Treasure Town ~ Marowak Dojo

[Ambyssin]

Necrozma compared Maple's statements with Cynthian's startled reaction. "It sounds like... there's more than one of these Dark Matter daemons." He looked into his right hand. "Perhaps a Dark Matter from an alternate world sensed the lack of its counterpart and chose to strike? Maybe we're dealing with a PDM: Parallel Dark Matter."

He noticed Potluck's struggles, if he could call them that. He flicked his arm and dispelled the blankets with a short burst of telekinesis. It was still hard to do something so simple. It infuriated him that, while he struggled with the most basic psychic tasks, this smeargle was carving portals like it was nothing.

 

[Persephone]

"Dungeons? As in prisons?"

Cuicatl's opinion of dark matter plummeted even further. Corrupting Xerneas? Hah. As if the European's god wasn't already vile enough. Truth be told she didn't even know what Dialga or Darkrai were. Kyurem was important. Cold, cruel, and apocalyptic, yes. Most gods are. But she was divine, wise, ancient, and important as well. Corrupting her was almost unthinkable.

 

[Adamhuarts]

At the time, the individual crises that came before his rise were thought to be isolated incidents. In retrospect, however... we came to know them as Dark Omens."

"Dark Omens? My world called them The Great Calamities... I was lucky I only alive to experience one of them." Cynthian sat back down weakly with a deeply unsettled expression.

"If Dark Matter caused the other 'Dark Omens' to happen, then it's definitely the one behind this too. Maybe it hasn't been truly destroyed as you guys think? A monster with that much malevolence and evul, of course it won't just go away just like that."

 

[The Walrein]

"There's no need to be too fearful of your own weaknesses, but awareness is the first step toward improvement!" Truffle nodded sagely. "If endurance is your weakness, then training in endurance is the next thing to look toward!

Jaro didn't think that Truffle was treating this seriously enough - the issue of becoming totally exhausted after fights wasn't some minor flaw to be trained away, it was a crippling weakness that could completely destroy the entire team if exploited by an intelligent opponent. Nevertheless, he was too curious to hear about the context of the current situation to say any more on the subject right then.

The concept of a being made out of pure negative emotions seemed odd to Jaro, but not that odd - the fairy tribes knew that emotions were just as real as the stones beneath your feet or the air you breathed, and just as easy to manipulate if you knew the right moves. If a Pokemon could be made out of living rock, than why not out of emotions? Most of the names, though - Rayquaza, Kyurem, Xerneas, Mystery Dungeons - flew right over Jaro's head. He tried to remember as many of them as he could in case they became important later, but could already feel some of them slipping away from him. If his sister had been here instead of him, Jaro was sure she'd have been able to compose a memory song on the spot to help her recall all the details of the story later...

But, he was able to at least get the gist of the tale. "I'll be honest, I can't say I've ever heard of most of the things in your history before, but there's something that still seems familiar. In the stories passed down by my ancestors, there was something called the rule of three - encounters with a particular foe would never occur exactly twice, it'd always be either once, three times, or not at all! And this Dark Matter's appeared two times before, right? The first time it was encountered, the heroes tried to destroy it. The second time, they tried to accept it. If this really is the third time Dark Matter's shown up, maybe the next step of that pattern is creation - that is, create a sort of 'Light Matter', a being made out of positive emotions."

...crap, that last part seemed kind of silly now that Jaro had said it out loud. "But, uh, obviously things in real life don't necessarily work the same way they do in stories. Um... Cynthian, right?" he said, turning to address the Roselia. "This Dark Matter that existed in your own world - how was it defeated there? Was it by fighting it or 'accepting' it like in this world, or was it something else? Uh, assuming that it was defeated and wasn't still a problem at the time you came here..."

 

[Namohysip]

'Light Matter.' Maple's mouth curled into an amused, wry smile, though it was only for a twitch. "There is," she said, "in a sense, a 'Light Matter.' He is known as the Voice of Life, closely tied to Xerneas. Hypothetically, he could be as powerful as Dark Matter... but rather than centralize his power into himself, he is instead a force that drives all living things forward. While not very powerful on his own, he exists so long as there is at least one Pokemon in the world who has a will to survive."

Maple closed her eyes, and then spoke like she was reciting something from memory. "Every roar of triumph. Every cry of pain. Every moment that you share with others. The Voice of Life will persist so long as there is at least one hope remaining. Yet... he, too, was powerless against Dark Matter. They are two entities that cannot directly interact with one another. Only by proxy were they able to fight. The Voice of Life... is the one who summoned the humans here. He is one of the few entities here that is capable of reaching into other worlds."

