Magna City Shining Congress – Side Halls

[Cresselia92]

Spectrier's ears flicked forward with interest. "Ohhh, that's right. He loves growing things, and I always look forward to the springtime." Given the Saint's general melancholy air, that was certainly saying something. "I especially like when he grows carrots up here."

Silver nodded slowly, satisfied with the answer.

Yeah, okay, that definitely sounded like a Grass-type thing, and yet Hypno were anything but Grass-type. Were they talking about some regional variant, or—

"Bobby is a Hypno, not Arthur. Arthur's been ill lately, so he probably had to go to the Roundtable as Bobby. I hope he gets better soon..."

—oooor they were simply talking about another person altogether. Sheesh, that horse’s wandering mind was more random than a knight chess piece’s movements!

Silver followed Leaf’s direction and studied the Eon statues scattered around the garden, which stood like silent guardians protecting their little corner of paradise. He grumbled softly: countless people in Kanto had reported flocks of Latios and Latias who roamed the region and who supposedly migrated between Tohjo and Hoenn… and that darn Hibiki was one of those lucky witnesses.

How come that Johtonian kid got that privilege after traveling Kanto for only a few months while he never got a glimpse of those dragons despite living in Kanto all his life? How was that fair?

Realizing that his temper was about to flare up, Silver rerailed his thoughts toward the Forlasan Eons. They seemed to have some connection with that Glastrier, whoever she was, and so did Spectrier. His building bitterness quickly turned into inquisitiveness.

“Glastrier… Sounds like y’all didn’t have a good first impression, or last impression,” he mused, glancing at his teammates as he spoke and focusing on Spectrier when he uttered his last three words. “You said earlier that she’s scary. D’you know what’s her deal?”

 

[Tetra]

Each successive response from Spectrier only puzzled him more. Go as Bobby? Did that mean he was dressed as Bobby somehow? Was this some kind of disguise power or illusion?

"I'm sorry about Arthur," he said sincerely. "Are...Are Bobby and Arthur and you all friends? What do you mean, how... how does he go as Bobby? Is that some kind of Saint power?"

 

[Chibi Pika]

"How can he 'be' Bobby? You can't just be a completely different person."

"Are...Are Bobby and Arthur and you all friends? What do you mean, how... how does he go as Bobby? Is that some kind of Saint power?"

"He went to the meeting as Bobby. It's one of his psychic powers," Spectrier said, again speaking as though this were utterly unremarkable, no different than taking the railcar to work. "Bobby doesn't mind, they're good friends."

"Malantau was pretty, uh... Pretty sad, yeah. Do you remember what actually happened?" She pointed her horn at the latias and latios statues perching gracefully over the garden. "We met those two while we were up there, but they said they weren't around when Malantau collapsed, and all Glastrier would say to them was 'get out'."

“Glastrier… Sounds like y’all didn’t have a good first impression, or last impression. You said earlier that she’s scary. D’you know what’s her deal?”

Spectrier inclined his head toward the pair of statues. It was a highly stylized portrayal, with intricate plumage and elegantly flowing wings. "Those two stop by every now and then, but they never stay in one place long. I think they're friends with Aster and Zaffre..."

At the mention of Malantau, however, the shade horse hung his head, shivering all over. "It didn't used to be so cold and horrible there. Arthur made everything green when we lived there, but then..." He shivered again, sending ripples through his mane. "I don't like thinking about it," he moaned, his voice echoing. "Or Glastrier. She makes me feel like garbage. She's horrible..."

A strange chill hung in the air, as if the heat lamps had momentarily failed, letting the wintery Alexandrian air into the courtyard. Spectrier's voice echoed within the glass walls like a ghostly wail, his dark coat growing more and more transparent until finally, the shade horse sank clean through the tile floor and vanished from sight.

Spectrier had gone.

 

[Jackie Cat]

Something is very wrong with that horse.

<><><><><>​

 

[Jackie Cat]

Inside the Shining Congress, pokémon stood, knelt, and lay sprawled in corridors, rooms and open halls – each of them in a state of dazed fear and confusion. Some muttered feverishly to themselves, staring at their paws. Others clawed at portraits on the wall and knocked vases to the floor. Others grappled with each other, eyes wide, teeth bared.

