Frontier Town Traveller's Haus - Lobby

[Inkedust]

Frontier Town was hard to miss, even this deep into the night. Jaak's directions and the distant light of the stars were kind enough to guide the group from the unfinished railway out through the wilderness towards the orange lanterns of Frontier Town. With both luck and some clever illusion work from Bellatrix, the town's outskirts were reached with little hassle. It was a vast improvement over what they saw over in Blaguarro.

All that remained was finding a place to stay for the foreseeable future.

Thankfully, the group didn't need to look far as the large, rectangular building that was the Traveller's Haus was the first inn to greet them. It was almost certainly large enough to accommodate the group of six. Money would be an entirely separate issue but as long as the place accepted payment after the stay instead of upfront, all would be well. Though unbeknownst to those who'd come from the railway, payment had already been sorted.

As the group entered the building, a little maus wearing an equally tiny cowboy hat squeaked in greeting, pointing to the reception desk where two other larger maus (also known as a tandemaus) wearing a cotton shirt and a dress were helping each other write with pen and paper that was far too large for them. They looked up and waved before synchronistically tilting their head in question.

Bellatrix's ears lowered slightly in confusion but played along to the best of her ability. "Yes, we're looking for a place to stay. Do you have any spare rooms for the six of us?"

The maus nodded and hopped up and down on the desk, pointing the group over to the common area. The little one scrambled up the pulley system and into the wall. A symphony of squeaking and scrambling followed as the building began to busy itself to prepare for its new guests.

 

[Ambyssin]

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The room wasn't anything special. It could fit Nova for sure, though it didn't have much floorspace. There was a small window which Nova had drawn the curtain over. He was large enough that someone could theoretically see him from outside if he was standing.

The null looked around, then slowly slid onto his belly.

Meager? Sure. Low-tech? Absolutely.

But he had bedding. He had shelter for the first time in... well, he didn't want to do the math.

"I'm... here." Nova took a deep breath. "My thoughts are mine." Another deep breath. "I'm here. My thoughts are mine."

 

[Ambyssin]

It was weird to call sleep a strange sensation. But Nova hadn't slept properly in such a long time that the first few times he nodded of he forcibly jerked himself awake, afraid he was going to suddenly stop breathing. Eventually, Nova was able to calm his nerves, relying on the tried and true method of counting mareep until he had conked out.

The null woke up the next morning and stretched his limbs out. Nova slowly lumbered to his feet. He wondered if the extra time had allowed more of the scattered group to make their way to Frontier Town. Nova opened up the door of his room and poked his masked head out to see if anyone was roaming the halls.

 

[Inkedust]

It was a slow morning for Bellatrix. The maus of the Traveller's Haus were busy as always, squeaking away within the walls, and it seemed that most of the group were already out and about on their business. The zorua sat in the common area besides a stack of requests she'd pilfered from the bulletin board the other day. None of the locals had any work for her today, leaving her morning completely free to figure out what jobs to do in the afternoon.

Her tiny claws clacked against the wooden floorboards as her forepaws drummed in thought. Most of them were just various shades of the same request; fetch an item, escort someone (typically the very young or elderly, ironic how she fit into both), look after some goods, and so on. All menial, but at least it was reliable.

Bellatrix looked as if she was finally about to settle on something until she heard a door creak open, losing her train of thought. With a frown, her ears flicked towards the source of the sound. The wind or had someone joined her in the common room?

 

[Neirdae]

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Clover floated in the lobby of the Traveler's Haus, greeting everyone that came in or out. She'd tried taking to the Maus, but they were  boring and didn't talk. Well, they all seemed happy enough, and Clover couldn't sense much negative emotion from them, not even stress from overwork. Well, the real reason she couldn't sense much from them might have been the storm of emotional energy coming from her fellow new arrivals.

Clover saw a disheveled Eevee leaving the Haus, wearing a ragged and stained poncho. Either he'd pulled it from the trash, or he didn't care about his appearance. Either way, she could help!

"Hello! I haven't met you yet! I'm Clover, the friendly Shuppet! Are you new here? I bet I can fix up your clothes, if you want!"

 

[Navar]

Waddle, waddle waddle.

Shiron left his room, waddling through the hall. Apart from being a quadruped now, things weren't all that bad.

Still need to find something to do, though. I never had a job before...

Granted, he was a hero home. Or trying to be. If that'd translate to this world or not remained to be seen.

Maybe I should ask someone around for help. Doesn't hurt.

 

[Neirdae]

Clover saw Felin proudly marching out for missions while covered in enough bandages one could think she was part Dusclops. The poor cat looked as likely to trip on a bandage as she was to successfully preform an attack.

