Travels in Ultra Space - Hisui

[Reno Vantas]

Beau could feel his eyes drilling towards his soul, having somehow managed to discern that there was something off with the world. How could anything have given it away? Was the sword so connected that the very lack of it left some discernable 'weight' difference in the air around? Larrimore couldn't have that level of sense though, right? Otherwise he would have known about the sword long before Beau was forced to show it still existed. But still, that stare was telling him that something was off enough for Larry to perceive. He had to keep it secret as long as possible, otherwise there was going to be a severe derailment from what appeared to be a plan to get Aile some medical attention. Well, guess that was going to mean powder burn-induced cauterization was off the menu. As was him roaming around free. But either way, anything to keep the number of amputees to a minimum was a must.  

[Cecile Silverstone]

Leon watched as Wren put aided in medical attention, even if it was temporary. He got a little closer to the scene to see Aile nub of what use to be an arm. "Here. I can make a sedative." Leon said as he took out his white kunai artifact. It then started to glow faintly as he imbued his poison channeling into it. "Don't worry. I may be a Poison Channeler, but this toxin won't kill you." Leon reassured her as he poked her gently in her thigh. Soon enough, Aile would start to feel relaxed and numb. The Channeler then stood up and looked at Sub.

"I'm gonna go on ahead. And tell the village chief of our situation." Leon said as he went on ahead of everyone. Eevee ran beside her trainer until she hopped up on his shoulder.  

[MoniqueBrie]

Already casting her illusion again when Sub suggested the group return to the village, Monique became the only new member of the “human” traveling party. Thus, Jubilife Village was a new experience for her.

She did not think she’d see a town that compared unfavorably to New Po, but here she was. The walled city sat in something of a natural valley, so fortifications were only needed at a few entry points, including the eastern gate that opened onto the main street. The north side was highlighted by a large, comparatively impressive brick structure—probably the one thing that exceeded New Po—that, at three stories, dominated the traditional, one-story structures surrounding it. There were the apartments they had been given, as well as the only retail enterprises. She spotted a beauty parlor, a general store, and a restaurant, as well as a few traveling carts huddled around the brick building.

There were also people—people who, even though their “evil god” had been delivered on a silver platter, looked askance at the entire group of foreigners. This applied even to the humans, to say nothing of the hybrids, who had been confined in some very hastily assembled quarters on the very edge of the most undeveloped part of the settlement. The fear that had been plowed into these people contrasted with the way life was lived in New Po, the last bastion of independent civilization in her time. Their lot in life was the opposite of the people she knew. They both grew up surrounded by harshness, but there was abundant vim and vigor in the fieldlands, a possibility for a future, something not exactly possible on Aether Island.

The Galaxy Team took charge of feeding the Snagems at their canteen, which reminded her a bit of Guzma’s, the saloon in New Po. There was freshly caught salmon, potato mochi, and some sort of grain beverage they said they were trying to make. The latter was pitiful—perhaps they’d get a sense for how to make it given a few years, she hoped. The food was surprisingly well-seasoned but sat a bit uneasily in her stomach. She spent a bit of time on the main street, where she reviewed the materials on hand at the craft store and the local fashions, before sunset came and the shops closed down.

With nightfall, there was little to do. This fearbound society had no sense of nightlife. Indeed, it shut up shop like Lacunosa Town famously did, except there was not a copious abundance of lighting to point the way to the Mead House. The only modern lighting seemed to be in the Galaxy Team building. She retired to the small room she had been given, with its dirt floor and traditional hearth. She let out the tired Kalama and left her to sleep alongside her Trainer, hoping she would be rested up by morning. That said, she knew that the sight of a Marowak in this village would probably be enough to exile her again or even blow her non-human cover.

***

Monique did not sleep all that well in her quarters, but at least she slept some by the time sunlight came filtering through the window, and Kalama was awake, too. She recalled her companion to her Poké Ball and shook the dust off of her clothes. She was glad nobody was seeing her except in an illusion, because this outfit had taken a battering. She’d have to hope nothing attacked her and busted her cover or they might really go insane.

On Sub’s instructions, the traveling party congregated at the main intersection, in front of the general store, with its odd assortment of items. To Monique’s surprise, there were Poké Balls, but these looked nothing like her own, with wooden undersides and much more crudely fashioned metal, as well as several bottles with unfamiliar, handmade labels and a few stranger items whose purpose she could not discern.  

[Atlantis_Darts]

SubonicXP

Darts had the worst quarters possible, thrown in a dungeon underneath Galaxy Team HQ, chained to the floor by his ankles, the chain just long enough to barely reach the bars in front of him to reach what food they might bring him. Beside that the outside of the cell was adorned with paper tags, allegedly enchanted by the local medium and while Darts knew good and well such ‘containment spells’, usually via Pokemon, were possible the Ghost hybrid also knew these things were just what they were made of, paper and nothing more. In fact the medium that placed them was still here, allegedly channeling her ‘energies’ to keep him contained, however a Channeler this person was not, in any sense of the word.