Their eyes betrayed the state of their souls – these Covenant 'mon were infected with the roiling, undoing power of Blacklight energy. More than that, most of them seemed torn between two or more impulses, at war with something within themselves... or being fought over by greater powers than themselves.

 

[canisaries]

Once Andre entered the building and saw the utter chaos there, any hope of simply asking everyone to make a line and proceed outside in an orderly fashion vanished.

"Ah, fuck," he said. "Uh..."

At that moment, Ben entered as well. "Is everyone alright?" he said loudly.

"Well... I wouldn't say so," Andre said, gesturing to the maddened mon. "I think we need to snap these guys out of it."

"How do we do that?"

"We can try and get them to center themselves, you know, like, deep breaths and such," Andre said, "though they might be too far gone... but I'll try that before I try beating the snot out of them. Which also seems to work, as I recall."

He shook his head and rushed to the nearest Covenant member - unless it was an unfortunate guest. He looked them in the eyes. "Hey, hey! Are you alright?"

 

[Phoenixsong]

"When you said 'we have to go now', I thought you meant we were going back to the Haus!"

"The problem isn't at the Haus! It's here!"

"Well then why am I here?!"

"There's no time! You're with me, you'll be fine, just—"

The sound hit Blue before his eyes caught up to where they'd landed. There was shouting, crashing, an ear-piercing whinny that felt like Death playing his spine like a guitar string, and then a dark horse and cloaked rider thundered past and raced off into the distance. Leaf nearly bolted after them, looked like it was taking a herculean effort to resist the urge to chase, but no way in hell even she could've caught whoever that was. They were already long gone by the time the swimming vision from the teleport had snapped back to normal.

So instead the white horse—and her bewildered rider—took off in a different direction, charging into the huge building nearby. No active explosions in here, at least, no immediate risk of getting run the hell over by the Pony Express Magnet Train Edition. Maybe the aftermath, though. Way too many pokémon staggering around frightened or senseless for a boring day at the office.

"What the hell is happening? What's going on in here?" Blue demanded. But all the fancy pokémon havin' the vapors around them were too zombified to answer him, and Linden too god damn stubborn. She marched straight up to a pair of dandies currently clawing at each other and telekinetically heaved one of them into the air, swinging them well out of the other's reach before they could get hurt.

"Hi! I'm sorry that guy insulted your shoes or told you you were a bad bridge partner or whatever they did, wow that was super rude and tacky of them, but you don't have to worry about them any more! You're talking to me now. Focus on me." Leaf kept her voice level but forceful, no louder than she had to be to make herself heard. Lavender light rippled around her horn, almost comically soothing in the midst of all this chaos, as she did her best to command his attention. "Take a deep breath, think real hard, and tell me what happened."

Leaf used Hypnosis!
(just trying to calm/slow them down enough to give them space to listen/think, primarily)

 

[Cresselia92]

Not too far from the would-be mayhem, a certain duo of Tojohnian teens was having a fairly animated discussion as they walked down a corridor, with Lyra pouting innocently and Silver shooting her a stern glare.

“Seriously, though! How the heck d’you even get lost? It’s not like we’re connected by some freaky mental GPS or whatever stuff implanted inside our own souls, after all!” he grumbled, his eyes narrowing further.

“Uuuh, I… Kinda lost track of time and of my surroundings, I guess?” she murmured while tapping her fingers, then let out a sheepish giggle. “I mean! This place is so big and colorful and there’re so many people from multiple cultures! And, like, duh! I wouldn’t waste the chance of meeting multiple people from multiple worlds for anything in the world! Well, this world, maybe?”

When Silver rolled his eyes at her, she huffed and kept blabbering, unrelenting. “It’s just, think ‘bout it! All these folks have crafted such an intricate and almost human-like community and culture by mixing knowledge from their original worlds!” Her eyes started sparkling. “That’s kinda like Goldenrod, but with many more nuances!”

“They’re literally former humans and human descendants, you over-gregarious doofus! Of course they’d subconsciously mirror some human stuff,” he grumbled back when he stared back at her, his eyebrow quirking. “Besides, we’re here on a time-sensitive mission to stop a very idiotic catastrophe from unraveling, not for a networking meeting.”

