MARCH UPDATE

POSTED ON Oct 23, 2023 5:12:57 GMT

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[attr="class","omgentop"]THE WILDS: ULTRA DEEP SEA

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ONGOING EVENT

EXPLORATION

GRANITE CAVE[break]↓ ULTRA DEEP SEA

[player]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1035423510278979624/1055326462955225158/lusapogger.mp3[/player][break]
Lusamine's Encounter Theme - Pokemon Sun & Moon
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CONTRARY TO ITS NAME, THE MAJORITY OF THE ULTRA DEEP SEA IS A VAST CAVE-LIKE WORLD. Shafts of light from an unknown source barely penetrate the dark, causing colorful diamond-like rocks to glisten against humid walls. The dim lighting makes the place seem like you're thousands of leagues under the sea... Eerily, an unceasing pulse can be heard like a heart beat that rumbles throughout the realm.[break][break]

Oddly enough, one is able to "swim" through this realm like Water-type Pokemon floating in air.[break][break]

One may stumble upon deep, cold pools of dark water and alien seaweed as they scout out the realm. Segments of this place open up into an astral sea, where islands of mysterious stone are suspended mid-air.

PROMPTS

LIST OF PROMPTS

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25 experience The Quaestor Lucis suddenly powering up or finding rooms completely refurbished with phantom megalopolans before it all reverts back to normal.
33 explore what appears to be a "stomach" filled with half-digested remains or materials, including large ultra beasts.
35 encounter megalopolans, pokemon, and/or poor humans who have ventured too far into this realm who have subsequently evolved into grotesque marine monsters. they do not appear to have a conscience or recollection of their past selves and are aggressive.
36 encounter an operational pod-like submarine to ride through liquid or air. it is a claustrophobic vessel with a limited view of its surroundings. instead, it can be prompted to take pictures of its surroundings to reveal what is around it.
37 encounter a wailord-sized mutated octillery that ensnares or nabs its victims with its tentacles.
38 explore a deeper, water-filled cave system or trench that requires diving suits, a vessel, or the creative use of a pokemon. in the trench. certain sections are more acidic and unhealthy than others, while others are purely channels of blood.
🗺️ utilize an ultra beast in a pivotal way.
🗺️ THE SHIP KEY will unlock the lowest levels (e.g. boiler room, lowest level rooms, storage, your choice, etc.) that has been overcome with sprawling, pulsating flesh and ichor. clutches of eggs can be found here too. during your exploration, the lower floor will suddenly flood (the cause is up to you) with putrid, black waters that will threaten to drown you.

EXPEDITION TREASURES

AT THE END OF EACH EXPEDITION THREAD, all characters must ROLL for their final post. The HIGHEST FOUR ROLLS will be counted for what TREASURES are retrieved from the location. These treasures will be returned to each faction for future use...

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[attr="class","boxName"]YOUR HAUL

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RULES

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING GUIDELINES. A more comprehensive list of rules will be published in each event thread. These rules are also subject to change.[break][break][break]

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Your character can only be in ONE EXPEDITION THREAD at a time.
You may participate with all of your characters; however, be aware of your ability to post.
If a thread partner has not posted in awhile, please skip them in this event. Momentum is important for engagement.
Since these threads may feature combat, please be reasonable with your battling. Discuss with your group if you'd like one move per post, how many Pokemon are allowed to be brought, etc.
Try to keep posts short for clarity and speed.
Please be trusting and open to communicating with all of your thread partners.
Please INCLUDE WHICH PROMPTS you are using in your expedition thread.
Please have at least FIVE POSTS PER CHARACTER in your expedition thread.

IN YOUR FINAL POSTS, PLEASE ROLL.

Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki howard slayte

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played by

Nagato

Baki

She/Her

December 21

Saffron City

administrative assistant

Officer

156 cm // 5'1" height

oceans of angels, oceans of stars, down by the sea is where you drown your scars

awards

995 posts

DOLLARS

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TAG WITH @2baki

An observer of eons cannot feel the warmth of another.

