[Nexus] Outside XXXII

[5a Violista]

Ruined Town Pokémon Centre

"Nope," she responds. "Just a beat-up tin can."

"Such a drawl." Ms. de _______ Victory looks down at the little ball in her hand. "I wish this was easier to carry, though. I mean, how am I supposed to fight off a crew of skeletons with this thing in my hand?"

Shrugging, she turns around in order to go down the stairs and leave the red building. "Talk about false advertising, though! A red building, but only a compass that doesn't have a needle and an arcane undecipherable map."

[Earl of Purple]

Ruined Town- Pokémon Centre

As she leaves, the pirate might notice a book on the table. It's got an image of the red and white sphere on the front cover.

[5a Violista]

Ruined Town Pokémon Centre

Alvida almost misses it.

But, after passing the table, it registers in her mind that there was a picture of her brand-new compass on the table.

She returns, and stares at the cover.

Then, at the ball in her hand.

Then, at the book again.

Once more.

No, twice more.

And, then...
"Hey, an owner's manual. That's neat."

She blows the dust off the book, if there is any dust, and will start to skip through the book to find anything interesting or to find the section on "How to work your needleless compass".

[Earl of Purple]

Ruined Town- Pokémon Centre

Apparently, it's not a compass at all. It's a Pokéball. It's used to catch things when you press the button and throw it.

[5a Violista]

Ruined Town Pokémon Centre

((Sorry for not posting for so long; I got distracted))

"Huh." She read that part.

"Not a compass." Alvida blinks, and continues to look shocked. "There's a first for everything, and that's the first time that I've been wrong." She blinks again.

Just to test it out to see what happens, she presses the button.

[Earl of Purple]

Ruined Town- Pokémon Centre

Nothing; there's no Pokémon inside it.

((Don't worry; between posts, I'm watching videos on YouTube))

[Reinholdt]

[The Lost Wave]

The ship does indeed look to be in decent shape, made of tough stuff there may be a few cracks, and Derek will probably have to go over the whole boat looking for weakspots to fix later.

"Yeah I am thanks for stopping and helping."

Reinholdt is not a cat right now right? But he is pink because he is flying right? Derek might be able to put together flying pink guy with Reinholdts name having heard tales of him from the girls.

[The Lost Wave]

Reinholdt is human right now, and yes pink because flying.

"I'm Reinholdt, Treasure Hunter Extraordinaire." Reinholdt performs his flourish. "And you are...?"

He's mostly curious as to what the boat is doing heading to Melody's, so will continue the niceties for a while.

[5a Violista]

Ruined Town- Pokémon Centre

Nothing; there's no Pokémon inside it.

((Don't worry; between posts, I'm watching videos on YouTube))

((And, once again, I took a long time to post.)) ((This time, I was eating, though.))


Ruined Town Pokémon Centre

Oh, well.

Nothing happened.

Time to go outside, then. This red-and-white not-a-compass is probably just an advanced treasure chest which can only hold a few coins, anyway.

She keeps on holding it, having nowhere to put it, before heading outside.

The pirate decides on going to the wood-clad brick house next, before she even leaves the red house.

[Earl of Purple]

Ruined Town

There's two of those, and a sign in the centre of the ruins. Anyway, the closest is next door to the Pokémon Centre, so I'm assuming that's the one that Alvida is going to. Inside is a single room, with a sofa, a TV, an oven, a sink and a refrigerator. It's all very dilapidated, and there's a corpse on the sofa with a small tree growing from its ribcage. The corpse is holding another book.

[5a Violista]

Ruined Town

You assumed correctly. She went to that house!

As soon as she enters the house, she pauses and points at the corpse.

Her mouth opens. Then closes. Then opens again.

Then, she pauses before saying something. "You know what? I think something's going on here in this old city. I mean, roasted, yes. But with a tree? Something's got to be up, and it's not the Union Jack."

Of course, it could just mean that someone decided to plant a seed there, but that doesn't make much sense.

"So, I think you'll excuse me, Mr. What's-Your-Face, if I don't borrow your book and sack your fridge. There's not enough gold in this town to be worth it, anyway. I might as well eat something while I'm at it."

Alvida cautiously goes up to the corpse, to borrow his book from him.

If nothing happens after that, she goes over to the fridge to open it before seeing what's in the book.

(If the corpse does something, though, she might hold off going over to the fridge.)

