Day 129 | A wild Trainer appears!

[gianthobo]

Who: AZ and open.
Open: Yep.
When: Day 129
Where: Near the entrance to the Skyway, then wandering around. He's nine feet tall, though, so he's pretty noticeable.
What: AZ and his Pokemon arrive at the Bastion.
Format: Either.
Warnings: Pokemon X/Y spoilers.


[Waking up in strange places isn't a new thing for AZ. He doesn't stay in one place anyway - he hasn't for a long time. But waking up on a floating chunk of rock is different, enough that he looks around in confusion. After a few moments of contemplation, he stands and looks around.]

[There's something in the distance. His pokeballs at his belt are secure, including - ... yes. She's there. He can practically feel her through the smooth material of the pokeball. With a faint smile, he starts trudging towards the light in the distance.]

[It takes a while, but he gets there. His large stride makes it easy to cover the distance. The abyss around the path makes him uneasy, so he keeps his partners in their pokeballs. Once he steps onto the Bastion, he lets them out to explore - a giant turtle, a large golem, a strange bird-like thing, and after a bit of hesitation, a small fairy. The first three start wandering around, but the fairy floats up to the man's shoulder and hovers there. He doesn't say anything, but he starts walking, looking around at what there is to see.]

Comments

[aprettyred]

[ That turtle is red. Anna hasn't seen a red turtle before, so she might follow the turtle around for a little bit. So maybe it isn't as red as it could be, but its red enough she can tell it might be orange. or a shade of pink. Its hard to tell, when that's the only color she sees.

So there is a small child, not terribly far from turning 12, following that turtle. ]

[gianthobo]

[Torkoal turns slowly and tilts his head, letting out a puff of steam. His eyes are closed, but he seems to notice her.]

Koal?

[He waits to see what she'll do.]

[aprettyred]

[ That was not a turtle noise. (Do turtles even have a noise?)

Anna blinks at the turtle again. ]

Hello.

[gianthobo]

Tor koal koal!

[The large man approaches, kneeling down a bit.]

... Hello.

[aprettyred]

[ Wow you are huge.

But you also wear a red hat. Anna thinks that the red hat is clearly a good sign. That, or she could hide under something if he turned out mean. ]

Hello. Is... [ She thinks on the noises the reddish turtle made. Koal and Tor? ]

... Koaltor? A pokemon?

[gianthobo]

... Torkoal. And yes, he is. You've... never seen one like him before?

[It's a question rather than a statement - it's not like Torkoal are very rare.]

[yinyangfox]

[ Since the renovation of his home and opening the doors to people of the Bastion, Seimei has made a sincere effort to be seen on occasion between his lounging at home and deeper explorations into the Skyway collecting shards and bits of the shattered world to decorate the estate with. He was just heading out to the Skyway, his large shikigami perched with one leg on either of his shoulders, wings spread just enough to shade him from the sunny light, its long neck arching well past the tall hat he wears.

Watching from a polite distance as the hulking man - is he an oni? - lets out unusual demons into the Bastion, the onmyoji finally decides to be a politely welcoming figure. Sometimes new arrivals enjoyed his polite dignity more than the enthusiasm of younger survivors. ]

Another bit of flotsam and jetsam washing up on the shores of time and space, I see. [ The significantly smaller man drawled, his voice pleasant and vaguely amused. He wasn't tall by the standards of most societies and AZ absolutely dwarfed him. At least his voluminous robes gave him the illusion of a bit of mass, because really, he was as slender as he was short. On the upside, he didn't seem the least bit intimidated by the large man.

In fact, he reached into one of his large sleeves and withdrew a plump gold persimmon, eyes squinting in a decidedly fox-faced smile as he held it out for AZ, if he liked. ]

Have you puzzled it all out for yourself, yet? If not I can give you the long or the short of it, your choice. My name is Abe no Seimei.

Welcome to the Bastion.

[gianthobo]

[The man watched as the other approached - with some kind of bird Pokemon on his shoulder. Not one that he knew of... maybe from a different region, or a newly discovered one. He didn't seem to be bothered by the height difference, so AZ hunched a bit more to keep the distance between them reasonable. He reached out to take the persimmon with care, before speaking in a quiet but rough voice.]

