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Frontier Town Traveller's Haus - Lobby

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"...then things that should not be able to exist here could contaminate it. I was manufactured by humans as well."

It occurred to Gladion that'd he had just reflexively referred to himself as if he was a Null without realizing it, his pretense settling in as a habitual second skin without realizing it.

"Or... you know what I mean. My species was in general. But the level of technology required doesn't even exist here, much less the genetic all components needed. Whether or not the means of making shadows is simpler, someone's got some way of jumping the tech tree. And Ignatius has ties too them."

Gladion scoffed. "And speaking of, dude's got human ancestry and thinks they're superior. Funny how these things work out..."
 
Wes raised an eyebrow, “Ah, so that was confirmed, was it? Figures. I’m not surprised.” He shifted on the cushion, settling in a little more. “Do you think our Iggy dearest will be willing to talk while he’s getting cozy in prison cell? Seems unlikely, but there’s a chance we could investigate him about this…”

He pondered for a moment. “I’m not sure if there’s some schmuck out there with random advanced technology, or if they just discovered an aspect of this world they can…I dunno. Exploit somehow? I mean, this world has those bizarro mystery dungeons or whatever, and I’m no scientist, but I don’t know if there’s a single damn scientific explanation for how those things exist and function. Wouldn’t be a stretch to say that there’s something else out there that enables them to…make shadows. Or species like yours.”
 
Gladion tried not to laugh at Wes' phrasing. To limited success.

"Yes... They seem pretty far off the genetic engineering part of the tech tree. We haven't seen the entire world, I guess, but it'd be a hell of a leap. And shadows are still whispers in the distance where I'm from, so you're probably further along than I am..."

Something occurred to Gladion. "Unless you know more about than than par, not like you'd know what I am either. Not gonna pry, at the end of the day I trust you." Not that I have a strong reason to, but we're all here through selection, and you seem alright to me. "If you've got anything useful we could set up something like mutually-assured annihilation or whatever."
 
Wes blinked at Gladion’s words. I trust you. That was…nice to hear. He grinned. “Well, that’s a relief. Would suck to find out you’ve just been pretending to be friendly all this time.” He relaxed a little more. “And same to you. You’ve got a good head on your shoulders, which is more than I can say for some of us around here.”

There was the tiniest spark of envy at Gladion’s admission to not knowing about shadows. “Count yourself lucky that’s all you know. Like I said, I don’t know how they’re…created or whatever, and I don’t even know who is responsible for them back ho—uh, back in Orre.” Home? Orre wasn’t home. Orre would never be home. “But I’ve had enough firsthand experience with them to recognize some of their patterns, even if I can’t see their aura.”
 
Gladion laughed. “Of course I got a good head on my shoulders. Look how firmly it’s secured there.”

It was a shame Wes didn’t know anything else about them. (Or wouldn’t say if he was like Gladion. It was none of his business, and Wes realistically probably just actually didn’t know.)

Wait. If Wes needed to use patterns to tell without being able to see their aura, then… “There is one more thing useful to me there: It’s possible to identify them by their auras. I didn’t even know that much before. That means it’s probably some kind of… aura corruption? I don’t know much about that side of biology, really, but I know it’s an expensive field of research so I’m gonna call it high-tech.”

And… One other thing he was curious about to bother asking. “Also, this isn’t important, but is it annoying if ask if that means you have an aura sense? ‘s just rare, that’s all.”
 
Wes tilted his head to the side as he considered Gladion’s words. Well, damn, aura corruption did make sense, then, didn’t it? He hadn’t thought of that before, largely because he hadn’t thought it was possible to tamper with a living being’s aura. Hell, before meeting Rui, he hadn’t really known much about aura at all.

“You know, that tracks,” he said. “Wouldn’t be surprised if that’s part of the process, somehow.”

He then shook his head. “Not me, no. I, uh…met someone who has that ability and she’s been helping us track them down.” More like “rescued” and then she dragged him along, but semantics. “She’s my…” he paused, at an utter loss for the right word. Friend? Partner? “…associate.”

Well, that didn’t sound right either.
 
It's complicated, I take it...

"Tracking them down? You do rehab or something? That seems like it could fit you. Tried to do something like that for one of the Nulls I met, but she was chill anyways so it was easy. Not the one that…”

A chill went down Gladion’s spine. “Huh. I don’t like where this train of though is going, so I’m going to stop thinking about it now,” he lied, as if it was something he was capable of.
 
“Rehab? …Yeah, I guess so, more or less. Or we’re trying to, anyway…hard to cure an ailment if you don’t know the cause of it.” And if you have no clue what you’re doing.

He noticed the way Gladion suddenly froze up and abruptly ended his train of thought. Hm. Definitely something there he didn’t want to talk about, then, but Wes wasn’t going to pry, even if his curiosity was nudging him to. “Sounds like not all Nulls are the friendly type, then, I take it,” he said sympathetically. Wes couldn’t pretend he had the slightest clue what it was like caring for a mon of Gladion’s species, but he did know that rehabilitating unruly Pokémon wasn’t for the faint of heart.
 
