SJmun
Eggministrator 
Posts: 1,445
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Post by SJmun on Oct 14, 2021 19:24:08 GMT -8
A trick room? It takes a moment for it to finally click. Honestly, they probably should have known from the moment they arrived at the place, but then again, how were they supposed to know that the trick room hotel would literally have trick room active inside of it?
Trying to drown out the embarrassment of such a blunder, Nick tries to do something ridiculous.
A backwards long-jump.
Nick turns around and attempts to leap forwards and then backwards. However, actual physics, even in this world, do not work like that. They wind up staying in place mostly. Or at least, that's what would happen under normal circumstances.
In trying to move a lot and only moving a little, the power of the trick room ironically makes it take them even faster than they even imagined.
Nick ZOOMS backwards at ridiculous speed!
"WAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"
Nick falls backwards on the ground, sliding on the carpet a bit. Slope catches up with them and stops to take a look at them.
HAZEL manages to successfully walk down the hallway, unimpeded by unreliable senses such as illusion-riddled sight.
They all meet up at the end of the hallway together, near the elevator.
"please don't tell me I yahoo'd into a parallel universe..."
"slowpoke?"
"thank you slope, very insightful."
Looking back at the hallway, it appears as if it were always an average hallway.
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Post by powerkitten on Oct 28, 2021 17:37:26 GMT -8
"Woah, that was a cool jump! How'd you do that?" She asks, while hitting the button for the elevator. She spaces out awkwardly, like the DS controlling her brain died or something.
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SJmun
Eggministrator
Posts: 1,445
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Post by SJmun on Oct 28, 2021 20:56:17 GMT -8
Nick slowly gets up, rubbing the spot where they got rugburn. Thankfully, it does not cause a prolonged status condition.
"Honestly, I had no idea that would work. I pretty much accidentally exploited the trick room, I think."
As the elevator door opens, a sinister childlike laugh can be heard from somewhere in the hallway.
"...we should probably hurry up downstairs."
Nick makes sure that HAZEL and Slope make it into the elevator before the doors close.
Its a surprisingly short elevator ride.
The elevator opens up to the lobby. There's a sign that points to the meal area.
At this point, Nick is half expecting the salad bar to be filled with melted statgate botox-cake or something ridiculous like that.
"I really hope the breakfast is better than the hallways here..."
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Post by powerkitten on Oct 31, 2021 8:30:26 GMT -8
"Yeah. I can see why they're giving away rooms here." She says, going to make some hotel waffles.
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SJmun
Eggministrator
Posts: 1,445
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Post by SJmun on Nov 1, 2021 0:38:36 GMT -8
The meal area, is refreshingly ordinary, with thankfully genuine breakfast food, of a middling quality. There's a fairly average amount of options, including waffles, scrambled eggs, potatoes, fruit, berries with a light enough sweet flavor to be edible without incident, and various sauces, condiments, and such. There's also galar-style mystery meat sausages available, though without the curry.
There is also a dispenser of various kinds of pokemon food on the other side of the room.
There's a handful of tables and chairs, with like, 2 or 3 other trainers down here. One must wonder if they had to go through the same strange hallway too.
Nick grabs some waffles too, with some eggs on the side, all doused in syrup. They pour a glass of moomoo milk from the milk pitcher, and carefully take their breakfast to a table.
"finally, some food..."
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Post by powerkitten on Nov 18, 2021 9:08:22 GMT -8
“Hungry?” She asks, idly eating her food while checking the adventure log. “So, we gotta go to the trainer school and then pick up my PokeGear. What’s your plan for after that?”
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SJmun
Eggministrator
Posts: 1,445
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Post by SJmun on Nov 19, 2021 11:49:44 GMT -8
Nick chows down on their waffles. They are indeed hungry.
"Hmm... Not sure. I've been sorta so focused on the trainer school thing that I haven't though much about what should happen next. I guess do some training with Slope? I do gotta get used to working with her in battle, after all."
Nick goes for the eggs. Delicious slightly syruped eggs...
A brief glance at a clock on the wall reveals that there's only 15 minutes until class time.
"Oh crud, we better hurry up! I gotta be at the trainer school soon!"
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Post by powerkitten on Nov 23, 2021 21:09:53 GMT -8
“Oh shit, let’s get going then!” She says, unfolding her Mach Bike in the middle of running out of the hotel with Flower on her hat.
