Novelux Teardrop Island

[Shiny Phantump]

Gladion’s eyes lit up. He’d let Jesse slip his mind, but it would be really useful to have him around. Which was probably why he disappeared. But the guy didn’t seem like a Coven member to him, he’d fallen in love and had a kid with Sierra, which stuck Gladion as not particularly likely to be a Coven-sanctioned activity. (They’d complained about some humans with headstrong partners, hadn’t they? Were they making a veiled jab at Sierra? That was kind of funny, actually.)

“Right, Jesse, yeah.” He nodded. “Would be really nice to have him around right now. Given he was the last human hero summoned, to the best of our knowledge.” Kind of. There was still the Litten, but… Semantics. “And then he and his daughter disappeared before we arrived. Like someone was trying to clear the board. I’d be surprised if he was a part of your organization, given… y’know. Circumstantial evidence. Point being, I’m curious if you’ve got anything about what might’ve happened. Pretty sure that’d lead us towards our problem.”

We should ask Sierra about him and the crisis they dealt with, later…

 

[JFought]

Isidora had finally stopped panting. The rush was over, she proved herself, she won. And yet, she was left feeling... underwhelmed.

What, were you expecting a bird to start grovelling? She absentmindedly started licking her claws. It would've been nice...

She stole a momentary glance at Laura, but it felt too strange to hold it.

Straightening up, Isidora watched Andre eagerly take his place in the Covenant and scoffed. "Right." Can't believe I was worried for him. She was ready to ditch this and wait to leave, but just as she was about to turn away, she remembered she was talking to a Saint. She had to at least try and learn something about them here.

She finally looked up to meet their gaze. "I've only got one thing I'm curious about. Pokémon become Saints through inheritance; how did you become one?"

 

[Jackie Cat]

Isidora stole a momentary glance at Laura, but it felt too strange to hold it.

The Radiance and Shadow bled from Laura like fading adrenaline. She met Isidora's eyes, acutely aware of her own expression – wide eyes, ears low – but the Sneasel looked away first. What was the next step? Approach her? Everything in her said give her space, but they weren't strangers to each other. They were on this team together and would be for a while yet. Better that she try to make a connection, surely.

Just, maybe not right now.

“Right, Jesse, yeah. Would be really nice to have him around right now. Given he was the last human hero summoned, to the best of our knowledge. And then he and his daughter disappeared before we arrived. Like someone was trying to clear the board. I’d be surprised if he was a part of your organization, given… y’know. Circumstantial evidence. Point being, I’m curious if you’ve got anything about what might’ve happened. Pretty sure that’d lead us towards our problem.”

Articuno sighed their usual soft whistle of contemplation.

"We would dearly like for Jesse Stranger to join the Covenant, but... he is a singularly independent individual. He has resisted our every attempt to reach out to him. Agents describe him as haggard, paranoid, confrontational. There are signs of... alcoholism. Strange that when he vanished that he did not take his life-mate with him, is it not? I had wondered at one point if he had returned to his home world, for that to be true, but to the best of my knowledge he yet remains on Forlas, unwell as he may be."

The legendary bird brushed their masked brow with a wingtip, gesturing that they were troubled.

Laura swallowed and coughed lightly, her throat still raw from the blizzard.

"And his daughter? ...Luxio Brisa?"

Articuno shook their head gravely.

"An agent of the Covenant was sent to make contact with her, but if he was successful, I'm sure I would have heard a report to that effect by now. I recall that she was identified entering a particularly intractable Mystery Dungeon in eastern Landsverd, but that report was several weeks ago."

Laura's tail thrashed restlessly. "She apparently had some kind of companion with her."

"Not when she was last seen, at least," replied the Saint. "But I expect you'll have opportunity to inquire further in due time. You'll need to travel east to investigate the matter of the ARK Unit – and to confront what remains of Cipher – after all."

"I've only got one thing I'm curious about. Pokémon become Saints through inheritance; how did you become one?"

Articuno folded away their wings, and closed their eyes. For a moment, it looked as if they had fallen asleep, or else become a statue depicting serene meditation.

