[001] - text

[pkemeter]

This Phantump that has chosen to follow me is an extraordinary specimen. The spirit itself seems to be a Class-3 free floating vapor, with a non-defined body and small, nub-like appendages that resemble arms. According to this PokéDex device, these creatures are stumps possessed by the spirits of children who died in the forest--an example of a Class-5 possession. The childish nature of the specimen I have on hand may confirm this description. Until I can fully communicate with it, I have taken to calling it "Faraday", after physicist Michael Faraday.

I am hoping to be able to reconfigure the PokéDex device so that it will be able to translate the spirit's vocalizations. Much of the technology I have encountered seems to be extremely advanced and unfamiliar, though I am confident that I will be able to engineer some sort of solution.

My apologizes, I should have introduced myself. My name is Dr. Egon Spengler.

[Then, after a few minutes--]

I study ghosts.

[Another pause.]

It occurs to me that I don't know where I am.

Comments

Text

[ghoststanning]

Hey Egon!!

It's me! Ray Stantz!

[You can't see him but you can practically hear him waving excitedly.]

[pkemeter]

Ray?

Intriguing. Are Peter and Winston with you?

[unfortunately through text they don't know that they're from different dimensions]

[ghoststanning]

Nope! I haven't seen a lot of people while out here yet.

It's really cold in this dimension, Egon 🙁

[pkemeter]

Yes, I have noticed that. I have reason to believe that this dimension has its version of Christmas, or at least a winter holiday, given the decorations put up.

Have you also noticed the perpetual music? Or do you think it is an after-effect of warping dimensions?

[ghoststanning]

Does that mean Christmas is coming up?

... Dang I forgot to get you guys anything.

[They woke up in a random dimension, Ray.]

And I have! I guess it could be an effect of warping into another dimension, but I noticed that it changed when I left the town.

I'm not sure what it means but maybe it's this dimension's unique marker for towns? Like how each town has their own mayor and unique laws.

[styxiedust]

[There's.


A lot to unpack there. Ghost expert? With a PhD? How does that even happen? Humans are wild.]

Dr. Spengler, pleased to meet you, welcome to the world of Pokemon.

[Name familiar? Name seems familiar. Eh. Must be nothing.]

Botan is my name. I'll be honest I'm not sure how to approach someone genuinely saying that they study ghosts, seeing as I usually introduce myself as the resident ghost expert should someone need help. I guess what would be most prudent is opening up the floor to you for any questions you might have.

[pkemeter]

[its fine]

Greetings, Botan. This world is quite remarkable. You say you also study ghosts? Are the spirits of this world mostly human in origin, or is there some other explanation for their existence? After all, if I am reading this manual correctly, the existence of "Ghost-type" Pokémon would suggest that these spirits are also categorized as creatures, of some sort.

[styxiedust]

[Studies. Yep. We'll go with that.]

Oh, fun question! Ghosts and Ghost type Pokemon is quite a topic, you mentioned that you started with a Phantump which are directly stated to be born from the souls of deceased children lost in the woods. Lovely image, that, and the ones I have all confirm that they had previous identities as humans. Besides them, there's Yamask--Pokemon that supposedly hold the death masks of their previous lives.

But, Ghost type Pokemon aren't necessarily always born from the deceased. There are plenty that are just a category of spirit all their own or born from curses--Shuppet, for example, is born from the grudge of a discarded doll as the story goes. Some current encyclopedias have started to claim that Gengar used to be human as well, previously, but I'll tell you something I have five of those buggers and they are just cheeky troublemakers.

Oh, sorry, I got off-topic. Anyway, there's 46 identified Ghost Pokemon right now and ultimately one part of Ghost types being souls of the deceased is true, another part is them being a category all their own, and a third part is more than likely superstitious folks adding to lore. Not to say that all superstition is wrong, of course, but we haven't even gotten to the part where you can get Ghost Pokemon from eggs and some Pokemon don't even start off as Ghost types before evolving.