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SJmun
Eggministrator
Posts: 1,445
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Post by SJmun on Nov 23, 2021 23:38:23 GMT -8
Nick horfs down whatever might be remaining on their plate and returns Slope to her pokeball for once. This is no time to be waiting for a slowpoke! They run after HAZEL on the way out the door, and see an odd looking enclave above the doors that reminds them of a piece of curious architecture that was present in Sonic Adventure 1. It is at this moment that they remember that they have a fraymotif perfect for the occasion, which they endearingly refer to as the Light-speed dash. Nick stands in a crouching position and they begin gathering their Light. Light particles float towards them, though interestingly enough, they look different than usual. Then again, the art style used in this dimension is a bit different from the ones used in paradox space, but I digress. "Ready....GO!"Nick probably reached plaidspeed, though that might just be the afterimage of their t-shirt.  Hurtling down the road, Nick runs off at inane speeds, no, ludicrous speeds towards the trainer's school. As for how they know where it is? Light Bullshit. As a center for knowledge, it falls under the purview of a mage of light to know where it is, especially when supercharged with light energy. Someone in a nearby car looks over at the extremespeed mage that is quickly gaining in speed past them. This bystander has seen plenty of running pokemon on the motorway, but never before have they seen what looks like a regular-ass person, zooming past like sonic the fucking hedgehog. Just a trick of the eyes, right? Perhaps the zoroark that's rumored to run the Trick Room hotel decided to impersonate a trainer on their way to the supermarket? Who knows...
Soon enough, Nick approaches at the trainer's school, skidding to a stop. They arrived here in less than like, 3 minutes. The Light aspect energy fades and they resume their usual slow and clueless demenor. Also, they are very thirsty right about now. Nick walks into the trainer's school, only able to think about one thing. "Where is the drinking fountain." |
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SJmun
Eggministrator
Posts: 1,445
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Post by SJmun on Dec 24, 2021 3:00:39 GMT -8
Chapter 11: A class act
A prince of time appears out of nowhere, arriving in front of their alternate mother's house. They stumble over, just barely keeping their fedora on.
The sun is rising in the sky and the air is crisp.
They look around a bit, and find something that makes them stop in their tracks. The gravestone with their deadname on it.
...the years posted make it seem like it was years ago, but its hard to tell when in an entirely different dimension.
The numbers could mean anything.
Aeons takes a moment to gather their thoughts. They sit down in the grass and let out their pokemon. At least they've got good companions here.
Meanwhile, at the trainer's school, Nick has managed to find the drinking fountain. While they didn't recover all of their brain cells from that run, they're at least refreshed enough to cruise through a multiple choice exam if needed.
However, the test isn't until the end. There's still a class to be taken, after all.
Nick finds a place near the middle to sit down. It seems a handful of the folks who were signed up to this class cancelled when they heard about the ditto shortage.
Soon enough, a teacher shows up. Its not Kyle, but it looks like somebody that seems to know a few things.
"Hello class! Today we are going to go over the basics of pokemon training and handling! My name is Granite. Any questions?"
"Hey, aren't you like, the rock type gym leader from that town northeast from here?"
"Yep! I got called in on a favor. Apparently most of the teachers around here are either more about theory than practice, or the good ones are too busy looking for those starter pokemon that got stolen."
Nick patiently sits in place, pulling out their sketchbook to take notes and draw things.
Meanwhile, after a little while, Aeons finally gathers their wits. Now, which direction would they be able to find Nick at? To the south in Crossroad city? They can only hope that its relatively easy to find them.
Aeons looks over at Colby, wearing their pair of blackglasses to handle the morning sun a bit better.
"Hey Colby, Wanna fly together? I got a plan here..."
A few minutes later, Colby and Aeons are flying, with Pachirisu clinging onto Aeons's jacket. While it may look like Aeons is being held up entirely by Colby, they're actually just using their godtier flight in such a way that they can hide by holding onto Colby while looking like they're hanging on precariously. This thankfully reduces the weight that Colby has to carry, not to mention get around the whole "you need the proper hidden machine and gym badges to use FLY" thing.
Far below, they see the great expansive city, and it brings them to tears.
It looks remarkably like their hometown of Portland, Oregon.
The greenery, the one side with a handful of modestly tall buildings, the rather large industrial section, the river that cuts through the city, and the multiple bridges that go across it.
