Forlas Spirit Nexus

[Jackie Cat]

The space between worlds, shapeless and unknowable, has many names. The Astral Plains. Spirits' Edge. The Dream Lands.

It is no physical location. One cannot simply walk there. It is the place where souls from different worlds may meet, whether living or dead. And when they do, the skin of reality will ripple, flow, and take on an appearance they can understand. Most often, a quiet crossroads lit by alien stars.

Spirits drawn here are usually few in number, and may expect to return to their bodies after speaking with each other, maybe playing a game together. They do not expect to arrive in their dozens. They do not expect to be called together with a purpose. They do not expect to travel somewhere else.


Yet, it has been known to happen.

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Laura opened her eyes. She hadn't pitched camp outside last night, let alone under an open sky, but yet... She looked up at a sea of stars, with no moon, nor clouds to hide a moon. Around her, a dark plain extended to the horizon. It was an empty horizon, at that. No distant mountains, no buildings, nothing.

She felt for her pokéballs, and her fingers brushed against nothing. A sick panic rose in her chest, but dulled, as if she were drunk... or dreaming.

"Who actually pinches themself in a dream?" she muttered, and chewed her lip. She felt it, as if it were real enough. She felt the pinch she gave herself, too.

"Howls afar," she swore, quietly.

You are not dreaming!

She wasn't dreaming, then.

Laura took a step forward, and the featureless ground rippled beneath her boot to take the form of packed earth, slats of wood, metal rails. She walked along the track, and the railway built itself out of nothing in front of her. If this wasn't a dream, it was some kind of... trip? She didn't think she'd had anything that could do that. Or had she lost her mind?

Not at all! You are quite sane.

"Hello?" she called out, as she walked the railtrack. "Can anyone... Uh."

There it was again. Not a voice, exactly, more like she was imagining a specific voice? But she hadn't imagined it, it was a thought from outside her own head.

"What the fuck is going on?" snapped Laura, clenching her fists and trying not to sound like a lunatic, even now, alone, in this lunatic situation.

I'm so sorry! This is an Astral Path. Please wait a moment, it will become a Spirit Nexus imminently. Then you won't be alone!

 

[Jackie Cat]

More paths rippled into existence on the dark ground. A path of freshly fallen snow. A gravel path. Highway tarmac. Forest undergrowth. Well-trodden grass. More paths, and still more. This wasn't a crossroads; it was chaos.

Wow! I didn't expect so many worlds to answer the call for help. This is a lot!

"What do you mean 'call for help'?" asked Laura, head spinning. "Where are you? I can't see you!"

Oh! I can help with that. One moment, please!

The roads continued to collide, joining together in a circular plaza which seemed to change its appearance with each new road that appeared. Right now it was brown flagstones. No, now it was beach-sand wet with sea spray.

Above the plaza, the air shimmered as if from rising heat, and a cloud of smoke and light swirled into existence. It glowed, faintly, like a sunbeam hitting motes of dust. Slightly silver. Gently golden.

"Is this better?"

Laura nodded, dumbly. She could make out other people walking along the paths, now. Not just humans – pokémon, too. Lots of pokémon.

"You asked what I meant by 'call for help'," said the cloud of light. "I meant it literally, of course! Although I suppose, I could have meant it figuratively? Either way, a call for help was sent out to every world in range at the time, and many of those worlds responded! Your world was one of these, and you are the soul it has sent in reply. The first, in fact. Perhaps it was the closest! I do not know very much about other worlds, so I can only speculate! Isn't this exciting?"

A dozen or so questions clamoured in Laura's throat to be next she asked.

"...Soul?" she asked, her voice breaking a little on the word.

"Yes! You are a soul, and this is the Astral Plains. Oh, but do not worry! You are not dead!"

The cloud pulsed with light, and Laura got the strangest sense of certainty that it was laughing.

"Then, what...?"

"Your soul is only visiting this place. And you will only visit the world you are called to. Then, when it is over, you will return to your body, without memory of this, without time passing, like a dream."

To her surprise, Laura wasn't afraid. She ought to be. But... nothing. She felt fine. She hardly ever felt fine.

"Do I... get a choice?"

"You already answered the call. All of you did. You chose before you came here."

'All' of them. Laura looked around.

There were dozens of souls.

 

[MintyMimix]

"Feels like I stepped into one wild painting."