POSTED ON Oct 23, 2023 6:45:33 GMT

freya morningstar likes this

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[attr="class","star2tsu2"]Persistent sound of a heartbeat, whispers of her name.[break][break]

She shouldn't be here.[break][break]

That's what Michael Navidson and freya morningstar had told her only a short while ago. [break][break]

And yet, she's here in the depths again already, trying to keep her head on straight. [break][break]

The guilt eats away at her. It's a first. [break][break]

She shouldn't betray the trust of people she can rely on, though having such things is a first for her. She lived the majority of the last five years as a stray, the previous twelve as some sort of trophy or a doll, not a normal relationship to her name save her pokemon. She's still figuring things out.[break][break]

Megalopolans and Ultra Beasts in Route 119 have sorta forced her hand.[break][break]

If they're invading and kidnapping people, then the whole precept of their warnings falls flat. She can't ignore the sea and focus on saving their world, when these alternate dimensions and the world she's from are intertwined.[break][break]

Saving their world necessarily involves knowing and understanding this one, and maybe eventually all the others the Megalopolans have attempted to make home.[break][break]

No matter how dangerous it is, that's why she's gotta keep going. Navy and Freya can scold her later, if they ever find out. But there are answers hidden at the bottom of the sea, for those who dare to gaze into the abyss...[break][break]

"Looks... fleshier than the other one, don't it?"[break][break]

Tsubaki whispers to howard slayte , running her hand along mechanical walls integrated with organic material. Unlike the Quaestor Lucis II in Hoenn, this ship's been here long enough that the sea itself has overrun it, begun to make the ship's walls its own. Where tech ends and organic material begins is impossible to say. It hurts the eyes to look at.[break][break]

"Should be further along..."[break][break]

Tsubaki floats down the hallway. Inside the ship there isn't a proper reference point. It's hard to say which way is up and which way is down. It's disorienting, to say the least. But so long as she follows her trusty Nihilego, lighting the way with her angelic glowing body, it'll be alright.[break][break]

"Navy and I were here about six months ago, as part of a scouting trip. When I saw the other one, I recognized it instantly. Even if this one's worse for wear. The original inhabitants are gone, we think. All that live here now are skeletons and ghosts, and of course, the angels."[break][break]

She fixates on the glow of her Nihilego, her crystalline body not altogether unlike the crystal structures of the sea outside, glimmering ethereal light with no apparent source. She stops, sensing Tsubaki's eyes on her, and sways just the same way as her Master for a moment as she watches with eyes that cannot see. [break][break]

"If I remember right, the hatchery's straight ahead. We wanna avoid that at all costs. C'mon, Manju."[break][break]

Only once Tsubaki turns off on another path does Manju follow, making any acknowledgement that she understands at all. Though Howard can't see any features on her body, she bristles as she floats by him and the man gets the sense like he's being stared at.[break][break]

+ howard slayte

[attr="class","star3tsu2"]

[attr="class","petalpoketsu2"] manjushage (nihilego) ○ - beast boost - meteor beam / power gem / sludge wave / thunderbolt / stealth rock / toxic

[attr="class","rouxcredittsu2"]♠

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played by

Magnetic

Admin Fox

He/Him

May 9th

Rustboro City

Bisexual

Archaeologist

Rocket Admin

5'9 height

The future will tempt you, the present will indulge you, but the past will shackle you.

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TAG WITH @magnetic

POSTED ON Oct 23, 2023 9:04:59 GMT

The Ultra Deep Sea is a void that exists under Dewford Town. An inverse world that gnaws on the boundaries that chain the island to reality. Just as the depths of the ocean hide monsters that have never seen the light of the day. Without the caress of the sun, creatures turn dark and strange. As Howard stands in the alien world, hand pressed tightly to his hat, Howard realized something.

This is the belly of the beast.

A world completely antithetical to all life.

A completely different world from the Ultra Plant. A biological monster. As Howard treks through it with Tsubaki, he can feel it breathing, quivering, shuddering. This ship is alive. This world is alive. His instincts are screaming at him to leave. Yet he doesn't. If he runs, it's likely that he'll never escape.

"Yes, it's alive. This isn't like that spaceship, and it's certainly not like the ship that Navy and I destroyed." Howard's eye narrowed as he followed Tsubaki and her jellyfish. "Angels? No, that's not right, Tsubaki. You're supposed to go up to reach angels."

But implying that this place was even tangentially close to heaven was something Howard was loathe to do. Nonetheless, he couldn't deny Tsubaki's claims. He was a scholar, after all. "You're familiar with this place, then?"

As Tsubaki's Nihilego leads the way with its crystal glow, Howard's skin began to crawl again. He remembered the swamp. The ship with Navy. The chains. The individual bricks of his Stakataka followed him, checking for enemies and searching for possible escape routes. Hundreds of eyes, all cooperating together to ensure that Howard and Tsubaki got out of here alive.

Howard wanted to bring Shirley, but he'd never bring her to a place like this. He'd bring an alien, instead.