 

[windskull]

"Dungeons? As in prisons?"

Nip glanced up towards the small dragon. "If they're anything like the dungeons I know, they're more like... places where time and space are strange. Twisted. Time passes oddly inside them, and the space is unstable. Constantly shifting. They're easy to get lost in, and there's often no way to turn back. You can only move forward until you reach the end."

He turned his attention to Maple. "Are they the same here?"

 

[Shiny Phantump]

"Years later, on another continent, time began to freeze in isolated areas of the world. Darkrai, touched by that same nihilistic darkness, corrupted Dialga in shadowy dreams and turned him near-feral. Had it not been for Team Spice--a human who became a Chikorita, and his partner, a Totodile--this world could have been plunged into a frozen darkness forever.

Well, that explained why Surf expected Celeste to already know who her parents were. Seems like the kind who’d have a reputation. It also explained why they didn’t really invest in home security. He figured most petty thieves knew better than to target a duo who’d taken on two higher beings... and won.

Wait a second. If the Chicorita was their father, that made Surf and Turf... half human? That concept intrigued him more than the humans who had transformed. Did they have some sort of human-ness to them, too?

 

[Namohysip]

He turned his attention to Maple. "Are they the same here?"

Maple hummed. "Mostly," she said. "Dungeons are curious twists in space. You can tell a Dungeon is present by the prismatic wall that lines its perimeter. Touching this wall for a few seconds, or submerging yourself completely within it, causes you to disappear from an outside observer's perspective. If you were to walk backwards into one, you would see the observer disappear instead, and your whole landscape change. Dungeons are subdivided into sections, each one separated by more distortions. There is generally no way to go back without going through. That, they have in common.

"Defeat in a Dungeon will often leave you at the entrance that you had taken inside. However, any belongings you may have could be claimed by the Dungeon. There are also certain items, such as Guild-issued badges, that will allow you to escape more safely, given some time."

"Lots of missions Guilds get in Dungeons," Soda chimed in, "are from bozos who got lost and are too afraid to lose what they brought with them, or maybe they don't want to get attacked by the territorial Pokemon inside. There's also a rumor that some Pokemon don't return when they're defeated, but ehh, I don't buy it." Soda paused. "Oh, and there's also the fact that they say sometimes, if you're so horribly defeated in a Dungeon, all that remains is your soulless body to become part of the Dungeon's permanent population. Spooky, eh?" Soda wiggled his claws menacingly. "Better be careful where you go, or the Dungeon will steal your breath and possess your corpse!"

"Soda," Maple hissed. "Stop scaring the outsiders."

"Aw, c'mon, who believes that crap?" Soda shrugged. "It's just a tale to tell your grandkids to keep them from wandering into Dungeons to train. Which, by the way, is a great way to train. I did it all the time and look how I turned out."

"Indeed," Maple said. "Look how Soda turned out. Don't wander recklessly into Dungeons."

Soda grunted and muttered under his breath, "Hardass."

Suddenly, a small waterfall poured down on him, and one of the water jugs near maple had mysteriously become half-empty. Soda, gurgling from the start, rolled out of the way and snorted out a few sprays of water. Potluck giggled and started low-crawling toward the Zoroark while he was distracted.

 

[Disco]

*Mellow will remember that

Mellow listened to everything they said and curled up. Mystery Dungeons were nothing so horrible... It was just... the Legendary Pokemon lived in them, along with their most dedicated followers... Maybe they didn't want to be disturbed sometimes, and the area inside the Dungeons grew or shrank at their discretion, but, the Pokemon inside them were never that mean! Just.... ....Pious. ...It made her wonder about the domains of the admittedly less charitable Legends. Darkrai, Yveltal... Kyurem...

...No, they had never done anything so awful as to trap people inside. None of them had. There would be tales about it if so!

 

[Adamhuarts]

"This Dark Matter that existed in your own world - how was it defeated there? Was it by fighting it or 'accepting' it like in this world, or was it something else? Uh, assuming that it was defeated and wasn't still a problem at the time you came here..."

"The Dark Matter in my was also defeated much in the same way as my world. The only difference is that no humans were involved in vanquishing it, nor were they involved in any of the previous cala—Omens, I mean." Cynthian shuddered. Barring a few differences, it was once again fairly eerie just how similar his world was to this one.

A thought occurred in Cynthian's mind, and he tensed up. "So, Miss Maple, do you think Dark Matter came back for this world again? Are we going to have to fight it?"