"Um, are you sure you're okay? There's a doctor in town who I hear makes very yummy medicine." Felin was weird, she wasn't hurting herself to down out emotional pain, like some people Clover had met. Felin just... looked proud of herself?

 

[Panoramic_Vacuum]

One evening at the Haus, Steven was reading over that day's copy of the Gazette when he caught the eye of someone else in the lobby. A fall coat deerling sitting in one of the corners was glancing over at him from time to time over the top of a book held in their vines.

At first, Steven gave them a nod of acknowledgement and went back to reading the newspaper, used to the odd glances from townsfolk. But peeking out from behind his paper, he noticed the deerling staring at him again, and Steven grew curious.

Folding his paper and setting it on a nearby table, Steven floated over to the deerling with a friendly chime to grab their attention. "Good evening," he said. "I couldn't help but notice you were looking my way. Is there something I can help you with?"

 

[Jackie Cat]

Sometimes, Laura liked to use the lobby to sit and write. She didn't have a desk at the Gazette offices, and her tiny room was no study space at all, but the lobby had a nice ambience, comfy chairs, and a coffee table to put her stuff. She'd taken to organising her notes on the party here, and had spent most of the current evening drafting attempts at her first Gazette article. How was that going? It was... going. She kept looking up, distracted, to glance around the room. Sometimes her gaze landed on maus staff going about their business. Sometimes she gave a little nod hello to another 'heroic spirit'. Sometimes—

"Good evenin'."

"Howling fucking shit," she blurted, jumping in her seat as she realised there was a Floragato sitting right fucking next to her without her noticing.

"Sorry fer startlin' ya!" said the other cat, laughing. She tipped her wide-brimmed hat, and grinned. "Name's Sonora. And you are one of them mystifyin' newcomers, ain'tcha?"

"Yeah," stammered the human-turned-Meowth. "I'm Laura. And... I know who you are."

"Oh, well that saves us a minute of time, don't it? 'Cause I got a proposition for ya, and I've already got four of your buddies interested."

Laura had a feeling it was gonna be a long night.

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[Hap]

With people wandering in and out of the Traveller's Haus all day, it was, Ridley considered, an excellent starting point if you wanted to find people to talk to.

And after the discussion in the dining hall, that was exactly what Ridley wanted. Sure, from a spectator's standpoint it had been a mildly hilarious clusterfuck of an argument, but it had prompted him to realise that he didn't actually know most of his fellow universe-travellers. Somehow, between the mundane business of everyday life and the time he spent in the library pulling random books off the shelves, he'd let social interaction start slipping by.

Ridley's new goal, he'd decided, was to remedy that. It would be nice to have friends here, or at least allies.

Entering the lobby, he recognised one of the people he'd arrived here with. The deerling - Andy? No, Andre - was currently scribbling in a notebook. Ridley waved at him. "Hey!" he said. "I haven't seen you in a while. How's Frontier Town been treating you?"

 

[JFought]

The night before the day of the gala, Isidora found herself loitering on the Traveller’s Haus' veranda. She had left her hat, bag, and sandals behind in her room, leaving just her there to lean against the railing with arms folded over each other. Peeking up at the stars from under the roof, she spent her time focusing on what made them different here. She couldn’t tell; she wasn’t an astrologer. But she wanted to believe she could see the differences. She pretended to notice that the Seviper Bearer was missing. And Milotic was supposed to be around Ursa Minor, right? She couldn't find either anyway, but assuming it wasn't there, that’d probably have some effect on the way stars were interpreted, or something like that.

The sneasel let out a halfhearted sigh and rested her chin on her arms. Who am I kidding?

Koamaru’s accusation kept repeating in her head. The way he said it made him sound like some dumb, naive child, a far cry from the impression she got when they fought together. But it kept biting at her tail. I came here to… She hesitated on even thinking the next part, her ears folding against her head. It felt so… dumb, and naive. Like she were a child. Save the world. Someone kill me.

Even if it sounded childish, it was true. Isidora didn’t have the time to be getting involved in relatively petty disputes she had no real stake in. She still felt like she was struggling to get her bearings as is. Everyone was a stranger, and half the group were humans she was expected to work with. Forlas was massive and unfamiliar, the desert itself hot and exhausting and unwelcoming. She had no idea what she was supposed to be doing, or how to go about doing it. There was a horrible, lingering fear that she had her magic stolen from her so that she'd be forced to submit to one of the human members of the group if she wanted to succeed. It was all already too much, and if some of them were now getting hired on to catch Sonora at the same gala she wanted help infiltrating, then it was blatantly against Isidora's interest to humor this any further, lest the resulting divisions get in the way of their true goal, whatever the hell that even was.