BTW:
FILE UPLOAD: gengar.jpg
froslass.jpg
yamask.jpg
shuppet.jpg

[pkemeter]

[Holy cow, someone who likes talking about ghosts as much as he does. This place is amazing.]

Intriguing. This is what I suspected, but given the fact I know little about this dimension right now, I was hesitant to offer this theory over a public network. This leads me to wonder the separation of Pokémon and human beings and whether, with the right configuration, a PokéBall could be made to contain a human being.

[He's totally going to test it on himself later.]

In my dimension, most ghosts were human in origin, and most of them were from the deceased. However, that didn't mean they couldn't take on non-humanoid forms.

I'm assuming that the images that you've sent are other Ghost-type Pokémon, is that correct? Do you currently have them contained? If so, I would like to get a closer look at them if I'm in the area.

[styxiedust]

[They're her responsibility, she has to like talking about them to some extent!]

Don't say that around my Gengar, they'd probably try it.

[Adorable little bastards.]

Same for me, with some unfortunate warping into more demonic forms the angrier they get. Are you perhaps from Earth, Dr. Spengler? I would guess a Western country from the name, I came from Japan back on Earth.

They are, and yes to an extent I do. My Yamask evolved into their Cofagrigus forms, so they're no longer tiny and cute like that but still polite. I live over in Goldenrod, which is some ways off from where you are right now, but should you be in the neighborhood I'd be happy to introduce you to all of them.

[Botan has upwards of 30+ ghosts. She has a problem.]

But should you decide to stay in Johto I know places where Ghost types can be studied in the wild.

[thumbsdown]

well, i'd welcome you back but you obviously don't remember where you are or who i am

so i'll just say hey and welcome to the world of pokemon again

just incase you do remember though, i still have squashy. he's evolved a couple of times since you left

[pkemeter]

...Hm. I'm assuming you're claiming that I've been in this dimension before.

[Is today just a really bad memory day or what?]

Perhaps an introduction would be best. Or an explanation as to whom Squashy is.

[thumbsdown]

oh, yeah. i'm boone. and squashy was the pokemon you started with last time you were here. he- hold on

[There's a long pause, and then a photo of a Reuniclus attached.]

that's squashy. he was a lot smaller before you left him with me, but i trained him up

[pkemeter]

...Incredible. What a peculiar specimen. It looks almost like a rudimentary single-celled organism. What is the green substance that it is contained in? It appears almost like a gelatin--can it be punctured or absorb external materials?

[Sorry, all thoughts of a "previous" Egon have flown out the window in favor of gushing over this COOL POKÉMON]

[thumbsdown]

uh

not sure

never tried puncturing it and i haven't seen him absorb anything

his hands are really strong though

Text;

[schachmeister]

[Somehow this stranger reminds Armin of squad leader Hange. Not that their interests are alike (ghosts vs Titans) or even their ways of talking (there is more boundless, terrifying enthusiasm in Hange's research vs this more analytical approach) but the preoccupation with a favour research subject above all else is very much the same.]

You've been brought to a different world. Right now, you are in a small town called New Bark City. Everybody who is brought to this world arrives here. New Bark City is situated in a larger region called Johto, and there is an option of taking a ferry to Kanto, a second region. There is a third, smaller region called the Sevii Islands. There is a ferry service that goes there both from Kanto and Johto, but they leave from a different port than the one where you are now. There should be a map in the backpack you were given and an electronic one on the gear as well.

If you don't mind, I'll try and anticipate a few common questions. First, nobody knows how or why we were brought here. And I'm afraid to say there isn't a way home. At least, not a controllable one. Occasionally people will be sent back to their homeworld, but there is no discernable pattern to how this occurs. Some people may be here for only a few weeks while others are here for years. Amount of integration, at least, doesn't seem to be a factor. Also when you are sent back to your homeworld, you'll go back to the very moment you came here, so you don't need to be concerned about anyone noticing your absence. Though, as far as we know, when you are sent back, all your memories of this place will vanish.