"Is this it?" Howard asked as they approached a door, old and dented. A keyhole gleams in the darkness, before reflecting off Manju's glow.

Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki

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played by

Nagato

Baki

She/Her

December 21

Saffron City

administrative assistant

Officer

156 cm // 5'1" height

oceans of angels, oceans of stars, down by the sea is where you drown your scars

awards

995 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @2baki

An observer of eons cannot feel the warmth of another.

POSTED ON Oct 24, 2023 3:40:40 GMT

[nospaces]

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[attr="class","star2tsu2"]Tsubaki doesn't respond for a moment, as if searching for the words. It almost seems like she's content for the incessant beating of a celestial organ nearby to answer for her, before she finally accepts that he can't not know.[break][break]

"... Familiar is putting it lightly."[break][break]

The girl stares down a hallway for a moment to ensure that there isn't any signs of movement.[break][break]

The depths prey upon imagination. Feelings of being watched. Movements in the dark just beyond your vision. Disembodied whispers calling your name. It's your mind playing tricks on you. [break][break]

Most of the time.[break][break]

"I don't dream anymore. But when I do, it's always the Sea." [break][break]

Whether it's heaven or hell, a foreboding premonition or a revelation, she can't be sure. [break][break]

"I find myself here. Dreams turn out to be real, and what's real turns out to be a dream. I haven't dreamt of this place since leaving Dewford, but that doesn't mean I've been able to just leave it behind, either."[break][break]

She settles on that explanation. [break][break]

There isn't much more to say. Anything else will make her seem even more insane. [break][break]

As Manju lights the end of the corridor, she fishes a key from a string tied around her neck. [break][break]

"When I left, it was because I felt like I was drowning. I didn't know what was real anymore. And when I thought I might have finally escaped it... [break][break]

"... suddenly, Megalopolans, a sister ship, even angels, all kidnapping people and worse."[break][break]

She turns the key and feels a sharp click.[break][break]

"Guess I can't leave well enough alone."[break][break]

The door stutters for a moment, and opens with a soft hiss. They are bathed in a single flickering florescent light, though the power system of the ship remains long-dead.[break][break]

+ howard slayte

[attr="class","star3tsu2"]

[attr="class","petalpoketsu2"] manjushage (nihilego) ○ - beast boost - meteor beam / power gem / sludge wave / thunderbolt / stealth rock / toxic

[attr="class","rouxcredittsu2"]♠

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played by

Magnetic

Admin Fox

He/Him

May 9th

Rustboro City

Bisexual

Archaeologist

Rocket Admin

5'9 height

The future will tempt you, the present will indulge you, but the past will shackle you.

awards

1,869 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @magnetic

POSTED ON Oct 24, 2023 7:35:40 GMT

"Dreams are nothing more than the wakefulness of the living."

Logic would dictate that the locked section of the ship would be far more pristine, but that was anything but the case. Flesh pulsed in violet hues that made Tsubaki's Nihilego's golden light redundant. The hues of light meshed together in an ugly meld of reds, purples, and yellows that made Howard's eye throb. Even his empty socket stirred slightly.

This place was hell.

"I've given up on understanding them. Dreams, I mean. Dreams are mist until you make them real. I've made choices to keep following archaeology. A couple that your old man would consider distasteful, but that's what I needed to do to keep chasing my passion, my dream on the horizon. Dreamers don't need things like 'reality', or 'truth'. We reject those on a fundamental level."

Howard's face distorted in the light as they passed several egg clutches. He turned towards it, and his Armaldo appeared in a flash of light. Using its claws, it punctured the sacs, and a generation of angels had their wings clipped.

"We hardly even need humanity."

Tsubaki may have called them angels, but Howard knew from his experience with Michael Navidson that crushing them now was the ideal solution. If they had to come back this way and deal with a herd of Nihilego, it would end poorly. The lights flickered, despite the clear fact that the ship's power system collapsed a long time ago. Oddly enough, they seemed to flicker with Howard's breathing, as if mirroring some larger beast. Howard straightened his hat.

Forget the dark thoughts.

"Or something!" Howard clapped his hands and smiled sheepishly. "I'm not all that smart. What do you know about this ship?"

Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki

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played by

Nagato

Baki

She/Her

December 21

Saffron City

administrative assistant

Officer

156 cm // 5'1" height

oceans of angels, oceans of stars, down by the sea is where you drown your scars

awards

995 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @2baki

An observer of eons cannot feel the warmth of another.

