Auranosa Walled Gardens

[Jackie Cat]

Nothing is truly 'unnatural', for nothing can be outside of nature, and all things are subject to its laws. There is no such thing as a 'garden' – at least, not forever.

The Walled Gardens are a Mystery Dungeon named for the part of an ancient city it swallowed upon its formation. Preserving the city’s botanical gardens like a time capsule, the exotic energy within the dungeon has allowed the myriad of plants to thrive without anyone to tend to them, even as the climate of inland Luctemar has changed over the millennia. Plants in the Gardens are often species and cultivars seen rarely if ever outside of the dungeon's preserved uncanny microclimate. Conifers, palms, ferns, succulents, and more have grown to towering megafloral heights, dwarfing even the tallest of ‘mon. Their canopies intermingle overhead, casting shadows for weary travelers to ward off the heat of the day.

Segments of ancient aqueducts still function, drawing life-giving water from unseen aquifers to spill into pools within the gardens below. Cascading in stepped terraces, sandstone pavements meander through the expansive gardens, laid down for an ancient population that hasn’t graced its paths in many centuries. Plazas, obelisks and carven statues in the likeness of various pokémon species appear throughout, the latter occasionally adorned with inset gems and golden bands where delving 'mon have not yet since looted them. Benches, too, are here in shaded spots, for travellers to take a rest.

Crumbling columns and plinths are held upright by thick climbing vines, their branches covered in brightly colored flowers. Adventurers here had best stay mindful; the sweetest smelling scents are the most alluring for a reason. Several varieties of carnivorous plants call the Gardens home, and though explorers are still uncertain why the ancient botanists would choose to grow such things, without a corps of gardeners to tend to them, they now comprise a genuine threat to any who enter their compromised enclosures. Perhaps they were much safer when they weren’t able to grow large enough to prey on full-grown ‘mon…

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Many thanks to @Panoramic_Vacuum for her help with the writeup!

 

[Chibi Pika]

When the sea had last closed its eyes, it had been within the embrace of the deep. The world above was streaked with the fires of endless conflict, turmoil, and unpredictability, much like the roiling of waves within a storm. But the deep held only calm, sweet silence and solitude. A moment's respite from the turbulence of the world above. A sacred retreat which none could encroach upon.

And yet, somehow, inexplicably, that solitude had been broken.

The crushing depths were gone, replaced with cool, dry air, and just a hint of frost evaporating underneath the morning sun. Sun that should not have been visible from the deep. Eyes squinted at desert trees that stretched high overhead. Far higher than normal, as if everything were bigger than it should have been. Or rather...

Talons clicked on the garden tile. Everything felt... airy. Light, far too light, as if all the weight had gone. A heavy tail swished irritably, except the motion was imagined, a phantom sensation drawn from what should have been, instead of the feathers flicking from side to side.

Buried beneath the overwhelming sense that this was all wrong was the inexplicable sensation that this was... expected. As if this turn of events had been foreshadowed by that voice, the golden voice that had spoken through its dream. As if anyone would believe that.

But the reality of the situation could not be denied. And the foreign sensation of every minuscule movement. Maddening.

The sound of flowing water filled the air. With the flutter of wings—too quick, too jittery, what is this—the aqueduct was within sight.

The black-helmed visage of a Rookidee stared back.

 

[Phoenixsong]

Leaf didn't know where she was. She also didn't really care, since figuring it out, let alone doing anything with that information, would have required moving, and no thank you she was fine here on the floor, actually.

So she just let her head loll on the ground, trying to take deep breaths on purpose to steady her spinning vision and not because otherwise she'd probably be puking if that were a thing horses could do. In, out. In, out. Don't think about anything for a minute. Five more minutes, mom. Or all day more minutes. That'd be nice.

Thinking about nothing was a workout when wherever-this-was was so alive, though. Each breath was thick with floral scents, dew-heavy leaves, lush grass. (Might've almost made her horse-brain hungry if it wasn't currently all hands on deck trying to make sure her insides were in fact still inside.) Rustling wind and buzzing bugs and trickling water and fluttering wings filled her ears. Any other time it would've made for great white noise and soothing scents to fall asleep to, but right now it was just a million things all... being things all at once, and it was doing a whole lotta nothing for the feeling she'd been hit by a truck.

The fluttering picked up, agitated. Close by. Flutter-flutter-flutter, then still. Little tick-tick as the flutterer landed on stone. Wild bird, maybe? Way too small to be something like Amida, or...