Perhaps this is why Nick disappeared for so long? Did they find their heart here and leave the life of a sburban god behind?
Aeons tries to find a good place to land. Thankfully, pokemon centers always have a red roof by design. Always the best place to land, right?
Would sure explain why they're often the places where the player lands in the games, at least.
In that moment, Aeons has an idea. One that may just complete a timeloop in the process.
Aeons and Colby, with Pachirisu static clinging on the back with ease, descend towards the pokemon center on the southwest side of the city.
Meanwhile back at the pokemon trainer's school, it seems the class is fairly laid back. Most of the other students are either from distant regions which don't have trainer's license mandates, suddenly got a pet pokemon they don't know how to handle, or may or may not actually be undercover.
Nick can be described as at least two of those.
Thankfully, its a fairly relaxed class, which seems to focus on a variety of practical things, such as optimal ball throwing form, foods to feed your pokemon, foods to definitely not feed your pokemon, how to escape from a rampaging bewear in one piece, and other oddly tangential lessons brought about by anecdote. Its not clear how much of this will even be on the test, but Nick doesn't care, its all fascinating and engaging.
"Now, if you have to use an herb in a tight situation, always make up for it later with something that your pokemon likes. Now, I thought that my nosepass would like those herbs, having one of the natures known for preferring bitter flavors, but like, apparently these bitters were on a whole 'nother level, because I practically had to shove them up its nose."
"Wait... up its nose?!"
"yeah. They don't exactly have a mouth, after all. If you've ever tried to feed a nosepass, you'd probably get freaked out the first time one would snort an entire iapapa berry right out of your hand."
"Wow, amazing."
Aeons, Colby, and Pachirisu land in front of the pokemon center and walk inside. Aeons pulls out their captchalogue camera, and sets it to ghost captcha mode.
They take a few pictures of some things, including a picture of the healing machine behind the counter. Some of the others in the pokemon center are giving Aeons some odd looks, and Nurse Joy is a bit confused by all this.
"Um... may I help you?"
"Just a minute, almost done taking pictures. Wanna show off where I went to my friends back home."
Nurse joy just slowly nods, pretending to understand this.
Meanwhile, pachirisu scampers about, getting a feel for the place. Those stairs look fun to climb...
Colby hovers a comfortable distance away, making sure that Pachirisu stayts out of trouble.
A bookcase, a beanbag chair, a glass coffee table, one of the public PC's in the corner, the decorative pokeball statuettes... That should do it.
"Heh, sorry about that. I'm wondering if you may have seen my sibling around here, goes by the name of Nick. They look pretty similar, though a bit more of a scrimblo than me."
Nurse Joy thinks for a moment. What in the hell is a scrimblo?
She's seen all sorts of people walk through these doors.
It takes a long hard minute of thinking, but she finally remembers something!
"...wait, I do remember someone that looks a little like you. Came in with a slowpoke. Was just about as clueless as their slowpoke too. Apparently they hadn't gotten ttheir trainer's license yet, so I directed them to sign up for a day class."
"Hm, a day-class to get a trainer's license..."
Aeons thinks for a moment. Maybe that's what the people of Starter planet need... a freaking day-class...
Meanwhile, back at the freaking day-class, Granite put on a video of professor oak blooper reels, showing all the times a random pokemon being studied wound up causing mischief with the legendary kantonian professor. At one point he even got astral projected by a dusknoir! It seems it takes someone willing to do anything to really study pokemon, even if it means doing something really stupid.
Either that, or ol' Sam is lucky to still be alive. Its hard to tell.
Nick is drawing funny little doodles in their sketchbook while watching this video. It is entirely likely that none of this will even be remotely on the test.
After an awkwardly embarrassing moment trying to get answers from a Nurse Joy suspicious of them, Aeons flies off with Colby and Pachirisu towards the trainer's school.
They soon land and walk inside.
From the looks of it, a very familiar protagonist is waiting here, wearing a bonnet-like hat and overall jorts. They strike up a conversation, conveniently off-screen. They get acquainted. Apparently that's HAZEL. Aeons mentions the stuff about coming home for christmas. Christmas is an unknown holiday in this world. After describing it though, the conclusion is quickly made that its very much like the famed Night of the Delibirds.