POSTED ON Oct 25, 2023 5:33:49 GMT

[nospaces]

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[attr="class","star2tsu2"]Tsubaki looks down at the egg clutch, watching pathetic remains of preformed nihilego twitch hideously.[break][break]

Yes. they might never die, those who are never given chance to live. And yet the danse macabre that flashes through her mind every time she looks on the angels, messengers of Eternatus, longing to take her with them to eternity at the bottom of the abyss... that they might not ever see the beauty of such a dream pains her.[break][break]

"And yet, humanity needs us, doesn't it?"[break][break]

It is only in their nature to dream, and so it is left to the dreamers to guide them.[break][break]

Tsubaki enters the lift, touching her fingers to flesh-painted walls. The flesh itself recoils as she runs her fingers delicately along its surface, before it softly reshapes around her hand. Moments later, a small ding rings out. An arrow points down, and the words Sublevel appear on the cracked display.[break][break]

"The people who made this ship were obsessed with the ichor of the angels. Anyone exposed to it should be able to interface with it, at least to some degree. But that comes with its own set of problems."[break][break]

Tsubaki speaks to Howard, though the crystalline body of her Nihilego distorts his image ever so slightly. She is like looking through a lightly-frosted pane of glass. Manju shivers, and the feeling of being stared straight through fills Howard with a sense of dread.[break][break]

"Dunno how long this ship's been here. Might've been decades, centuries. It might've crashed here the day before the battle of Granite Cave. But what I do know is... it's basically a living creature at this point, whatever's left."[break][break]

And they're descending further into its bowels.[break][break]

A ding.[break][break]

The doors hiss open, and the black expanse seems deeper beyond the light of the lift.[break][break]

+ howard slayte

[attr="class","star3tsu2"]

[attr="class","petalpoketsu2"] manjushage (nihilego) ○ - beast boost - meteor beam / power gem / sludge wave / thunderbolt / stealth rock / toxic

[attr="class","rouxcredittsu2"]♠

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played by

Magnetic

Admin Fox

He/Him

May 9th

Rustboro City

Bisexual

Archaeologist

Rocket Admin

5'9 height

The future will tempt you, the present will indulge you, but the past will shackle you.

awards

1,869 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @magnetic

POSTED ON Oct 25, 2023 9:22:25 GMT

As Tsubaki interfaces with the ship, Howard's face crosses in a mix of fear and disgust. He's not the first to make that expression, and he will not be the last. Ultra Deep Sea requires a special kind of madness to embrace and constantly visit. Tsubaki's ability to interface with this organism leads to several questions, which Howard would rather not hunt the answer to.

"I suspect this entire world is a living organism. The biggest question is whether or not you and this organism are the same." Howard says as the elevator begins to slide down, as if taking its passengers down the throat of a giant dragon. "There are some creatures that return to the place of their birth. I wonder if you're the same?"

An ominous question. Imagining the small and petite Tsubaki as even remotely related to this place takes quite the imagination, unless you know her. Howard could only imagine the struggles Michael Navidson had with keeping her away from this place. What would he say about her bringing him here?

Or, perhaps, he had brought her here.

"As long as it's not hostile..." Ding! The elevator's doors shuddered open, and Howard stepped out. Darkness, mixed with a violet miasma and hue. Completely dark. Just as he prepared to reach for a flashlight, the entire series of rooms began to brighten with the ship's lights. Ominous.

"It's lighting the way for us." Howard said, before glancing down at his companion. "No, it's lighting the way for you. Beckoning you home. Will you answer its call?"

Something shifted in a deeper room, and Howard instinctively stepped back. Perhaps the ship was lighting the way for whatever was ahead.

Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki
PROMPT: 25, ship suddenly POWERING UP

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played by

Nagato

Baki

She/Her

December 21

Saffron City

administrative assistant

Officer

156 cm // 5'1" height

oceans of angels, oceans of stars, down by the sea is where you drown your scars

awards

995 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @2baki

An observer of eons cannot feel the warmth of another.