So much for not thinking about anything. Something had happened (something was terribly wrong) and Beetle had freaked out and Amida and the others might be... in danger? Still on the mesa? Had everyone been brought here?

"Is anyone there?" she called out, loud as she could. Which wasn't that loud, it turned out. Probably would've sounded clearer if she'd bothered to pick up her head. Oh well. Felt better where it was. Maybe that Spectrier guy was onto something.

 

[Ambyssin]

Something had gone wrong. Horribly, horribly wrong. Fucked six ways from Sunday wrong.

Nova recalled being atop Sunrest Mesa. They'd woken Amida up. Freed her from the eons-long radiant bath she'd subjected herself to. And it seemed like the Covenant's mission atop the Mesa had gone completely sideways.

And yet... he wasn't on the Mesatop anymore. He remembered that warning Betel had given right before it felt like he was getting pulled in every direction at once. It wasn't the Mesatop that had caused it. So, by process of elimination, that left the Wayfarers that decided to go explore the Covenant. What had they done? What had Betel done?

His head hurt too much to keep thinking about it. And his muscles ached. He had still been in pretty good shape back on the Mesa. But whatever cosmic fuckery had taken hold hit him like a runaway charjabus.

The silvally staggered to his feet. He blinked stars from his vision. Nova looked left. Then right.

... Yep. Not a clue where he was. Great. Wonderful.

He tried to stay something, but there was a scratchiness in his throat that kept him from making a noise. Water, maybe?

He approached the aqueduct and took a drink. It didn't help. But it did let him see his glowing parts were still pink. So, he was still psychic. And it looks like the Memory Drives had survived along with him. It was something. Small victories.

There was a rookidee here. He had no idea if it was a dungeon 'mon. And if his throat was this bad, then he had to try for telepathy.

"Hello?" He didn't know if Betel's presence was still around. Nova was purely relying on his own psychic power. "Do you know where we are?"

 

[Chibi Pika]

The image reflected in the water defied all reason. One of the common, diminutive birds from across the eastern sea. And yet, it moved with the sea's movements, as if nothing were more natural. A dull awareness surfaced within its brain, that arriving here meant being given a new body, whatever that was supposed to mean.

A voice spoke from somewhere nearby, and Rookidee craned its neck—too instant, too sharp—to see the source. A Rapidash... lying flat on the ground. The strange variant that lacked flame, also from across the sea. For a brief moment, Rookidee entertained the thought that these facts were connected; that it had been stolen away across the sea, and changed via some reason-defying human trickery. But no, this was too much, even for humans.

It took Rookidee some moments to process the fact that Rapidash had spoken in what sounded remarkably like a human tongue. The morning's absurdities had not yet reached their limit, it seemed. Well, no matter. Even if Rapidash spoke human for some unearthly reason, there was no reason it shouldn't understand other mon—

"Hello? Do you know where we are?"

There did not exist words to properly describe the beast that Rookidee found itself staring at. Surely this unholy amalgamation of mismatched limbs had to be the work of humans. There was no other reasonable explanation. It was also one too many absurdities for one morning.

I should ask you the same, Rookidee snapped, glowering at the chimera, suddenly all too aware that its words held no weight in this form.

Evidently in more ways than one, as the chimera hadn't reacted at all, as if the words had failed to...

...This ridiculous form couldn't even send properly, could it.

And so, with painstaking effort, Rookidee opened its beak: "How on earth am I meant to know that?" Terrible. Slow. Inefficient. Still, even as it cursed this dream that didn't yet have the sense to end, something else drifted to the forefront of its mind. Something that it had no way of knowing, and yet...

"This place is... Forlas?"

 

[Ambyssin]

Nova blinked once. Twice. At first, Rookidee was a bit hard to understand. Something was seriously off. But Matriarch had built him to understand the variety of languages that Earth had compared to the rest of Eternatus. And this... might've been one? Maybe? Did that mean this guy was from an Earth?

... Wait, but then that would mean this was an offworlder!

His gaze sharpened. Talons dug into the dirt. "How long have you been here?"

 

[Chibi Pika]

Rookidee tilted its head, eyeing him. "I have only just awoken in this place," it said cautiously. The chimera's telepathic voice had held an air of urgency, as if this information were relevant to something. Do you know where we are? was the first thing he'd asked...

