Sojaveña Wilds Totally Normal Bulletin Board

[AdamArtDraws]

Felin had been facing away from the bulletin board at the time. She also sensed nothing out of the ordinary, relaxed as she was.

"You should spread your reach, Nova. It's a big world out there," Felin said with a small laugh. "Obstine Abbey, it's a good place. Was a monastery. A bit secluded, but being in the mountains over in the west gets you that. Most of all..."

She crinkled her nose, her tail going stiff as a shudder went up her spine. "It was cold. Too cold for a grassmon. Don't get me started on how many times my tongue got stuck on my fur whenever I tried to groom."

Felin heaved a sigh and shook her head. "I took this job from Razael half expecting to go to volcanic mountains and perhaps dip my paws in a hot spring here and there. Boy was I wrong."

 

[Ambyssin]

Nova blinked several times. Razael? Monastery?

"... Oh. I guess I do know that place," he said. He'd just... forgotten. In the relatively short time that followed that mystery dungeon. "Some of us fought Razael. And a dewott that leads the Rangers." Nova looked away, though he was really glancing where Mew had gone to. "I did badly. As it is... I'm a liability. Shouldn't be trying to work with the team while this helmet's on. So, that's what I'm focusing on."

He got to his feet. "Speaking of which, my training partner's arrived." Nova bent over in a stretch. His spine loudly popped in several places. Dirt caking his fur trickled between his legs. "I'd, uh, invite you, I guess. But you have to go in a poké ball for this to work. And I'm not sure you'd want that."

 

[AdamArtDraws]

"You guys fought em? Wish I'd been there," Felin said, offering him a sympathetic bap of her paw. "Don't feel too bad about however you did. Can always get back up."

He got to his feet. "Speaking of which, my training partner's arrived." Nova bent over in a stretch. His spine loudly popped in several places. Dirt caking his fur trickled between his legs. "I'd, uh, invite you, I guess. But you have to go in a poké ball for this to work. And I'm not sure you'd want that."

Felin stood in tandem with him, picking up her sword in time to quirk a brow. "A poke... ball? What's that?"

 

[Ambyssin]

Nova parsed different explanations in his head before deciding, screw it, the practical demonstration was easiest. "I'll show you."

Then he picked the sprigatito up and brough her over to where Mew was. "'sup? Brought someone else who's interested in friendship training," he said to Mew, despite knowing Felin hadn't consented. She had an adventurous spirit, though, so he figured she'd want to anyway. "Doesn't know what poké balls are, though. So, figured we'd demonstrate and she if she's still interested."

He put Felin down, then pulled his own ball out of his bag and... returned himself to it. A brief moment of blissful weightlessness.

 

[Namohysip]

Mew seemed happy to see Nova and greeted him with a nod before quickly producing a ball for Felin and offering it forward. This Mew was strange, and the meeting was sudden... a Mew, of all things... but Nova seemed to act like it was perfectly normal. Maybe it was?

 

[AdamArtDraws]

Had Nova been anyone else, she'd have dug her claws into his scales the moment he had her endure the indignity of being carried around like a small helpless kitt. Endure she did though, and was rewarded by being in the presence of the strangest mon she'd ever laid eyes on.

Before Felin could utter a word, Nova vanished from sight, absorbed into the spherical vessel. Her mouth hung wide as she watched it happen. A moment of silence passed. Not sure what else to do, she laughed.

"By Entei's mane, what is going on? He got gobbled up?" She brought her face close to the ball, not willing to touch it just yet. "Don't think he's dead though, otherwise Betelgeuse would've thrown me a heads up."

Felin remembered their guest and turned her gaze to the pink feline properly. She didn't know who or what he was, but his eyes gave no malice. Felin could feel in her heart that she could... trust him. How strange. She reached out and collected the ball handed to her.

"Guess I have to do the same to get to wherever we're going then," Felin said, fiddling with the ball, her finger tracing over the button. She smiled at Mew. "Alright. Fuck it, we ball."

The pokeball sucked her in right then and there .

 

[Namohysip]

They traveled in the air for a while. Not as long as before, but it seemed like they were also going in a different direction...

Until, after a short while, they were both summoned out and tossed into the arid landscape of a bumpy dip in the rugged landscapes. It was remote and not likely to be spotted, which made it the perfect place for some private training out in the open.

It seemed that Felin might have fallen asleep during the travel -- she would emerge later. Instead, Mew let Nova out, where he could face Mewtwo, still in his suit, standing on the other side with his usual, confident smirk.

"Brought a friend?" he asked. "You never seem to come alone."

 

[Ambyssin]

Nova didn't back down from Mewtwo's expression. "Can't exactly generate the power of friendship on my own, can I?" He tilted this head slightly. "Well, maybe some people could. But you know what they say about self-loving."

 

[Namohysip]

Mewtwo crossed his arms and floated in a circle around Nova, inspecting him with a discerning eye.

"Now," he said, "we will learn about friendship through battle. Not against me, of course... but with practicing your strength."

He gestured around him. There were large boulders--far too large for him -- set in many rows in front, all heading into another part of the dips of the rough. Dust occasionally blew from the wind.

"This place is meant to be a trade route in the future. But as it stands, it is a mess in need of clearing a path. And for your training, I want to see how far your will can take you... when you are not equipped to do the task at hand."

 

[Ambyssin]

Nova eyed the large boulders. Yeah, they were a problem. The kind of thing multiple 'mon on the railyard would tackle with the right tools. And he had... what, some blast seeds?