“I know, I know, but that doesn’t mean I can’t still gather some inf—” Lyra abruptly stopped walking, her eyes wide and startled, and she lifted a gigantic ear. “Hey. D’you hear that? They’re like… huh, moans? Cries? Screams?”

Worried by Lyra’s worry, Silver frowned and twitched his ears, trying to pinpoint what his companion had detected. At first he heard nothing, then boom! Absolute cacophony!

“What the hell…?” he hissed, growing instantly wary. Unfortunately for him, Lyra was far from the cautious and pragmatic planner and hopped speedily toward the chaos, much to his shock. “Kotone!”

---

Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh!!

What was happening? Why was everyone suddenly acting like they’d lost their marbles, or they were living some kinda mind-screwing nightmare, or who-knew-what-else? They’d been fine mere moments ago, so why, or how…?

Well, she didn’t know the answer to those questions, but she realized the what, at least: Blacklight. The air buzzed with that unnerving energy, just like in that dungeon.

Lyra heard a faint whistle in the air, followed by a dark blur and a sharp sweeen. Sweet-smelling pollen drifted close to her, some of the particles bouncing harmlessly on the very sharp claws of a very angry Silver, who stood in front of her while growling threateningly at the responsible of that stray attack: a Ribombee, who seemed just as dazed and creepy energy-drunk as everyone else.

“Buzz off!” he warned, keeping a defensive stance.

Lyra craned her head from behind her mustelid cover and bit her lower lip, concerned about the mental and physical wellbeing of those helpless victims. Covenant members or not, they didn’t deserve whatever anguish they were going through.

“They’re hurting… Oh my! This is so awful! We’ve gotta help ‘em, so please, try to not hurt ‘em.” She paused, realizing that would have been a tough sell, then added reluctantly, “At least, not too much… and only for self-defense… and really, maybe don’t…”

“…Hmph. Can’t promise that,” he interrupted her with a harrumph, but she could tell from his looser glare that he was considering her words, at least.

After mulling on her options, Lyra took the lead and stepped by Silver’s side. She gathered a golden pulse of power within herself, before letting it out as a soothing chorus of bell chimes, aiming to calm down as many people as she could. “We wanna help you, so please, let us help!”

Kotone used RADIANT Heal Bell!

 

[Panoramic_Vacuum]

Steven arrived in the halls of the Congress, hovering to a stop and allowing his legs to thud back to the earth. Several other Wayfarers had already found their way into the chaos, attempting to comfort, cajole, and in Leaf's case, physically separate the Blacklight-stricken 'mon.

It certainly seemed like a good enough idea, but they were just a few against the agitated whole of the Covenant. There had to be a better way.

He approached one such member sunk to the floor holding their head and rocking back and forth, and reached out with (what he hoped was) a comforting claw. The empathic side of his psychic typing was never his strong suit (gods, if only he could have convinced Wallace to come, he was the people person, but no you had to go and upset him, Stone), but he tried nonetheless, probing as gently as he could to see if he could figure out the root of their distress.

"Betel, what can we do to stop this? I don't even know how so many people have been afflicted all at once. Is this Articuno's doing?"

 

[Phoenixsong]

The hivemind network Blue's brain had been wired to against his will was going absolutely berserk. Alerts and questions and updates and tactics swamped him like a tidal wave as what felt like a million Wayfarers turned their attention to the mess unfolding around them. Good god. This was supposed to be helpful?

Somehow Linden got something out of the firehose, though. An idea sparked in her eyes even as she struggled to keep the flailing guys separated. [Wait, wait, Mhynt, I think I can reach him!]

"What? Reach who?"

She shot him an urgent look by way of answer, which meant she made literally zero attempt to answer him at all. "In my bag. Grab the button and press it."

"What do you mean, 'button'? Why is there a pressable button in your bag?"

"Because Re— because someone gave it to me! Would you just do this for me, please?!"

"But what's gonna happen when—"

"It's for trouble, which would be obvious if you'd found it already!"

She whipped back around to the flailing guy so quick Blue almost didn't catch the eyeroll. Ugh. No arguing with her when she got like this. He wrenched the bag open and scrabbled through its contents until his claws caught something round and smooth.

PRESS IF TROUBLE, said the label. Okay...? Fair? He guessed? But come on. What was this, a kid's toy? Wasn't even connected to anything. No way cowboy times had remote controls or cell signals. How was this cheap comedy prop supposed to help while an entire country club went to hell around their ears?

