Marowak Dojo ~ Living Quarters

[Namohysip]

"Aww, come on!" Chip said. "They're Shades! That doesn't matter too much, right? Please!" Chip floated around Dave. "Don't be a Zekrom! It's fine, isn't it?"

Soda rolled his eyes. "Zekrom leads the ethics commission, so basically you can't do anything high-level unless she gives the go-ahead, for stuff like this. Most of the time, they agree. But if Chip gets too excited, Zekrom has to zap him a little to keep him down."

"The problem with properly investigating what's going on is that we don't have anything else to go by right now! All we have is Cabot's instance right now. We need more data!" Chip bobbed up and down, and Squiggly bobbed his head in rhythm, not that Chip would notice.

"If you want to do more testing, why don't you put that lump next to it first?" Soda said. "See what happens."

 

[Torchic]

Zekrom?

"So it's safe? Alright..." Cino got out his lump, and his slug instantly was in some sort of trance. It stopped nibbling and just stared at the lump, never looking anywhere else. "If you say that nothing bad'll happen, like someone getting possessed again, or it escaping, then..."

Cino was still hesitating. He looked at the others, and waited for them to get ready first.

 

[Namohysip]

"What's going on in here?" Owen asked, stepping around Flesh respectfully. Even though he was in the corner of the room, he still took up quite a lot of space and nearly half the hallway entrance.

"Oh, hey," Soda said. "We're talking about the Shades and stuff. You got one?"

"Yeah, I do, but..." Owen looked to his bag. "I haven't been paying much attention to him lately. I should probably do that."

"You too, huh," Soda deadpanned as Owen trotted to the large jar near his supplies. "Well, whatever, I guess. The main thing we've been looking at is how the Lumps interact with what are you doing?"

Owen was busy unscrewing his jar, which then popped open.

Soda's fur bristled. "H-hey! You idiot, what do you think you're doing?!"

"Letting him get some fresh air," Owen replied to Soda, sounding dumbfounded as the Shade lunged for Owen's shoulder. It flopped about and crawled until it was like a sapient hat around his head. "They're a lot less moody when you feed them," he added, holding up a berry which, likely to Soda, seemed to spontaneously disappear in chunks.

 

[Torchic]

"...Nobody told me that they needed to be fed." It still was staring at the Lump in Cino's paw. He checked if he had anything to eat with him. "Owen? Do you have a spare berry with you? It's alright if not, but I think my slug here is starving."

 

[Dragonfree]

"Letting him get some fresh air," Owen replied to Soda, sounding dumbfounded as the Shade lunged for Owen's shoulder. It flopped about and crawled until it was like a sapient hat around his head. "They're a lot less moody when you feed them," he added, holding up a berry which, likely to Soda, seemed to spontaneously disappear in chunks.

"Owen, what--" Dave was about to say it could infect him, but no, clearly Owen had done this before, which was still bad. "They only brainslug when they're hungry? Did you seriously just let it out and see what happened?"

 

[windskull]

Nip paused to stare at Owen, twitching his ear to acknowledge the concern of others. Letting it out like that seemed... a bit reckless, to say the least.

"Well, if nothing else, it wouldn't hurt to..." He trailed off, placing his jar on the ground. He pried it open just enough to drop the lump inside next to — but not on top of — his Shade. Well, if the shade really did like these lumps, he supposed this would prove it.

 

[Phoenixsong]

And someone had done it. The sneasel dropped his stone into the jar. Skara scooted a bit closer, watching. She'd been struggling with whether or not to expose her own shade to the not-everstone she'd found, but she still had questions to ask it, and it didn't seem logical for a stone to be able to answer questions. Watching how this one reacted would give her a better idea of when (or if) she should try it herself.

...and they could be satiated by normal food? (Did that mean that the "possession" was some kind of feeding?) She blinked at the charmander and at the berry in the jar. Well. That was... something. Surely you couldn't feed a rock. So many angles to try...

"What, uh... what do you know about Cabot's 'instance' so far, then?" she asked the Chip-creature while her eyes darted back to the sneasel's jar.

 

[Namohysip]

"I didn't just let them out," Owen said to Dave. "I was careful. I had Protect readied, I set up a little trap in case it got hostile, and I tried to reason with him before letting it out. If he tried anything with sudden movements, I'd set up the Protect and trap him again... but he never wound up doing that. It's not that different from communicating with a wild Pokemon."

"Hssss..."

"Oh, and he likes Pechas the most so far. I was thinking about trying other sweet berries, but I haven't found any good ones yet."

"Kssss..."

"But he doesn't know anything about why he exists or anything... Sorry."

"You aren't seriously talking with him, are you?" Soda asked.

Owen shook his head. "It was a bunch of yes-no questions like what Dave did. I wanted to see if mine knew anything more, but he didn't."

In the meantime, the Shade with Nip curled into the corner of the jar and hissed at Nip a few times, then slithered curiously toward the jar. It pecked at it, then pecked a little more, and then split its face open, trying to devour it.

Unfortunately, it was too hard and too big, and eventually it gave up and pecked at it some more.

The stone... was glowing. It didn't look like Chip or the others could see it, but it was unmistakably glowing with a soft, grayish-red light.

Eventually, it curled around the stone, doing little else.