"Is that the case for you as well?" Rookidee asked. Then, after a moment, "And have you always had that form?"

 

[Ambyssin]

"A mystery dungeon." Nova looked around. "Dunno where."

Not that Rookidee's answer to Nova's question brought him any relief. He'd just woken up here? What was the deal with that? There was no blinding radiance nuke on the Mesatop. Right?

"I've been here three seasons. And I always look like this."

Except back home with the mask, but a complete stranger didn't need to know that.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Well, there went the idea that this stranger was in the same situation, waking up on a strange world in a strange body.

A strange world. Not place… ‘world.’ That thought gave Rookidee pause, because some maddening part of its brain had decided it to be true. This place, Forlas, was another world.

The chimera had been here three seasons… that was a strange way to put it considering that this area was clearly unfamiliar to him. So then, what exactly did he mean by ‘here’ if not their immediate surrounding? This region? This continent? This… world?

Rookidee narrowed its eyes, glancing around at the overgrown gardens surrounding them. “Then, I’m to understand you were in a similar situation as this, some months ago?”

Its sharp gaze returned to the chimera. “I am not familiar with this… species. What am I to refer to you as?”

 

[Ambyssin]

"A while back." Nova's throat hadn't gotten any less scratchy. Something really was mucking up his throat, then. He tried lapping up more water. No dice.

Well, maybe he could amuse himself to take his mind off things.

"I'm a silvally. I'm God."

 

[Chibi Pika]

Rookidee let out a dismissive snort, but the sound came out as a low, trilling chirp. Yet another annoying detail among many. "Your associates refer to you as such, do they? How modest."

'A' Silvally was the standout detail, however. Whatever strange sort of hybrid he was, he was not unique. "There are others of your kind, I presume."

 

[Ambyssin]

Nova shrugged. "Here? Yes. Home? No."

His cheek bolts turned once. "But everyone's going by nicknames here. Mine's Nova. And you are?"

 

[Chibi Pika]

Rookidee squinted at the chimera. What an utterly unhelpful response—answer a question by presenting a dozen more questions, forcing the listener to painstakingly voice each question aloud. "Are you normally this obscure?" the bird snapped. It felt the instinct to draw itself taller, except that doing so would be pitifully ineffective in this form. Aggravating. How was anyone meant to deal with this.

The inability to put any sort of will behind its words meant that dropping the topic was the only reasonable course. This purposefully-difficult creature Nova had just given a name, and was expecting one in turn. Alienating a potential ally would be disadvantageous in an unfamiliar place and a powerless body. But the only moniker the sea had ever known was... inappropriate now. 'Rookidee' would have sufficed, if not for the tedious expectations of humans and their ilk. (Perhaps this Nova was not human, but Rookidee could not shake the feeling that humans were involved in this somehow.)

If it could not be the sea, then at least, with a flighted form, it might be a storm.

"You might refer to me Virga. Now, how do we leave this place?"

The sea no longer. This new form was a nuisance, but she would make use of it for the time being.

 

[Ambyssin]

"If we can find the dungeon core, we should be able to exit from this place and see what's outside." Nova looked around the aqueduct. This... didn't seem like that bad a dungeon. But appearances could be deceiving.

 

[Phoenixsong]

Someone was... talking? Hard to tell; she couldn't really make out the words. (Different language? Conked on the head? Imagining things?) If it really was someone, though, then she had to know. Had to get up and see. Floor time over. (Assuming she didn't just collapse again.)

The world did somersaults once more for good measure as she hauled herself to her feet, but at length it resolved itself into towering trees, overgrown statues, stone structures carrying water through a huge, lush garden. Beautiful, but...

[Beetle? Anybody? What happened? Where is everyone?]

...Nothing. No Wayfarers, no Beetle. Not even the panicked warnings, the sense that something was terribly wrong fading into normal, mundane wrongness. Just lost, and confused, and alone. Not even the sullen, thoughtful quiet after the argument, god she never could get away from the arguments, could she, even when they weren't her fault (even if sometimes they were her fault), but this one had been his fault and everything had been terrible because of what he'd done but for once he'd actually been—

No, wait. She shook the last of the fog from her head and looked again. Not entirely alone, thank god. The big, mismatched shape over by the water feature was unmistakable. Nova didn't seem to have noticed her, or even said anything, instead staring intently at a little round bird. The bird was chattering at him. More than she would maybe expect for the wild pokémon here? Talking. Huh. But who was that?