And besides, in the long term, Sonora’s plan won’t accomplish anything. Just because she ruins the mayor’s reputation, it's not gonna magically stop the town from gentrifying like she thinks it will. Even if she manages to stop him, she can’t stop his successor, or their successor, or the successor after that. Nor can she stop the endless amount of rich ‘mon who might already be interested in this town regardless of the mayor. As long as there’s something of value to be gained from doing it, there’ll always be someone with power and influence willing to take that opportunity and ride it to the end. Even in a best case scenario where everything goes perfectly, it’ll be nothin’ more than a neat bit of trivia in the long history of Frontier City.

But… there’s no way she doesn’t know that, right?

She had to have known. Very few 'mon on the wrong side of the law had delusions of grandeur like that. At least, no one she’d ever met.

And besides, Sonora had come up to her, trusted her, and asked.

Does she really believe in those inflated human myths so much that she thinks we would help her? Koamaru’s accusation repeated again. Most of us won’t. I shouldn’t. I’m not a criminal, this isn’t the kind of thing I want to go around doing with my time off school. It isn’t why I’m here.

And then she remembered the fire in the florogato’s eyes. Somewhere in there, she felt she could relate to it. It felt like her own.

Isidora couldn't say no to that, no matter how hard she tried to argue against it. The answer was always yes.

Her claws dug into the wooden railing. I don't know what the group should do, but I know what I want to do. And if any of the humans in the group have a problem with that, then they can get bent.

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[Weazel]

Well, that ice cream took a dig into his finances, alright. And just when he was trying so hard to pay up for his stay at the Haus, too, rather than remain dependent on the marshal’s dime. Oh well, he’d really needed the treat, after the fight they’d had. And, well, given what had happened, they probably weren’t getting paid for the security gig. The Oshawott sighed, it was back to the Bulletin Board grind for him. Well, at least it was pretty distant from Frontier Town, so if they did end up getting run out of town, his source of income should still be stable...

Assuming they didn’t get bounties put on their heads next.

Archie shook his head, he couldn’t let himself get bogged down in what ifs and various other negatives. Corey was hurt and would need his support, and he’d promised Ridley he’d keep his eyes and ears open for information that could help figure out why they were here, and what their goal was. Honestly though…

The Oshawott took a seat, and watched the comings and goings of the other Haus occupants. He just needed a minute to stop and think about things, he told himself. Otherwise, this whole mess was going to get overwhelming. He really missed having Spencer to talk to.

 

[Inkedust]

Frontier Town dreamed beneath a sky clustered with stars. A cool desert breeze blew past the buildings, caressing the latches of doors and windows with a gentle rattle unheard by anyone.

All but Bellatrix who couldn't find sleep this night after being promptly jolted awake by a nightmare, watching the stars to soothe out the edge she'd been left on. A frown, deeper than normal, was affixed to her features. She shouldn't be having those nightmares, they just memories, echoes. They weren't real, they couldn't hurt her, nor had it ever appeared out of the corner of her eye in the waking world since her arrival to Forlas. The rationale alone should've been enough to put her at ease.

So why was she so afraid?

It didn't make sense and it frustrated her. While she was more than used to the world around her doing what it pleased by now, at the very least she had been make sense of herself. Spirits knew that she needed to keep her wits about her now more than ever and not having that would do nothing but lead to the worst-case scenario.

With a sigh, Bellatrix tapped her paws on the edge of the wooden crate she was lying on. With little else to do but think, she patiently waited to grow tired again.

 

[AdamArtDraws]

There indeed was a sword on the wall. After gladly retrieving the sword from Ignatius' vault, Felin had lugged the heavy thing all the way back to her room in the Haus. It wasn't theft when the item itself was probably stolen. At least that's what Felin told herself. Ignatius had to have got it through other underhanded means.

Felin had not spent much time tending to the sword since getting it. Once she had quenched her initial appetite for dungeon exploration with Silver however, she finally diverted her mind to other interests.

"What's your story, fella?" Felin asked the sword as if it was capable of granting her an answer. "Where did you come from?"

The sword had been propped up against the wall opposite her bed and she sat before it, twirling fingers around her cheek fur and an idle purr reverberating in her throat. Her door had been left ajar and anyone walking by would see the sprigatito talking to the inanimate thing.

 

[HelloYellow17]

Wes hobbled into the lobby, trying and failing rather spectacularly to hide his limp. Going on a hike the day after breaking his leg definitely didn’t make the list of wisest decisions he’d ever made, but he’d also done dumber things. He decided not to dwell on how concerning of a conclusion that should have been.

