Novelux Copperridge Wharf

[Chibi Pika]

Still cold. A little bit lighter each day, but the cold would last another month or two. Jade stood on the edge of the wharf, her breath misting in front of her face as she pulled her scarf tighter and bundled her paws in her cloak. Hopefully Alexandria would be warmer than Novelux.

She hadn't met Articuno with the group that had been put to the bird's test a while ago, but she'd heard plenty about them from Laura. Like Moltres, the bird was familiar, yet distinctly different from the legend she knew of back home, all sleek, wintery elegance with veiled eyes that seemed to stare straight through you.

"Pretty sure we're all ready," Jade said idly. The group had discussed it quite a bit, and it'd become more and more obvious that they needed a way into the Covenant if they ever wanted to uncover what happened to Starr and the truth about Betel's creation. There was almost something nostalgic about it, infiltrating an organization to uncover its secrets. Jade had psyched herself up to no doubt feeling awkward and uncomfortable at this fancy gathering they were all heading to, but hopefully she could just stay inconspicuous and eavesdrop.

 

[Inkedust]

Bellatrix's mane billowed in the winter sea breeze. She looked across the water, arms folded behind her back, and let out a small grunt of acknowledgement. She eyed the Saint. It seemed that all this time spent working with and investigating the Covenant was finally about to pay off and she could learn another thing or two about Tyrrier while she was there. Perhaps there had been a few too many distractions but they were finally here now.

So many directions and avenues to take this, but attending a meeting (discreetly or not) to learn of their plans appealed to her the most.

 

[Tetra]

"I'm ready," Koa said simply to Articuno. He was grateful for the conversations and practice he'd had sporadically with Odette in the times following their first chat so long ago (and even more grateful that she actually took him seriously instead of telling him to just stay out of it). He tightened the red silk scarf around his neck, relishing in the cool, familiar weather. It felt so good compared to the usual suffocating warmth.

It was hard to tell how much they could trust Articuno, but the rest of Wayfarers who'd met them seemed to, at least enough to agree (or pretend to agree) to work with them. And most importantly, he wouldn't be alone. Odette was with him, Jade was here and many of the other Wayfarers. Finally he could learn what Covenant were really like. If they were truly so bad...

 

[canisaries]

Andre winced slightly each time the breeze picked up. Even if he'd gotten himself a warmer coat for these occasions, he was still a little grass-type deer and he was not in his element in the cold.

"Present and ready," he replied to Articuno, giving a friendly smile. It paid to be friendly to them, not only because of the whole 'our ticket to the Covenant' thing, but also because they knew what Andre really was. And Andre did not want that secret shared with any more people than necessary.

Covenant, Covenant... the human supremacists. Would they really be able to infiltrate the place without getting caught when a master psychic was right there with them? The others seemed to think it would work out somehow, so maybe they knew something he didn't.

 

[Weazel]

Archie absentmindedly grabbed at his hat as the wind blowing in off the water threatened to dislodge it again. The fit was different, he wasn’t used to it yet. But, a certain red Lycanroc had absconded with his last one, necessitating the replacement.

He’d thought, foolishly maybe, that Cipher being booted out of Forlas would also mean the end of their own time on this world. But, after a day or two passed of them stubbornly not returning to their home worlds, it became clear that that was not the case. Cipher was gone – Seth was gone – but they were still here. Which meant there was still work to be done, and the Covenant was their next most obvious lead.

And so, that’s why Archie was here. He felt more than a little awkward; he’d only met Articuno the once, and it hadn’t been the friendliest meeting. But, this was the best - and only - real in as far as the Covenant was concerned. So here he was, hovering near the edge of the group, hoping the Legendary wouldn’t bother to ask any questions. Thankfully, he’d spotted Koa, Silver, even Bellatrix. So, worst case scenario, at least he’d have people he could stick close to.

 

[Ambyssin]

Nova was not ready.

Or, at least, he didn't vocalize anything. Because he had nodded off despite standing up. Why was he here at ass o'clock in the morning?