While they are talking, a pair of middle schoolers are hiding behind a potted plant. It is ridiculously easy to see them, but hardly anyone in the room can be assed to rat them out.
Meanwhile, inside of the classroom, Granite is looking over the test that she's supposed to hand out. It appears its a fairly standard one involving status afflictions, the right medicines to use for each one, and various type advantage questions.
Most of this was definitely not covered directly in the class.
Granite is quietly freaking out, almost knowing that her students are gonna flunk this test, assuming they didn't learn anything outside of the class beforehand.
For a seasoned pokemon fan like Nick though, such a test would probably be mildly challenging, but only because there's so many types out there.
"Uh... a lot of you already have pokemon, right? I kinda screwed up and didn't cover the curriculum so I'm offering an alternate pass condition here. Challenge me to a pokemon battle, one on one. you get to pick which pokemon I use from a list. This doesn't count as winning a gym badge under league rules, unfortunately, but I figure it covers the basics in a practical enough manner?"
Nick thinks about this. They've never actually has Slope enter a battle before. They don't know if they'll be able to take on a gym leader's pokemon in a first actual battle. Do levels even mean anything here? Questions fill Nick's mind as they think about this.
Meanwhile, Aeons uncaptchas some snacks from home. not knowing how long they'd be away, they made sure to pack enough food to last them potentially an entire month. They offer some beef jerky to HAZEL at some point. It winds up getting eaten at some point, though its hard to tell if HAZEL ate it or not, since this occurred off-screen. It has a teriyaki glaze to it, Aeons's (and Nick's) favorite jerky flavor. Aeons, of course, has much more where that came from, and eats a good handful of it themself. They silently wonder what sorts of meats are eaten in this world, and what they taste like.
Perhaps another day they could take a restaurant tour or something.
Feeling ultimately more confident in their abilities as a trainer in practice rather than in theory (allowing for more leeway since they aren't limited by the constraints of the options provided), Nick chooses the battle option. Luckily for them, Granite, being a rock type gym leader, mostly has rock types to choose as their opponent. Knowing how much of a push-over they can be, Nick chooses Onix as their opponent.
"Alright, lets go up to the roof to do this battle!" Granite exits the room to make her way to the stairs. Aeons notices the mysterious confident person walk out of the class, soon followed by Nick!
"NICK!! THERE YOU ARE!"
"GARNETT?"
"MY NAME'S AEONS NOW, BUT I FREAKING MISSED YOU."
Before Nick can do anything, they are suddenly hugged by their sibling.
Nick hugs back.
"What's going on? I've only been gone for like, two days max."
"It's been, a lot longer thjan two days on my end. It was already december when I took off."
"December? holy crud..."
"Hey, you coming for the battle exam?" Granite asks at the foot of the stairs.
"...oh! I almost forgot! I gotta do this pokemon battle thing to get past this class! You two can come watch, I think."
"Yeah. Just be careful. Pokemon battles are serious business, after all!"
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SJmun
Eggministrator
Posts: 1,445
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Post by SJmun on Dec 24, 2021 11:41:19 GMT -8
After the class is over, Nick is handed a shiny new trainer card, with a fresh photo of themself on it too. Even let them keep wearing the hat!
"This is so freaking cool... I'm finally a pokemon trainer for real..."
Aeons stands nearby, smiling.
"You know, there's a lot going on over back home. I've missed you a lot over the past few months. I was uh, wondering if you'd like to spend christmas back in Gene. You can totally go back here afterwards, and you can even bring your friend along for the ride, but it would be nice to have you around for the occasion."
Nick thinks for a moment. While they really want to get a move-on with their pokemon adventure, they also don't want to let their sibling down.
"oh yeah, I should probably also mention, the pokemon population on starter planet is like, a lot more permanent now. Divinely ordained even."
"waitwhat?"
"Yeah. Apparently after the hoopa incident, the whole place got a zillion pokemon that just sorta live in the wild all over now. We've been trying to educate the locals on how to handle pokemon, but its going... kinda slow so far."
A chance to educate others? More pokemon in a familiar place? Maybe the place they left behind is worth visiting for a while.
They can always return here, after all.
"Well, since you say its christmas, I guess I might as well." Nick seems a little hesitant, but they don't want to disappoint their sibling on christmas, of all days.
"Alright, that settles it then." Aeons pulls out an odd flower, and offers their hand.