[Earl of Purple]

Ruined Town

The corpse is a corpse! One that was killed by a grass-type Pokémon's Leech Seed move. Hence the tree.

In the fridge is a lot of rotten old food. But also a Pecha Berry, that when eaten counteracts poison. Any poison. Just a pity the dead guy didn't get poisoned, otherwise he'd have been able to use it to save himself.

The book's a journal! It says that the Wild Pokémon have gone berserk and are attacking people, and that Professor Birch is already dead. Those with Pokémon of their own are the only defence available, as they can fight off the attackers. But when they die, their Pokémon join the ravenous hordes. All this, however, likely means little to Alvida.

[5a Violista]

Ruined Town

It's almost as much of a pity that Alvida Blood doesn't know about the berry's mystical properties. She's just hungry, and that's the only good food left in the fridge. Well, she could cook some of that rotten food with her firebreath, but sometimes the rottenness of the food isn't the kind that gets gone with roasting.

Then, sadly, she wastes the berry, tossing it up to her mouth.

Somehow, she manages to hold the "Capturing Ball", read the dead man's journal, and grab the berry all at the same time.

She trusts what's written, because, as every pirate knows that dead men tell no tales. Every single word in here's true, she supposes. "If only I knew what this all meant. It must be written in some kind of military code, or something."

Turning back to the door, she starts pondering about what the code could possibly mean. She gives the book back to the body, and thinks thusly:

This Professor must be something like The Doctor. He'll always come back, though, so no need to worry about him. Usually, everyone just thinks that he's dead.

This 'Pokémon', though is a much more complex riddle. Is it an animal? Elves? An enslaved race of lizardfolk? Evil spirits? A rebel group fighting against "The Man"?
Who knows.

Whatever these Pokémons are, this ball will probably come in handy, if she had paid enough attention to the other book. Who knows, she might get lucky when she sees her first Pokeyman.

"Time to see what that sign in the middle of town says."

((Good night. See you next time that I'm online!))

[Lost_Deep]

[A Forest Near Watchtower]

Aeia looks mildly alarmed. Whatever fleshwarping is, it sounds downright nasty. She takes a small step backward and watches Vriveka warily. At least she can't jump at her again at the moment.

A Forest Near Watchtower

Bark just sets Vriveka down on the ground and stands up straight, "Do not impose yourself on others, instead ask others to come to you. Working within their needs and desires will be limiting, which will cause you to think more about what you are doing. And you won't be harming others with your magic." That last part is more important to the tree. Bark would normally be "Mage, SMASH!" at this point, but since the fey isn't actively trying to harm Aeia, he's willing to offer some guidance first. After all, Cessie didn't turn out to be that bad.

"Why do you think I asked if she had any troubles and feigned interest in her personal life? What, do you expect me to be nice and cooperative and walk up and say, 'Hi! I use flesh magic! Do you need any of your flesh magicked?'"

...yes?

"But... I... can't... think... of... AAAAGGGGGGHHHHHRRRRRGGGGHHHH!"

"Leave me alone to my childish temper tantrum. Let's just walk away and pretend this never happened."

[Rebonack]

[Viridian Forest]

Becca snickers, but doesn't comment on the bug thing anymore right now. "We still gotta find some apricorns. Black ones, but it'd be awesome to find a bunch."

Aaaand they're off!

Hmm...

They were going to cross that bridge. Which is sort of smashed now...

Glamdring could swim easily enough. And Becca could wade across. The water isn't that deep. Buuut...

The Mawile might have a bit of trouble. Since she's made of metal and all. Tends to weigh a pokemon down.

[Earl of Purple]

Ruined Town

Unfortunately, Professor Birch isn't like the Doctor. Professor Birch really is dead.

The dead guy knew! So did the burnt corpse. It's also possible that Alvida will realise that whatever the Pokémon are, they can control plants and fire, as that's how the two bodies she's encountered thus far died.

[Gullara]

[Viridian Forest]

Becca eyes the water. Well her socks are going to get soaked, but who cares about that? When Glamdring is near the water, Becca dumps into it, making a splash. Within seconds her boots are full of water, but if she splashes Glamdring it'll totally be worth it.

[McBish]

[The Lost Wave]

Reinholdt is human right now, and yes pink because flying.

"I'm Reinholdt, Treasure Hunter Extraordinaire." Reinholdt performs his flourish. "And you are...?"

He's mostly curious as to what the boat is doing heading to Melody's, so will continue the niceties for a while.

