Grass Continent ~ Treasure Town Beach

[unrepentantAuthor]

The battle at Shaymin Village could have gone better. But they'd made it through.

The staff at the Treasure Town Guild infirmary had taken Astrid and Starr into their care, to be transferred and discharged at the medical centre in Destiny Village. Soon, Brisa and Curio would follow to their new home there. But not yet.

"Do you want to talk about this somewhere else? I feel like there's a lot I'm missin' and, well, obviously, we both have baggage to unload."

"Oh gods. Yes. Okay. Just, uh... Please help me check on Astrid and Starr first. Then we can go wherever you want, Curio."

They'd settled on the Beach. It wasn't a bad place for a conversation, and almost everyone else was busy with the move to Destiny Village. The two pokémon walked down there together, making light conversation about how their friends would pull through in no time, or the impressive feats of combat that their allies had performed in the recent fight.

It was harder to talk about what Brisa had done. She'd... she'd used her paralysing light on Curio again. Deliberately, this time. And then...

Well.

She'd mauled her.

But Curio wasn't asking about that. In fact, her wounds were even healing already from a quick oran berry snack, and the red stains on her fur weren't so bad in the light of day. No, Curio wanted to talk about Jesse Stranger.

Jesse Stranger, the human-turned-delphox who had saved Brisa's world, only to disappear into the aether years later.

Jesse Stranger, who had read her mind a thousand times and concluded that she was a violent animal he might have to put down.

Jesse Stranger, her father.

What could she possibly say that would make enough sense? That would explain...? She didn't know. The waves beat against the shoreline, and she sat to listen to them with her friend, who seemed to know she was composing a thought. Probably because she'd been tracing mnemonics in the sand with her tail for a good minute.

"I've never talked about this," Brisa said, at last. "I've never told anyone what... what he thought of me. It was... painful to think about. So bad, I haven't recalled it clearly ever since. And who would even believe me if I told 'em? Everyone back home knows Jesse Stranger was a hero. So I stayed quiet for six years, pushin' the memory down the whole time."

{If I catch you like that again, I won’t hesitate to put you down like the violent animal you are.}

Brisa shuddered.

"He didn't say it out loud. He thought it, and I heard him inside my head. That's... how I know he weren't kiddin'."

 

[Fusion]

The afternoon sun shined brightly above the beach, glistening over the ocean's surface. A cool breeze rolled in from the water. And Vix sat alone on a rock, her face buried in a book. Sure she still had some preparations to do for Icetale's party, but the art of courting was surprisingly captivating.

"Fascinating..." Vix muttered, her flame burning hotter than normal. "I wonder if I should try some of these sometime..."

 

[Fusion]

The beach might have been beautiful in the afternoon, but at night? Ho boy, was it gorgeous. Aside from the sand being cold, on top of coarse, rough, and getting everywhere, Vix very much preferred the beach at night. It was the perfect time to relax, unwind-

Think about your new boy-

Repress thoughts that you weren't yet able to face. You know, normal candle things that every candle does. With the ebb and flow of the waves as her soundtrack, Vix allowed herself to take in the calming cold of the night.

 

[Adamhuarts]

Ah, the fresh salty air of the beach, the bright luminous sunlight shining down on her skin, the warm sand crunching beneath her feet, and the glistening bubbles feral krabby filled the air with. Cynthian missed it. She missed coming to Treasure Town's Beach, especially in the late afternoons.

Cynthian placed her mat on the ground sat together with her food basket. After a deep exhale, she opened the flat and relished the scent of cupcakes that filled her senses. Icetales had been kind enough to gift them to her, courtesy of Petram. A shame Icetales couldn't tag along... but he had other matters to attend to. Well she'd been practically stuck to him like glue the whole night in her distress, so it was fine.

"For now, I'll just relax and enjoy the moment..." Cynthian said, grabbing a cupcake with colorful sprinkles.

 

[Cresselia92]

Limpid black sky with bright twinkles; gentle waves crashing against the sand; fresh marine breezes caressing his face…

It was only Icetales and the dark sea. That was good.

The noble took in a deep breath, letting the iodine enter into his lungs. Then, he breathed out a snowflake-filled cloud.

Breathe in. Relax. Focus.

He brought a pair of tails forward and looked intently at them. Scrunching in muzzle in concentration, he channeled two opposite yet equally powerful energies into them: the golden burst of Radiance, and the wispy energy of Shadow. Two forces, two flames, two opposites that needed to become one.

“Dark sorcery… What he did not want others to know is that dark sorcery is more than just darkness, black matter and forbidden arts. It is…” her voice and fire faded away, “cosmos…”

“Cosmos…”

Without hesitation, Icetales brought both tails together, and pushed the Radiance and Shadow toward each other. He grunted as he fought hard to keep focus of those forces — golly, compressing them was much harder than he imagined! It was one thing to let them go wild, but it was another thing entirely to force them to coexist.

The Radiance and Shadow warped and twisted, until a black sphere with golden gusts appeared between his tails. That was… a black hole?

