Sojaveña Wilds Brisa's Cabin

[Jackie Cat]

Laura flexed a paw, extending and sheathing her claws.

"We're looking into Zweilous Alexander," she said, neutrally. "He's dangerous, but if there's a way to defeat him, we'll find it."

The same danger was shared. Sage didn't seem like they were worldly enough for subtext and implication, but still...

"We'll do everything we can to protect you, Sage. We have Radiance, at least, so that's one way we can fight him. Actually... Is that something you'd want to try learning to wield? If you could, I mean. No idea if it's practical or not, but if it were... it'd make you a harder target for Alexander, I expect."

 

[Ambyssin]

"Having Shadows, are you in danger, also?"

"He can hurt anyone, regardless of shadows," Nova said, crest drooping. "But the shadows seem like a beacon that draws him in." After all, some of those Cipher admins shadowed themselves and look what ended up happening.

"We want to keep you safe. But you should also be able to explore and learn new stuff." Nova glanced out the window. "We'll find a good balance."

 

[Chibi Pika]

"Radiance," Sage said slowly, as if testing out the idea in their head. "Using it, that was my purpose, once."

Jade fidgeted with a claw. "You don't have to do it just 'cause you were made to do it."

The chimera peered at her. "The ones who gave me that task, they are not here. 'If it might help, I choose this,' is what I think."

 

[Shiny Phantump]

"It... might help?" Gladion didn't want to put too much pressure on Sage one way or the other. "If you want to, it's worth a shot. And if it doesn't work out, things will still work out."

 

[Ambyssin]

Nova nodded. "I can introduce you to the cat who gave us radiance." He stopped a blinked a few times. "Unless she left town or something."

 

[Chibi Pika]

Sage nodded. "If I can, I will meet her." Then, they lowered their head lower, as if bowing. "Thank you."

Jade set the sprig of sage leaf on the dusty table and stood to her feet. "We'll see if we can arrange that then, and until then... well, you'd got the Escape Orbs, so if anything happens, you know where to find us. And, y'know, we'll be sure to visit whenever we can." She paused, and then added, "You're not alone."

Sage settled into a comfortable recline on some floor cushions by the hearth as Jade, Laura, and Gladion took their leave. Their new friend had a name now, and that felt like a milestone all on its own.

 

[Ambyssin]

Nova followed them toward the front door and watched them head back toward town. Once they'd walked a good distance from the cabin, he stretched out his hind legs and slowly retreated toward where Sage had settled down.

It was... still a bit strange being in a house. His fur prickled ever so slightly as he looked at the ceiling and then the walls.

But Sage seemed rather comfy. Even if some primal instinct in him was that uncomfortable inside, he could make the necessary change. It was just another way things on Forlas could be different.

"It's been a long day for me," Nova said, sliding down on his belly by the opposite side of the hearth. A yawn escaped his beak. "Feel free to... look around s'more. Or just... get comfortable."

He lowered his head onto the floor. The walls and ceilings didn't bother him when his eyelids were so heavy. And having someone he understood close by... helped to quickly lull him to sleep.

<><><>​

 

[Weazel]

The cabin, Archie was happy to find, was no where near as distant as he’d originally feared. Isolated, yes, the Dewott might even go so far as to call this area desolate. But, he was pleasantly surprised to find, as he paused midway up the weed covered hill he was presently lugging a decently large covered basket up, that as he turned to look back towards the west, he could still make out Frontier Town, Silver River, and even the ravine from here! So as least the Graydians he was coming along to visit hadn’t gone too far away from the rest of them.

Archie hadn’t sent word ahead that he was coming. He also hadn’t thought to send a telepathic message – actually, he often forgot that was a skill he had until someone else suddenly burst into his thoughts. What he did bring, however, was gifts! It has been market day in town again, and once again the Dewott had not been able to prevent himself from overspending. And so, the basket he was carrying rattled, clinked, and made plenty of other such noises as contents bumped into one another, as the mustelid somewhat haphazardly resumed his climb.

Before much longer, he crested the hill, and the cabin soon came into view...