POSTED ON Oct 31, 2023 7:21:39 GMT

[nospaces]

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[attr="class","star2tsu2"]The bowels of the ship are just that. Scarcely a trace of their mechanical origin remains, reflecting the inside of an organic structure. Luckily, it is not filled with anything more than dozens of clutches of the same eggs Howard had smashed before they entered the elevator. Otherwise, had it acted like the stomach is resembled, they would really be in trouble.[break][break]

Tsubaki takes a step forward and the lights turn on one by one, as if welcoming her. [break][break]

"'Home', huh...?" He's really getting into this. "The longer we're here, the more we belong to the sea. The more we become like this ship. It's strange, but... feels like I've been here before. Know it doesn't make sense. Know I've never been down this far. But all the same, I feel like I should know this place."[break][break]

Tsubaki places her hand on the wall, feels the cold flesh beneath her palm. The pulse of her own heartbeat echoes back, in sync with the ship itself. It's just the lingering neurotoxins, she tells herself. That, and nothing else.[break][break]

She glances to the Nihilego at her side. The Ultra Beast floats quietly, tendrils blowing in a non-existent breeze. There is something ethereal and celebratory about her floating there, as if she has found where she belongs, finally. [break][break]

She was, after all, born in the bowels of this very ship.[break][break]

"Manju seems like she's waiting for something... listening for 'the call' too."[break][break]

Whispers that linger in the back of your mind, almost imperceptible until you catch hold of them. Then, they're impossible to ignore. Visions that cling just out of view, teasing the edge of your vision like a phantom. Search as you might, it's only til you gaze into the abyss that it gazes also into you.[break][break]

"Surely you've heard it? Some nights you can hear it even back on Dewford, when a storm rolls in and mist hangs low over the sound. Navy'd say otherwise, but everything there is His already. Who's Michael Navidson to contest the will of a God, right? But I'm not special, just more sensitive to dreams than most."[break][break]

She lowers her hand from the wall, and the flesh tugs slightly at her skin as if it had sought to become one with her. In that moment, she realizes where the crew disappeared to, where the flesh that completely lines the walls and floor and ceiling of this level all came from.[break][break]

"This way... and watch your step, it's sticky here."[break][break]

She pushes off the floor and floats toward the end of the hall, beckoning Howard to follow her. It's intuition, but for some reason she knows what they're looking for - though she doesn't know what - lies in this direction.[break][break]

+ howard slayte

[attr="class","star3tsu2"]

[attr="class","petalpoketsu2"] manjushage (nihilego) ○ - beast boost - meteor beam / power gem / sludge wave / thunderbolt / stealth rock / toxic

[attr="class","rouxcredittsu2"]♠

close tab

played by

Magnetic

Admin Fox

He/Him

May 9th

Rustboro City

Bisexual

Archaeologist

Rocket Admin

5'9 height

The future will tempt you, the present will indulge you, but the past will shackle you.

awards

1,869 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @magnetic

POSTED ON Nov 2, 2023 9:42:39 GMT

"I see." Howard said quietly, the light of the ship flashing and pulsing across his face causing shadows to dance across his face. He looked down at Tsubaki with a morose expression. "You're broken, Tsubaki."

Ultra Deep Sea was a world that had no right to exist in its current form. It was an abomination that didn't deserve to exist, but it was for that reason that Howard couldn't deride its existence. There was something to learn from this place, even if people like Navy couldn't accept that. If Tsubaki was pulled to this place in order to hunt for understanding, who was Howard to stop her?

Even if Navy wouldn't accept that. Even if Howard acknowledged that stance. Team Rocket supported reaching for something beyond what was reasonable. With that in mind, Howard respected Tsubaki.

"That's not a negative thing, though. You'll do whatever you need to do in order to reach your goals. Those goals or dangerous, they're deluded, they're not good for you..." Howard's eye flickered. "But I won't laugh at you."

Then the ship lurched, and Howard stumbled, grabbing Tsubaki as several lights began to beep red. Howard's eye widened as he turned towards a vent. A black ooze was gushing from it. "Run." Howard whispered started sprinting.

"RUN!" Howard shouted as he several pipes began to burst as the floor began to flood with black liquid. "COME ON!"

Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki
PROMPT: SHIP KEY AND FLOOD

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played by

Nagato

Baki

She/Her

December 21

Saffron City

administrative assistant

Officer

156 cm // 5'1" height

oceans of angels, oceans of stars, down by the sea is where you drown your scars

awards

995 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @2baki

An observer of eons cannot feel the warmth of another.