"In truth, though I am very old, I am not the first of my mantle," they said at last, their voice a little lower than usual. "I studied under my predecessor for many years – in the distant country of Akkairos – learning everything from them that they could teach me. Not only mastery of my powers, mere combat, but etiquette, law, ethics... History, philosophy, mathematics. All things."

The bird's eyes opened, staring at the ghost of a memory.

"She passed before I finished my apprenticeship. Not in a manner she would have chosen. There was a great disaster, a time of upheaval, and I... I claimed her relic, and became what I am. What I am is, so far as I can achieve, as close to her ideal as I have means to be."

 

[Inkedust]

Bellatrix nodded along to the Wayfarer's questions and listened to Articuno's answers evenly. Though there was interest in learning more about their ascension to Sainthood, she was far more interested in the topic of Jesse and Brisa. She did not know Jesse, so she had no way to know if his reasoning to resist the Covenant's attempts to reach out were reasonable or not but she certainly took mind at the given description.

"Certainly not what one would expect of a hero," Bellatrix observed simply. A sensitive subject it so seemed. "It does make me wonder what it is that his Beacon sees in him. And, disregarding us seeing that we're both well aware that we're outliers, Jesse is the most recent human hero to be summoned, yes?" It was an innocuous question, one designed to see how much Articuno knew of the existence of the most recent case - the litten, if she wasn't mistaken - her tone carefully controlled to indicate curiosity.

 

[Jackie Cat]

"The most recent confirmed hero," amended the bird. "We are treating all ostensible instances of a current-day hero as conjecture, pending proper investigation. Many in the Covenant were prepared to believe that you were the modern heroes, collectively."

Articuno nodded gravely, and sighed – though the sigh seemed more concerned with fatigue and injury (to themself and to the Wayfarers) than with Jesse, judging by the careful way they moved their wings, and a lingering look at the least-recovered combatants.

"But we digress – indeed, Jesse Stranger is not the paragon he may once have been. His performance in the Entropic Crisis was admirable. That was the task for which he was chosen, and that is the task he completed, to much acclaim. After that, however... I imagine his life became much more complicated. Domestic, political, financial. No pokémon can be a dashing, daring hero forever, solving their problems with youthful charisma and the deft application of force. Jesse Stranger the hero was a brave young man, fighting a clear and present danger. Jesse Stranger the sheriff of Frontier Town was a middle-aged homeowner enduring a gradual separation with his wife, and various incidents concerning his daughter."

The bird somehow pursed their beak, or something close to such an expression.

"Very few 'mon are the same person as they were in their prime, after two decades or more."

Articuno shook their head, and gestured to the cluster of buildings nearby.

"But we are all of us weary, and the weather shall not improve. Please, allow me to invite you to Teardrop Station campus, to rest a moment before I transport you all home."

 

[Shiny Phantump]

Gladion stifled a laugh. “Honestly, that sounds pretty good as far as it could’ve gone, with someone that powerful. Worst thing’s some divorce drama and his kid? Could’ve ended up corrupt.”

Were those buildings empty? He didn’t want anyone to see him here. “Speaking of corruption, nobody’s gonna see me in those buildings, right? Given the reason we’re here, I don’t want to be seen by anyone who might be involved.”

 

[Jackie Cat]

Articuno's face hinted very subtly at disdain at that word, 'corruption'.

"He could have taken much, much worse paths," agreed the bird. Then their eyes narrowed. "If you do not wish to be seen at all, I suppose you'll need to wait outside, Gladion. I apologise, but at least you can take on Ice- or Fire-typing for your relative comfort. Of course, while Covenant channels are already aware of two Graydians present in Sojaveña, I can vouch for my own staff and I give you my word that they will not report your particulars to any malign faction, should it exist."

Precisely-worded as always, but sincere.

"Whatever you decide, I will have you all back home shortly. If you would?"

The legendary gestured with a wing, and led the way to Teardrop Station...

