Video;

[truthdecided]

[Akechi addresses the Pearl in his and Ren's new, high tier room. Thanks to the help of Maya and Mayaka, the conspiracy wall is all in order. So many notes! There are even some new ones, and an open journal lies at Akechi's tiny birdy feet.]

I'd like to take a moment to discuss the dreams from last month.

[Yes, the dreams. Surely a vast majority know what he means.]

More specifically, the rather... cataclysmic one toward the end of the month. Volcanic eruptions and ash, foreign beings unlike any Pokémon we've seen, and calamity consuming the land.

[He brings his wings together like a pair of hands, breathing in.]

I believe this is significant, between the fossilized remains at Furnace Mountain, the ruined copy of the Archives in Heavy Downmoor, and the words imprinted upon us when exploring new regions and when rescuing lost Pokémon.

[He turns his Pearl toward his notes on the latter. Some ominous phrases appear:

Something important is... missing.'

Wait... Wait, stop!

They're going to leave me behind!

No, no, no, not again!

Are we who we think we are?

CAN YOU HEAR ME?

How many times have we been here? How many times have we lived here? How many times have we fallen to ruin?

There's an additional note about "doing it again" as well, though the phrasing isn't exact.]

Flowey and I had already hypothesized that there may be a cycle of destruction at play. That dream only solidified that hypothesis.

[He flutters over to another portion of the board, where the previous bounties are noted.]

And now we have three new bounties to contend with. Something keeps driving Pokémon mad, both in the form of these larger threats and the smaller swarms. Missing Pokémon go missing multiple times, yet their memories remain inconsistent...

I'm not yet sure how it all connects, but I do believe that nightmare holds connections to Furnace Mountain, if nothing else, and may be an omen of things to come.

Comments

Video;

[0dchess]

[Kinger is sitting in his blanket/pillow fort, presumably in his room in The Spire.]

Those things from the dreams, I had seen one before. During the remembrance festival, a lot of us saw visions of people we loved. Some of us saw them as they were, some of them as Pokémon, but my wife looked like one of those things. I hadn't met enough Pokémon yet to know that that wasn't normal, though.

[truthdecided]

[It's clear that this is a sensitive subject, so Akechi tries to temper his interest. Best to listen first, hum in acknowledgement.]

I see. On one hand, that is fascinating to hear, but on the other hand, I imagine it was a bittersweet experience.

[0dchess]

Yeah. Somehow I immediately knew it was her, even only seeing her at a distance. Something in her eyes, maybe. She also looked really similar to the last time I saw her.

I don't think I've ever told you about abstraction, but back home whenever someone wasn't able to take it anymore, they started to lose themselves. Eventually they ended up turning into this big monstrous form.

[Kinger projects an image of his wife, abstracted, and also his memory of seeing the quasi-real Stakataka in the distance during the festival.]

video;

[edgewater]

[ if you'd told parvati a few months ago that she'd genuinely be beholden to higher power, and worse, at the mercy of it, she would have laughed. brushed you off. told you to go chat up the vicar instead. he would've loved to discuss the existence of something other than the architect, or the grand plan. the notion of something else pulling at the strings. but here she is now, watering one of her plants, and completely humouring it. ]

Y'know, the Pokemon going nuts remind me a little of something we had going on back home. [ and that's not the nicest notion to consider. ] Can't remember if I've told you about the Marauders before or not, but. It's pretty much the same.

[ and it's scaring her. ]

[truthdecided]

[You know, Parvati, he'll never pass up an opportunity to learn about other worlds. Just listen to his inquisitive hum, as he brings a wing below his beak.]

You'll have to elaborate, but I can't deny my curiosity.

cw drugs reference (you know how it is with parvati's setting atp)

[edgewater]

Marauders are workers who got addicted to the stimulants they needed to work. Too addicted, became erratic and violent. Got kicked out of their towns, turned to attackin' folks on the road. Can't be reasoned with because they're starving, for food and their next hit.

[ a shudder. parvati's moved to adjusting the leaves on her plant now. ]

[offtracks]

I have told you about my experiences with frenzied Pokemon, I suppose...but I have never even heard tales of beings like those from the dream. I suppose it may be my own provincialism, but...

[ Well. Subway Boss Ingo clearly knew about all sorts of Pokemon. When Ingo encounters them now, even if he doesn't fully remember, he usually knows them. It's an experience utterly different from how he saw those other creatures.