The Mismagius's nonchalant comment matched his half-lidded gaze and gentle sway. His movements were slow but intentional as a relaxed smile permeated his face. "Looks like I'm not the only one here either. Groovy. This gonna be our little team then?"

An easygoing chuckle escaped his lips. "Well, maybe not 'little'. Still, much as I'd like to lend a brew or two, there's a lot of spooky lookin' fellas here. You sure we'll be able to even understand each other?"

One of Ghaspius's tassels tugged at his scarf. "Now that I think about it, it's a new world, ain't it? Can we even talk to the people we're supposed to be helpin'? At or least, y'know, read whatever they write down?"

His eyes lowered down to his accessory as he mumbled, "Are they even clothes-wearin' folk...?"

 

[Jackie Cat]

The mismagius... spoke. Not just articulate pokéspeech, but straight-up Galarish. Or, wait... was she only hearing it that way?

"I know what clothes are! So I am quite sure clothes probably exist in my world. I hope they are real, and not a fanciful fiction!"

The cloud shimmered and flickered, and Laura guessed that it was nervous.

"I am very sure that you will be able to communicate," added the voice. "Souls can always understand each other here, but once you arrive, I will translate for you. You will understand and be understood by any sapient being that uses language, including each other. Very convenient!"

Laura put a knuckle to her lips and pressed her teeth against it. 'Understanding' was more than just speaking the same language, or appearing to...

 

[Chibi Pika]

A strange voice in a dream. A strange, shifting plaza. A call for help. That unmistakable feeling, like that day in the burned forest, the day that had changed her life forever.

You already answered the call. All of you did. You chose before you came here.

A swirling mixture of fear, apprehension, and oddly... acceptance filled Jade's mind. It was the feeling of standing on the precipice of something much larger than herself, something she couldn't turn her back on, even if she tried.

Jade glanced back and forth between the dozens of souls taking shape around her, and it was like joining the Rebellion all over again. She swallowed hard, and her eyes fell on the gold and silver mist that was apparently speaking to all of them.

"You mentioned a call for help... what kind of... who are we helping? Why can't someone already in this world do it?"

 

[Jackie Cat]

"Unclear! I think you should help everyone, just to be safe. The hero who sent the call said 'I can't save it on my own'. Normally, only one hero at a time comes from another world, apparently. But with so many of you, I am sure you stand an excellent chance of helping, and will not be 'screwed' like the one who called for help!"

Laura bit her knuckle. The girl who'd just spoken couldn't have been more than, what, sixteen? Give or take a year. Heroes from other worlds, they were supposed to be. They didn't even have their pokémon. 'Screwed' sounded right.

"What're we supposed to howling do to help, anyway? I'm only human. Not even special." She waggled her fingers in the air, gesturing to her unremarkable, unmuscled, powerless human body.

Her... human body?

Her paws. She waggled the digits on her paws at her meowth body.

"Ah, yes. I am still configuring your new bodies. I made them myself, based on what I can intuit about your souls. I hope you like them!"

The cloud billowed gently. It was 'gesturing' to the assembling crowd.

"Does anyone else have any questions?" it asked.

 

[Mr.RMA]

The vicious, crashing thunder and pattering rain had all but completely subseeded, and that strange, distant voice... it had become clearer, as that strange pattern of light he'd felt himself getting pulled into... to some metaphysical extent, had been replaced with some kind of cosmic void.

All of this felt like some kind of surreal dream, yet he didn't quite feel so... how to put it best... floaty? There was always a strange floaty sensation he'd always feel when he was aware of being in a dream, as rare as those occasions were. This scenario was lacking in such a feeling... If anything, it felt more like he'd just woken up after dosing off from a nap that had gone on for much longer than he'd intended.

Instinctively he began stumbling forward toward the sound of voices up ahead, still too dazed to really take a proper account of anything, be it his surroundings or himself, in further detail.

Eventually he noticed some kind of glowing cloud that seemed to be... talking? Like some kind of mythological god or spirit... Well... that just raised a few further and potentially unsettling questions...

"...Are we dead or something?" he eventually managed to ask, deciding to just go for the first blunt question on his mind.

 

[IFBench]

A monster was amongst the gathering crowd. A horrific mishmash of two wildly different creatures, haphazardly stuck together.

This is all your fault.
MY fault?! You agreed!
I thought it was gonna bring us home and seperate us!
Well, I actually want to help.

