enjoymyatelier | 010 [ACTION FOR ILEX FOREST/AUDIO] [BACKDATED TO THE 11TH]

[It was about halfway through the day before both realizations hit Kayneth. He found himself sitting down in the clearing next to the Ilex Shrine with his Pokemon for a lunch break after spending most of the morning training and trying to check the area out, and after starting to eat he began internally lamenting that he wouldn't have settled for these cheap excuses for ingredient a year ago before realizing that it had been exactly a year ago that he'd arrived in Johto.

This was followed up by the realization that he was also officially another year older, though that... probably actually happened a few months ago. He hadn't really bothered to work out the math, because he thought he wouldn't care that much.

...he actually kind of did, though, and he couldn't really figure out why. He'd always somewhat dreaded birthdays since it had always involved dealing with irritating distant relatives and ensuring that he didn't end up on the wrong end of family and Association politics-it was never dangerous for him and he was practically untouchable, but it was annoying all the same. Here, though... he didn't have to worry about any of it.

...now that he didn't, though, it just felt kind of empty and meaningless. Particularly given that... really, what had he accomplished since he'd gotten to Johto? Getting a starter that was positively useless, only getting the easy first badge in a year, losing to a teenage girl in the first round of a tournament, effectively having his engagement broken off by the woman he loves twice, meeting some acquaintances that he could possibly have called friends and having most of them disappear from this world within several weeks of this date...

...well, very little of that could be considered his fault, even though it was pretty distressing. He'd just run into a patch of bad luck, and it had continued for his entire stay here for whatever reason. That thought didn't make things any better for him, though.

After some time spent staring into nowhere as he ate his sandwich, he considered going for his PokeGear, but... no!! Venting to the network would be totally undignified!!

...but it wasn't like he could talk to his Pokemon about this. He had kind of weird opinions about them to begin with, and they were natives so it wasn't like they'd have any idea what he was going through...

...bluuuuh]

I suppose I'm feeling a bit philosophical on my one-year anniversary of arriving in this world, so I may as well attempt to ask one of those popular open questions to the network that are intended to be thought-provoking or... something.

[Kayneth sounds a bit tired and his tone has a hint of "I can't even believe I'm doing this I should be asking about something I care about," and... well, yes, that is precisely how he feels, but at the same time he needs to talk about something...]

What was your impression of this place shortly after arrival, and how has that changed-

[He stops suddenly after saying that, then lets out a curt, frustrated sigh.]

No, that's an awful question, and I wouldn't blame anyone for not being able to come up with a coherent answer to it. Honestly, I can't for the life of me form a consistent opinion of this place-some days I'm enjoying myself-or at least I may have managed to trick myself into thinking I'm enjoying myself-and other days I have nothing but hatred for this place. It's certainly an interesting puzzle to try and piece together how this world works and what's behind our presence here, yet there are so many things about it that are an absolute nightmare to deal with. Our inability to go home, random disappearances, the lack of infrastructure, the constant music...

[...as he trails off he realizes that yeah he just kind of ended up venting to the network anyway didn't he

how

inelegant he should be more controlled than this what has this place even done to him

ugh, he just

he just]

...anyway, is there anywhere in Azalea that has good alcohol? Or cake, I suppose. If I have to settle for just cake, I will. I rather like the place otherwise, but one bar in town is positively atrocious and I wouldn't be seen dead in there.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yeah man, I don't joke around about this stuff. It's seriously bad.

It...rings a bell? Is it the fairy one I've heard natives talking about?

How does it even get sold, if it's that bad? You'd think it would go out of business in favor of something better...

Yes, that one. Everything I've read suggests that it has the ability to travel through time, which... well, I doubt it has anything to do with our presence here, but it could be a lead of some kind.

That's the thing, I think the locals actually like it. So if we don't buy it, it's no skin off their backs 'cause they're still making money.

Whoa, really? [Larry makes a very audible "hmmmmm" sound.] That's kinda interesting when you think about how a lot of us are from different times and stuff. Like when my friends were here, they didn't remember a lot of stuff we had been through back home, like it hadn't even happened yet for them.

Well, I suppose you can trick yourself into getting used to anything.

Precisely what I'm thinking, though I have no idea if Celebi would be able to affect others or if it can only move itself through time. There is a legendary Pokemon that's said to have dominion over time, but it's specific to the mythology of another region. I have no idea if it could actually be considered a universal god of time or a regional legend that's near-godlike.

Do you know for sure if it can only move itself through time? You never know with Legendaries! And a time-controlling one makes even more sense.

But the whole problem with that is...how would they be able to do that if they're in this world? I mean, they can't make people travel back in time if they're not back home, right?

It's simply the assumption I've been going with, since if there's a Pokemon that can actually control time I would assume that the Pokemon that can only travel through it would be a "lesser" Legendary.

I would think that, but there are also legends about a Pokemon that has power over space-and, more intriguingly, a legend about a Pokemon that was banished to another dimension.

... Whoa. Pokemon are getting way more complicated by the second, huh? The first Legendary Pokemon I knew about was Mewtwo, but he's just a really powerful psychic. Now we're looking at time and dimension traveling and controlling!

Do you think they brought us here, though? I mean, why would they need us here?

[THIS IS GETTING TOO DEEP, MAN.]

Which region is Mewtwo associated with? If it's Kanto, that might explain some things-they don't seem to be particularly important in the grand scheme of things, as far as I've read. Aside from Mew, perhaps.

They're practically gods, they can do what they want, I suppose. I don't really know what their purpose would be, but it's probably something we wouldn't understand anyway.

It's Kanto, yeah. S'far as I know they don't really do much and kinda hang out away from us humans.

Still...if we were brought here for a reason, they could at least drop us some hints! We've been going on zero info and rumors since we got here.

That's it, yes. They honestly seem more like strange cryptids than anything else.

It would certainly be far less annoying if they did, but I really doubt they would make things easy for us.

I get that, but...some of us have been here almost three years now. I just wonder what else we haven't done yet that could lead to some kind of clue, aside from meeting the Elite Four.

Well, it's absurdly difficult to find any kind of useful information here. There are presumably inhabited regions that I can only find the names of-no other information. I don't really know whether to attribute that sort of thing to malice or stupidity, honestly...

I've only heard the names of some other regions too, but it was from an anonymous post so I didn't know whether to believe it or not. One of them was called Unova or something?

You'd think all the regions would be totally aware of each other, like every other world out there. It's not like countries just forget others exist, right?

I found evidence for their existence in other sources before that post even went up. The ones that had somewhat detailed information to them included Unova, which appears to be rather far away from Kanto and Johto.

Well, it... doesn't seem like there's not communication, oddly enough. There's just barely any information.

Whoa, so it's actually a thing? Huh, I wonder what it's like...

That's so weird though. Have you actually heard the natives talking about them? 'cause I haven't.

The other ones I could find fairly detailed information on were Hoenn and Sinnoh, but I could only learn the names of regions like Fiore, Oblivia, Almia, and Orre-rather bizarre, that.

Well, isn't Vermillion City's gym leader supposedly foreign? I have no idea where he's truly from, though.

010 [ACTION FOR ILEX FOREST/AUDIO] [BACKDATED TO THE 11TH]

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