Waking up, Sub was quick to head out, proceeding to loiter around the general goods store, having informed the humans to meet him there in the morning. He wanted to get them together before heading over the bridge to check on the hybrids, not given much of a chance yesterday to speak to them after entering the village, the guards quick to ‘escort’ the hybrids to the southern side of the village for their own ‘protection’, though no one told them they had to stay there but there was the implication that they should. Needless to say the hybrids did not have a warm welcome.

With everyone gathered they would head south across the bridge to meet up with the hybrid at their ramshackle settlement, if you could call it that.

[In your post go ahead and detail your character’s experience upon arriving in Jubilife Village from the afternoon prior to the morning after. The hybrid characters will definitely experience a lot of bigotry though the humans will also be met with suspicion. You’re free to have your character visit anywhere in the village.]

While none of the hybrids got a particularly warm welcome, to say Darts was reviled as soon as he stepped across the threshold would be an understatement. As Sub had led him by his String Shot leash into the town square everyone from the guards to the villagers were regarding him with nothing short of complete enmity and hate. The original handoff saw the villagers of the town young old and otherwise lining the main thoroughfare, everyone glaring at the group with some mix of suspicion, anger, and curiosity.

Once they reached the end of the road, out in front of the towering Galaxy Team HQ, the whole team paused to observe the pleasantries between Sub and the heavily mustached man. Besides a terse handshake and some whispered words to each other, Sub and the man that Darts would come to know from scuttlebutt as Commander Kamado, there wasn't much said between the two groups that the gambler could make out. A young little girl in a kimono would break from the crowd, earning concerned screams and gasps of panic from her parents as she ran up to Darts, tugging on the bottom of his jacket. He turns, seeing the fear and rage in both of her parent's faces and tries his best to look anodyne, kneeling very slowly to bring himself face to face with the youngster.

"Hey there." He says quietly, trying to make his voice as cheerful as possible. "My name's Darts, and yours is-" He's cut off as the little girl inhales sloppily and spits a huge loogie right into the opening in his crest.

"Banished!" She shrieks, looking proud of her courage as she points a finger at him, her mother and father rushing forward to collect her, clearly frightened of his retribution. "You go back home and die you banished!" she adds, pointing right at the Snagem over her parent's shoulders as they hurry off into the crowd again.

Great. Darts thinks internally, standing back up and leaning his crest forward to get the offensive lung gunk out of his viewing port. Right back to square one. At least I'm used to it. he muses internally. Really, he was tickled despite the hostile response. This reminded the hybrid so much of his early days after Giratina chose to 'bless' him. The weird stares, the muttered comments. Not to mention when he first got into the Dragon Clan and some of the villager's responses there. In a weird perverse way it was comforting to have a return to the status quo, him versus most of living society.

A stern blue-haired officer moves forward with a couple other members of Team Galaxy to collect him. She doesn't spit at him but as her cold blue eyes meet his red ones, there's no sign of any kind of mercy or pity for him. He's not sure he sees hate, but one thing's for certain - she's not going to let him go. They lead him up the stairs and then down - down into his basement prison cell. They are nice, or foolish, enough to free him from the String Shot. The officer he'd come to know as Cyllene retrieves a massive bowie knife from a sheathe at her side to do so. He worries for half a second if she's going to put it through his chest and end him right there but these fears are unfounded as she frees his arms. A large and heavy pair of manacles get slabbed to his ankles at the same time, the weight of the massive chains attached to them restricting his movement quite effectively. Had he been any other kind of a hybrid they would no doubt be quite debilitating.

The guards don't give much slack more slack on his chains than to just barely put his food for the night - some kind of pasty brown slop - within arm's reach. Being part Ghost-type and not needing to eat, Darts decides not to. He leaves the food untouched as he just sits lotus-form in the middle of his cell. He breathes in and out slowly, allowing the concentration of his Calm Mind to fill his body. The medium they bring in to place spell tags all over the outside of his cell causes him to open a red eye to observe her technique. Once he realized she was little more than a babbling amateur he returns to his position, motionless other than to settle back against the wall behind him and take a short fitful nap. He didn't need to sleep any more than he needed to eat but not having a couple hours with his brain switched off affected that little human piece of himself alive deep in his heart negatively, so he always tried to acquiesce and catch some shut-eye when he had the time.

Come dawn the next day, Darts would rouse himself to find the medium from the night before out in front of his cell, 'channeling' her 'energies'. Alright I think we can all agree I've been pretty good. The jacketed Snagem thinks to himself, his jacket flapping a little in apparent agreement.

"So." He says out loud toward the focusing adjunct, still remaining seated cross legged against the far wall of his cell as he does so. "What happened to the fear of having sympathy for the devil?"  

[Atlantis_Darts]

SubonicXP

The medium tries to ignore Darts at first, giving the appearance that she was far too deep in her 'trance' to hear him. The Dragon Clan initiate knew better though, he knew what real trances and deep meditation looked like and this 'medium' couldn't even begin to fool him. As if sensing the skeptical eyes staring a hole through her the medium opened one angry eye to stare at the creature across from her in the cell. Deciding there was no further point in continuing she opened the other eye and let out a deep sigh of annoyance, smacking her lips a few times and glancing around the room, indicating how little she cared for Darts and his question.