 

[Cresselia92]

As per usual, with the lower temperature his body had quickly adapted to the cold and Silver donned his, well, silver pelt. But that wasn’t the only change in his appearance, as he had ditched his old poncho to wear a black jinbei with red trims. People might have considered strange wearing some summer clothing in winter, but with his thick fur he felt warm enough.

Silver internally smiled as he adjusted his clothing. That Tsainanian tailor had done a wonderful job with the remains of Giovanni’s suit. It felt… right. There was no other way to describe what he thought when he wore that combat kimono for the first time.

Anyway, he was there. Waiting with the others to enter the Covenant. Based on the information he had gathered so far, there was one thing he could say for sure about the organization: he didn’t like it. At all. They sounded like a bunch of righteous idiots who thought they knew better than anyone else.

However, he also knew that he couldn’t base his entire judgement only on second hand intel, and what better way there was to find out more about the Covenant if not by diving into the organization itself? It was only a matter of time until he found out if he liked it even less or if he could tolerate it a little more.

When the Articuno inquired if they were ready — jeez, even after seeing that black Moltres, it was still so strange to see a purple Articuno! — he simply brought a paw to his hip and nodded. “Yeah, I’m ready and stuff,” he muttered, twirling his head feather with his free claw.

 

[MintyMimix]

A certain Mismagius floated along, his typical relaxed and jovial grin betrayed by the clear bags beneath his eyes and idle scratching at the scruff of his neck. Despite both his crimson scarf flapping in the wind and ghostly continence, Ghaspius still shivered in the cold, crisp morning. A strange mix of chemical scents clung to his cloth, strong enough to be recent. Had he just come from work?

"Ready and reportin'," he said, lowering his head in a faux tip of his witchy hat. Even through the fatigue, it was especially important for someone like him to be present, in his eyes. A Wayfarer that had no human-related past in any capacity, at least as far as he knew.

 

[Panoramic_Vacuum]

"Good morning, Ghaspius," Steven greeted his fellow Wayfarer warmly, subtly positioning himself to try to block as much of the winter wind as he could. "It's good to see you." Indeed it was, as it felt like he hadn't come across the Mismagius in quite some time. He was about to ask Ghasipus about how he was faring, when another Wayfarer he hadn't seen in a while caught his attention, joining the group next to the two of them.

Steven turned to greet Odette and paused. It had been so long, apparently, that she looked different than he remembered. He blinked. She looked nothing like the Mawile he was familiar with. Somehow, she had changed.

"Odette! You look--"

For a moment, Steven seemingly short circuited.

Taller? No, he couldn't say that to a lady. Toothier? Gods, even worse.

Suddenly, the chill of the winter air seemed to lessen, and it flustered him even further. Why oh why did his brain land on the word 'curvier'?

--different!" he finished, with a strained smile.

Oh, real smooth, Stone.

"But in a good way," he added quickly.

Real smooth.

Squeezing his eyes shut, he bonked a claw against the bridge of his nose. Start over. Try again.

"You picked a lovely dress for such an occasion."

Right, the thing they were all assembled here in the cold for. Meeting the Covenant. Infiltrating the Covenant. He didn't relish knowing the reason.

Well, he was as ready as he'd ever be. Surely Articuno could sense as much, one psychic type to another.

 

[Sinderella]

Well, this was it. The very moment she’d been working so hard toward. Off to be inducted into the Coven for infiltration purposes, and to possibly figure out just what the actual fuck had brought them there in the first place. She was certain she couldn’t have picked a better time to change, because it was definitely go time.

With a newly acquired blue dress from the Sun Stone costume stash, she sauntered her way to the Wharf, involuntarily shivering over the chill. Truthfully, growing up in Kalos’s bizarre weather patterns had allowed her to grow accustomed to—and even thoroughly enjoy—the chill. That didn’t stop her from slinging the lone coat she owned around her shoulders as she approached. The sight of familiar faces eased her. Koa, Bellatrix, Ghaspius. As she concentrated, however, on giving Andre a wide berth, she was jolted to attention by the sound of Steven calling out to her. Her heart took off in a gallop as she turned to him.