But Leaf thought it'd do something. Part of him wasn't convinced she even knew what herself, but something.

Screw it. How much worse could things get around here anyway?

He screwed his eyes shut, braced himself like he expected an electric shock—it'd be just like this world to hand him a joy buzzer in the middle of a crisis, wouldn't it—and pressed it.

 

[Namohysip]

...Nothing.

Nothing seemed to happen, and the button didn't seem to react in any particular way, either. A few seconds in the frantic chaos passed, one after the other, as Mhynt in another part of the building seemed to be staring down Articuno under the heavy influence of Blacklight.

What? You can? Mhynt called. Well--tell him to track Arthur! He's escaped, and he's too fast for us!

Nothing nothing nothing. Was the button busted? Was it supposed to be used later, or a certain way, a passcode? It wasn't like Mew was very descriptive about how it was supposed to be used. Maybe it--

Something small and invisible landed on Leaf's back.

 

[Jackie Cat]

"Betel, what can we do to stop this? I don't even know how so many people have been afflicted all at once. Is this Articuno's doing?"

It is a manifestation of Articuno's aura corruption. A 'Blacklight Move', you could call it. It seems to affect the target's conception of allegiance, or something along those lines... but it is not mind control as such.

You must try anythnig you can. Reason with them, first. If all else fails, knock them out. That should disperse the corruption of their auras. Please only use violence if necessary...

[ ] Objective: Calm the Couped Covenant members [0/?]

We do not currently know how many are afflicted. Just keep moving through the Congress for now.

"Hey, hey! Are you alright?"

The frightened Ribombee looked likeshe was about to burst into tears. It was Angel, the tipsy socialite from the initiation party.

"N-no, no, it's all a disaster!" she sobbed, helpless beneath the weight of an emotion far too large for her tiny body. "Nothing is ever going to be okay ever again! And it's all my fault!"

Surely that wasn't true at all... but from the naked despair on her face, right now, Angel fully believed it.

“We wanna help you, so please, let us help!”

While some of the afflicted looked up at the sound of Lyra's call, their despair was no mere battlefield addlement of the senses. Something more was required, to lift them out of their individual madness.

She marched straight up to a pair of dandies currently clawing at each other and telekinetically heaved one of them into the air, swinging them well out of the other's reach before they could get hurt.

"Hi! I'm sorry that guy insulted your shoes or told you you were a bad bridge partner or whatever they did, wow that was super rude and tacky of them, but you don't have to worry about them any more! You're talking to me now. Focus on me." Leaf kept her voice level but forceful, no louder than she had to be to make herself heard. Lavender light rippled around her horn, almost comically soothing in the midst of all this chaos, as she did her best to command his attention. "Take a deep breath, think real hard, and tell me what happened."

The classily-dressed Unfezant whom Leaf had seized gawked at her in feral shock.

"Put me down! Outrageous! Who do you think you are!?"

The bird seemed almost to choke on a rising tide of bile and terror, their eyes rolling wildly in their skull.

"Are you going to kill me? Spare me, please, please, or at least make it quick—!"

 

[Butterfree]

Jean had asked to come with her dad to this meeting, but he'd told her no, and that it would be super boring anyway. Which had just made her want to come with more.

So she'd just snuck out after him. And it was worth it! It was a huge, fancy building with an endless array of rooms - she quickly wandered off down the halls, just taking in the sights. And then...

Something terrible was happening. Pokémon in fancy clothes looking agitated and distressed, fighting or panicking or freaking out. There were other Wayfarers gathering there, too. Jean pinned her ears back, cautiously approaching the anxious Ribombee. "What's wrong?" she asked. "What's all your fault?"

 

[Shiny Phantump]

Lillian kept one hand on the grip of her sword and squeezed her eyes shut. The ambient fear and confusion was pounding against her skull as if it was fluid pressure trying to equalize. It was hard to tell where her own anxiety ended and the mass hysteria began was as practical as trying to keep track of a bucketful of water poured into a river.

Her allies stood out from the crowd, at least. Their emotions were a beacon she could use to navigate without having to open her eyes and take in any more sensory information than she already was.

