victory_road | The dog days aren't quite over yet...

Entry tags:

The dog days aren't quite over yet...

Who: Everyone participating in the Dog Days of Summer event!
Where: Mt Mortar, the Bell Tower, OR the Seafoam Islands
When: August 17th-31st
Summary: With the Legendary Beasts running amok, it's up to everyone to help figure out what's wrong and get everything back to normal!
Log:

Bell Tower

Volunteers helping at the Bell Tower will arrive in Ecruteak City and be welcomed into the Bell Tower-- the normally-reclusive monks are still fairly stiff, but in the interest of not driving off the very help they asked for, they will be much more accommodating than usual.

Little studies have been set up all over the archive rooms in the upper floors, allowing volunteers to group up at tables and pore over old tomes and scrolls for any information that might be related to Ho-Oh or the three Beasts-- of course, there’s also a wealth of information about legendary Pokemon from other regions… just don’t let the monks catch you getting off-topic!

Gym Leader Morty will also be present helping with the research, and is using his Indigo League funds to finance inn lodgings in town for all volunteers. As for refreshments, local restaurants have also stepped up, eager to provide free food for all volunteer researchers! Gogoat-drawn carts full of fresh, traditional cuisine will come trundling up to the Tower several times a day (breakfast, lunch, and dinner)-- often accompanied by the restaurant-owners themselves. The guy who runs ECRUTEAK HOUSE OF DUMPLINGS will be there a lot-- he and his Emboar are particularly bombastic about stuffing everybody full of delicious fried dumplings at every opportunity. Gotta stay well-fed if you want to study!

That said, anyone wishing to pull an all-nighter will either have to bring their own snacks or rely on the monks’ supplies-- which means plain rice, hot tea, and not much else.

----

Mt Mortar

The base of Mt. Mortar is a flurry of activity no matter what the hour-- the center of operations is a large camping area at the foot of the mountain, where a small army of tents have been set up. Rangers and volunteers alike are rushing around, and anyone just arriving will be asked to sign in and mark whatever tasks they’ll be helping with.

Strong trainers can sign up for field work, which can involve anything from patrolling the mountain to evacuate campers to helping corral the panicking wild Pokemon population (bright side: there’s even more rare ones running around than normal, and capturing them is a quick and easy way to get them out of harm’s way!). Trainers with flying types may even wind up helping to carry water over from the Lake of Rage in case of what the Rangers all fear: forest fire.

More inexperienced trainers will lower-leveled Pokemon will be encouraged to stick around base where it’s a little safer-- but don’t worry, there’s still plenty of work to be done! Several meal tents are set up around the base, where you can serve (or be served) quick meals from hot pans, soup kitchen style. Nothing fancy or extravagant, but nothing that won’t taste great after a long hectic day of running around the mountain. And hey, it’s free.

A first-aid tent is also set up where trainers and their Pokemon can have injuries patched up-- the Nurse Joys staffing it can always use assistance to keep up with everything.

Sleeping quarters are provided via cot-filled tents set up around the base-- those ones are first-come, first-serve, so grab one fast! Helping the Rangers out is an all-day-all-night affair, so everyone just sleeps and eats when they get the chance to. Reminders to do both on a regular basis are posted all around-- nobody wants sleep-deprived trainers doing dangerous work, even if, between the constant roars of Raikou and Entei and the constant activity within the camp, sleeping could get pretty difficult.

Fortunately, one of the first things you’ll be handed upon arriving is a pair of heavy-duty earplugs.

----

Seafoam Islands

On the shores of the Seafoam Islands, everything is… well, chaos.

The beaches are COVERED in tents of all shapes, sizes, and… raggedness. It seems many folks have shown up in lieu of Greg’s frantic video post, and they’ve more or less taken over. You can barely see the sand! Things are quite a bit less organized than they are over at Mt. Mortar, which unfortunately means that for food and first-aid, you might need to wind up heading over to the teeny tiny little dock town with the inn (booked solid, sorry!) and the shop (Blaine’s beach is less occupied, but he can be seen from time to time passive-aggressively picking up peoples’ trash around the outskirts of the tent army and scowling).

Because out on the beach, there’s no first-aid to speak of and if you go to the ‘food tent’, you’ll just be handed something like this.

Fortunately, unlike their hilariously futile efforts to find Celebi and aside from their clear lack of event-managing knowledge, it seems the Seekers actually are onto something. Every six hours or so, Articuno, Zapdos, or Moltres CAN be seen soaring high overhead and disappearing around the back of the mountain, often with stolen food or shiny things glinting in their talons.

The Seekers themselves are more concerned with getting all their equipment functioning than they are about accommodating all the tourists who just showed up to sit on the beach and stare at the horizon in hopes of seeing one of the Birds-- but if you can actually find them in the chaos, they’ll eagerly put you to work.

In this case, 'work' means 'heading straight into the caves to try and #FindLugia'. Well? WILL YOU?

(Remember to SIGN UP over here!)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"You shook your head at me for keeping my notes private."