The monster's tail lashed wildly as it stepped forward, looking around. Then, in a strange voice that simultaneously sounded like it was dying, like it was two voices at once, and also feminine, it spoke.

"So. What do you need help with? And why are we STILL like this?"

 

[AdamArtDraws]

A metallic arm raised up and waved for attention, the Meowscarada attached to it wearing a carefree nonchalant smile. Felin lowered her arm and brought it to her hip and tapped the heel on her boot on the ground. Whatever she actually felt about the situation, her face didn't translate it all that much.

"How long is this job going to be, because I got to say this is no ordinary gig, is it?" She snorted and cast a sweeping glance over the rest of the posse. "I have half a mind to believe none of this is even real and I'll wake back in my heap of hay by morning."

She waved that same mechanical arm again and chuckled to herself when Corey spoke. "I like to think I'm alive and well. In any case, count me in. I'm Felin Boots. Just make it worth my while."

 

[Namohysip]

"...Heroes, hm?"

Nearby, arms crossed, was a Treecko with a looming shadow of a Lunala over her shoulder. Yet, she was here. They appeared to be the same soul, only with a strange, dark link keeping them from fully integrating. Something from her world, perhaps.

This was Mhynt, from a world far from here, and she personally did not think she should have been this misguided force's first choice.

"If you want power, I can provide it. But if only my soul is here... I doubt much of what we can do in our world will carry over. Am I correct in this?"

The Treecko, somehow, seemed unfazed by this. A perceptive eye would see a hint of relief and joy in her subtle body language. Still, she was reserved and closed off by default.

"If a soul alone is all that is coming over, what is useful of us? Our valor? Or do you only need someone from outside?"

Her eyes narrowed, skeptical.

"Or do you just need pawns to move on a chessboard?"

 

[Ambyssin]

You already answered the call. All of you did. You chose before you came here.

You already answered.

Already answered.

Already.

There were distant murmurs. Blurry figures in the corner of his peripheral vision. Vision that was already obscured.

That light. Strange and cloudlike. Radiance adrift in front of them. Tossing claims around so affably. But its look. Its look.

Nova could only see it. The thing he was forced to grow like some twisted plant.

... No, the thing he could only watch grow. While the endless chains suffocated him, dragged him back into the depths every time he thought he managed to find an opening and push his way back out.

It was why that voice was so startling. It had somehow slipped through the chains. Surely, that meant it knew a path to freedom. A way to pull pull him out of that dark abyss. He didn't even give it much thought. Just focused on the voice. And the chains slipped away. Slipped, slipped away.

But this wasn't right. This didn't sound like freedom at all. An answer without a question wasn't a choice. Did that mean this was just another phenomena that blasted thing had already affirmed?

"Or do you just need pawns to move on a chessboard?"

... Someone else was thinking it, then. Unless this someone else — tiny, like so many others — was only there to tell him the things he wanted to hear.

"A pawn. Like me?"

That was what he was, after all. And he said it out loud, realizing all too late that not only was his voice too deep, but something was muffling it.

The mask. It had followed him. The embodiment of his lack of choice.

If this was meant to be some spirit realm, its principles quickly disappeared. Nova hacked out a rasping cough. He tried to suck in a sharp breath but the mask was there to stop him.

Air. Why was air so hard to come by?!

 

[Jackie Cat]

"...Are we dead or something?"

"Not at all! Your soul is only visiting, and will return safely to your body when this is over."

Corey's vision pulsed for a moment, and the cloud's words from earlier echoed in his mind.

"So. What do you need help with? And why are we STILL like this?"

"Unclear! Your world sent you together, which is quite unique. I do not seem to have any means of separating you. I am so sorry for the inconvenience!"

"How long is this job going to be, because I got to say this is no ordinary gig, is it? I have half a mind to believe none of this is even real and I'll wake back in my heap of hay by morning."

[...]

"Just make it worth my while."

"I can not predict how long it will be! I know at least one hero has remained on my world for nearly thirty years, but that may be an outlier! If you wish to cut your mission short, I believe that dying may send you home. I hope that helps!"

"If you want power, I can provide it. But if only my soul is here... I doubt much of what we can do in our world will carry over. Am I correct in this?"

[...]

"If a soul alone is all that is coming over, what is useful of us? Our valor? Or do you only need someone from outside? Or do you just need pawns to move on a chessboard?"