Gladius hadn’t arrived to meet. That was her problem. She just had to solve that, and then… They could make sure he was okay, and she’d have to trust the rest would work itself out.

He was hard to sense. She’d learned that sensing emotional energies was as psychic as mind reading here, so even if he wasn’t totally immune he’d at least be hard to spot. But trying to locate him that way still felt like her least bad shot… If he wasn’t affected by this catastrophe himself. She hoped he was strong enough not to be.

 

[Phoenixsong]

The guy went from spitting to sobbing so fast Leaf nearly got whiplash. "Kill you? Why the hell would I kill—"

She could hear the distress and panic roiling under his words, shadow trying to bubble up through the light. For a second the struggling bird wasn't an unfezant but a noctowl, half giving into hopelessness deep under Terminal Two. Not his fault. Just trying to make sense of the situation he'd been shoved into.

Leaf set him down off to the side, still a good ways away from the other guy. She didn't let go entirely; more like a firm hand on the shoulder, keeping someone in their chair because they're still trying to stand up even though they should've been in bed twenty hours ago.

"No one's gonna kill you," she said, doing her best to keep the soothing fairy nightlight glow going. "The only one who wanted to do something dangerous is gone." (The one who'd meant to do something stupid, anyway. Not the one who'd meant to do something sensible but got themselves all hopped up on magic soul juice and actually caused all this. Whatever.) "We're here to help Lord Articuno. You sound like you're real important here." Or full of himself. But whatever got him to grab onto something solid. "Were you here to work with them, too?"

Something small and invisible landed on Leaf's back.

Nothing was happening. Why wasn't anything happening? It had to do something, it had to. What was Blue doing back there?

"Press it already!" she hissed.

"I did press it!" he shot back, glaring. "Nothing happened, because of course it didn't, because it's not connected to anything!"

"It doesn't need to be! It's not—"

There was someone else sitting on her back now. A glance over her shoulder didn't show anything other than Blue winding himself up over the button, but she was almost certain she'd felt something. Had to be him. (Had to at least hope.)

"R— Mew, is that you?" The words tumbled out in a hurried whisper. "If you're there, please, we need help. There's a, a—" crap, this guy wasn't a pokémon she was familiar with, she had to dig through Beetle's network for the name and a more detailed appearance than the blur she'd seen when they arrived "—a calyrex, noodly bunny guy with a big hat, rode off on a super-fast black horse? The World-Spirit warned us about him. He's trying to rewrite reality and we can't let him do that but he's gone! Can you follow him, let us know where he went?"

 

[canisaries]

The frightened Ribombee looked likeshe was about to burst into tears. It was Angel, the tipsy socialite from the initiation party.

"N-no, no, it's all a disaster!" she sobbed, helpless beneath the weight of an emotion far too large for her tiny body. "Nothing is ever going to be okay ever again! And it's all my fault!"

Surely that wasn't true at all... but from the naked despair on her face, right now, Angel fully believed it.

Something terrible was happening. Pokémon in fancy clothes looking agitated and distressed, fighting or panicking or freaking out. There were other Wayfarers gathering there, too. Jean pinned her ears back, cautiously approaching the anxious Ribombee. "What's wrong?" she asked. "What's all your fault?"

Angel the ribombee, a gossip but also an advocate for social causes. Could this outburst be related to some of her ventures? Andre doubted she'd actually done anything bad or that those ventures were relevant now, but it could be useful information in calming her down.

He was about to speak when a vulpix butted in. That was Dave's kid, right? How much did she know the context? I better make sure she's on the same page, even if Dave would probably want to kill me later for interacting with his kid...

"It's Blacklight," Andre said, keeping his voice low in an attempt to keep Angel from hearing. "A mix of Radiance and Shadows. Someone in the other part of the building was attacking someone with it, and it's spread to these guys. It's messing with their heads."

He turned back to Angel. "I'm sure we can manage it, but the first step is to just... take a deep breath, alright? Everything's easier with a clearer head."

"Y-yeah!" said Ben, giving a smile. "You're with friends now. It's okay."

 

[Chibi Pika]

It wasn't hard to find trouble brewing in all the halls of the Congress. Jade zeroed in on the foyer that led to the meeting halls, where a number of Pokemon that she'd vaguely mingled with at the induction party a few months ago were all in various states of fear, confusion and distress. A bunch of her teammates were already there, trying desperately to calm them down. She threw a glance in either direction to try to spot anyone else nearby she could help, when her eyes fell on a Weavile in a messenger sash and a silver lantern pin.