If you have any other questions, I can try and answer them. I just felt it might be more prudent to get a lot of the common questions out of the way right from the start.

[pkemeter]

Intriguing. Thank you very much for providing me with constructive information. I'm assuming that many people who enter this dimension do not exactly have experience in dealing with multidimensional rifts. Much of this technology seems to be incredibly advanced, years beyond the dimension I came from. However, I have a few more questions to be answered if you have the time.

It seems that, from what you've described so far, this place seems to be a pocket dimension of some sort. I want to try and establish the size of the current plane that I am in, if possible. Are those the only three regions that exist in this world? Does outer space exist?

[schachmeister]

No, there are other regions out there, but we are unable to visit them at the moment. Apparently, they are too far away to travel to on a pokemon. You can get there with something called an airplane, but there aren't any here right now. Or at least, that is what I was told once.

As for space - as far as I know, people from this world did visit the moon at least once. There is an old space shuttle in one of the museums. But I don't think they've gone much further. There doesn't seem to be a lot of interest in it.

[pkemeter]

...The airplanes have gone missing. Curious. I wonder if this is an effort for whatever force that brings people here to keep people confined to specific areas of this dimension.

[That's...not what he said, but okay.]

Given the existence of these extraordinary creatures in this dimension, I fail to see why anyone would turn their attention towards outer space. Little concrete evidence has been found regarding any sort of extraterrestrial life back in my world, and most of this "evidence" can be traced back to incidents of supernatural activity.

holy shit how did i miss this, my apologies

[schachmeister]

Well, I'm not sure if they went missing or if they never existed here in the first place. To be honest, I had never even heard of an airplane before I got here. I suppose it is worth considering though. But why these two regions specifically?

Well, several species of pokemon are rumoured to have come from outer space. There are even some that only evolve when exposed to meteorites. You'd expect people to be interested in that if nothing else.

Of course, that might be a bit hypocritical for me to say, as that is not my main interest either.

[Text]

[tearsofademon]

When it comes to ghost types, the Pokedex tends to be pretty accurate more often than not. I can't confirm Phantumps specifically, but given other species, I'd believe it.

That said, welcome to the world of Pokemon. You'll be seeing a lot more than just ghosts.

[...one point for trying, Ryner...]

[pkemeter]

Interesting. I'm curious to explore how the deceased become Pokémon as opposed to just regular ghosts.

I have been seeing quite a few other creatures crawling about as I have been walking down the road. A few of them seem to resemble organisms back in my dimension, though with noted differences. Do humans get their animal products from Pokémon, such as eggs or wool or meat?

[tearsofademon]

As far as I know, no one knows how it happens. And it's doubtful they remember how, either. I just know it's true.

As for animal products? Wool and milk and stuff, definitely. There's a whole farm out west of Ecruteak that raises Miltanks and sells their famous Moo Moo Milk. Eggs, I'm pretty sure most of the edible ones come from Chanseys, or at least those are the only ones I've ever seen specify.

No one knows where the meat comes from. Or if it even is meat.

[pkemeter]

Well, that's not so strange. Perhaps this society has developed to the point where using actual meat products is seen as unnecessary and cruel, and other sources are used for meat.

For example, mold, spores, and fungi are often rich in protein and other nutrients, and are an excellent source of alternative food. Thus, the "meat" that they label does not necessarily imply that it would come from animal products, as we would expect. Different dimensions may have their own definitions and implications of words that seem utterly alien to us.

[tearsofademon]

[......huh. He's been here more than eight years now, and that's the first time that kind of possibility's been brought up.]

You know, that might make sense. It'd be nice if they'd actually mention it, if that's the case, but then, these are the same people who never mention the existence of entire continents that have supposedly been around the whole time, so it wouldn't be too surprising if they just never mentioned it.