... Actually, yeah, he did. Maybe the same was true for Felin?

"Guess it's a good thing I don't have hands," he said to Mewtwo. Nova walked toward the first boulder. Into the shadow it cast against the sunlight.

How far will could take him... when he wasn't equipped to do the task at hand. All of Nova's experience until now suggested the answer was nowhere. That if he wasn't equipped, he should back out. But Nova made those decisions under another's orders. And then he was calling shots for the resistance, and wanted to minimize the risks wherever he could.

That logic... couldn't hold up on Forlas, right? But Nova was keeping his distance because of the risk he posed to the others. If the shadows or this other magic power Mhynt spoke of got hold of him... he could really hurt someone. The actual heroic spirits.

You're overthinking this, he told himself. The rocks were what mattered. What was right in front of him.

Nova tossed the first of blast seeds at it. Unlikely to take care of the whole thing. But enough to make it, perhaps, doable?

 

[Namohysip]

A bright explosion ripped the boulders apart, shrapnel plinking off of Nova's mask and against a light barrier in front of Mewtwo. Mew, just behind Mewtwo, was kept perfectly safe as well.

The boulders became smaller boulders. Those could be rolled aside well enough... but the same couldn't be said for the seven or so that were still in the way further ahead. The Blasts they had in total wouldn't be enough for that.

"Interesting," Mewtwo said. "Your first approach is to use tools. That's a common habit I've seen in worlds like these."

 

[Ambyssin]

“Tools? I prefer to think of them as resources.” Nova set the bag down. Got to work rolling what he could. “Unless you’re goading me… with a secret test where I’m actually supposed to ask you and your marvelous psychic powers to help.”

 

[Namohysip]

"No," Mewtwo said, shaking his head. "I won't be using my psychic powers here. Not for this. All I am here for is training and... coaching.

"Resources, you say. What would you consider a resource?"

 

[AdamArtDraws]

Felin's ball wiggled a few times before spitting her out onto the ground. The first thing she did was extend her arms out for a full body stretch, sighing with relief at the sound of popping joints.

A lump caught in Felin's throat the very moment her eyes fell on Mewtwo. She clutched the handle of her sword, her mind overflowing with scenarios to kill. Almost each one ended with her head rolling on the ground.

It was not until she glanced to the side and found Nova alive and well that she released her grip on the sword. She stared at him in alarm in alarm, greeted Mew with an equally bewildered gaze. At last her eyes fell again on Mewtwo. A long exhale drifted from her lips.

"You have the presence of a god. Who in the world are you?"

 

[Ambyssin]

"Resources, you say. What would you consider a resource?"

Nova kept moving what he could as he thought that over. "Anything could be a resource. Depends on how outside the box you can get with your thinking."

... Including me. He was a resource at the railyard, at least. Which counted as being useful, even if it wasn't immediately useful to the group's intention with shadow 'mons and this Coven business.

He had gotten what he could out of the way and went to deploy the next seed against one of the other boulders.

 

[Namohysip]

Mewtwo eyed Felin, smirking at the way she cowered and looked so ready to defend herself. "A god, you say?" he echoed with an entertained tone. "Think what you want... I am only a traveler, carrying out a small, charitable experiment."

Mew silently giggled nearby and flew around with Nova, carrying smaller rocks in his tiny hands to burn some pent-up energy.

Mewtwo turned his attention back to Nova. "How outside would you get?" Mewtwo asked. "What could be designated... as a resource, a tool to achieve some greater task?"

 

[Ambyssin]

Nova chucked the second blast seed and stepped back. "Y'know, you didn't strike me as the type to use such vague terms. 'Greater task' could mean a lotta things to different people." He shook his head and the helmet encasing it. "Even this dirt beneath my feet... could feed it to ground or rock-types. Maybe even grass-types, too. Let the minerals replenish their strength so they can keep fighting."

 

[Namohysip]

"Hmmm." Mewtwo nodded at the response. "A very diplomatic answer. Then, tell me...

"What do you think about your fellow Pokemon, then?" he asked directly. "And what is their relation to humans?"

More explosions burst apart several more boulders. Now, after their seeds were exhausted, only two major boulders remained to be moved on their own.

 

[AdamArtDraws]

Felin clamped her paws over her eyes just before the last explosion, ducked to avoid shrapnel zipping over her head and slashed away a stone heading straight for her face. A grin tugged at the corners of her lips.

It was not to hide the fact that Mewtwo's pressure felt like boulders pressing against her chest. "Hey Nova, you mind filling me in on your mentor here or am I going to be left in the dark."

 

[Ambyssin]

Nova paused before giving an answer and glanced toward Felin. "He's a human from another world. But I don't know why he's here. Or why he's a mewtwo."

Then he looked between Felin and the boulders. There were still a couple of big ones. "Hey, uh— any chance you want to help?" He looked at the larger boulders. "If you could use that blade of yours to find any tiny cracks or weak spots in the boulders... then maybe hit 'em with a grass attack, that might soften them up a bit."

The he started to move some of the smaller rocks out of the way. "I want... humans and pokémon to live the lives they dream of. Whether they exist on the same world or not. Work as a team or don't." Nova pushed against some of the rocks. "I, urrgh, know that trainers can... help pokémon get stronger. Maybe because they just fight... a lot more battles in a shorter time.

"But pokémon can help each other out, too." Nova kept pushing. The helmet's weight at least made it easy to push with his upper half and not hurt his face.