bottlebay | 3rd Quest [Video, after completing Heads or Tails]

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3rd Quest [Video, after completing Heads or Tails]

[It's finally a sunny, warm day, hot but not terribly humid, and perfect for laying out bolts of felt to dry after May's deluge of rain. Or, well, to let them dry after being cleaned to ensure there's no mold or mildew or anything gross trying to grow on the fabric Firoza has worked so hard to make. And as she sits in the middle of this fabric drying in the sun, her mind wanders towards her efforts with Laios and Emmett to locate a missing Pokemon. The eerie feeling, the thought that came unbidden, the state that Zweilous was found in...

She has to talk about this. She has to express this. And when she comes in over the Grumpearls, you can get that sense of concern and confusion settling around her, making the sunny day a bit dimmer as a result.]

I don't recall Zweilous having gone missing before our arrival here. Has this Pokemon wandered off before?

[She hums, little Nidoran brow furrowed. It's important to note that she's finally started to keep her bandana pulled down again, and her right cheek (her right) has a wispy scar trailing across it, like tendrils of flame licking out. It's all healed, it doesn't look grotesque, but wow it sure is there!]

There's just...a feeling I had. "No, no, not again"...and I couldn't shake how familiar it was, to know you are missing a name and face, but you cannot put it together. Though how it can be familiar I'm not sure...

[Tap tap tap goes a paw, impatient as she thinks.]

Have any of you felt something similar, from a mission? Or am I overthinking this?

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[...huh? They can feel from the tone of her message that Firoza is talking about a Zweilous she brought in, but:]

A.B.A and I also brought Zweilous back. I thought they were too sick to be leaving bed... [Let alone wandering off again.]

Is there... more than one Zweilous?

[Bad feeling BAD FEELING especially with Firoza mentioning the bit about missing a memory being familiar. They thought that was just them!! That's normal for them!!]

Mayhap they are sleepwalking?

[Which is also concerning. Please put people on watch for this Pokemon! Gently guide them back to bed!]

I don't see why there couldn't be more than one, but...mm. This one was the first of its kind I've ever met. I'm sure of it. They are very unique.

[Emo hair two headed guy...like you'd remember if you saw more of them.]

Something just isn't fitting correctly in my mind about the whole situation.

Maybe...? [Sleepwalking all the way out into the ocean, though? Not waking up even when they're floating in it? It's a miracle Zweilous didn't drown. And, something about them not being seen for a while, based on the quest listing and Stunky's reaction, but brought back at least twice in short succession...]

[...]

Um. When we were trying to track down where they went, I kept thinking... "They're going to leave me behind."

[Siffrin assumed until now it was their own thought, especially after the Rain Incident with Shoka. That it was some memory they hadn't quite recalled. But now, in retrospect... it's weird, right? Because:]

But I'm not even sure who "they" were.

Oh....

[why is his pearl radiating TIRED]

No, that's... I'm pretty sure it's been the same Zweilous each time.

This uh...

Happened with another pokemon...

[No matter how quietly he mutters that last bit, the image of a slumbering phantump is impossible to ignore.]

[~~time loop(???) trauma activated~~]

...It may not have been your thought. If I felt something dreading something happening again...maybe that was what was being dreaded. But, the thoughts just coming unbidden?

[It's almost like the Echo, but like, the light version, a wisp of the scent of flowers on the air instead of shoving your whole head into a bouquet.]

It isn't as if our minds don't do such things, but in this case, it cannot be a coincidence.

Emmett told us of another Pokemon it happened to - where the same thought came to him unbidden as well. If they aren't our thoughts...what exactly happened to the Pokemon of Bottlecap Bay that they aren't admitting to? Or - what might they not remember?

[She's providing these hypotheses but there's a bit of unease to it...as if Firoza's not sure she should be the one putting forth the smart ideas. Maybe a little trepidation that she's probably wrong and leading everyone in circles for nothing.]

I think it's probably more the latter... But also...maybe the fog?