POSTED ON Nov 3, 2023 1:06:39 GMT

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[attr="class","petalbasetsu2"]

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[attr="class","star2tsu2"]Tsubaki stares back at the scientist in silence for a moment. A mix of emotions shows on her face. Dismay, disappointment, and solemn acknowledgement of what he's saying. There isn't arguing any of it. [break][break]

He's right. [break][break]

"I know I am. Been broken for a long time, in fact."[break][break]

She stares at him long and hard, for the first time not hiding herself behind a facade of gutsy bravado and violent rebellion since she met him. It's easy to keep people at a distance if they don't know you, but when they do, when they truly begin to understand you... [break][break]

... she loathes this feeling, being understood by someone.[break][break]

"Rocket made sure of that. Been looking for a way to fix it ever since, but it's not so easy. You can't undo the past."[break][break]

There isn't time for that sentiment to breathe. The sound of flesh splitting open cuts the moment short, a slurry of black ichor pouring forth. Once, and then again and again, til the opposite end of the hallway is covered in black sludge, a wall of black mud rushing up to meet them.[break][break]

Manju tenses. Her soft flesh contorts for a moment, turning hard as stone and glossy as glass. She grasps Howard and Tsubaki's wrists, yanking them along the hallway violently. As they're dragged along she lets out an series of unearthly chittering cries that sound like a chorus of birds, panicking as the rest of her tentacles clamber along the ground like spider legs. [break][break]

Where her tentacles touch naked flesh she leaves burns, punishment for mortals who dare to touch the divine. The poison will take its toll eventually.[break][break]

But as the bulkhead doors slam shut, as the cascading wall of black ichor crashes against the hull to no avail, it's a small price to pay. They are saved from sudden death or a fate far worse. If the Nihilego leaves burns, there's no telling what awaits those who are touched by the venom of the real thing.[break][break]

+ howard slayte [break]
+ UTILIZE AN ULTRA BEAST IN A PIVOTAL WAY

[attr="class","star3tsu2"]

[attr="class","petalpoketsu2"] manjushage (nihilego) ○ - beast boost - meteor beam / power gem / sludge wave / thunderbolt / stealth rock / toxic

[attr="class","rouxcredittsu2"]♠

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played by

Magnetic

Admin Fox

He/Him

May 9th

Rustboro City

Bisexual

Archaeologist

Rocket Admin

5'9 height

The future will tempt you, the present will indulge you, but the past will shackle you.

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TAG WITH @magnetic

POSTED ON Nov 3, 2023 8:12:52 GMT

SLAM! The bulkhead door slams shut as the black ooze threatens to overtake them. Howard immediately lurches free of the Nihilego's crasp and hisses in pain. Blast, it burns. This toxicity is something he can't deal with. He's not used to it, and his mind flashes back to the corpses he saw with Navy.

He didn't want to end up like them. He would not end up like them. He had something for this in his pocket. He scrambled for it—

then stopped. He'd need to know what this was like if he ever came back to this horrible place. Howard would ensure this for academics. Standing up straight, Howard reached into his pocket and produced a bandana. He wrapped it around the burn. Hopefully it wouldn't fester. A stupid hope. Of course it would fester.

"You're like your old man." Howard finally said, grunting. "Humans look towards the past more than anything. We study the past to improve the present. The present is the only thing that matters. It's why I don't bother looking forward. That future isn't reserved for me."

Team Rocket. His organization. They were the only people who recognized his talent and his dream. A dream that he had placed over the mundanity of everyday life. They broke everything. It was all Howard could do to disassociate from that organization.

...even if he was still guilty.

"It doesn't matter. The past is coming alive nowadays. I can feel eras changing." Howard said as the lights to the room they were in flicked on. They were in a room with an open pit of water, and a strange machine sitting in the pit, floating.

A submarine.

Yet there was something else in the room as well. Something that moved.

Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki

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played by

Nagato

Baki

She/Her

December 21

Saffron City

administrative assistant

Officer

156 cm // 5'1" height

oceans of angels, oceans of stars, down by the sea is where you drown your scars

awards

995 posts

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TAG WITH @2baki

An observer of eons cannot feel the warmth of another.

POSTED ON Nov 5, 2023 10:26:41 GMT

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[attr="class","star2tsu2"]The burns on your wrists just keep adding up. Over and over, til it no longer hurts. Til pain itself doesn't mean anything. Are you used to it, or have you just lost that much of yourself you don't notice it anymore?[break][break]

Tsubaki sighs and leans on a panel of flashing lights, while Manju twirls in a pirouette about her, airborne. [break][break]

The angel has come to life, it seems, spurred on by the awakening of the ship itself. Her tentacles spin beneath her like a dress, a parasite in the shape of a human girl, singing in a voice that feels eerily like Tsubaki's own. A mirror of the girl she twirls about, save the dance. [break][break]

Tsubaki would never dance for anything.[break][break]