"Reinholdt? You don't look like a cat. Sorry I heard about you from Jezebelle on a nearby island. I'm Derek Dekko, a pleasure to meet you. Actually I have some passengers down below that would probably be happy to see you."

He offers a hand to shake with a friendly smile. Everything he had heard about Reinholdt seems to indicate that he is a great guy, and sure enough here he comes to help rescue him from that monster.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Ancient Forest]

As long as there's no demons actively attacking him, Damon is quite content to just keep spreading the fire through the tower. They can spy on him all they want! It's not really going to achieve much...

Heck, he even starts whistling a merry little tune.

The thought does occur to him that the fire could potentially damage the tower enough to make it collapse, so he'll try and stop it spreading anywhere likely to damage the structure of the tower...but the fire may well spread beyond his reach anyway.

[Reinholdt]

[The Lost Wave]

"Reinholdt? You don't look like a cat. Sorry I heard about you from Jezebelle on a nearby island. I'm Derek Dekko, a pleasure to meet you. Actually I have some passengers down below that would probably be happy to see you."

He offers a hand to shake with a friendly smile. Everything he had heard about Reinholdt seems to indicate that he is a great guy, and sure enough here he comes to help rescue him from that monster.

[The Lost Wave]

Reinholdt raises an eyebrow, immediately suspicious, though some relief comes when Derek mentions Jezebelle.

"Sorry. Last person I shook hands with used it to try and kill me." Reinholdt says, clasping his hands behind his back. He'll stick with flourish introductions.

"You do?" Reinholdt asks about the passengers. A set-up maybe?

[Slii Arhem]

[Misha's Pool]

"If it's all the same, I'd rather not be 'new' per say. Childhood is... Not something I'd like to go through again if I can help it" Riss said. "Still, you're right on the strength part. Basically, the designs I've got are multiplicative rather than additive. The latter is actually more difficult to implement unless it's strictly prosthetic and even then that's more of a set limit. Regimentation is a good idea, though." the muse explained as she drifted behind Misha.

Feeling a bit daring, Riss took a deep breath and descended a few meters before turning around and speeding up just a bit so that she was looking up at the nereid as she swam on a parallel course. It was a bit of a strain but of the sustainable sort.

[A Forest Near Watchtower]

Aeia looks mildly alarmed. Whatever fleshwarping is, it sounds downright nasty. She takes a small step backward and watches Vriveka warily. At least she can't jump at her again at the moment.

[Misha's Pool]

Mimi sticks her tongue out playfully at the both of them. "You know what I meant." Silly them, taking her so literally. The pixies keeps pace with them, keeping her eye out for any sign that Riss is having trouble. It's good to see she's doing alright for now. *nodnod*

Misha's Pool

"Think of it more like a new machine. All the parts are fresh and not worn down, so it works perfectly. Only with muscles, the more they're used, the less needs replacing, and the more "like new" they get." Misha says reasonably before Riss dives. The nereid immediately rolls around so that she's still swimming backwards, only she's facing underwater and still looking at Riss the whole time. Gotta make sure nothing gives out at a critical point after all.

A Forest Near Watchtower

"Make a business out of it, and let them come to you. If people need you, they'll come, and they'll know what they want from you. Then you can help them and have things to do without worrying about what to do next." Bark rumbles.

[Gullara]

[A Forest Near Watchtower]

"Why the heck are we trying to help her anyway? You saw her jump on my head. Who knows what she was gonna do." Aeia is rather bothered by this whole situation. She'd rather Bark just toss the grig and they can be on their way.

[Terumitsu]

[Misha's Pool]

Riss would give a casual wave to Misha as she drifted along before resuming her circuit of the pool. Continuing on for almost nine minutes more, her expression suddenly clouded and she made a rush for the surface. Breaking into the air with a gasp, the muse began swimming back to the shallows whereupon she would find a place to sit down for a while and catch her breath. "Haa.. Sorry.. Need to rest for a bit here." she said between breaths. "Leg started to ache for some reason... Not a cramp but.. Anyway, though it would be good to take a moment." Then again, I was running low on air so that might have had something to do with it. Should probably divide dives up in five minute increments to avoid that happening again. At least for now.

Letting out a long breath, Riss tried to put on a smile for Misha and Mimi. She was fine but still learning her 'natural' limits. Or rediscovering them or... Whatever. There's probably a word for it but I'm not going to bother finding it.