<><><><><>​

 

[Butterfree]

At this point, Dave couldn't really get around it. A bunch of Wayfarers had decided to work with the Covenant, for some reason. Apparently the psychic Articuno was their leader. They wanted the Wayfarers to help them root out corruption within the organization or some shit, and people seemed pretty down for that. And all Dave could think was what the fuck, why do we trust this fucker.

So he asked around and got someone to pass along a message saying he wanted to talk. Part of him wondered if Articuno was doing some kind of psychic bullshit, hypnotizing people into agreeing the Covenant was great actually. But he'd also read that Dark-types were meant to be immune to that kind of shit in Forlas. Either Articuno could tell him something real fucking persuasive about why this organization wasn't a shady fucking child-brainwashing bigotry club and they could simply root out all the bad apples and the rest of them would never, or he could come back with some ammunition to try and persuade his fellow Wayfarers to stop helping these shitheads.

In return, he'd received an invitation to Teardrop Island, on the ferry with the staff. Well, why the fuck not. Let's hear what Articuno had to say about the Covenant.

 

[Jackie Cat]

The ferry wasn't busy – just a handful of Teardrop staffers heading back to base, and each disinclined to have the kind of conversation Dave had in mind. They passed through the lake-mists peacefully enough, besides the thumping of the engine and the paddles it drove.

Articuno was waiting for him on the shore, by the pontoon.

"David Ambrose, I presume?" they said, their voice calm and precise. "I make no assumptions without evidence, but your message struck me as what my colleagues might call 'forthright'. We have catering if you would like, but I admit that I'm anticipating direct and immediate conversation."

Their beak twitched in a subtle smile, as if this consistuted a friendly joke by their personal standards.

"Forgive my long-windedness. My position demands that I regularly suffer the company of politicians and their ilk."

 

[Butterfree]

The whole secret mist-covered island thing struck Dave as pretty pretentious, but then again, what else should he expect from somebody who led a secret society of elites.

"Yeah, hi," he said to the giant bird. It was hard not to be aware of the size and power differential, Dark-type or no; some ancient Mightyena-instinct in the back of his brain said You cannot take this guy; don't give them a reason to start a fight, and of course that just made him almost want to spite that instinct, but fine. He was here to talk, and learn, and challenge to whatever extent would not get him ground into a fine paste.

He took a breath. "Look, I'm here because I gather you want us to investigate some faction within your organization that's up to no good. Great. Thing is, so far, I haven't had the greatest impression of what your organization is about to begin with. Let's say this faction you want us to investigate is behind all the shady fucking experimentation stuff, and the bit about recruiting anyone with an ounce of human blood so aggressively that people are holing up in dungeons and disappearing themselves to get away, including confused fucking teenagers just arrived from another world. Fair enough, root out those people. But meanwhile you've got people like Nolan the Inteleon, who seems to think 'humans', by which he means humans and all their generations-later descendants, shouldn't mix with Pokémon because they'll 'leach the humans' power'. There's this Monferno guy who thinks because humans are just stronger they should nobly take responsibility for the poor weaker Pokémon or some shit. What's up with all that? Are you telling me all those weird-ass attitudes are also just the fault of this one nefarious subgroup and the true Covenant doesn't believe any of this shit? Or do we need to have a talk about that? Because I'm not a fan."

Going to be hard to believe even if they did say it was all the secret faction of baddies, of course. The true Covenant probably stood for sunshine and rainbows in the same sort of way the way true Christianity stood for loving thy neighbor.

 

[Jackie Cat]

Articuno listened with their usual dispassionate regard. They didn't seem to take offense to anything, their inscrutable face remaining still throughout Dave's rancour.

"Forthright indeed," they mused. "Well, I can address those points individually if you'd like me to. However, since your thesis would seem to be that I claim there is nothing wrong with my organisation besides the existence of this one faction, I'll first say that this is not in fact my belief."

Articuno folded one wing neatly away, and gestured with the other, somehow seeming professorial even in a snowy outdoor environment.