"I think so." Assumption said with a smile. He reached to hold one of her ribbons. "You're nice! And you look after Diana. And that's special." He became special by protecting his trainer and caring for him. Ergo, other Pokemon were special by looking after their trainers too.

"No. See, this is why you shouldn't assume things." She waggles her finger at him in a scolding fashion. "I shook my head because you were so desperate to hide your notes even though I haven't asked to see them once." She taps the side of her own nose. "You assumed the worst of me." Diana shrugs. "Which isn't a bad thing to do but still. Ouch."

"My Diana looked after me when I was very small." Isla smiles at she holds Assumption's hand. "I love her very much so now I look after her."

"You could still see them from where you are sat. You would have only needs to look over at them." He wasn't going to apologise for keeping his journal private.

Assumption nodded. "I lost my mom. But then I met Walter. He looked after me, and taught me to be strong. But...I realised he needed to be protected too. A bad man named Henry Townshend attacked him once, when I was with him. And I had been too scared to fight back. But then he kept threatening him and the next time...I protected him." He held his bone club solemnly.

"So just shut it? You don't have to stow it away like I'm about to snatch it from you." She's shaking her head again.

Isla's head tilts in concern. "So, there is trainers that attack other trainers. I have heard of that happening." Her gaze wanders to Diana and Walter for a moment, unsure of the man with the deep voice. "Is there a reason a trainer may attack another trainer?" Isla's blue eyes then shift to the shiny Vulpix and her ears twitch.

Edited 2017-08-28 18:10 (UTC)

Claudia decides to answer this. She stood and nosed the journal so it was in front of Walter. Then stepped forward and laid back on top of it, giving Diana a cool look. Walter just stroked her back. "How is your research going?" Best to change the subject now.

"The man who attacked him...they had known each other in his world. Walter says, that one of them must kill the other, where they are from." He spoke quietly. "So that is why he tried to kill him."

Diana arches her brow at Claudia before she rolls her eyes and look up at the ceiling. "You already asked that."

Isla narrows her eyes in Claudia's direction. Rude. Hostile. One to watch. Not welcome. She returns to looking at Assumption with a wag of her tail and a smile. Sweet. Friendly. Amicable. "That seems strange, I hope your Trainer wasn't hurt too bad?"

Technically, Walter hadn't. She had openly volunteered what she had found without his input. So he just looked at her. "You told me about one creature you found. Nothing else." From the comfort of his arms, Claudia did not give a single fuck about how Diana or Isla viewed her.

"Henry managed to punch him and make his nose bleed. But I hit him back." He had made Henry pay. Despite how sweet and friendly he seemed, Assumption was the more dangerous of he and Claudia to cross when it came to Walter's safety.

Behind them all, the Cinccino was creeping closer again. She tiptoed towards Walter's bag, fully intending to slip something in there.

"Fine. You're right. Sorry." She sighs and blows some of her dark hair from her face. She doesn't want to argue. "Does it matter what I've found?"

Isla looks rightly surprised then sympathetic. "That sounds terrible! Thank goodness you were there to protect him!" Her large ears pick up the movement behind her but a quick glance shows it's not a threat to her Trainer so Isla ignores it.

He seriously considered the question. "If it relates to the dogs, then yes, it is important to this event. If it is not, then no. But I would like to know anyway."

"The first time I wasn't..." Assumption looked at his club, remembering that fateful, foggy morning. "But I will always protect him now. That's how I came to be special!"

"Just shit about Suicune purifying water and there being more than one Entei. But other people have probably already figured that out." She looks at him without turning her head. "Why? You're looking for specific stuff so you'll have found anything important out before me."

Isla gives her tail a little wag and reaches out with her ribbon to pat Assumption's head again. "You and your trainer must care about each other a lot!"

"Importantance is relevant. The dogs are important because of the recent weather. What I find important, others will not." He's still dancing around saying what he was looking for, because he didn't want anyone else to know.

Assumption wagged his tail with a big smile. "We do. I can feel it. And so much you and Diana!"

"I haven't read anything about the sun." She says, recalling his previous comments. "There was just that world burning dragon." Though that hadn't really had anything to do with the sun so she's not sure why Walter would- "Oh. No, wait. There was another Pokemon that had stuff about the sun."

Isla purred as she smiled. "My Diana is my mama, of course I care about her." She would not be a Sylveon if not.

"What Pokemon?" He asked attentively. He would need to double check whatever she told him, but it could provide a clue on where to find the truth. He didn't mind Diana knowing his interest in the sun...but the specifics of his worship weren't known to her yet.

Assumption beamed and nodded. Diana...he didn't know what to think of her. Sometimes, she seemed to like annoying Walter, or trying to make him angry. But she didn't hurt him, so she was easily better than Henry Townshend on any day.

Diana blinks at him, a little surprised. She assumed Walter would already know the ones she came across. She frowns as she tries to remember. "Something rock... S... S... Solar rock? Solrock! That was it."

Isla trots back to her trainer, coiling one ribbon around her arm and another patting her knee. She chirps when Diana pets her head, sparing Walter and Claudia the briefest look.