 

[Ambyssin]

After the previous day's meetings with Sybil and Giovanni, Nova's mind was still plagued with the same uncertain thoughts about Forlas and offworlder visitors. How bizarre and backwards it seemed. It kept eating him through the rest of the day and into the night.

Nova tried to take his mind off of things by tending to the plants around the cabin. Hopefully it'd please Sage and it was a good way to keep training the mundane aspects of his RKS System. Telepathy and levitation had gotten better. So did absorbing sunlight as grass.

Now it was water. Watering the plants. Which was easy to do when conjuring the elements was so weak.

Nova stood over a sage bush, sprinkling a small amount of water from his beak.

 

[Weazel]

Ever since Nova had gotten the mask off and rediscovered himself, he’d gotten quirkier, more eccentric, in Archie’s opinion. It made for a nice change compared to how he’d been before! But also, sometimes the Dewott would come across the Graydian doing something bizarre, and he’d have a very hard time maintaining composure. Like right now, as he’d come up to the cabin to find Nova apparently presently engaged in salivating over a bush.

“You, uh, doing okay out here, Nova?” the Dewott called. Maybe it was a good thing he’d brought a bunch of things from market, after all.

 

[Ambyssin]

Nova's crest fanned out. He glanced at the dewott, blinking several times. "Oh, hi." He hadn't been expecting Archie, right?

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just watering the plants." His blue cheek bolts turned one in their sockets. "Are you here for Sage?"

 

[Weazel]

Sage? The Dewott blinked in confusion, but after a moment it clicked. Right, that was the other Graydian’s name, wasn’t it? Presumably they were somewhere around.

“Just came to visit!” he said, before holding out the basket. “I come bearing gifts!”

Removing the blanket covering, the basket was revealed to hold an assortment of foods. The Dewott had clearly been back to the poffin shop, but had at least supplemented the dessert pastries with some more normal baked goods, as well as various jars of berry jam and a few jerkies.

“For you and your friend to share,” he added.

 

[Ambyssin]

Nova's beak was assaulted by almost as many sweet aromas as there were void shadow thingies in that awful swarm. His fish tail instinctively wagged.

"Oh, thanks." He leaned forward to take the basket. "You didn't have to do that. But this'll be great. Lots of new things for Sage to try." And for him to try, too. He didn't even really remember what the fancy dessert pastries were. But they were fancy. And that was definitely important!

... Probably.

"Gosh, I hope you didn't come all this way just to deliver this? You could've messaged and I'd have gone into town." He glanced at the sage next to him. "It's not like I'm on a strict schedule with these. I'm just testing using the water element."

 

[Weazel]

The Dewott shrugged, and grinned. “No worries, I like the exercise.”

He wasn’t going to lie, Nova’s explanation that he was ‘testing the Water Element’ definitely piqued Archie’s interest. He still didn’t have a particularly good read on what the Graydian’s capabilities were. His general size and bulk suggested a more physically inclined species, and Nova was certainly skilled at throwing his weight around and manhandling the opposition. Just how many elements did he have access to, though? The Dewott still couldn’t really get a good read on the Graydian’s Typing, even!

But that was maybe a question for another time. As much as Archie wasn’t the type to pass up a chance to visit his friends, he actually had come out here hoping Nova might help put his mind at ease a little.

“Nova, back after the fight with Owen…” he trailed off, momentarily losing his nerve. Picking a different tactic, he instead asked, “How much do you think we can trust this Giovanni guy, really?”

 

[Ambyssin]

Ah, so there was an ulterior motive after all. Nova sat on his haunches, sighing.

"Unfortunately, a lot." His cheek bolts slowly turned in their sockets. "Some of us met with him the other day. And that higher authority he alluded to? They're legit. I've heard of 'em."

 

[Weazel]

Archie had hoped that hearing that this strange Mewtwo creature had Nova's confidence would alleviate his own concerns. Unfortunately, it did not. If anything, the Graydian's seemingly resigned attitude made the pit in the Dewott's stomach deepen!