“Steven, hi!” she greeted. Too eager; she needed to reel it in. But she didn’t get the chance before she stalled on the way he paused. Self-consciousness sowed the blush that bloomed across her nose, and she began to scratch at her right ankle with the tip of her left boot. I look—?

‘Different’ was not what she was hoping expecting he was going to say, but she supposed it wasn’t particularly bad. His quick recovery at least helped pad the apparent fumble. “Thanks…”she said, straining through a smile of her own.

Moving attention to the dress was a welcome subject change. She felt the heat fade from her cheeks and gave her skirt a lazy flourish. “Oh, this? Thank you. I took great care in stealing it out of the dressing room at work.” She held a finger up over her cheeky grin. “Shh, don’t tell.”

After giving indication to Articuno that she was ready to get going, she huffed to herself. She tried to resist sliding Steven one last look, but she couldn’t quite help herself.

“You ready for this?”

 

[Namohysip]

"...If you ever feel cold, I can probably try hugging you," Owen offered to Mhynt.

"This is the first thing you've said in hours and it's already weird," Mhynt murmured. "Also, you're probably going to have to hide while we're there. I don't think an organization known was the Shining Congress will appreciate my literal shadow saying things in your distorted voice."

The Charizard shadow attached to Mhynt crossed his arms and pouted. "You're the one who did this."

"And clearly I'm now paying for it." Mhynt sighed.

 

[Jackie Cat]

"Think we're all good for it," said Laura, fidgeting with her paws. "We all got the memo."

The 'memo' being a brief instructional address from Kulius to the effect of 'don't make a fool of yourself in the big, fancy building'. Apparently plenty of new inductees – being amnesiacs or from distantly rural communities – were routinely startled by the Shining Congress, so it wouldn't be a disaster if the Wayfarers were a little queer or awkward. In fact, in might even be expected. And if coming from the wild west meant you could get away with saying odd shit, well... maybe that was an asset?

"Excellent," said Articuno, spreading their wings. "Now – no sudden movements, please."

With a rush of displaced air and a snap of psychic power, the Saint teleported, taking the Wayfarers with them.

Nothing remained on the beach but crying seabirds and the crash of waves.

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[Chibi Pika]

Three days after the events of Prism Hollow...​

"Alright, I'm here. I know you've got something you've been dying to say, so you might as well get it over with."

Jade felt cold. The Incineroar's green eyes were fixed on her, and she fought the urge to let her gaze slip away. No matter how many times she'd run through the conversation in her head, she didn't know what to say. All the things she wanted to say felt wrong. 'Are you sure you don't remember me at all?' Like she was asking the impossible, still blindly hoping that Starr could reach inside herself and drag up the memories that weren't there. Or worse, feeling entitled to those memories, as if it wasn't fair that she'd come all this way and gone through all this hardship to rescue Starr, only to go unrecognized. To not really have her friend back, not really.

Some small, selfish part of her buried deep down told that it wasn't fair.

"I'm not sure how to," Jade just said.

Starr let out a snort. "No kidding." She flopped back onto the sand, arms crossed behind her head.

Jade's ears flattened. With the eye contact broken, she let her gaze wander over the endless lakefront stretching out over the horizon. Gentle waves lapped at the sand. A cold breeze swept in from the north, and she pulled her cloak tighter around herself.

"Look," Starr began with a heavy sigh, "I get that I was important to you back home, or something, I just..." Her words trailed off, and she ran her fingers through her cheek fur. "I don't know what 'we' were. Can't feel what's not there."

Jade swallowed, her mouth dry. "Yeah, I know. That's... sorta why I didn't want to talk about it. I figure it's gotta be ten times weirder for you, having someone show up here knowing more about you than you do."

Starr nodded distantly as she held a paw in front of her face, gently flexing the claws. "It's weird. I keep thinking I've been here long enough that, I don't know... I should have gotten more of my memory back."

Jade's ears flicked forward. "You've gotten some things?" she asked, hating herself for hoping.