He can't say they aren't Pokemon, though. Pokemon are so varied that you can never really say that. ]

[truthdecided]

It may be that they are Legendary Pokémon from another part of the world, if not another world entirely. Their alien attributes certainly give the impression of something beyond our comprehension...

[But he's no expert, so it's really just a guess. It's entirely possible he's missing something...]

[offtracks]

It's certainly possible. I cannot claim to know all such beings. Indeed, they may not all be known! Some can be extremely rare, or so ancient that they have slept for thousands of years!

[ So even if there's no way to know for sure...yeah, it might as well be that? ]

And of course, if we are opening it to other worlds, it may be something we could never guess.

[sharpjustice]

[Mayaka has been listening quietly to Akechi, finding some relief that someone among them has able to piece some information together. Guess that conspiracy wall really does come in handy.]

By foreign beings, you mean these, right?

[She holds up the charcoal sketch she's made of the monsters from the final nightmare.]

Do they have anything to do with the fossils in Furnace Mountain?

[truthdecided]

I suspect they likely do, given how alien those remains appear.

[Obviously, fossils don't paint a full picture. One might argue that dreams are just as deceptive, but he nods at the drawing.]

It's good that you sketched them down. If nothing else, we have a record to work from.

[It should make recognizing them simpler, too.]

[sharpjustice]

[Huh. Mayaka had never considered that her art would be perceived as useful for such important matters, since she's only been pursuing it for her own interests.]

Well... let me know if you need it. Or something else drawn. [She tries to sound nonchalant, and not too eager to offer her help to Akechi.]

And what's this about a copy of the Archives? There's other one of those here?

[Video]

[bladeofnymeia]

...I...I was not very...aware of much, last month.

[Firoza couldn't say whether she was absorbed in digging the town out from the snow or she only dreamed that. But maybe if it was a dream, it was better than the terrors the others apparently experienced.]

But, those dreams of destruction - I cannot say it doesn't chill me to the bones. Similar visions...those who have experienced them, where I'm from, find themselves...definitely changed. Not in a bad way, but, in a way that leads to anything but peaceful quiet days in one's future.

[It doesn't seem like anyone's had the Echo manifesting in them, though. But with all the notes of phrases coming to mind, her own experience with it...]

If this is a cycle as you say, we've got to break it. The question is, how?

[truthdecided]

Indeed. The dreams raise more questions, despite the answers they provide.

[It did solidify existing hypotheses. The problem is, seeing this image creates a greater omen. A potentially looming threat that may return.]

I have considered the possibility that we were summoned to break the cycle, but that hardly equips us with the means to do so. We simply lack the knowledge required at this time.

[bladeofnymeia]

[A small, thoughtful smile.]

There's nothing better for breaking a cycle than something coming in from without.

[The lot of them are so different from the denizens of this world, they're bound to be able to put their heads together to do something. Firoza believes that, without hesitation.]

Mayhap further investigation into the volcano and the surrounding environment, if possible, is warranted. At the very least, there are...ways, are there not, to determine how close it might be to erupting, if it is indeed set to erupt? An idea of how much time we have to break the cycle might help.

video

[friendlyflower]

[Flowey has spent early February in the clinic. He suffered a lingering poison side effect from the final nightmare which nearly everyone shared together. Maybe he bore a physical side effect whereas others didn't because he's just a Sunkern, or maybe because he was severely affected by the dream share and the nightmare. Either way, Akechi might know he's signed up for some quests anyway this month, so he must be expecting to be discharged soon.

Nurse Chansey is in the background. She doesn't look like she's desperate for a smoke break. Flowey is being unusually cooperative.

When he speaks, he's a little more quiet and less snide than usual.]

... they were fighting each other, too. Not just us. [This isn't new information, just something he wanted to point out.] Fits into your theory. It wasn't a targeted attack, more like... they were all crazy. Just like the bounty Pokemon.

[The worst part of the nightmare, for him, is that he embraced it. 'Kill or be killed'... how easy it is to slip back into old habits. His power unleashed, he bloomed, and he fought and killed and...

(Nurse Chansey stops to feed him medicine. He takes it, moping.)

Maybe that's why some Pokemon woke up unusually aggressive. For him, he just felt deeply tired, like he hasn't slept all of January.]