“Only… a little… more…”

Icetales pushed, pushed, pushed… and pushed too much. The miniature black hole began quivering, and the fox’s eyes widened in alarm.

“Oh, g—”

And the black hole blew up on his face, messing up his fur and giving him a darker pelt. He blinked slowly, still too stunned by what happened.

“…Ouch…”

 

[Flyg0n]

Koa made his way towards the beach. The day was clear and he had some free time. He'd never been to any of the beaches here yet, and he figured checking one out would be a good way to relax. Not to mention beaches always reminded him of home, in a good way. And perhaps he could practice more. It seemed almost everyone on the team had managed to transform or evolve or... whatever it was they pulled off. Everyone except him.

To his surprise however, he wasn't alone. A Meganium was there as well, though one nothing like the ones he knew. Saltriv he realized. At least he was pretty sure. he didn't know of any other Meganium that looked like them. One of his teammates, though he'd hardly spoken to them. And someone else. who'd managed to use that unleashed form.

Might as well try to be friendly. "Hey," he called. "Saltriv, right?"

 

[Adamhuarts]

"Here we are at the beach!" Cynthian said as she stretched her arm out.

With how much she frequently treasure town's beach, the changes caused by the cataclysm didn't go unnoticed. Most of it had been restored to form, but little details like rocks on the shore being in places they weren't before, new crevices on the far off bluff stuck out to her.

"It feels nice to be back here again." Cynthian felt the sand crunch beneath her hooves and sighed in satisfaction, then she glanced over at the blue serpent beside her.

"I'm guessing you're already familiar with this place huh, Alice?"

 

[Persephone]

The end was fast approaching.

For her time in this world, at least. It hadn't always been the easiest. The physical and mental scars from her battle with Coco were still fresh.

{You never saw me as your daughter, did you? Just another pet or toy. And you could have been, if you'd bothered, but you didn't. Still don't. I'm just your crutch. She'd bared her teeth, now much, much larger than they'd been when she was first teething a year and a world ago. Still am. Maybe I'll take a wing as payment?}

And she wasn't wrong. Cuicatl was... flawed. Deeply. Even by the standards of the people here. But she'd been trying to do better. Even as a hydreigon she'd occupied your time baking cupcakes with a lonely fox rather than obsessing over the battles to come. And now there weren'tmany battles left to fight before there aren't any more cupcakes to bake. And then she'd go home and... forget all of this. Forget the healing she'd had a chance to do and the fight with her daughter (she doesn't even remember if she sees her as a daughter back home) and any lessons learned. Until her story ends. Whenever that is. Getting Alice back? Honestly, she's not terribly interesting at home. She still maintained that Spectrum would've been better off with pretty much anybody else from her world.

There's not much point in doing things that won't be remembered. So she finds herself at the beach, eyes closed and listening to the sound of the waves. This all began near here in a way much like this. It's fitting to be here so close to the end.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr had to admit, there was something nostalgic about being back at the Treasure Town beach. It was weird thinking back to being here as a Litten, training with Cabot and Cynthian. The weather was just as nice as she remembered. Sure, Destiny Village was a lot nicer in the summer than it had been earlier in the year, but it was still a lot cloudier and windier than here. And Starr had never been a fan of spending too long in one place. Force of habit. She found herself itching to leave the village on most days.

After heeding Owen's advice to grab some Passho Berry powder, Starr decided to go for a swim. It was still a bit awkward--the water felt cold and weird on her fire, even with the powder. But still, it was nice. Almost like being human again.

Would've been nice to go for a swim with Feraligatr. Then again, she'd be seeing Feraligatr, and all the others soon enough. Now that was a weird thought.

 

[Cresselia92]

A few days had passed since the trying battle at the Colosseum, and Icetales and Petram decided to spend the day by the beach.

The sky was partially cloudy, offering just enough sunlight for Petram and enough shadows for Icetales. Synthetic meat was being cooked on a small barbecue they brought from their house, with Petram breathing some small embers on the coals to keep the temperature high enough.

Meanwhile, Icetales was preparing some extra cold lemonade from underneath a tree, while sitting inside a medium-sized refrigerator. He quivered once in a while and hissed to himself whenever he moved too fast — his joints still felt like burning.

“Hey, Daddy! What do you think if after the barbecue we build a castle? I bet you could come up with some cool designs!” said Petram, grinning at the Ninetales. “I mean, you used to live in one, so you could give me a few pointers.”

Icetales stared at the shade for a few seconds, mulling over that request.

“I shall consider that, but keep in mind what the doctor said — I cannot stay under the sunlight for too long,” replied Icetales, before grabbing an ice bag with one of his free tails and pressing it on his face. “Bejirah… It was most distasteful to have to endure a literal inferno of flames! By the heavens, isn’t my entire body aching and I am not feeling as if I am trapped inside a oven! Not even my own darkness could shield me from those scorching tongues of fire…”

In all fairness, I am not some infallible nor impenetrable barrier. Besides, that was nothing in comparison to the injuries we had sustained during this entire time on in this planet.

