117th moon [audio]

[paladinlost]

...You'd think finally seeing my loved ones after so long and recalling precious memories of my comrades would lessen the pain of our separation, yet it somehow feels stronger than ever.

[Cecil's voice has been left rough by a week of disuse, filled with wistfulness by what occured during said week, but there's happiness there that only grows when he speaks again.]

Still, my world is in one mostly intact piece and my kingdom has avoided burning to ashes, freezing solid or worse. That calls for a celebration! Thus, for the next three days I will be paying for everyone's drinks and meals at the Merry Medicham. Please do not hesitate to come and partake to your stomach's content. I'll take care of the tab.

[Limited time offer only. This paladin is not responsible for any stomachache or illness incurred by overeating.]

Comments

[islandshore]

So what makes this True Moon any different from a regular moon?

[That's... confusing. Intriguing, but confusing. He takes a few moments to try and puzzle over this before ultimately failing.]

And, sheesh, meteors, too? And the moon... okay, what the heck even happened to start all that?

[paladinlost]

Unlike a regular moon it doubles as a spaceship, and unlike the Red Moon it was inhabited by a being of somewhat godlike power.

[Or a very advanced scientist. Or both, all things considered.]

Said being has apparently been seeding worlds with crystals to see how their people develop and using the moon itself to consume those it considered unworthy. We were next on its list.

[islandshore]

A moon. Ship. What?

[That's, uh. Dude, that's pretty trippy, even by this place's standards.]

Okay, so, magic crystals to spy on people? And when you say the moon consumed worlds... are we talking death beams? Black holes? Suddenly sprouting teeth or something?

[This is a lot lot to take in.]

[paladinlost]

It's not such an outlandish idea. Even the Lunarians built their own when their original planet was destroyed.

[...Which, in retrospect, might have been a clue to the crystals' nature.]

I cannot be certain of the exact technique used, considering we stopped it, but as it was on a collision course with the Earth and close enough to disturb its weather patterns I doubt there were death beams involved. Teeth, however...

[islandshore]

Heh. Maybe it's just outlandish to me because my world's so plain. No magical moonships there.

[But he shrugs. By now, he should know better than to look at things with such a limited viewpoint.]

...Moon teeth. That's, uh. Giving me this mental image of the moon with a scary face. If it wasn't a legitimate threat to your world, I'd almost find that funny.

[paladinlost]

It's such a shame, too. Such moons may usually be dangerous and filled with monsters, but they're also beautiful to behold. With crystal chanbers hidden within their depths, air so pure not even the tallest mountain lets you breathe so easily...

[He stops himself before he starts remembering the monsters fondly, too.]

Oh, it could also simply have rotted and dismantled the whole planet after making contact, since its meteors had that property. But a toothy moon is an amusing image indeed.

[islandshore]

Man, it's just so weird to imagine a moon as anything but just... rock. Then again, we did have a moon prom a while back, so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised.

[But man, that certainly sounds better than what the science books describe the moon as. By a significant margin, in fact.]

...Geez, honestly, a slow decay sounds even worse. If it was that severe, I'm glad you stopped it in its tracks.

[paladinlost]

Our main remaining moon is also nothing but a rock. As far as we know. And I imagine most of the locals would not believe us about that prom, if we tried to describe it.

[Cecil has not tried. Doing so back home would have been politically inconvenient; doing so here would get the neighbors talking.]

So am I. By the time we did, everyone on the planet was aware that the end was nigh. Had we failed... their last moments would have been extremely unpleasant.

[islandshore]

I wonder if they'll ever top the moon and dream proms. Only thing I can think of is parallel dimensions at this rate.

[But maybe he just jinxed it. Hard to say, really.]

Heh. Either way, hope those kinda catastrophes aren't too common on your end.

[paladinlost]

If no Legendary pokémon is willing to break the barriers between dimensions for us, a prom in this world's Underground might be interesting, if it has one. Terrible for Ice-types and Grass-types among others, however.

[For reasons Riku can surely guess.]

We'had two, seventeen years apart. For my future granchildren's sake, I hope it's not the start of a pattern.

[islandshore]

Huh. What, like some crazy cavern party or something?

[How would that even work? Well, if nothing else, it would be different.]

Eh, at least seventeen years is a... somewhat generous gap. I guess. Certainly more generous than all the chaos here.

[paladinlost]

In a cavern large enough to fit all of Johto, potentially.

[Undergrounds are great like that.]

It could have been far worse, indeed. There was that one incident in between, but it was over and done with in less than a week. That hardly counts as a problem.

[Except for the 'prelude to the planet-eating moon' part, of course.]

[islandshore]

Heh. I'd question the logistics, but for all we know, there's some hidden labyrinth of tunnels buried under the sands of time.

[Okay, that sounded tacky. Still.]

I don't know. A week might not be much, but the severity of the incident's still a factor, if you ask me.

[paladinlost]

Frankly, at this point I'd be surprised if there weren't hidden tunnels.

[Hidden tunnels seem like they'd fit right in this world.]

...No one dies, no permanent damage was caused, but our opponents learned far too much about us. That's... practically harmless.

[islandshore]

But are those opponents gonna be able to use that info later? They still got any dangerous agendas?

But I guess even if they do, that's the lesser evil. Definitely when compared to, y'know, casualties.

[paladinlost]

...There is a non-negligible possibility that both that incident and our recent almost destruction were linked, but as the True Moon is gone I can hardly look for clues to prove that theory.