"I can not replicate any abilities you may be used to, but your new bodies will acquire power over time. More power, and faster, than the baseline for a living being! I can not move you like game pieces, but I believe that your worlds must have sent you for a reason. If you have great valour, perhaps that is a reason why!"

 

[Ambyssin]

"You can't give me power!"

Nova blurted it out without thinking it. But how could they say nothing of his would transfer over when the mask was still there? Clearly, it wasn't the truth.

"You're not— you replicated something." He hunched over, clawing at the mask. "Why... should I trust you? How do I know... you're not just here to control me?"

 

[Inkedust]

The dream started as normal. The dark forest, the shadow-y being who called it its domain, and her need to run from it. But as Bellatrix played through the motions, things shifted in a way she could never imagine. The thicket ended abruptly, giving way to the star sea and silence had it not been for the voices of others.

She'd overheard the important parts, and tried to hide under an illusionary veil to ask her questions from there. If her abilities would work. There's no reason not to, right?

"And what of our lives?" she asked, voice flat, unenthused. "Have we vanished until whatever favour you request is fulfilled for however long?

 

[Namohysip]

Mhynt's fingers tap, tap, tapped on her arms. Words, only words.

"I suppose we will have to see," she stated flatly. "I apologize if I'm being rude, but I can't answer to simple words. Whatever you said to call me here must have been very convincing..."

Or I was desperate to get away.

She glanced at Nova, nodding with a brief flash of sympathy. "Be cautious of your own mind. Compare your thoughts, before and now. And keep doing so. That's the best you can do."

 

[Mr.RMA]

"Oh, right... okay, uh, guess I missed that part..." How was anyone able to pay attention while they were in this surreal, ever-changing landscape? It was a miracle Corey could even comprehend what people were saying... and really, could one blame him for doubting this cloud-thing's assurances when talking treeckos and floragato were about? And this mention of memory loss after the whole debacle comes to a close...

"...Pray tell, why is this something we're all inclined to just forget afterwards? Is it too much for our mortal minds to retain?"

 

[Spiteful Murkrow]

Lyle shot up and gasped for breath, breathing in and out as startled fire poured from his vents he ran a paw down his body. No wounds or aches, but at the same time, no bag or scarf. He'd heard a voice in the dark after his head hit the ground and everything went black, had he been dreaming when he agreed to go along with it?

It sure felt like he was dreaming. All around were various Pokémon emerging from a darkened plain, faces he didn't recognize and accents that all sounded strange to him.

If this wasn't a dream, he was definitely far, far away from home. And then there was some cloud of light thing that was speaking a little ways away. Lyle missed chunks of the conversation, but he was pretty sure he heard it say something about "souls visiting" and "new bodies".

"Wait, who are you?" the Quilava asked. "And what the hell is this place?"

 

[Chibi Pika]

"Or do you just need pawns to move on a chessboard?"

A chill came over Jade. A pawn. She'd been one once before. And from the sounds of it, so had the Treecko. And so had the strange hybrid-experiment. The voice sounded like it genuinely wanted to help--it didn't seem right to compare that to someone who'd lie and manipulate like Stalker had done.

But looks could be deceiving...

 

[AdamArtDraws]

"I can not predict how long it will be! I know at least one hero has remained on my world for nearly thirty years, but that may be an outlier! If you wish to cut your mission short, I believe that dying may send you home. I hope that helps!"

"Dying will take me home?" Felin slapped her chest and laughed. "You have a way with words, floating cloud. I hate to disappoint, but I don't plan on dying here."

Felin trailed her claw across her cheek, and her paw pad met not a mask as she expected, but dense fur instead. She plucked the paw away and her pupils drew to slits. Her height had been cut short, and her body reduced to that of a sprigatito. Her metallic arm vanished as well, and a flesh and bone arm stared back at her.

"Right. Remind me why you summoned us in half pint forms again?" She twirled her finger in the air, her red eyes fixed on the talking cloud. "Is that a limitation on your power or does it go deeper? You see, I quite like being tall. It boosts self esteem, you know?"

 

[Namohysip]

"May send us home," Mhynt warned Felin. "It sounds like an uncertainty. For all we know, it will trap us in whatever afterlife this new reality has until we're found and rescued, if that's possible. We should be careful even if we take this... proposal on."