I am fully aware of that. Howbeit, that doesn’t make the ache any less dolorous…

It will pass. Our body is plenty durable.

Indeed. It would pass. Icetales wasn’t looking forward the time in-between, however.

“Aww. Alright! Do what you feel like doing!” said Petram, showing a thumbs-up. He resumed focusing on the roasting meat, but his gaze lingered on the sand grazing his feet.

“Hmm… Maybe later I’ll build a sandmon!”

Icetales quirked an eyebrow. “A… sandmon?”

“Yeah! It’s basically a snowmon, but with sand!”

“Ah. That sounds intuitive enough.”

“I think I’ll do just that… later!” exclaimed Petram, before he started humming to himself. “Do you wanna build a sandmon? Come on, let’s go and play…”

Something about those lyrics sounded oddly familiar to Icetales. Snowmons… royals with ice powers… hmm… that rang quite a few bells.

Speaking of bells, it was time to use his restorative technique. The Ninetales lifted a tail, and the mystical bell chimed with a limpid tone. A soothing energy was spread on his back, making him feel a bit better.

With that matter settled, he curled up inside the refrigerator and kept preparing more lemonade with his tails, fulling enjoying the mixture of fresh marine breeze and chilly ice.

…But someone was approaching. His ears swiveled and his darkness churned underneath his body. Keo’Keo emerged from the darkness and darted through the shadows, in order to find out who was coming. Icetales turned his head and checked on his rushing shadow, and his curiousity increased when the spectral fox approached him.

Well, it looks like we have company, and of the pleasant kind…

 

[MadderJacker]

The last time he'd been to Beach Cave, he'd been about a fifth of his current height, and an eternity hadn't gone by. He'd taken the helm atop Nero and lit the way with Psyshocks that took more to maintain than he would ever admit. It was basic. They'd been far from their strongest, but even then, the Wild-- ferals posed no threat.

Four feet and some change, a parallel world, two winters and a metaphysical crisis later, not much had changed. The tunnels were still smoothed and warped from the tidal flows, the smell of salt was just below the point of suffocating, and the ferals were so little of a threat that Mergo couldn't tell if they were territorial or just aggressively friendly. He didn't much care anyways.

Mergo, now a Gallade, eyed a blue Shellos in their path oddly as it schlucked closer to them out of curiosity. It was harmless, he knew that, but he didn't want to risk getting a splotch of mucus on him. He raised a hand and flicked a finger, evoking a psyshock and firing it just short of the Shellos, where it flashed and left a scorch on the stone. It let out a whine and started retreating, and Mergo let out a short sigh.

"I've been on plenty of strange dates before," he began. "Climbing on treetops, dancing on paper-thin ice, one even in the sky above. And now I'll add bullying ferals to the list." Mergo let out a short hum. "There haven't been rumors spreading about me lately, have-- ow."

His head crest bumped into a low spot in the cave ceiling, and Mergo winced and rubbed at the side of it. Ridiculous tidal caves.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Sprawled out on a beach towel, eyes closed, tail flicking contentedly, time seemed to pass her by. She'd spent so much time in DV's wintry chill, she'd forgotten the pleasure of being casually warm. Gods it felt good to relax. Especially after having ten kinds of shit kicked out of her in front of a crowd of millions. Sky and stars.

"S'nice," she said to Starr, a little stupidly. "S'warm."

Like you!! went a happy little voice in her head that she stifled immediately. Starr had enough ammo to tease her with on a good day.

 

[IFBench]

Saltriv trotted along the shore, before coming to a stop near a small, rocky outcropping. "Here we are!"

They could see Sharpedo bluff not too far away, where Thyme and Pepper resided in this world, and where Team Sunset lived in their own world.

And on this beach, at this exact spot, is where their journey began, during a sunset.

Saltriv looked out towards the sea, waiting for their own sunset to begin.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

The walk down from Treasure Town felt odd. Brisa had expected a mix of nostalgia and anxiety, but it felt unexpectedly new. And peaceful. The sun and wind were perfect, like the town always seemed to be blessed with, made new by her strange body and strange company. She wore her zeraora form, wanting to savour it for the short while she'd still have it. Owen was, of course, still stuck in his titanic ever-burning Blacklight-enhanced body. Jogging and flying ahead were their void eternas, who'd spent most of their short lives in Destiny Village's chill climate.

Brisa stretched out her paws in front of her and gave her knuckles a good popping. Around Owen, you always knew you could get your thoughts in order before speaking; he could tell when you were getting your thoughts together. Brisa took her time, and still she didn't quite know what she meant to say. 'Goodbye', eventually. Probably 'thank you', and 'I love you'. But not just yet.

"This beach was one of the first places I went on Cibus," she recalled, out loud. "Straight to the trainin' dojo, but after that, to get some space? Here. And just up there, y'can see the Sharpedo rock, huh. We had our first real interaction there. You transcribed a letter fer me. I was so dumb an' earnest."

She scoffed at herself.

"Still am."