"We don't really know the specifics," Chip said. "Just that it seems the Shades and these stones, while not directly linked, seem to have some commonality that draws them together. But since no visible reaction is present, we can only assume the resonance is something we can't yet observe..."

"What do you think, little guy?" Owen asked, crossing his eyes in an attempt to look up at his slug hat.

"Krrr?"

 

[windskull]

"Uh... did anyone else see that?" Nip asked, not taking his eyes from the jar. "The glowing stuff, I mean." He glanced up at Chip and Soda. "It, uh... tried to eat the stone. I think. The stone started glowing while it did that. Now it's just... laying down next to it. And it's still glowing."

 

[Torchic]

Owen didn't seem to have any leftovers, so Cino made a mental note on buying his slug some berries.

Seeing how Nip's slug reacted to the Lump, Cino tried to do the same -- only now noticing that his slug was perfectly still, and only moved its head when Cino moved the Lump. He tried moving it faster, the slug kept up with ease.

He decided to put it into the cage. The slug didn't even wait until it landed, it catched the Lump and then wiggled around it.

It started glowing as well. "Yes, it's glowing. What's happening to it?"

 

[Namohysip]

"I definitely see it," Owen said.

"Ahhh!" Chip hovered near Cino. "You can see something? Then there really is a reaction! That's wonderful, absolutely wonderful, that--that means we can get more research done if you're observing it!"

"But are we really sure it won't hurt them?" Owen asked, frowning. "If it turns out they're hurting, I'm gonna try to break him out."

"Fair's fair," Soda replied with a shrug.

 

[Torchic]

Cino curiously tried to remove the Lump, only for the slug attempting to bite his paw. "Ahh!"

An agressive Khhhhh came from the cage. "That was close... It almost bit me. I don't think it wants to give it back. Doesn't seem like it's doing anything, it's just laying still around the Lump..."

 

[Namohysip]

Owen nodded, and then looked to Dave, Nip, and Cino. He was still hesitating to actually put his Shade into this lump, but all things considered, what else were they going to do with them otherwise? They were resonating in some way, too... And Owen could easily try breaking it out if they had enough power... "Okay," he said gently. "Who wants to do it first?"

Soda rolled his eyes even harder. "You're doing this, are you? Please. Grow a pair."

 

[windskull]

No one else had made a motion to yet try and put their Shade in a stone, so he supposed that duty fell on him. "Sure, fine. Whatever." Nip made a gesture akin to a noncommital shrug, then opened up his jar the rest of the way, reaching his hand in to grab the stone. "I guess you just sort of..." Okay he had no idea what he was doing. His best idea was to press the stone up against the Shade, firm enough to put some pressure on it, but soft enough that he wasn't squishing it entirely.

 

[Namohysip]

"Hsss... krrr... rrr?" The Shade seemed perplexed, but then pressed back against Nip, like it was some sort of game. At first, not much seemed to happen, but a little more pressure--and then a peck from the Shade that was just enough velocity to do something, and--

Nip would suddenly feel the lump jolt forward, the resistance given by the Shade abruptly disappearing completely. It had gone straight into the stone sphere, leaving not a trace behind, yet now the glow was brighter than ever. The glowing settled down, but now it felt... heavy, too. And... was it moving a little?

 

[windskull]

Huh, well how about that? Nip tipped the jar, letting the now-heavy lump roll out and into his paw. He raised it up and down a few times, testing the weight, and then held it still so that he could get a better look. Sure enough, it wiggled just a little before settling down in his grip.

He looked up, primarily addressing Chip and Soda with his question. "You guys can see that movement, right? I'm not going crazy?"

The lump wiggled again, as if responding to his question.

 

[Phoenixsong]

Skara couldn't help but scoot even closer as the stone in the sneasel's paw twitched of its own accord. "No, it's definitely moving," she said, fascinated, before turning to Chip and Soda again. "Is that what Cabot's stone does? It moves on its own?" She glanced between Chip and the sneasel. "Do they respond to anything in that state? Is it possible to get them to make those little chirping noises?"

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave narrowed his eyes at the lump. "Hey, wiggle once for yes, twice for no. You comfy in there?"

 

[windskull]

Nip first addressed Skara's question. "I don't know. I haven't seen Cabot's stone, myself."

Meanwhile, the stone in his paws went still for a moment, then wiggled a single time, assumably answering Dave's question. It did not, however, make any noises.

 

[Namohysip]

Owen, meanwhile, was staring at his own stone and then at his Shade, who looked between it and the one that Nip held. "Wow... I didn't expect them to react in that way."

"It really is some kind of... Shade container."

"And he's not uncomfortable, either, huh?" Owen said. "But... what does it do? What's it for?"

...Hmm... Diyem suddenly chimed in. I'm sensing something between Nip and the stone. It was subtle at first, perhaps that is why I did not see it until now, but... yes. Nip and the stone are resonating.

"Resonating?" Owen repeated, but then hastily explained to Soda what Diyem just said. "What do you mean, resonating?"

...I do not know why or how. But it appears that the stones can help augment your abilities in battle... but only for Nip, and only between that and his stone. I suspect the same is true for Cabot and Starr, and anybody else who does this. And I suspect there is more power untapped...

"We-ell, how about that!" Soda said, smirking. "Sounds to me like whatever happened with these stones and you guys are related."

Chip was buzzing with excitement. "Do another! Do another!"