We're not home. There is... destruction. Far greater than what even I have seen.

[That much was obvious from the empty space around them. It might be explained by some legendary Pokemon, but something didn't seem right. There would have been some kind of warning...]

Past that... I don't know.

[yinyangfox]

The short of it, then. [ He remarked, waving his hand lightly and dismissing the massive bird, who took flight and stayed circling overhead, tails of flame licking at his feathers. ]

This is a sanctuary for those who have survived the ends of their worlds.

[ Seimei paused, letting the simple words sink in as he pulled a folded fan from one sleeve, cracked it open and tapped his lips with it in thought. ]

There was a terrible incident - a Calamity - and all worlds, everywhere, ever, were entirely consumed by it. Best as we can gather, at any rate. There is no way to confirm it precisely but my shikigami says tehre is nowhere else to go but here. He is entirely too vague for my taste.

[ The bird overhead screeches in response, making the onmyoji roll his eyes. ]

People show up here from time to time from all shorts of places. There is no way to know how much of every world drifts out there, nor how many people will come to arrive. Everyone here makes an effort to live peaceably, coexisting and improving what we have left to us. Some people are from the same or very similar worlds. There is housing, food, simple comforts and good people.

Aside from that, its simply a haven. You at least came bearing friends with you. You're very fortunate compared to others, though I imagine you don't feel terribly so.

[gianthobo]

[His eyes widened, and he took a step back, trembling. A calamity? Another?]

But... the machine was stopped...

[There was no way to restart it - not with that Pokemon captured.]

How... how is it that this Calamity happened?

[yinyangfox]

[ He watched the man, shrewd eye cool and calculating. Measuring. Sniffing softly and closing the fan, he folded his hands into his sleeves, looking up at AZ thoughtfully. ]

I don't think it has anything to do with where you're from, if that's what you worry about. It seems whatever it was most likely started here and rippled out, seeing as how we've all ended up here, and here was the only place with a plan in case of just such an emergency. Process of elimination.

Even so, it might have been this way precisely because so many places were on the brink of collapse. One gentleman was here and his people had tried summoning some dark God into their world. I myself had recently stopped a catastrophic event where I was from. However, many others came from relatively mild places. The information is inconclusive.

[gianthobo]

But... it had been stopped.

[Floette nuzzled his cheek gently, before floating out in front of him. She chittered for a moment, before he nodded slowly. This... this wasn't his doing. She knew that, and she understood. The little fairy floated over to his shoulder again as he looked back at Seimei.]

This world... needs help rebuilding, doesn't it? We... I... will help.

[He'd be grateful for any help his Pokemon offer him, but to rebuild after a calamity was a task he knew well - and he would help others with.]

[unwrittenformula]

[Being one of the newer arrivals, N was still adjusting to the Bastion, it's pace and it's lack of life. That wasn't to say there was no life at all. But for him who had spent his entire eighteen years in Unova listening to voices no one could hear, being able to touch hearts of creatures that were otherwise brushed off as nothing more than animals that couldn't be understood by normal means, the near-silence was almost painful at times.

At least he had Zoroark, and like any child learning to communicate, Swablu was even beginning to have enough cognitive thought that N could catch snippets of things from time to time. Plus there was Hilda's team.

It still felt so damn empty, though...

Plus he really wasn't sure what to do most of the time.

So yes, like any other he had his woes and worries, but he kept quiet about them. There was what Colin had suggested, but he found himself wary of introducing more of his beloved Pokemon to such a broken place.

Needless to say suddenly hearing several more voices of Pokemon he'd never met before was startling to say the least.

He had been laying on the grass outside the apartments with Zoroark. Hilda was still recovering (though quickly at least) and while she could be out and about it was tiring enough that she slept a lot in between. N had been about to doze off outside there as well when he heard them.

He sat up with a start, getting Zoroark's attention with his movement. Three-- no four. Three species that were common enough in Unova, but one entirely new one! Already he felt his heart racing in excitement, though little more than surprise showed on his face.

Where were they coming from? Had they just found their way from the Skyway?

