victory_road | Project Paradox event log

A. Cecil's Very Horrible Day

[When "Project Pidove" was initially announced to the public, Cecil's very first thought was Fuck.

The second, which quickly followed, was This is not going to end well, and the third I'm locking myself in the house until this project is done breaking the rules of this world.

Sadly, he was right! And even more sadly, his attempt at staying far out of the way was not nearly enough. Maybe he should have found himself a nice, cozy cave and hidden there. Maybe he should have stowed away on the first ship out of Vermillion and hoped for Sinnoh or Paldea as a destination.

As it is, he has finally returned to his beloved Baron. Except this is obviously not his beloved Baron, because his countrymen's heads are usually not shaped like eggs. Or colored like Pokémon eggs. Or decorated with... whatever this abomination is. Good grief.

(Upon arriving, it took him less than five minutes to recall Rosie to her ball. Not because her presence was alarming the hat-wearing, egg-headed locals, but because she was laughing too hard to be of any help. How nice of her.)

Any poor souls who finds themselves in the same world will find him crouching near a door past the stairs leading to Cid's manse, trying desperately to pick the lock. It's not going very well.]

B. Cecil's Day Improves Mildly (By Default, Really)

[If When Cecil manages to find his way out of Not-His-Baron and back in Celadon, he promptly throws himself (and his team, sure) at the first Paradox Pokémon he sees. If he manages to help stem the tide, good! If he gets a head injury that makes him forget the last few hours, even better!

And who knows? Maybe that Paradox Pokémon is already fighting someone else. Maybe that someone else is you.]

Edited 2024-09-17 22:27 (UTC)

The Weirdest Homecoming Ever
(While he is all for making efforts to send the otherworlders back home, the last thing Harry wants to see again is witnessing Cara Liss’ experiments to turn the world upside again. He had arrived in the world of Pokémon by the way of Hisui thanks to Cara’s inventions and he wasn’t going through anything resembling that again. And sure enough, his worries turn true when Arceus had to intervene, causing the machine to break and all sorts of chaos ensue.

Before he can get out of the range of the machine , Harry soon finds himself back to Hogwarts once. But he certainly doesn’t remember the people in this world to wear clothes in bold neon colors. He is aware that most denizens of the wizarding world tend to go very old school in their fashion sense but this is taking things too far.

Tonks the Varoom, Hedwig the Noctowl and Dobby the Furret soon pop out of their balls, wondering their Trainer needs some help. They are also taken aback by the colors of the clothes of the people of Not!His Hogwarts as well, Dobby’s jaws drop in horror as he turn to find some students in neon colors.

Anyone unlucky to get sent in this strange world will find Harry looking stumped at the Great Hall, sitting at one of the benches, unsure of how to get back to Olivine and seeming about to burst into tears at any moment.)

Fighting Paradox Mon
(When he does find a way to get out of Not!His Hogwarts and back to Olivine, he is soon greeted by a Screaming Tail and he is understandably shocked by its presence. So shocked that he would have been left wide open for its screams if had not been Tonks coming out of her ball and headbutting it immediately.

Perhaps that he could help someone in fighting any nearby Paradox Pokémon roaming around and causing trouble.)

This Isn’t My Beautiful Home
(Isabela wasn’t sure of what she is about to deal with the moment Cara’s machine was about to start working. It is great that Cara is at least trying, but from what she has told and informed, things never go well with her inventions at all. Arceus must have sense that this was going to make things worse so they decided to put a stop to this and somehow made the situation even more complicated, sending Isa and her team back to what should have been her world.

Well, it did put her back to the encanto. But this encanto feels and looks weird as soon as Isa opens her eyes and realize that something about this world is very off. For the townfolks are now composed of teddy bears with colorful neck ribbons and they all walk very funny.

She could have sworn that she could hear Cappy laughing at the whole scene with his two heads wailing about, leaving an annoyed Carmen, an irritated Esmeralda, a confused Matcha, and a flustered Félix. As much as she would loved to go back to her world, this is not the one she really wants to return to and, right now, she just wants to head back to the world of Pokémon and not deal with this ever again.)

i. A Rude Welcome (Network)

[III was not here for the initial announcement of the ARC-eus system. He's been here less than a month. As a result, when things go Horribly Wrong, III is largely caught off guard.

Over the network comes a video of an Iron Treads in the streets of Saffron City, shot from behind a
dumpster in an alley. It doesn't seem to know it's being filmed as it roams the street, which is...probably a good thing!]

...What is that thing? [III is whispering from the other side of the Gear, trying very hard to Not Be Noticed by the metal elephant. A soft 'Vullll...' sounds nearby, signalling III's Vulpix is also watching.

In any case, he's not budging until the Iron Treads moves on.]

ii. Skulking Around

[III is a Rocket, which means he's doing a job here! Specifically, he's taking advantage of the
chaos to sneak around the Silph offices for any info to bring back to his bosses.

Find him either 1: stealthing around the place looking for anything useful; or 2: hiding somewhere out of sight trying not to get caught somewhere he probably shouldn't be.

