Novelux Copperridge Wharf

[Chibi Pika]

Jade stretched her limbs long and squinted against the glare of the afternoon sun off the impossibly large stretch of water that covered the northern horizon. She'd gotten used to the train ride from Frontier Town to Blaguarro, but that was nothing compared to the endless hours in a crowded passenger car. At least she hadn't been alone, and there'd been some decent conversation with the others, but overall she was glad to finally be here. Finally, the Wayfarers' path had led to Novelux, which meant finally tracking down where Brisa had gone. Hopefully.

Of course, she'd been hoping to start the trip off with a little more of a lead than she'd gotten. The ticket counter folks at the big central Novelux train station hadn't said anything about the derailing from 3 months ago aside from the fact that it, well... existed, and that the line had been closed for two days. Seemed like she'd have to talk to the rail workers to get a better picture of what had happened after Brisa detached that rear train car, so that meant heading down to the industrial part of town. At least there was a streetcar to get there.

Jade held her scarf close as a particularly chilly breeze swept over the wharf, making her fur stand on end. The weather was getting colder, although it wasn't super noticeable back in the Soja. Maybe she'd need to get a warmer scarf...

"Well, here's hoping we can finally find a lead on finding Brisa," Jade voiced aloud. And maybe after Brisa, Starr.

 

[Shiny Phantump]

This was where Teardrop Isle was, right? He could see the shroud of fog, and all the details seemed to line up. It made practical sense, too, given the location would be pretty practical. It’d be pretty convenient if it was, given he had some questions about how the coven was running security detail against the coven.

He found a spot tucked away by an empty lot to try to get Articuno’s attention. It was unlikely that they’d be happy if he became water type and swam over, plus it’d take a long time. If he could figure out what psychic type “felt like” he could probably reach out to them that way. (Inquisitive? Prying? The feeling of the laptop monitor on his face at 1am, poring over “F”s blog because he knew Faba couldn’t keep his mouth shut about any of Aether’s projects and he had to know what was going on there.)

The RKS system sparked, submitting to his volition. Usually, he checked to make sure his chromatophores where the colour he’d expected, but this time the sensation of endless minds buzzing in the city was confirmation enough.

He reached out towards the island with his mind. He couldn’t feel anyone out there, but he had a hunch that maybe someone would be able to feel him. “Yodel-eh-hee-hoo. Any birds around here? I’d like to bug you at some point, once you’ve got a minute.”

 

[Panoramic_Vacuum]

When Steven left the museum, he had no destination in mind. All he knew was that he didn't want to be there amongst the proof of his fate, amongst the reminders of home. But he didn't want to be anywhere else, either. Instead, he wandered the streets of Novalux without rhyme or reason, drifting whichever way the crowds offered the least resistance.

He wasn't sure how long he wandered aimlessly; time was lost in the haze of his tumbling emotions. The only thing that jolted him back to the present was bumping headlong into a metal guardrail, the last thing that stood between him and the edge of the waterfront where he'd drifted. Startled, he looked around to see if anyone had noticed, but the hustle and bustle of the port carried on around him as if he weren't even there.

How he'd even gotten all the way down to the water's edge at the industrial port was beyond him. Even though the sights and sounds were muffled, cottony and distant through the numbness, there were still too many people, too many eyes.

Good job, Stone. Can't even get lost properly. Not that the lack of any decent caves in the city helped matters...
Hugging the guardrail, he drifted away from the hub of activity, sliding further down the coastline until he found an empty wharf. Well, not entirely empty. The husk of a dilapidated ship sat in drydock, awaiting repairs that looked like they'd been deferred to more deserving craft on more than one occasion.

Here he stopped, fixated on the ship and the expanse of water beyond it. Lilycove. Slateport. Rustboro. Why oh why did he end up in a port of all places? There was no escaping the memories of a home he wouldn't return to.

Suddenly, he sagged forward, both claws grasping onto the metal of the top guardrail, his head coming to rest on the middle rail. It was too much. His grip tightened until the metal squealed, twisting beneath his claws. Too much. He was unable to stop the wailing cry that slipped out, foreign to his ears yet hauntingly familiar. Too much.

His eyes dimmed low as he retreated into the depths of his mind, clinging to the guardrail like it was the only thing keeping him tethered to this world.

 

[Jackie Cat]

It was early morning in Novelux. Very early morning. To the east, pokémon in Magna City, Alexandria would already be commuting to their places of work, being a couple hours ahead. Here, though, the air was still cold and the winter sun still pale.

Not that Articuno minded. Though they weren't an Ice-type, their affinity for winter chill was apparently unmatched.

"Are we all present and prepared?" they asked, somehow conveying even with a patient and even voice that they would be disappointed at stragglers and latecomers. "I trust everyone is already fully 'in the loop'."

The Wayfarers – those of them that took a serious interest, at least – were to travel with Articuno to be formally admitted into the Covenant of Light, a necessary pretense for an investigation of the organisation. Their destination was the Shining Congress, which was something like a headquarters in which Covenant luminaries, knights, and inductees all gathered and conversed, and at which ceremonial events took place and important decisions were made. Its location was in Alexandria, a Commonwealth state on the east coast, on a large private estate.

If all went well today, the Wayfarers would become official members of the Covenant – the first and most critical step towards uncovering the faction within it that made 'ARK Unit' Sage and – very possibly – the Wayfarers' own Betelgeuse.

 

[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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