He all but flopped onto a cushion, catching his breath. There was still plenty of time left in the day, so Wes didn’t want to retire to his room just yet, but the thought sure was tempting. But still…after last night, he was realizing he didn’t much like the idea of being all alone, which was frankly a very unfamiliar feeling. But back in Orre, he’d never been alone, not truly, not without Neo and Novo. And now…

He forced the thoughts from his head and took a few calming breaths. It was fine. He was fine. In fact, he was so engrossed in his self-addressed pep talk, he didn’t notice the sound of someone approaching him.

 

[Chibi Pika]

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.

 

[Shiny Phantump]

Gladion still didn’t know how to feel about Laura. He deeply respected her, but also felt like she knew more about his past than he’d want in a friend. Which wasn’t her fault, sure, and it meant it was logical to ask to talk to her in particular about further developments is the saga of Forlas’ unusually high density of species genetically engineered by humans.

None of that rationalization made him feel less nervous asking her about this.

“Hey, Laura. I… honestly didn’t think about how to start this, but I need to sound not insane to someone for a moment because I’ve just recently met an outworlder Mewtwo. Which makes that another ‘compatible’ species. So that’s fun.”

 

[Ambyssin]

The walk back to the Haus from the outskirts was tiring, though not as bad as getting out of Terminal Two. Nova was still in decent enough shape after helping fend off the void swarm, though his ending to the fight kept popping up in his head.

Attack. He used that attack from back home he never gave a name to. And it... clearly did something. Why?

He tried not to think about it as he delivered Grace and Mhynt to their rooms. When he was told they didn't need anything, he headed down to the lobby. His glowing parts gave the room a pink-salmon tint. He hadn't bothered taking out the fairy disk after slotting it in for fear of Alexander somehow giving chase.

Nova stood there, silently wondering whether he should grab food or just trudge back to the old cabin. He caught a glimpse of himself in a mirror. Fur matted and the white patches on his legs and belly were caked in dirt.

Not that he'd done a great job grooming on Forlas anyway...

 

[JFought]

The nights were getting subtly colder with each phase of the moon. For a while after she had arrived here, Isidora had given up any hope that the rumors of frigid desert nights were true. But if the temperatures continued to drop at this rate, then maybe she'd get honor of enjoying one for once, no mystery dungeon necessary.

For now though, the sneasel just sat on the Traveller's Haus veranda, against the wall away from the railing, as she tended to after long days. She'd been feeling tired more often lately, likely because of the ranger work she'd been making an effort to familiarize herself with. She wondered briefly if she were pushing herself too hard, then shrugged to herself. I'll figure it out.

Maybe she'd start venturing out to Novelux like most of the others, though the idea brought with it a twinge of dread. Everything she knew about it made it sound like the kind of place she had become thankful to escape from. But I'm gonna have to get over myself eventually. She scratched slightly at the floorboards. Same could be said for a lot of things...

 

[Jackie Cat]

When Brisa saw Jade last, she'd watched her disappear ahead of her – a shrinking feline figure on a train car's observation platform. She'd been alone and trapped before Jade helped her escape the Lanterns, and then she'd gone straight back to being alone, trapped with the Lanterns, fighting like mad.

Since then, she'd traipsed across the Taleska steppes, sheltering anywhere she could afford, making her way to Novelux. She'd fought at the Duel Dome for coin, and fought well, until the Lanterns found her again. And then she'd hidden herself in Whisperwind Comb... for how long? Weeks? Probably weeks...

And now she was in Frontier Town again. Familiar but wrong, somehow unrecogniseable. Un-real – like waking up from a dream, and realising you're still in a dream.

She was still catching up, but the way she heard it, Jade's gang of 'Wayfarers' had certainly been busy in the past season or so. Gladion had said something about Jade looking into Starr – she couldn't rule out that Jade might know something she didn't. After all, the Wayfarers had had their own run-ins with the Lanterns. Either way, Brisa had to talk to Jade.

Not just because she wanted info. It was that she felt like she was going to keel over and bleed out, if she didn't talk to someone soon. Someone who had enough of an idea of what she was going through.

Brisa found her way to Traveller's Haus before long, it being public knowledge that Wayfarers bunked there, and she only had to enter the lobby to scent the Meowth on the same floor. She found Jade eating cereal in the breakfast hall, reading something, looking a little older, more weathered, than when they'd first met.

"Hey there," she said, trying to soften the roughness out of her voice, at least a little. "You got a minute and a mind ta talk this morn', Jade?"

She offered a fatigued grin.

"You look like you've seen a few storms since last time, partner."