Nick accepts it, also holding onto HAZEL's hand. Its a good thing that HAZEL went and got their repaired pokegear back off-screen during the class before returning here.
Soon enough, the three of them, and all their pokemon and such on hand, disappear.
The middle schoolers hiding behind the potted plant seem a little confused, to say the least.
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SJmun
Eggministrator
Posts: 1,445
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Post by SJmun on Jul 30, 2022 21:06:20 GMT -8
An unknown time relative to these events, miles and miles south from here...
A certain prince of time lands face first on a golden bridge with a smack!
A group of teenage loiterers glance over at them, but yield at the sight of their apparent leader, walking down the bridge to meet this mysterious new person.
"...huh? This isn't the greenhouse..."
Aeons looks up, too dazed and without glasses to really make sense of the exact details of the encounter.
"Hey fancypants, you gotta pay the toll or beat me in a battle to cross this bridge."
"uhh... do you take credits?"
"Do I take credits? Well I take credit for all my group's wins, that's certain."
The prince slowly stumbles to their feet. They're dressed in their usual tweed suit, minus the matching fedora.
(un)fortunately, two pokeballs can be seen on their belt.
"When two trainers lock eyes, they are destined for the thralls of combat. Show me your pokemon."
"Look, I'm still half zoned out here and I feel like a bag of bricks hit me. Can we not with the pokemon battle stuff right off the bat?"
"Then you leave me no choice."
the leader of the group throws a pokeball, revealing a pokemon...
"...sic 'em."
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Post by frozenlake on Aug 2, 2022 13:20:13 GMT -8
-glass.
Blinded by a sudden flash of light, Charles has to spend a few seconds to recover, before his vision clears, and he finds himself right outside of a Pokémon Center. A passerby blinks for a moment, before shrugging it off as a kid with an Abra.
Charles continues to look around, observing the tightly packed buildings around him. He wasn't sure if he was in the right place, given the signs for nearby businesses were written in English. However, he finally spots a colossal, lavender and cyan building. He looks down at his hand, still holding the flower. He notes that one of the petals is missing, before stowing it away in his sylladex. He decides to attempt to connect to the memo, routing his shades through the communicator brick. Although, for some reason, it felt as if he was being watched...
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SJmun
Eggministrator
Posts: 1,445
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Post by SJmun on Aug 2, 2022 13:36:21 GMT -8
It's a sunny day in Saffron City. Bustling pedestrians can be seen walking about with their pokemon. The city is far larger than it appeared in the games, that's for sure. Fortunately, the main attractions are in relatively predictable spots. There aren't many cars on the streets, so it should be relatively easy to walk around with minimal worry.
What will you do now?
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Post by frozenlake on Aug 2, 2022 14:02:41 GMT -8
MEMOLOG FL: testing, testing.
FF: answer
FL: okay, I think I've made it.
FL: I think I'm in Saffron City, given the big-ol Silph-Co building.
FL: although everything is written in english... shouldn't it be written in that, semi-blocky script?
LS: huh, neat!
FF: could be weird game shit
FL: also I think something is watching me. Like, that's obvious in a city like this, everyone is always looking at someone else on the streets.
LS: hmm... There is a psychic type gym in that city. Might have something to do with that? Mostly just a guess.
FL: ...aaa
FL: right, first things first, I have to get out of eyesight, so I can take to the air. I'll have to use the cloak, as I'm not gonna be able to get through those checkpoints without a trainer ID, I imagine. I'd rather not use heart sense in the city limits, as that just feels like it would invite trouble. I'll probably fly off towards Celedon. I just need to find an alley to put on the cloak.
LS: apparently Aeons pretended to FLY with Colby to go pick me up that one time. Not sure if any of your buizels are willing to pretend to be Tails the fox for you tho
FF: or just fly. And claim it’s a ghost or something
FL: Alright, I'll just... fly. Yeah.
PESTERLOG FL: internally, it seems that there is a bridge, extending off towards infinity, where your section of the city would be.
PK: I wasn't sure how it'd hold up, but it seems to be alright for right now.
FL: at least it didn't break, who knows what the side effects of that could be. Upon finishing the quick pestering, FL raises a hand, as if holding onto something, and takes to the air. The movement causes his connection to dip, but that's fine, He didn't need it right now, anyway. He flies a little bit to the east, before attempting a Heart Sight scan, to figure out where Aeons is. |
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