"Having observed shifts in culture and policy within the Covenant over the last two centuries, I have lately found myself increasingly concerned with excessively paternalistic attitudes towards the mass public, the consolidation of influence within the society among a narrowing strata of members, and a presumption of involvement in political and economic affairs (whereas such interventions were once considered a third- or fourth-resort at best). There are safeguards against nepotism and abuses of office, to be sure. I wrote several of them into the constitution myself. Nevertheless, I am not so naive as to believe that the Covenant will be institutionally pristine when our work is done."

 

[Butterfree]

Dave peered at Articuno. Okay. So they acknowledged this institution had problems, and seemed less than happy with the paternalistic attitudes and dodgy politics. That was something.

"Okay, well, if you're concerned about the paternalistic shit, heads up that you really want to be addressing that. Over in Frontier Town where we first heard about the Covenant, it was hey, there's this group of humans and human descendants who think they're superior to other Pokémon and they're going to try their hardest to recruit you into their club, so ideally don't even let on that you're human. All in all your people clearly haven't been giving off the greatest impression of what you're about."

Sparkwright had sure said the Covenant was incessantly trying to get him on board, but he didn't seem to have been harassed to the degree Brisa had been until Matthias had showed up. Whoever was giving Matthias orders was probably whoever'd 'aggressively recruited' him. So, charitably, if the only people doing that shit were this one group, maybe the others were merely annoying.

"This faction we're meant to investigate - is that the same as the 'Commonwealth Bureau of Investigation' people, or is that a separate thing?"

 

[Jackie Cat]

Articuno shook their head, then tilted it, as if reconsidering.

"It's... not strictly unrelated," they said, carefully. "The summoned boy called Matthias is one individual we can be certain is enmeshed in the conscpiracy, and his position is as an agent of the Sable Office, our intelligence department. Many Sable agents in turn have positions in the CBI, which is a Commonwealth intelligence and law enforcement agency."

The bird frowned, their expression shifting, but they remained too opaque to read...

"This practice began out of a wish to commit to public service, the Covenant not having need of a large permanent staff of agents of its own. In these times, Sable service in the CBI is more often a means of leveraging state authority towards the society's objectives – these being ostensibly in the public good in their own right. Much of the time, I would agree that this is broadly true, and the current generation of Sable agents have been instrumental in the arrest of organised crime bosses in Landsverd and Eleutheria. However, I no longer approve of the arrangement. However well-intentioned, it is corrupt by nature."

They sighed, their eyes narrowing.

"I have given thought to whether I could – and should – have forestalled the change. I cannot ever know for sure."

This was certainly the perspective of a generations-old Saint. What had begun as talented young idealists holding multiple positions had become an institutionalised intelligence network, parallel to the state's own. Something the founders likely could not have predicted in an era where 'intelligence departments' were a novel concept, but which would not strike today's members as odd or untoward. Articuno, however, had witnessed the change... perhaps they had raised concerns at Covenant meetings and been given reassurances time and time again. Perhaps they had not wished to dictate to other members how they should conduct themselves, lest they be a demigod making demands of mortals...

 

[Butterfree]

Matthias had maintained he was working against the Covenant from within. So was he working against the Sable Office? Or was the Sable Office as a whole working against the rest of the Covenant? Was it a good idea to bring that up to Articuno?

"So this Sable Office, the intelligence department, that's the shady faction? And some but not all of them are also government agents, with their own agenda? Who's in charge of the Sable Office? Is that somebody with CBI connections or no?"

This all did sound fishy as hell. Especially if it meant this intelligence department was leveraging government resources to do whatever the fuck they wanted, and a bunch of them were unrepentant human supremacists.

"What exactly are the society's objectives, here? You want humans and human descendants to join this thing, okay. Why? What do you actually want with a big human club?"

 

[Jackie Cat]

Articuno considered this carefully, as they did with almost everything. As the snow began to fall more thickly, they brandished a wing, and diverted the weather. It was getting cold, not that it bothered the bird.