Either way, he's definitely steering clear of the fights against the Paradox Pokémon, well aware that getting involved in those would not end well for him. The Iron Bundle at the entrance was bad enough...]

iii. Alternate Universe Troubles

[It might happen at any point. Maybe when III is still in the streets of Saffron, trying to avoid the Paradoxes. Maybe when he's trying to stealth around Silph Co. Either way, III is an outworlder, which means he's getting his own surprise trip to another dimension!

The place III has wound up in is...well, it might have been Heartland City at some point. III can see the distinctive building designs that tell him where this is. However, it's also very clearly a wartorn mess, with most of the buildings destroyed or damaged and no one (besides III) around.]

What...what is this? [III knows Heartland wasn't like this when he was last there! What in the world happened here?!]

[Ryner does not trust Silph Co. He certainly hasn't trusted them since they announced their Type: Null project, but honestly his distrust of the local scientists in general goes back even further, to the Shedinja incident and the black Pokeballs. Cara Liss's involvement doesn't exactly inspire any confidence either, after what happened in Hisui.

So it's not exactly a surprise when everything goes wrong with their latest little project. A pain, certainly, but not a surprise.

It is, however, mildly surprising when, while trying to help organize the menagerie to defend the house against a duo of metal moths that look oddly like Volcaronas, Ryner and Rose accidentally fall into a wormhole. And on the other side of that wormhole is a small dango shop that is very familiar to Ryner.

...Well, except that all of the local flora is now tropical - palm trees and the like - rather than the usual deciduous forest, but. Details. The signage makes it very clear, to anyone who can read the common of Menoris anyway.]

Wynnit Dango?

[Ryner's surprise, however, pales before Rose's glee as she peeks out from atop his shoulder. She's heard tales of this place, where the ultimate dango exists.]

A. Saturday Morning Cartoon Hours

[In spite of his best efforts...Envy does not manage to avoid wandering into a wormhole and being deposited in pretty close to the last place he wanted to be. The massive cavern underneath Central and its long dead city. Great. Fantastic. Thanks so much for the gift, Silph Co.]

[He does notice that he's properly a homunculus, again. That's one plus.]

[The news broadcast had insisted that this wasn't really real, but he's not sure if that means that he's going to run into anyone else or if he's going to be all by himself down here. Mainly, he's hoping not to have a run-in with his evil mom. But it's so quiet down here that it's not long before he realizes that he's REALLY not by himself. In fact, as he walks towards the ornate entry building, he starts to hear more and more echoes of...yelling? Cackling? He can see the elevator from the surface on its way down. And also what sounds like a huge squad of soldiers marching in? There's not supposed to BE anyone down here! Much less what sounds like possibly every State Alchemist.]

[Anyone else pulled into this dimension will encounter Envy speedwalking through the empty streets towards the increasing sounds of pure chaos. He has GOT to find out what the hell's happening over there.]

B. Dysfunctional half-brothers get put in the Brotherhood Get-Along Shirt [LOCKED TO EDWARD ELRIC]

The second wormhole to Amestris that Envy finds himself sucked through is...not quite the same as the first. This time, he's aboveground in what he's pretty sure is Central. Again, he finds that he's been artificially changed back into a homunculus, which is about the only upside he can see. Maybe he hadn't run into his ex-master the first go-round, but who knows about this time. At least he already found the way out, all he needs to do is go back down to that room, right? Easy! He can go straight there.

Except there's no decrepit old church where it ought to be. Other abandoned buildings, sure, but not the cathedral. Maybe the door is still there anyway and the building is just wrong, it may have been a while but he's sure he took the right way here...

It takes some checking and kicking around in all the junk, but it turns out there is a rusty old gate that opens to a darkened staircase. But it's not quite right either. The stairs are neat brick and the only other thing that blocks his way is another, less broken barred gate on the way. He pushes it open easily and doesn't get much farther before he notices the pipes running along the ceiling. He can hear faint rustling, along with chitters and growls, like there's a whole damn hidden zoo at the bottom. At least in this body he ought to be able to fight some animals if he has to, and his Pokemon are still hanging from the belt he's still wearing if it came to it...

But some of the shadows are thicker than they should be to homunculus eyes, in a way he can't quite put his finger on. The staircase ends way too soon, not in a cave but a massive sewer pipe that stretches as far as he can see in both directions, lit only with dim floor lights. There are definitely creatures down here, skittishly looking down from grates in the ceiling but shrinking away out of sight when he looks up. Going down into the city always felt like going into a still, silent, dead place. This whole tunnel feels like there's something uncannily alive about it.

...You know what? No thanks!! Envy turns and marches right back up the stairs two at a time and is very normal about it and definitely not at all creeped out. He's just going to go look around the city and see if anybody else got pulled here or maybe he'll just hang out! Go to a cafe! Play tricks on some humans! Not wander around alone in the haunted mystery sewer!

Cecil Harvey | OTA

Harry Potter | OTA