She ignores the Ultra Beast's strange behavior. She instead focuses on the archaeologist standing there giving a monologue. [break][break]

They'd just about died, hadn't they? Maybe this was his way of coping with his lack of control, a lack of agency over his own life. [break][break]

"A world without a future's meaningless." [break][break]

She says it finally, definitively, thinking back to Galar, a world consumed by that same pitch venom. [break][break]

The memories are so stark now, despite the fact they were just a dream. But no matter how real they felt, they're useless now.[break][break]

"Just like any dream you wake up from, eventually that world will disappear. Only the future remains. If you don't strive to reach for it, don't put your feet one after the other no matter how hard it is, striving for something, eventually you'll lose everything."[break][break]

She speaks as if she knows from personal experience.[break][break]

"The past can't be changed, but it also eventually disappears. Let yourself be consumed by it, and you'll disappear along with it. That's what Eternatus wants for us. A world with no future, a world where we no longer dream."[break][break]

There's an intense look in her eye as she implores that Howard see what she can see, though she knows that's impossible. [break][break]

Two decades spent in a dreamscape, a world slowly burning away by the venom of a God, everyone hopeless to stop the end. [break][break]

That dream still haunts her.[break][break]

So unlike every nightmare spurred on by the interdream mist, it was because she was thoroughly unworthy of it. [break][break]

All these delusions that make her suffer are just that, dodrio coming home to roost. She deserves every trial Eternatus put her through, every agonizing second. [break][break]

But in that world where the past no longer mattered, where Team Rocket no longer existed and neither did the results of all her sins, she was given a chance to be somebody again. [break][break]

A new start. A happy life, with a family she adored. That it lasted twenty years was longer than she deserved.[break][break]

But all of that's gone now.[break][break]

She knows she's insane. She knows damn well.[break][break]

But that doesn't make it any less real to her, does it?[break][break]

"Howard, I--"[break][break]

She doesn't finish that thought. A blackened corpse springs up behind her to bite her neck, twisted flesh and bones contorted into a mass of tendrils and eyes with milky pupils. Humanoid once but no longer, it is a pale imitation, a cruel joke.[break][break]

+ howard slayte [break]
+ 35 encounter megalopolans, pokemon, and/or poor humans who have ventured too far into this realm who have subsequently evolved into grotesque marine monsters. they do not appear to have a conscience or recollection of their past selves and are aggressive.

[attr="class","star3tsu2"]

[attr="class","petalpoketsu2"] manjushage (nihilego) ○ - beast boost - meteor beam / power gem / sludge wave / thunderbolt / stealth rock / toxic

[attr="class","rouxcredittsu2"]♠

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played by

Magnetic

Admin Fox

He/Him

May 9th

Rustboro City

Bisexual

Archaeologist

Rocket Admin

5'9 height

The future will tempt you, the present will indulge you, but the past will shackle you.

awards

1,869 posts

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part of

TAG WITH @magnetic

POSTED ON Nov 6, 2023 3:58:41 GMT

"No. I can't accept that. I won't let the past just fade away." Howard said firmly. That was an unacceptable result. Why were so many people, particularly in Team Rocket, willing to just let go of epochs of experience and knowledge? Half of what Hoenn did now was pick up the pieces in a desperate attempt to catch up before everything collapsed.

Everything dies twice. The first is the natural death, the second is when someone is forgotten. Even objects fell under this. When a vase was smashed, its life ended. What happened when people stopped viewing the broken vase as a vase, and instead as the pieces?

What if Howard was forgotten?

"That's true, but when you're faced with the end, there's a reason life flashes before your eyes. Eye in my case." Howard tapped his missing eye. "We simply cannot let go of our experiences. It's why archaeology exists. To reclaim them."

Suddenly, he stopped. He cocked his head in thought.

"We want to win, you and I. We want to win so badly that we as a species have overcome more than any other in the multiverse. For that reason, we'll win." He leans down and clasps Tsubaki's shoulders, eye frenzied. "You're broken. Eternatus has cracked you apart like an ancient pot. Overcome it. Fill those cracks with something more. People like us? We're deranged, but you can't let it beat you. It's beaten me down, but you can't let it do the same."

Howard knew because it had been done before. Their ancestors, and their ancestors' ancestors. They had fought their demons and monsters. Archaeology wasn't simply about preservation, but about picking up a sword and shield and using the experience from centuries prior to keep fighting on.