"I find it hard to countenance that the entire Sable Office is its own faction, and ideologically aligned at that. The politics in that community are... intricate. The current chair of the office is Decidueye Tawenna, a personal friend and one-time mentee of mine – she is a native, a 'tribal' who could not obtain employment by the CBI, much less control it. I believe it's more likely that members of this faction are distributed across multiple departments – in particular, the Office of Natural Philosophy. They are quite a substantial sub-organisation, and the creation of the ARK Unit could hardly have been completed without the involvement of at least some natural philosphers."

They took a long breath before addressing the other question.

"I assumed you'd have gathered an impression of the Covenant's reason for being from previous interactions, but perhaps it would be worthwhile to hear it as I would put it?"

It was true that several takes on this had been heard by various Wayfarers at different times. Only Articuno had been alive at the time of the founding, however.

"The Covenant was founded in the wake of one of the 'Crises' which periodically afflicts this world. The Crisis in question threatened the fledgling colonies on the east coast which would later form the Commonwealth, and the human hero of the time became a public figure in a politically charged environment. She was burdened with responsibility, or a popular perception of it, to safeguard against future Crises.

"This was a time without mass literacy, much less mass communications, and so she and the allies she could gather – most prominently descendants of other summoned humans, these being both strong and amenable – founded a society to investigate extraordinary phenomena that could become Crises, and to maintain an organisation that could be counted on to help prevent, mitigate, or defeat future Crises. One that could support itself without public funding or the politicking that would entail. Their foremost objectives were the protection of sapient lives and natural environments from supernatural disaster, and academic inquiry into the supernatural world.

"However, there was a secondary purpose for it, understated where stated at all in the constitutional documents. The human and her human-descended colleagues were isolated from the civilisation they lived in. Both culturally, and socially as a response to their prodigious strength, driven natures, and queer behaviours. The nascent Covenant was originally just a few dozen members strong, and hardly more than a social club for a collection of idealistic friends who couldn't fit in with ordinary society, and who struggled with traumatic disorders of the mind that are poorly understood today, and not at all in their time."

In other words, the founders had been volunteer heroes in a time of Crisis, marginalised by the very public they'd saved for being weird and dangerous and having PTSD. And they'd created a sort of... super-hero league.

Articuno's expression was barely perceptibly different. Barely. But perhaps Dave could intuit something of what they felt – or guess at what a Saint might feel long after all those people were dead.

 

[Butterfree]

Dave blinked at Articuno's story. This whole thing, the elite society of humans with pretenses of greatness, originated as a support group for superpowered misfits because they were ostracized? It sounded fucking ridiculous, and yet. That was exactly what'd happened to Brisa according to Gerome, wasn't it. Different, powers that scared the townies, so they'd decided she was trouble and dangerous.

He looked away, expelling an irritated breath. "So over time that just spiralled into this? I gather you're keeping tabs on humans and how they're using their power and have a whole thing about how their human blood makes them special and obligates them to work for the greater good. Isn't that kind of going against the whole founding principle of the thing? You start out trying to give support and community to people who are being oppressed, and then you wind up with people like them being watched and hounded by your organization, while explicitly or implicitly pushing the idea some people are just meant for greater things than others?"

Another breath. God. "I guess you're saying the main lead we have on this faction is Matthias himself, and we need to find more about who he reports to?" For a moment Dave looked at Articuno. They were probably sincere, weren't they. Somehow ended up presiding over all this fuckery anyway, but they'd wanted this thing to be a force for good. Goddamn it. "At the museum, Matthias mentioned he was trying to work against the Covenant from within. I don't know if that meant him working against whatever this faction is up to, or his faction working against the Covenant as a whole, or if he was just fucking bullshitting or what."

 

[Jackie Cat]

Articuno considered Dave's two angles of conversation, weighing up which to elaborate on. There was his opening fusillade to return to at some point, too. Perhaps it could all be addressed efficiently – they had the patience for it, as busy as they kept.

"I couldn't say for certain whether Matthias is sincere, or if so whether he is working against his own faction or the wider organisation. I have never met him to get an impression of my own. Still, his emotional connection to Gallade Valere is likely very real – and Valere's opposition to the Covenant may well shed light on his own, if you can learn more about it. That is, assuming they broke only on means and not on ends."

