes one of their own.

Waste of breath. Hindrance. Phony.

Corey hadn't even noticed that he'd completely stopped in his tracks, likely for at least a minute, as those voices of self-loathing grew louder in his mind. Seemed they managed to follow him into this new body too...