"It's just... Every ounce of the man's being screams 'I'm plotting something terrible,'" he continued, "And you didn't exactly seem pleased to see him, when he showed up."

He looked out, back in the direction of Frontier Town. He'd been credulous enough to fall for Alex's promises of knowledge, so he likely didn't have room to talk when it came to trusting Giovanni. And to be honest, he'd been primed to see the worst in the man from the moment he'd learned about the existence of Pokeballs in this world.

"What's this higher authority he was talking about, anyway?" he asked.

 

[Ambyssin]

"Overseers," Nova responded. Even knowing about them, it still sounded shady and nebulous, so Nova wracked his brain to come up with a decent comparison.

"So, like, you know how Forlas has the Rangers?" He traced some nondescript badge in the air with a gold talon. "The Overseers are like... the Rangers for reality and its stupidly large number of universes." Nova looked skyward. "They watch worlds from a distance, looking for signs of the kind of trouble that could threaten multiple worlds."

He tilted his head back down. "But they aren't involved in every world equally. I imagine, for most of the Wayfarers, their worlds never interact with Overseers." His expression darkened. "Not so for me. They quarantined my home. Tried to cut it off from the rest of reality.

A sad smile spread across his beak. "But, well, my soul's here isn't it? I'm sure you can do the math from there."

Nova laughed nervously. "In any event, they sensed a lot of strange happenings around Forlas and sent scouts to gather info. The scouts being... Giovanni and Mew, who I guess is some human named Red? Silver and Leaf think he's a big deal, anyway."

 

[Weazel]

“What?”

Archie felt his blood run cold. He stared at Nova, muzzle slightly agape. He felt like surely he must’ve misunderstood what the Graydian just said somehow. Because, Nova wouldn’t lie to him, surely not. So the mistake must be on Archie’s part. Because it sounded an awful lot like Nova was telling him that there was, in fact, some kind of multi-universal peacekeeping agency, dedicated to protecting the very fabric of reality. A force great enough to breach the boundary between universes and send their agents out wherever they were needed. A force that could see the troubles of universes from outside that universe, and contain or stop them.

“Can you… Can you run that by me again?” the Dewott asked, a little desperately. He felt a gnawing despair starting to eat at him, starting deep in his stomach. A throbbing pain that began at the point where his middle was ripped open by Seth’s errant claw so many nights ago. He took a step towards the Graydian.

“Because… Because it sounds an awful lot like you just told me, that there’s people out there whose whole thing is stopping universal threats before they become threats,” he said, “Threats like the one that killed my universe. And they sat, and they watched. As the stars died. As the sun went out. As my universe turned empty and cold and dead and took everyone and everything with it. Every human. Every Pokemon. Every blade of grass in the ground, every spec of infinitesimal life died. And they did nothing!?”

 

[Ambyssin]

Oh. Ohhh those were shadows. That was bad. Nova was just going off the stuff he knew.

"Easy there." Nova's fur bristled. "I really don't know the true ins and outs of how they work at all. Pretty sure a world has to work with them and even then someone has to be physically present. Aurelia seemed to let Giovanni and Red come in when she brought Jade's friend over a while before any of us were involved in this."

 

[Weazel]

“Oh is that so?” The Dewott laughed, a painful, discordant sound, as he took another step forward. “Sorry Archie, the reality cops couldn’t save you world, no one thought to open the door for them! Better luck next time, I guess!”

His paws shook, so he balled them into fists to steady them. That only moved the shaking to his arms, though, so he threw them out to either side, and groundwater ripped out of the soil around him, rising up into the sky before raining back down on the pair.

“Not like the Monster That Ate The Sun, though! He could just create whatever portals he wanted. Rip open holes in reality like it was nothing!” The Dewott continued, “Isn’t it ironic Nova? That monster killed everything, but it’s the only reason I’m still alive, too! Your Overseers couldn’t save me, but that monster did without even noticing! And how come they never saved your world, huh? Guess it’s okay if we suffer, as long as our problems don’t become their problems!”

Archie SHADOW Focused... Archie used Shadow Soak! ... But it failed!