Starr shrugged in that way she did when she was trying to brush something off. "Just dungeon visions. Might not even be real, honestly."

Jade shivered. Oh. That. Brisa had warned her about that.

Starr exhaled heavily, sitting up in the sand. "Oh, who am I kidding, I know it's real. I know I did some real fucked up things." She turned suddenly to face Jade. "It was you, wasn't it? You're the one I did those things to." Despite the Incineroar's stony expression, Jade could see the haunted look in her eyes.

Iron bars. Lightning. Screaming. Pleading.

She'd remembered the cell, but not anything that came after.

Jade felt an invisible hand clutching her chest. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Yeah, it was." She fixed Starr with a serious look and quickly added, "But you know that wasn't where it ended, right?"

Starr scooped up a handful of sand, idly letting it stream through her claws. "Mm. Brisa said that I would've been trying to put things right. She's always saying stuff like that about me, she's such a sap," she added, a flicker of obvious fondness in her eyes.

"She was right. About that."

Starr just shrugged, reclining back on one arm while she hurled a small rock into the waves with the other. "So, you came all that way to drag me outta the pit after I fucking tortured you." She gave a fanged sneer. "You must be just as much of a sap as her, sticking with me after that."

Jade rubbed the back of her head. "I know it's probably weird for you, since. Since you don't remember..."—Me—"anything from back home."

Starr nodded vaguely, hurling another rock into the sea. Feeling restless, Jade swept her paws through the sand, hunting for small stones so that she could do the same.

"So tell me."

Jade's ears flicked toward Starr, and she blinked at the Incineroar in momentary confusion.

"Tell me about it. About what came after. About..."—she swirled a hand through the air—"us."

Jade met Starr's eye. Despite the offhand tone of it, she caught a note of... sincerity. Starr genuinely wanted to know. It mattered to her.

Jade felt herself relax slightly. "Alright." She gave a small, awkward laugh and said, "Where do I even begin..."

"Anywhere's fine. But for starters, it'd be nice to know what we even were," Starr remarked casually.

Jade tilted her head. "Huh?"

"You know, what were we? I know we were close, but that's literally it. So like, what... friends? Lovers?"

"I, er... what?" Jade coughed abruptly, feeling a rush of embarrassment for not having caught on. "N-no, that's not... I'm not... we were friends," she stammered.

Starr let out a large snort, shoving Jade's shoulder. "Man, your face is priceless. Relax, I figured. You seemed too young for me anyway."

Jade's tail lashed. She wanted to say she wasn't that young, except that wouldn't actually help her case. (She got the distinct feeling that no matter how she responded, there was no saving face here.)

She was spared from having to think of a response by Starr saying, "So, friends, huh."

Jade wanted to say 'best friends' but that felt presumptuous somehow. "Yeah. We... met in school, way back when. But before coming here, we were both trainers, traveling around together." She paused, but Starr was just listening expectantly, so she went on, "We, um... we kind of had different tastes in... most things. But we always had each other's back, everywhere we went."

Starr leaned her head against a palm, settling into a more relaxed posture. "Traveling around, I can get behind that. Visit anywhere neat? Also, you better believe I'm gonna need you to tell me about my Pokémon."

Jade felt herself relaxing too, tail curling against her side. "Yeah, sure thing," she said with a smile. "So, one of the best places was Blackthorn. Well, we had to fly to get there, which you didn't like, but once we got there we got to check out the hot springs, and see the Dragon's Den, and watch battles at the gym. Feraligatr—that's your first partner—got into a fight with a..."

"...and you couldn't believe that he said that..."

"so there was water everywhere, and then..."

She lost track of how long they sat there. Long after the sun had slipped below the horizon, and the red light on the waves had been traded for the silver moon. It was only a tiny sliver compared to the time they'd spent back home. But by the time they both made their way back toward the glimmering lights of Novelux, wandering down the city streets looking for a place to eat that was still open while Starr shared some of her earliest encounters on Forlas...

...It felt, at least a little bit, like how things used to be.

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