"Hey wait, that's—!" The Weavile, she was sure she'd seen him in the CDE basement, he was one of Gladius's alternate identities, right? What was the name, what was the name—

"Mercury!" she called out, hardly knowing where her brain had pulled the name from. And then, without waiting from a response from him, she spun around and waved to Lillian. "The Weavile! He's one of Gladius's illusions, I think."

 

[Jackie Cat]

he tried nonetheless, probing as gently as he could to see if he could figure out the root of their distress.

For each pokémon, it was different. In some, it was an overwhelming sense of anxious terror, and in others, a guilt that dragged down their souls like a ship's anchor, plummeting into darkness. Unable to deny their inner torments; unable to restrain themselves from explosive displays of emotion. This was the effect of Blacklight energy on pokémon unprepared to deal with its intoxicating powers.

"No one's gonna kill you. The only one who wanted to do something dangerous is gone. We're here to help Lord Articuno. You sound like you're real important here. Were you here to work with them, too?"

"Well, I— That is, I'm just—"

Unfezant made to preen himself, and only ended up plucking several of his feathers. He warbled miserably.

"I'm no-one!" he wailed, "I'm nobody important, I just come here for the parties and look pretty, I don't do anything...!"

He bent himself towards Leaf, suddenly desperate to cling to another 'mon.

"Th-They're going to k-kick me out," he stammered, abruptly terrified again. "They'll get rid of me!!"

"What's wrong?" she asked. "What's all your fault?"

"I'm sure we can manage it, but the first step is to just... take a deep breath, alright? Everything's easier with a clearer head."

"Y-yeah!" said Ben, giving a smile. "You're with friends now. It's okay."

Angel hid her face in her palms and sobbed desperately, trying to obey the instruction to breathe deeply.

"I-I've just... I'm a bad person, Andre! I'm s-selfish, and vain, and—"

Angel heaved in breaths, gulping down air.

"I kissed Senator Hart at the Equinox Festival, even though he's married, because I liked feeling important, a-and, and, he named the new school in his district after me, and I'm sure his husband will know, but I bragged about it to my friends at Congress anyway—"

Floods of tears flowed down her cheeks.

"I'm just a spoilt play-girl, Andre, really I am – I just pretend, I lie, and I even lied to you!! To make you like me! O-oh...!"

"Mercury!"

The Weavile turned and levelled a gaunt, haggard gaze at Jade.

"Hey there," he said, dully. "What do you even want with me, kitty-cat? Nothing good, right?"

His sunken eyes glimpsed Lillie, and there was a flicker of interest, which soon drowned in the coldness of his expression.

"'Sup, sis. Your real brother's here too, ain't he? Cool. Real cool. I hope whatever you guys do to me hurts reeeaaal good."

 

[Namohysip]

The weight on Leaf's back vanished, but it seemed clear that he had gotten the signal. It was hard to tell where he had gone afterward, but... that was Mew as usual, really.

 

[canisaries]

Angel hid her face in her palms and sobbed desperately, trying to obey the instruction to breathe deeply.

"I-I've just... I'm a bad person, Andre! I'm s-selfish, and vain, and—"

Angel heaved in breaths, gulping down air.

"I kissed Senator Hart at the Equinox Festival, even though he's married, because I liked feeling important, a-and, and, he named the new school in his district after me, and I'm sure his husband will know, but I bragged about it to my friends at Congress anyway—"

Floods of tears flowed down her cheeks.

"I'm just a spoilt play-girl, Andre, really I am – I just pretend, I lie, and I even lied to you!! To make you like me! O-oh...!"

Andre quirked a brow. Well, that was... definitely something, but she seemed to feel guilty about it.

"Well, I know what it's like to play pretend," Andre began.

"You sure do," Ben muttered.

"But surely you've done some good things, too?" Andre continued. "And would that have been pretending? You still did the good things. I'm sure the people whose live you made better appreciate it."

If Angel really hadn't lifted a finger towards any of her social causes, this would be difficult. Though it wasn't as if Andre was a stranger to lying to unsavoury folk that they were good people.