"Oh put it in a song." She scoffed, dismissing Darts' question. "Foul demon, the stench of evil which exudes from you disgusts me. Thy presence runs afoul of nature itself. I hate you." With one last scowl she closed her eyes again and restarted her nonsense chanting. Not like that would stop Darts from bothering her again.

"If that were true, surely someone summoning great power like I sense coming from you would not need to sit in the same room as me to do it." Internally, Darts was dying with laughter but he couldn't let her know that. From the serious way she conducted herself to rebuffing him initially the Snagem had all he needed to tell she was a 'true believer' in her own power and that was something he could work with.

"Well, what does the strongest modern sorceress this side of Arceus desire of me? You have me at your complete mercy." He lies, flattering her as he throws up a forearm dramatically, covering his eyes for effect. "I am weaker than I have ever been since the time the first dawn broke over this planet without me...."  

[DragonFang099]

Amber deflated a bit when Sub answered that he hadn't seen any Shuppet since they'd arrived. Had Spooky not been transported with her? If that was the case, then he must be worried sick about her. She knew he trusted very few others besides her, though for some reason, he seemed to get along better with most of the hybrids than he did with the humans or Channelers in Snagem. She was worried that if he did get transported through the wormhole, that he was dropped somewhere else, and if that was the case, then all she could do was hope he didn't wind up near a human settlement.

She followed along behind the others as they headed toward the village, silent as her mind was on her missing partner. She barely noticed when Darts was handed over, though when she and the other hybrids were 'exiled' to the outskirts of the village, she took a look around, so she could familiarize herself with the layout of the village. From what she could see, there were a few farm plots near where she and the other hybrids were, as well as a battlefield across the bridge from that. Other than that, there seemed to be only a few places of 'business' that they could go to.

She didn't sleep at all that night, too worried about Spooky to sleep. Well, that and the fact she was part Ghost-type. The next morning didn't see her any better, though Arauth had freed herself from her Pokeball during the night, presumably able to sense Amber's worry and to keep her company in Spooky's absence. She was grateful to the Misdreavus for doing this, knowing Arauth had grown to care for her after their initial encounter. Once she'd gotten her bearings, she went out to meet with the other members of the team.  

[Requiem of Whyspers]

Walking, or rather, hobbling along with the others back to town, Wren had to suppress the anger that rose up rather unexpectedly when the villagers began to spew their ignorant venom at not only Darts but the other hybrids as well. The others had done nothing to deserve such vitriol but Darts was the one that angered him the most. The hybrid was willing to sacrifice his freedom and possibly even his life if it meant safety for the rest of them. These people had no idea what was going on right under their noses, too caught up in their fear and hatred of the unknown to see beyond their emotions.

When Darts was dragged off to be imprisoned, he was escorted alongside Aile to the medical wing of the Galaxy Team building. His treatment was nothing compared to Aile’s, a simple aseptic rinse to clean blood and dirt away and a checking of the few stitches it had taken to close the arrow wound. It wasn’t until after he had been tended to and allowed to go eat that he decided what to do. He had seen Laventon speaking with Aile when he left to get food but when he returned, it appeared the professor was leaving Aile’s bedside. As he watched the professor walk toward him, he was struck by a thought. He knew from the man’s introduction when he came to speak with Aile who he was but little else so this might be his only chance.

“Hello, professor!” He greeted, throwing a hand up to wave in greeting. “I don’t believe we’ve had the chance to meet my properly. My name is Wren. Thank you for keeping my friend company while I was gone. Do you have a moment before you return to your work?”

Thankfully, it seemed the rather jovial man was more amenable than most others the group had met so far. After a short conversation with the professor, in which Wren explained he was somewhat of an academic himself, he was able to gain permission from the professor to review some of his notes on the region. Most notable of all was the large map in the professor’s quarters that allowed him to understand the way this land of “Hisui” was laid out compared yo the more modern world the Snagem’s hailed from. The Grass Channeler talked with Professor Laventon late into the evening, comparing his “notes” of nearly forgotten memory with yo Laventon’s more accurate recent studies.

“Thank you for the time Professor.” Wren would finally say to the slightly portly professor, fighting back a yawn. “It would seem there’s very little trustworthy information regarding Hisui in the world beyond its shores. I hope your work here helps to change that! Unfortunately, it’s gotten rather late and I believe it’s time I turned in for the night.” Exchanging farewells, Wren headed out to the apartment he’d been allotted to use for the night, unsure which of the others was likely to be there already. He headed inside, and found his place to sleep occupied by someone, though he had no interest in determining who, so he pulled a bit of rope from his bag and was quick to put together a hammock for himself to sleep in, though he did very little of it. This region was familiar but different enough in just enough ways that it was becoming increasingly concerning how the team’s presence would impact the way this world progressed along it’s timeline.

When morning came, he woke later than his cabin mate and was one of the last to arrive at the meeting spot, dark bags under his eyes to reflect the lack of sleep and his borrowed cane still supporting the weight on his injured leg. “I think we should discuss what we know once we’re all together.” He told Sub as the group headed off to the southern edge of the small settlement.