It took Leaf a second to find her voice. "Is... is anybody else here?" Then she looked from Nova to the little round guy, wondering what they were so mad about. "Who's this?

 

[Chibi Pika]

'Dungeon core'... this term held no meaning for Virga, but allegedly was the garden's sole exit.

"Seeing what's outside should be trivial," Virga said, taking wing. The sooner she could get a read on where this exit was located, the sooner they could leave. (As for where to go afterward, that was unclear. Some strange intuition was telling her that there was someone she was meant to find, but she ignored it.)

The canopy of tropical foliage extended high overhead. So high that it was taking an annoyingly long time to clear what would have taken mere seconds in her old form. Except it... wasn't actually getting any closer. Virga blinked a few times, willing herself to fly faster, but the treetops impossibly lay just overhead no matter how close she neared them. Until finally, a strange haziness overtook her vision, and the Rookidee found herself flying straight toward the ground, alighting next to the aqueduct as if she'd never left. She glowered at Nova, as if this were his fault somehow.

"Is... is anybody else here? Who's this?"

Ah, the fae-Rapidash stirred. Still speaking that annoyingly familiar human tongue. Judging by the horse's general disorientation and out-of-place appearance, one could surmise that she had appeared here under similar circumstances. Which meant...

Virga narrowed her eyes. Her own form had been changed against her will. This Rapidash was speaking human. What did that mean?

"Do you know this one?" she asked Nova.

Is this one human, she didn't ask.

 

[Ambyssin]

Nova bobbed his head. "Yes, that's Leaf. She's like... us." His crest fanned out a bit further as he tried to tune his telepathy to two targets. "Leaf, it seems like we have another offworlder here. A new offworlder." Nova looked around. "Not to mention the fact that we somehow got flung stars know where."

 

[Phoenixsong]

Well, Nova could still speak to her telepathically, at least. (Still no response from anyone else.) Why wasn't he just talking out loud, though?

The borb, meanwhile, continued to stare at her like she had three heads. Could it just... not understand them? (Was that the only reason? If they really were another offworlder then it'd make sense that they were confused, but why did they keep staring at her?)

Hm. Well, the actual psychic telepathy had worked with Articuno. Beetle had helped (where were they? Were they okay?), but that had also been because they were trying to scream across an entire desert. She could probably do it herself if it was just these two.

She tried to focus her own thoughts outward, at the borb. "I'm Leaf," she offered. "Did someone... bring you here? Did they tell you who they were?" If it had been Beetle... what did that even mean?

 

[Chibi Pika]

Oh, now the chimera deigned to speak with actual specificity the moment he was speaking to someone else. ('He probably didn't mean it as an insult,' is what the girl would have said, but she was not here, and Virga was left feeling vaguely offended with no way of meaningfully conveying so in this tiny form.)

If he meant to say that they both were 'offworlders,' then at least her own brain's insistence that this 'Forlas' was another world was at least somewhat less likely to be a delusion.

"How many so-called 'offworlders' are you aware of? Is this a known phenomenon for you? Because it certainly isn't where I'm from," Virga chirped irritably.

"I'm Leaf. Did someone... bring you here? Did they tell you who they were?"

Now the almost-human words were in her head, wonderful. Still just human words, but at least there was a bit of abstracted intent laced within. Who brought... Virga would have instructed the horse on proper form, if she had not been rendered unable to speak psychically herself.

"I do not know who is responsible for my situation. I dreamt that I spoke with someone who wished for me to aid someone on 'Forlas,'" Virga said with a dismissive scoff. If Forlas was in fact a world and not merely some obscure region across the sea, then there might be billions of beings that imperative might refer to. Not a vague directive at all!

"I suppose I have no choice but to follow this voice's instruction, if they have the ability to strip me of my power like so," the Rookidee added, bitterly.

 

[Ambyssin]

Well, if she was summoned, that pretty much narrowed it down to two culprits. And one was missing.

... Nova didn't like where this train of thought was leading him. His talons dug into the dirt.

So, Virga was depowered? Well, pretty much everyone had shown up that way.

"There are... a lot of us. A couple of dozen, maybe?" Truthfully Nova wasn't keeping count and living off the reservation with Sage meant he wasn't seeing all the Wayfarers all that often. Not unless they were going looking for him. "You were devolved then? Like from a corvisquire or corviknight?"