Was that a wry smile on the bird's face?

"...I suspect that to be the case, personally. While the Sable Office keeps its cards close to its chest, I can't help but question why Greninja Matthias, who ran circles around Covenant agents for years while still an adolescent, is now seemingly unable to successfully execute operations in the Taleska region. I'm sure he has unimpeachable explanations to report to his superiors... and few Covenant would question the strength and competency of a summoned human hero like Matthias."

Articuno's sarcasm could win awards for subtlety.

Dave had asked about that, too – the Covenant's attitudes about relative humanity. The bird had deftly brought it back.

"It's true enough that there is some neurosis in the organisation about human heritage and summoned status. Many members feel motivated by a moral responsibility to use their powers and resources for the common good. It is a common aphorism among our knights in particular, that if you have the ability to intervene and are instead negligent, that you are then part-responsible for whatever harm you failed to prevent.

"Worse still, what of humans who use their strength for personal gain, or out of malice? It is by no means unheard of. One touchstone example is that of Chesnaught Tamuk, a notorious bandit who terrorised the Soja' and mid-west a century ago – but he is not at all unique. It is uncontroversial in the Covenant that we ought to intervene in such cases.

"In general, however, simply keeping tabs on humans is sufficient, often through simple correspondence. 'Compelled admission', using coercion, is unconstitutional. There are many distantly-descended pokémon in the Commonwealth who are of 'least concern' having declined membership. There are few of 'serious concern', but Outreach policy is to avoid confrontation except in expressly violent cases.

"In truth, only a fraction of the Covenant are especially combat-capable, and most members do not have the knightly attitude I alluded to – though many certainly have a 'sophophilic' vocation. Championing charitable causes, for instance, or research into medicinal botany using dungeon flora."

 

[Butterfree]

Dave squinted at Articuno, the many words and answers that had been forming in his head temporarily shunted to the side. "Hang on. Professor Greenbough is a member of the Covenant? She's not human, is she?"

 

[Jackie Cat]

"Mm?" Articuno blinked. "Oh, you've met her, then? She is distantly descended. Her family are traditionally agrarian to the point that they're acculturated to Landsverd more than to the Covenant baseline. My impression is that it's not a terribly important part of her self-conception."

 

[Butterfree]

"I mean, I work for her, so yes, I've met her. I'm a geneticist back home myself." 'Distantly descended' probably made sense. She clearly hadn't had any prior understanding of genetics; as far as he could tell she'd just been working it out on her own through her scientific intuition. So whatever contact she'd had with the Covenant, it wasn't humans who'd just learned that stuff as bored teenagers in high school. Probably checked out if her human ancestor was some kind of farmer. God, though. She'd been a member of the fucking thing this whole time? Clearly not exactly in tight contact with them, but still. How much of the Covenant's 'natural philosophy' department was humans taking advantage of their perfectly unremarkable knowledge of science and tech from more advanced worlds and how much of it was just actual scientists like Greenbough?

"Anyway, wanting to do good with your powers is all well and good," Dave went on. "And yeah, by all means do something about dipshits taking advantage of supernatural powers to do whatever they want to other people. But keeping tabs on people for who their distant ancestors are is pretty fucked, as far as I'm concerned. Can't you just address problems whether it's humans behind them or not, and leave people alone if they're not hurting anyone?"

He exhaled through his nose. "This whole notion that humans are just special is pretty fucking weird to me. In the worlds where we actually exist we consistently don't have any fucking powers. It's got to be about being offworlders, right? Or at the very least, if not, I had this theory it was some kind of amplification, that it's just about human and Pokémon auras, or offworlder and native auras, having frequencies that resonate with each other somehow, so the combination of both is what does it? Because humans just being better at being Pokémon, for no reason, in a world that doesn't even have humans in it, doesn't make any fucking sense unless it was, like, intelligently designed by some kind of weird-ass deity with a hard-on for humans in particular. In which case fuck that deity."