"There was stuff about it being from the sun and using it to get energy." She couldn't remember the exact details.

Edited 2017-08-29 00:08 (UTC)

A 'Solrock' hadn't come up in his research yet. He hummed. "That is interesting. I'll remember it." He tucked that name into his memory and would keep an eye out for it during his reading. "I've only heard of one other Pokemon to come from the sun."

Assumption walked over to Walter - and noticed the Cinccino. The cinccino also spoted him and froze, before bolting back. WOOPS.

"Yeh, I've noticed a lot about coming from the moon which, is kinda weird to think about. That a bunch of them are like, aliens? But, I guess we're also aliens so..." Diana gives another shrug.

"I dunno how something would come from the sun though. I mean, it certainly sounds a lot more impressive coming from a sun than a moon, so it would make sense for it to be rare and important?" She didn't know, she was just spit balling. She hated the idea of things coming from space anyway. But coming from a giant ball of fire really did sound like something God worthy rather than falling from a grey hunk of rock.

"A friend of yours?" Isla asks Assumption.

Walter had never really considered things like aliens. His life had been shaped by holy beings born from a Sun deity. Creatures from other planets just, didn't come up really. Except in science fiction, which he had never really paid much mind to.

"I told you how God was born." He remembered telling her at the bonfire. In response to her wondering how something could be born or originate from the Sun. "...I heard of a different Pokemon, being born from the Sun. It is known as a Volcarona."

"I haven't met her before." Assumption admitted, following after the Cinccino to talk with her.

"Yeh, but that's like... A God." The concept of a God emerging from the Sun was, well, it was a pretty good Genesis story if nothing else. Definitely dramatic and full of symbolism.

But the idea of something living and breathing creature that she could interact with being born from a giant burning star? A little harder to wrap her head around. "The name fits then." She points to a picture of the beasts. "Is it like these guys? A Legendary?"

Isla tilted her head, glancing at Diana unsure, then made to follow Assumption. She would be keeping an ear out for her Trainer, though.

Maybe it was because Walter had become...very close to an Angel created by his God, that meeting a creature born from the Sun didn't seem so otherworldly. Or perhaps it also had something to do with Alessa, hidden in Team Rocket's Secret Warehouse Lab.
"I think it is. I'm still looking for more information." He murmured.

Assumption followed the Cincinno and began to talk with her quietly. "Hi...what's your name?"
"Lady. But I hate it!"

"Well, you'll probably find any stuff before I do, but if I see the name pop up, I'll send it your way."

Isla stays a few steps back as they talk. "You don't like your name?"

Walter nodded in appreciation. He pulled over one of the scrolls. "...Are you pursuing other subjects of research?" Is she going off topic as well?

The Cinccino frowned and folded her arms. "No! And I don't like her either!"
"Your trainer?"
"My owner." The Cinccino huffed. "When I was captured, I thought I'd have a Trainer! I'd fight and get stronger, and see the world! But they made me evolve and just keep me as a pet." She spat out the last word with nothing but distain.

"t wasn't but..." That Misdreavus had really bothered her last night. And it kept coming back. "There's some powers I wanna know more about." She looks around for Isla, where had she gotten to?

Isla blinks in surprise. She was unused to hearing Pokemon talk about their Trainer's in such a way. She looks to the older Assumption to see if he can shed some light.

"Powers?" If she didn't want to, then she wouldn't have to elbaorate. But what he was curious. What would she research in this place?

Assumption tapped his bone against his paw. "They don't battle with you?"
"No. I hate it." The Cinccino pouted angrily.
"...Is that why you're trying to get close to Walter?" At the mention, her mood brightens and she gives Assumption a smile.
"Actually, yes. Yes it is. I saw him training with you, and the others. That's what I want! I wanted to be trained, and to battle! So I wanted to join you lot." Assumption frowned.
"but, you already have a trainer-"
"Owner." The Cinccino scowled. She gave them both a sly smile and revealed something; a Luxury ball. "And yeah. But she doesn't have my pokeball. So I can give it to whoever I want!"

"Yeah, it seems like there's a lot of Pokemon that can look in your head and mess around in there." She doesn't like the idea of that one bit.

Curious, Isla thought, tilting her head. The Pokemon is clearly cunning, for whatever that was worth. But it was Assumption who was Walter's Pokemon, and so it was up to him if he accepted the Cinccino as a likely candidate for a teammate.

"...if it is a Psychic type, or a Ghost, your Dark type Pokemon can chase it away. If it is Dark itself, then you have other Pokemon with an advantage." He offered as advice, beginning to read over the scroll he had brought closer. There was nothing too new or exciting in it.

Assumption swayed his tail, thinking carefully. Then he turned back to Walter and Diana, before reaching his decision. "If you're persistant, he'll agree. That's how Robbie and Saratoga joined us too." The Cinccino beamed, brightening at the idea. "You just need to be sneaky!"
"I've been sneaky all day, to get away from my old owner." She boasted, smoothing out her scarf confidently.

The dog days aren't quite over yet...

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