"Yeah, but mine sure is, so I got it easy there. Pretty sure she deserves credit for rehabilitating me as much as I do her."

Gladion laughed. It felt derogatory to call it rehabilitating him, but hey, that was the joke. It probably shouldn't be funny to him, but that was just how things felt when he was this tired.

"Except my sleep schedule, which she made immeasurably worse. Given my experience sleeping with the helmet, though, I don't blame her."

He yawned. "Case and point. I know it's not actually late, but I don't think I care right now. See you around, Wes. Nice to make your acquaintance. Or your associate, whatever you wanna call it."

<><><><><>​
 
[Ch02]: You wouldn't happen to be an experiment, would you?
  • Threadmarks
    • Jade sat at one of the breakfast tables, idly poking at some toast while flipping through the pages of a newspaper to see if it had any stories that Laura had written. She couldn't help noticing that the haus was a lot emptier than usual today. Guess they're all off on that investigation in Blaguarro, she thought to herself, mixed emotions stirring in her chest.

    It wouldn't have made sense to rush into something like that, not before she'd recovered from the... the incident. She'd learned that lesson enough times. And besides, staying behind had meant getting to look into other things, like the bulletin board. Not that she had any idea what to do with that information...

    Finally taking a bite out of the now-cold toast, she scanned the rest of the breakfast nook to see who else was around.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Nova hadn't stuck around that bar to hear anything more of the human talk. Whether that monferno was interested from a place of (misguided) admiration or something more... questionable, Nova couldn't say. All he knew was that he'd heard enough about the strength of the human will and spirit. Nova didn't need to get whacked over the head with it. There had to be a missing piece. Something unaccounted for. Because an idea that ridiculous couldn't be baked into the fabric of the world.

    That would just prove the Affirmer right. Again.

    The null cringed. And all the thinking of his humans made it easy to spot the meowth sitting there. One of the reckless human wagoners, if Nova was recalling things correctly.

    He tried to quietly press on, but quiet was not in a null's list of abilities. Not with big, chitinous talons and a bulky helmet that could rattle with every step.
     
    It was hard to miss him--he was one of the experiments, er, the 'Graydian'? Jade was pretty sure he was the one who'd been one from the start, back in the Nexus. Something about the way he carried himself. She didn't see him around much, he was usually off working. And yet, he always gave off this air like he knew what was going on, even if he didn't want to acknowledge it.

    There were so many things Jade wanted to ask him, but it was hard to know where to start. And besides that, she really did need to become more familiar with her teammates...

    "Hey, um, you're Nova, right? I don't think we've got to meet properly. Er, outside of the gala." Technically they'd fought together already.
     
    Jade tapped her paws on the table, already feeling awkward. Seemed like he didn't want to be noticed. "Just... been hoping to get to know the team better. Still feels like I know less people since I got here after everyone else, and... well. I've tried to get involved in figuring things out here, although it's been a bit mixed." That was putting what happened on the wagon trip mildly. She still wasn't sure how many people knew about that...
     
    "Yeah." Nova blinked slowly. "Taking the hands on approach, from what it sounds like." He lowered his head slightly. Nova didn't want to be rude, but he'd thought about it for a while and now that someone involved was standing in front of him, he couldn't help himself.

    "Out of curiosity, did you guys consult anyone who's always been a pokémon? Y'know, someone who could've told you guys that, despite the gala's events, we're pretty dang weak?"
     
    Jade exhaled slowly. "I know we're weak. And I'm used to the idea of avoiding a fight you're not matched for. That was like, the big thing that got drilled into us back in... some other team I was on once. But none of us had any reason to expect a fight--at least, not something so out of nowhere as that."

    She felt her tail swaying restlessly and took a second to figure out how to make it stop.

    "How much have you heard about that thing that attacked us, anyway?" she asked, wincing slightly.
     
    "Nothing." Nova shrugged. "Only impression I had was 'strong, freakish 'mon.'" As far as he thought, it could've been some dungeon product.
     
    "R-right..." Jade mumbled. "Well, it wasn't the sort of thing any of us would've been a match for, not yet anyway." Yet? Would they ever be at that level?

    "Innn any case..." she went on, "what do you think we should do other than hands-on, I guess? I kinda get the feeling that everyone's got a different idea of how to help out here, since..." Since the one who brought us here doesn't know yet.
     
    Nova stifled his gut instinct response of "nothing." Because that was going to upset the meowth, at best. Instead, he tapped a talon on the ground. "There's a certain someone supposedly sitting in a jail cell right now who answers could get wrestled out of.

    "And, assuming he's not some lone lycanroc crook, the longer we let him sit there, the greater the odds someone or something shuts his beak." Nova paused. "Forever."
     
    Jade blinked, taking a few seconds to process what the chimera was saying. "Wh--you think someone would need to silence the mayor--er, the ex-mayor?" That didn't... that didn't make sense with what she thought she knew, anyway. "I got the impression that he wasn't personally involved that that Terminal Two stuff. At least, from what I heard of what was in his office." It'd only been a vague summary from Laura, but.
     
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