That sword and shield? Howard couldn't pick it up. He wasn't strong enough to, but Tsubaki could. She was still growing up. There was a chance for her. Team Rocket broke them both, but tomorrow would come, and Howard would mark today.

Celpho tensed, claws jutting out. Howard frowned."What the—"

Monsters attacked.

While Tsubaki was attacked by an inhuman monster, Howard immediately let out a scream and backed up several feet, only to fall into the grasp of a mutated Finneon/Megalopolan hybrid. Celpho sprang into action, letting out a roar that echoed through the entire ship. The Armaldo ran towards Howard—placing his safety over the stranger's— and letting out a X-Scissor that decapitated Howard's captor.

Celpho began to click at him. Howard pointed past his Pokemon and towards Tsubaki. The girl..." Howard hacked. "Get the girl...!" He spat, staggering to his feet.

More monsters were crawling out of the water. Howard's legs began to shake.

Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki

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played by

Nagato

Baki

She/Her

December 21

Saffron City

administrative assistant

Officer

156 cm // 5'1" height

oceans of angels, oceans of stars, down by the sea is where you drown your scars

awards

995 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @2baki

An observer of eons cannot feel the warmth of another.

POSTED ON Nov 6, 2023 5:21:50 GMT

[nospaces]

[attr="class","petalbasetsu2"]

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[attr="class","star2tsu2"]Eyes grow wide, and she ducks just in time. howard slayte 's Armaldo soars over her head and decapitates the walking corpse, all those sappy sentiments coming to an end so abruptly. [break][break]

There'll be time for all those later. Til then, raw instinct and the thrill of battle take over. [break][break]

Tsubaki shakes out all that introspective shit she's been dwelling on. No time to think about the future when you're fighting for your life, in the here-and-now. She knows that feeling well enough. It's the story of five long years spent as a Rocket, before she finally got herself out of that hell.[break][break]

"Fuck!"[break][break]

She swears, ever-so-slightly disappointed that Eris Halla isn't around to pick up her bad habits.[break][break]

Her hand reaches for her belt as she wheels around to look at the rest of the cabin. Bodies lumber towards them, nearly looking like they're made of the same black sludge on the other side of the bulhead. That, or they spent a hell of a long time bathing in it.[break][break]

Guess that's the fate that awaited them without Manju's quick thinking.[break][break]

"'Get' me!? I can handle myself just fine!!"[break][break]

She's pissed. [break][break]

Mostly at the fact she would've lost her head if not for the archaeologist. Another debt accrued, something she's gotta pay back. She hates owing anyone anything.[break][break]

Tsubaki takes a ball in hand, while her Nihilego begins to dance faster, twirling in celebration as she glows with space-power. A field of distant stars refracts through her crystalline body, pouring angelic light into the room.[break][break]

"Midori!"[break][break]

A small, floating saucer emerges from the ball, wielding a whisk like a sword. It's an almost comical sight, for the gravity of the situation.[break][break]

"Do like this egghead said, fill in the gaps! Matcha Gotcha!"[break][break]

The green goop inside surveys the scene for a second, whisking herself into a frenzy before she dumps near-boiling matcha all over the nearest Megalopolan. Her body cuts through the blackened monster's flesh like jelly, filling the wounds with the same green color with every stroke of her whisk "sword", a crude mimicry of kintsugi.[break][break]

Like a samurai of old, the tiny ghost places the whisk back in the saucer like sheathing a blade. It's only then that the monster begins to shriek, reacting to her burning attack as black blood begins to spill out of the cracks in its body. [break][break]

The ghost doesn't seem to care all that much about the pain, maintaining that confident smile as always.[break][break]

"Hey, you're the genius, right? Just what the hell are these things!? They look almost like..."[break][break]

Tsubaki hesitates at the thought, but surely he's thinking the same thing. They've both seen the original form of these black and blue monsters before, haven't they? ... in the swamp, under Route 119...[break][break]

+ howard slayte [break]

[attr="class","star3tsu2"]

[attr="class","petalpoketsu2"] manjushage (nihilego) ○ - beast boost - meteor beam / power gem / sludge wave / thunderbolt / stealth rock / toxic

☆ midori (sinistcha-m) ○ - hospitality - matcha gotcha / hex / strength sap / life dew / rage powder / protect

[attr="class","rouxcredittsu2"]♠

close tab

played by

Magnetic

Admin Fox

He/Him

May 9th

Rustboro City

Bisexual

Archaeologist

Rocket Admin

5'9 height

The future will tempt you, the present will indulge you, but the past will shackle you.

awards

1,869 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @magnetic