No... that wasn't it. One of them, the one he didn't know anything about, was speaking in a calm, gentle voice about a person. The others treated him as a trainer but this one... she spoke of him more as a friend.

What kind of person was it?

The desire to meet these Pokemon overrode any sense of not wanting to meet another trainer after losing the ones he did know back in Vatheon, and he was on his feet in an instant, calling out for Zoroark to follow him as he ran off to try and find the source of those voices.]

[gianthobo]

[AZ was still near the Skyway exit, just looking around with Floette. She chittered softly, telling him in her on way about the way the grass looked, and didn't it need more flowers? Most places could use more flowers.]

[The sight of a boy and a Zoroark made them both fall silent though, both Pokemon and trainer curious about them. Zoroark weren't exactly a common sight in Kalos. Floette floated out towards them, curious. AZ reached out as if to stop her, but then let his hand fall. He could keep an eye on her, and she was smart anyway.]

[Hello, hello! Hello, friends!]

[unwrittenformula]

[The sheer height and size of the man put Zoroark on guard more than he normally would have been, but N was completely, utterly focused on Floette. He held a hand out to her, wanting no more than to see if she was real and to assure himself that this wasn't some crazy dream he was having while sleeping outside the apartments.

Luckily for both sides, though, Zoroark didn't make any hostile movements towards the group, merely hunching his shoulders up a bit and making sure it was known that he would defend N should anything happen.

Hearing Floette speak to him, N's expression went from surprised to an actual smile as he replied in kind.]

Friend... hello. It's nice to meet you.

[gianthobo]

[She floated over to his hand, hovering above it. AZ nodded slightly at the Zoroark, acknowledging his defensiveness. He felt the same way about Floette. The little fairy giggled a bit.]

[You don't have to be so tense, friend. I think things will be all right. I'm Floette! What's your name?]

[AZ relaxed slightly - he could tell that she didn't think he was a bad person. He trusted her judgement more than he trusted his own right now.]

Floette...

[unwrittenformula]

[Zoroark let out a slightly annoyed chuff at her.

I am not tense...

Except that he was and now he's trying to cover for that fact. He does relax a little, though, and moves closer to N's side.]

I'm N. This is Zoroark. It's very nice to meet you, Floette.

[gianthobo]

[Floette giggled again at Zoroark.]

[Silly... it's nice to meet you too! This is AZ.]

[Her tone grew soft as she spoke again.]

[Please be very gentle with him.]

[Az tilted his head slightly, curious as to what was going on. It seemed almost like...]

You can understand her?

[findsrisks]

[Nanaki is of average height for her age, but AZ easily towers over her. All she can do is stare up at him, wondering if he is even human or not.

Those Pokemon he has are cute, though. Especially the tiny fairy one.]

Uh.

Hi.

[gianthobo]

[He looks down at the girl, nodding slightly.]

... Hello.

[heptagram]

[Patchouli's out wandering around, again. She's really getting this feeling lately that she needs to be of more use to the community -- so she decided to familiarize herself with it first! That would help, right?

She thinks she would have seen the guy who's about nine feet tall, though. And his red turtle. And his big walking statue. And his fairy. And his... what the hell was that bird-thing? So, clearly they're newcomers. Although she's a bit slow and cautious, she makes her way toward him.]

Hello there.

[gianthobo]

[He hunches a bit more to get on a more polite speaking level.]

... Hello.

[His voice is rough and cautious - he's still very confused about this place.]

[heptagram]

[Well, that's kind of understandable. But really, he needn't worry. He could probably walk faster than most Bastion inhabitants could run.]

I... suppose you've just arrived, yes?

[She's mostly just focused on how they're really going to need to raise a few ceilings, aren't they.]

[gianthobo]

I have, yes. Are you... from here?

[Possibly, yes. It's okay though, he's used to sleeping outside.]

[heptagram]

I live here, but I did not always. My home world was destroyed and I ended up being sent here... much like what I presume happened to you.

[She turns her attention to his Pokemon. The turtle seemed normal, if oddly-colored, but... she's really focusing on that big giant golem thing. That is pretty odd-looking.]

What are these that are following you?