... Hey. Here's an idea. We should investigate last year's bounty Pokemon who live with us now, like Ursaluna. Do you think there's a difference between Pokemon who never went mad versus ones who were crazy but snapped out of it? What if they go crazy again?

[This is why he would have been against recruiting them, but it wasn't his decision.] If we don't know the cause of it, then we can't say for sure history won't repeat itself.

[truthdecided]

Not just the bounty Pokémon.

[They are the most memorable example, but a few others come to mind.]

Early on, we dealt with Pokémon in various states of delusion. An Orthworm mistook a worm-shaped medical package for its child. A Persian adamantly attacked those who tried to rescue a Purrloin it had mistaken for its Meowth.

[Was this a sign of things to come? In hindsight, it does seem somewhat possible...]

I do agree that it may be worth questioning Ursaluna, Dondozo, Tatsugiri, and Spiritomb, however. They may be able to provide a clearer idea of what befell them.

[friendlyflower]

Ha ha... Sounds like a job for the Flowey Detective Agency. [For once, he seems to limit his teasing.] We should compare the cases of these new bounty Pokemon once we beat them. There must be a pattern.

[positivestars]

[She's still worried about what getting too caught up in theories could become, but- this is definitely useful, too.]

It seemed like it could be a warning, doesn't it? I hope it wouldn't get that far, though.

What did the fossilised remains come from?

[Cycles of destruction… Some mythologies feature those, but- she's not sure that that would be helpful in this case.]

The bounties might give us a chance for more observations. At least, I hope so. You'll be out on one, I take it?

[truthdecided]

Given what we know, I suspect it's another case of cycles and repeated history.

[Or, to put it another way...]

If there's a ruined duplicate of the Archives, it's possible that whatever we experienced in that nightmare happened in the past and may happen once again. Time itself may be folding and overlapping, for all we know.

[Given what Odile has told him, he certainly can't rule it out...]

But, yes. Ren, Noelle-san, and I are taking on the "Ringing Risk" bounty, as it seemed the one best suited to our skillset.

[positivestars]

It does seem to point that way. In which case, does that mean we're hearing echoes of the past? It's a shame we're only catching glimpses.

It's possible… It is the sort of thing that feels like a warning. But like this, it's hard to know how it all goes together. If we rushed in without thinking it through… could that create more trouble? Though- if there's a duplicate of the Archives, could there be more information there?

Oh! Courier Six, Parvati-san and myself also intend to take that one on. We ought to compare notes afterwards!

voice;

[consequerer]

I suppose that would be a hypothesis he'd readily come to.

[ it's deadpan, colored with the same overall sense of emotional withdrawal or lack of true feeling that so often characterizes their rare appearances on the pearls. ]

Though I suppose if one is being fair, the evidence is steadily mounting.

[truthdecided]

Yes. The dreams were... certainly damning evidence, even if they were removed from context.

[Those creatures, their details perhaps hazy with time, still drift through his thoughts. Peculiar creatures. Jellyfish, buff mosquitoes... origami beings.]

I don't doubt we'll hear more within the coming months, though the rifts and bounties are equally troubling.

[outbounds]

[ There's a slightly odd pace and cadence to the rhythm of his thoughts this time, slowly at first, not quite halting despite its yeah staccato clip of the Zoroark putting his thoughts together. ] A cycle of destruction. Maybe. Possibly. But also, time, it does not— it is not a reset. Or else there would not be those remnants and ruins for us to count as evidence.

[ There are people—Gym Leader Lenora, for example—whose entire jobs it is, to go through the archaeological record and put things together. To learn and know things about them. Date them. Based on this amount of disrepair, that amount of degradation, how fossilized the remains, the particular shape of how much a given ruin has crumbled— ]

How many times it has happened is one question. Over what duration or period of time is another.

[ Which raises another, potentially much more salient question as well. But nothing they've found or encountered really gives them the answer to this one, does it? ]

[truthdecided]

There are elements of space distortions as well as the temporal anomalies. I experienced it recently: open rifts that deposited briefly in another location.

[He projects the i mage through his this thoughts. That dizzying, tumbling sort of experience, disorienting in every sense of the word.]

I don't suppose you've any insight on more "alien" Pokémon? I recall seeing what looked like strange, faceless jellyfish as well as excessively buff mosquitoes.