 

[Virgil134]

Cabot crossed his arms and paused in thought as Maple explained how Mystery Dungeons worked in her world. The broad strokes definitely matched up with how things worked in his, but there were some noticeable differences. A prismatic wall instead of dungeon fog, their creation being caused by Dark Matter, somehow ending up back at the entrance upon being knocked out... But, in spite it, navigating these dungeons shouldn't be any harder than normal, should it? Especially if they were given badges. Not to mention that they were great places to train. His own experiences during Basic Training in his world proved that Soda had a point.

When a small waterfall interrupted Soda and poured water all over him, Cabot couldn't help but smile at seeing Soda of all Pokémon getting pranked by one of his own teammates, and did his best to stifle a laugh.

 

[Namohysip]

Maple smirked to accompany Cabot's smile, though she was back to serious when Cynthian spoke up.

"So, Miss Maple, do you think Dark Matter came back for this world again? Are we going to have to fight it?"

"I don't know," she said. "Everything points to Dark Matter making some kind of return, yet Arceus claims he cannot sense his presence. Yet, there is obviously something happening... Not to mention the strange sickness that is spreading. That must be related, somehow..." She sighed. "But... that is all we know. Missing Pokemon, huge Pokemon, and recently, berserk Pokemon."

But then, with one final "tsk," she looked to Potluck, who had finally inched close enough to Soda to tackle him. Yet he passed through thin air, and suddenly a Zoroark landed on the Silvally's back, arms crossed on the right side of his crest.

"So that's all we know," Soda summarized. "And until we get more information, I think that's all we can do. You guys look like you'll have a few days of resting off that fight, too, so... Take it easy for now. Don't strain yourself." He glanced at Zane. "And we'll see if we can pull a few strings for that idiot so he's not thrown in the slammer for his rest period. Maybe set up some community service when he's healed, I dunno." He glanced at Maple. "So, that's all?"

"I believe it is. Does anybody have any questions?"

 

[Virgil134]

"Wait, what sickness?" Cabot asked.

 

[Namohysip]

"The same one Turf has," Maple said. "There does not seem to be anything physically wrong with them. Their aura is strange... that is all we can tell. Otherwise, they appear to be in some kind of discomfort, and worse, conventional cures and medicines have no effect." She shook her head. "But it is too early to tell what happens if the illness progresses. Time will tell... as morbid as it sounds."

 

[Virgil134]

Cabot shot Maple a confused look. Most of this aura talk was already confusing, but now there was some sort of strange sickness related to it as well? How... were they supposed to stop that? They were fighters, not doctors after all. Let alone ones that knew anything about this world's deal with auras. And what were to happen if they got sick while trying to investigate stuff? Would Diyem be able to protect them?

 

[Disco]

"...Berserk Pokemon...?", Mellow mumbled sleepily. "And there's Pokemon that went missing on top of everything else...?"

 

[Shiny Phantump]

"But it is too early to tell what happens if the illness progresses. Time will tell... as morbid as it sounds."

Well, fuck. He’d thought the Rattata in the forest had a progressive stage of some sort of disease.

He really hoped he was wrong. If Surf’s sibling ended up like that Rattata... It would break her. Should he say something? Warn everyone? He didn’t know...

Well, he did know. He should. But... he didn’t want to do it right now. He’d pull one of the members of the squad aside later and talk to them in private, where it wouldn’t frighten everyone else.

 

[Ambyssin]

“Isn’t there a chance the child’s illness will progress?” Necrozma tapped his claws together in thought. “They might turn out like the magikarp if no one can do anything.”

 

[Persephone]

Ah. So that was the catch. Get turned into a dragon (!), sure, but then get dropped into the second coming of The Invaders' Plagues. Cuicatl could end up as a very big, very angry dragon which.

Hmm. Still not seeing the downside, here? And more to solve means more time as dragon.

 

[TheGOAT]

After snagging her blanket from Potluck’s castle earlier, Astrid had cuddled up in front of a training dummy. Ears perked forward, she kept her head down, listening, listening…

A frown crossed her face. They’d taken care of the Magikarp handily, but this? This was quite different. This enemy was invisible as far as she knew. Disease wasn’t her speciality, nor were the mythical properties of this apparently-very-real thing called ‘aura.’

One of her blue paws shot into the air. “Um… forgive me, but where do we fit into all this? We defeated Sushi and Sashimi, but how exactly can we battle a sickness?”

(OOC: Next post is in the Marketplace, after the time skip)