It got into the rain this last month. If that kind of thing can happen, just about anyone who wanders out there could end up a real mess...

...and the fog definitely plays with who you think you are...

[He's trying not to think about the idea that he could, somehow, not be himself. Please, not that.]

[Ingo doesn't even respond to this; there's just a massive psychic wave of fuckor.]

Not the exact same thought, actually.

Just the fact that the quest showed up multiple times, and the strange sleeping ... sickness. Maybe.

...I didn't think it could be the fog - but you have the right of it. If that's still permeating the area...

[Oh gods it just makes her shiver despite the warmth of the day.]

"Are we who we think we are."

[ the thought doesn't come through the telepathic link in Emmet's own voice, instead more like an echo of a mumbled, sleepy, distant tone, with an oddly staticky, distorted quality to it.

he is relaying it as precisely and objectively as he can manage, none of his own thoughts or sentiment on the statement included.

(look, it was zalgotext'd in the original thread. so.) ]

Apologies, I recalled wrong.

But if this keeps happening...do you think sleepwalking could be a part of it? Or are these multiple Zweilous?

Of course we are, who else could we be?

[Reincarnation and multiple selves from one huge dense soul aside, it's what she believes, and what she answers when the message comes through.]

[Just gets ass over teakettle'd with that, holy shit]

That was not my thought. Just what came to us on the previous of these odd rescues. We had to go into the forest for it, but it was not foggy at the time.

The fact that all three of us heard it rules out any individually targeted hallucination or illusion, at least.

[ No, no, not again — again? ]

Shoka and I... we felt the same thing. [ A beat. ] Where exactly did you find Zweilous?

They were stuck in the sand, asleep. Where did you and Shoka find them?

[She answers pretty promptly even without knowing who this is, mostly because if they know Shoka, they must be okay. Shoka's good people.]

O-oh.

[This has her more twisted up than she thought. Her body immediately relaxes, her ears dipping sheepishly.]

Apologies. There are too many questions, and not enough answers. [And no one she knows from home who is good with divining answers from the facts...not that she doubts any of her new friends here, but. If the other Scions were present, surely they could all make more headway into this mystery.] But...mm. If it was a conscious thought from the Pokemon you were trying to rescue...could the natives here have doubts about themselves they don't speak of? Or if it's unconscious, they're simply not aware?

[ This whole conversation makes him feel some sort of way, but he has to chime in, too. ]

The way Stunky talked about Zweilous made them sound like... one Pokemon. I just wonder how they managed to get out of the clinic this many times...

Oh? You thought things, too? How strange...

[She means...thought out of place things, but...it's A.B.A.]

As mentioned, the thought of abandonment did come up, but...it's a thought I have quite often, so it didn't seem too peculiar at the time. Thinking about it now... I guess it did feel different than usual.

[Something important is... missing.

The thought carries through the pearl, even before Akechi responds, his expression solemn and feathers slightly ruffled.]

We found him sleeping in a tree, and no matter how much we jostled him, he wouldn't wake. There were physical signs of illness as well.

[ Throwing Shoka's name around is an easy in with people, he's found. ]

In the sand, asleep. Looked half-dead, if I'm honest. [ His brow furrows. ] I'm assuming Stunky didn't mention anything about that? They sure didn't say anything to us if your group found them there the first time.

Right...I can always ask Dr. Denne for a little more on just what's going on too of course, but I'm not really sure they have any more answers than that.

It does seem pretty likely though. I mean...if some of the requests on the board are any sign, a lot of Pokemon here voluntarily go into the woods on their own enough to risk it.

Phantump also could not be roused. They are not known to be a species that has any particular affinity with dreams, so I do not think it would be a conscious, intentional thought ...

[ Though ... Sleep Talk is always a thing. Pretty much any Pokemon could learn to do that one, it is easier to list out the few that don't than the ones that do...

(Sleep and dreams... hmm.) ]

But why would the natives here have reason to doubt their identities?

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3rd Quest [Video, after completing Heads or Tails]

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