[McBish]

[The Lost Wave]

Reinholdt raises an eyebrow, immediately suspicious, though some relief comes when Derek mentions Jezebelle.

"Sorry. Last person I shook hands with used it to try and kill me." Reinholdt says, clasping his hands behind his back. He'll stick with flourish introductions.

"You do?" Reinholdt asks about the passengers. A set-up maybe?

Derek shrugs at Reinholdt not shaking his hand.

"Yeah Jezebelle asked me to take them shopping, then hings got weird and we were attacked by that thing. Estia and Lyanna are down below. Now I figure we better just head back to the island. We could give you a lift if you were heading that way."

He seems friendly enough, no signs of aggression from him. He seems relived, hopefully his appearance will help calm the girls after the attack.

[Lost_Deep]

A Forest Near Watchtower

Vriveka is quiet for a minute...

And the she starts laughing.

Apparently the notion of starting a business is, apparently, utterly hilarious.

Maybe even dangerously hilarious, given how loud she's laughing and the fact that she can't seem to stop...

Viridian Forest

Mawile will examine the remains of the bridge... Maybe she can hop across those, if they're stable enough. Or maybe she can jump from the edge of the bridge...

[Gullara]

[Misha's Pool]

Mimi follows along with the muse to the shore and lands next to her. "You were doing pretty dang good. Now do you stay under so long anyway? Another augment?" Mimi chatters.

[5a Violista]

Ruined Town

Unfortunately, Professor Birch isn't like the Doctor. Professor Birch really is dead.

The dead guy knew! So did the burnt corpse. It's also possible that Alvida will realise that whatever the Pokémon are, they can control plants and fire, as that's how the two bodies she's encountered thus far died.

Ruined Town

Alvida Blood de _______ Victory deduces that much.

With that, she leaves the building to go see what the sign in the middle of town says, if anything. Maybe that has the clue to where her treasure is. After all, with four houses and a sign in the middle, it's very probable that it really is an X, and she just has to dig downwards under the sign to find the treasure.

That would be too obvious for Alvida's likings, but, hey, you can't win everything.

[Earl of Purple]

Ruined Town

It doesn't seem likely that the sign marks the spot. It says:

Oldal T wn
ere Thi gs Start Scarc

Quite a bit of the sign is missing, and some of the letters have fallen off. The letters W, o, n, and f are nearby; the rest are gone.

[5a Violista]

Ruined Town

"Hm," says the pirate, looking at the old sign. "Must be a puzzle."

She stares at the words, trying to figure a way to fit in the W, the o, the n, and the f.

After a while, she decides that it should look like this:

Oldal Town
fere Things Start Scare
(She transforms the last "c" into an e with a dagger, and she pockets the W (Or is it an M? I can't decide), because she doesn't know how it'll fit in there.)

"Whoever made this isn't very good at spelling," she adds, before turning away from the sign and going on to the third building that looks just like the second. Not the one with the blue roof yet; blue is an unlucky color.

[Earl of Purple]

Oldale Town Ruins

Inside this house is very much the same as the last. Only it doesn't have a tree-growing corpse; instead, it has a dead body piled under chunks of brick pulled from the wall. The body's wearing the remains of a white lab coat, and there's a name tag visible pinned to the body's crushed torso. In this body's hand is what looks like a dragon's tooth. There's a box on the counter containing a pair of shoes and an instruction leaflet, whilst in the oven is an Oran Berry, that when eaten helps heal wounds.

[5a Violista]

Oldal Town Ruins"Arrr. That's just plain creepy." The pirate shakes her head at the fallen brick. "That's why I decided to take to the seas. There's no walls."

Alvida doesn't even bother with the berry this time. Might be poisonous, y'know. You can't just eat everything that is in people's houses.

The shoes probably don't fit.

The leaflet would be interesting, but she wants to know this person's name, first. That way, she can give him a proper burial...if there was an ocean. Oceans are the only way to give proper burials, other than roasting someone to ashes and scattering their ashes to the seven winds. Maybe she'll do that. But first, she has to know his name.

"Mr. Scientist guy, I'll give you a proper-enough burial, then. Just stay there and don't move while I get these bricks off you," she says before starting to remove the bricks.

She finds the dragon's tooth. She immediately recognizes it for what it is, but there's something more important before looking at the dragon's tooth. She just pockets it before she can remove all the bricks. Then, she removes the bricks.


Edit:((Goodnight! I deadtime her 'til another day.))