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i used to dream in the dark of palisades park

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Ven

Alex / Lexy
he / him / his
thirty
december 22
Mistralton, Unova
homosexual demiromantic
fortree gym leader
gym leader
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Alexei Ivanov
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POSTED ON Dec 13, 2021 21:25:23 GMT
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Today he would be meeting with someone that had—

Well, one of those Unown that hadn’t been seen anywhere yet (at least).

With so many people literally parading all around the grounds of Mount Pyre because it was now a ‘prime spot’ for looking for these letters, well—

There was one very good reason he wasn’t going anywhere near Mount Pyre. Oh, hell no.

It was because of the g h o s t s.

Nope!

Hopefully the other didn’t mind having to travel all the way out to Fortree, considering that he was still on the mend and needed to be around the place as much as possible in case shit went down.

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Josh

Josh Dragomir
He/Him/His
30
Feb 5
Lavaridge Town
Eyes For Izumi
Exec VP of RaiCorp
Senior Ranger
i used to dream in the dark of palisades park.
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Josh Dragomir
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POSTED ON Dec 13, 2021 22:54:28 GMT
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A contact of his (more specifically his boss, who he had barely met and just happened to find an Unknown in his database) had requested he meet with another contact of theirs, and to bring his Unown. A strange request, but apparently there was some sort of documentation going in regards to them. So he had ventured out to the meeting point with the Unown’s Pokeball in hand.

Though when he reached the spot, he was surprised at who he found. Wasn’t that the Gym Leader from the challenge he had done before? Was he the contact? This was a surprise, wasn’t it? A refridgerated twist to be brought around once more.

“Are you the contact?”

@tag




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Ven

Alex / Lexy
he / him / his
thirty
december 22
Mistralton, Unova
homosexual demiromantic
fortree gym leader
gym leader
חקל דמא
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5,045 posts
part of
TAG WITH @alexei
Alexei Ivanov
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POSTED ON Dec 16, 2021 3:25:11 GMT
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He wondered who his friend had sent his way—

And then, there it was. Lo and behold, though, that was a surprise—

“Hey, didn’t you come by my Gym recently? Josh, right?” he confirmed, checking his phone for the message before sending exactly one crylaughing raven emoji to that friend and closing the conversation screen once said message had sent.

“Lots of people have been supposedly tramping all over Mount Pyre, looking for that particular Pokémon,” he began as he hobbled over closer, still leaning on the dapper cane just in case.

“Were you around to help during that time when there were these stalls looking for people to help cook? I was with… a Slurpuff… how is that even a dog? he added with a chuckle.

After that cooking ‘fiasco’, as he put it, things were never the same afterward; especially with the strange software that had been downloaded onto his device and couldn’t be erased no matter how hard he tried to get rid of it.

#cursed, and all that.

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Josh

Josh Dragomir
He/Him/His
30
Feb 5
Lavaridge Town
Eyes For Izumi
Exec VP of RaiCorp
Senior Ranger
i used to dream in the dark of palisades park.
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886 posts
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Josh Dragomir
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POSTED ON Dec 17, 2021 3:29:34 GMT
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"Indeed, I did" the blonde spoke with a gentle smile, inquisitively scratching his stubble (By Arceus, he needed to shave before Zoomi killed him) as he considered just how funny it was that it was the Gym Leader of all people he was to meet. Perhaps in a non-competitive setting, he would see a different side to the man.

Alexei started to talk about something regarding people looking for a certain Pokemon which went over his head, then got into talk of the cooking stalls. "I was there, aye. There was this poor sod stuck trying to man a really crowded stall by himself, so I offered my assistance. Rangers don't just help Pokemon, after all" he remarked with a casual shrug. Speaking of casual, just casually dropping that he was a Ranger. Nice way to drop a bomb.

"Anyway, you wanted to see a specific Pokemon, right? I'm still not really sure why you or others are apparently looking for them. Nobody's exactly explained this whole thing to me."





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Ven

Alex / Lexy
he / him / his
thirty
december 22
Mistralton, Unova
homosexual demiromantic
fortree gym leader
gym leader
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5,045 posts
part of
TAG WITH @alexei
Alexei Ivanov
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POSTED ON Dec 28, 2021 8:16:46 GMT
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“Yes, do you have the Pokémon in question?” he inquired, scrolling through his phone until he found the ‘mysterious’ app and proceeded to open it.

No matter how many times he tried to delete it, it refused to budge.

Anyway—

“Yeah, that event. Down by the Slateport area? I was there, helping out. I think my friend was, too,” he hummed. That was fucking bedlam, to say the least. Absolute bedlam.

“Some of those requested dishes were really nuts.”

A few moments later—

“I’ve got the app open, can I see the Pokémon?” he asked, holding his phone up; camera open, ready to record.

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Josh

Josh Dragomir
He/Him/His
30
Feb 5
Lavaridge Town
Eyes For Izumi
Exec VP of RaiCorp
Senior Ranger
i used to dream in the dark of palisades park.
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886 posts
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Josh Dragomir
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POSTED ON Jan 6, 2022 22:16:27 GMT
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Josh couldn’t recall if he had mentioned his being a Ranger to the man, but he didn’t seem to react, so perhaps he had? Either way, Josh nodded his head in turn. Shifting a bit so he didn’t knock over the egg in his pack, he took out a Pokeball, bringing out the Unown in question. “Question” probably summed it up well enough, as said Unown seemed to resemble a question mark in of itself.

“I’ve taken to calling them “Nygma.”

@tag




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Ven

Alex / Lexy
he / him / his
thirty
december 22
Mistralton, Unova
homosexual demiromantic
fortree gym leader
gym leader
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5,045 posts
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TAG WITH @alexei
Alexei Ivanov
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POSTED ON Jan 11, 2022 17:21:20 GMT
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He already knew that the person he was meeting up with was most likely a Ranger, given that it was his friend who’d sent him word of the other.

While he waited, he fiddled around on his phone and sent another cry-laughing bird emoji before noticing a burst of red light—the sign that a Pokémon had been summoned.

And—

“It’s a literal question mark.”

He blinked.

The mysterious app then began to ding like crazy, signifying that this hadn’t been recorded or spotted yet—

“Where’d you find this one?” he inquired. “I have one in the form of a letter S, myself.”


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Josh

Josh Dragomir
He/Him/His
30
Feb 5
Lavaridge Town
Eyes For Izumi
Exec VP of RaiCorp
Senior Ranger
i used to dream in the dark of palisades park.
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Josh Dragomir
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POSTED ON Jan 11, 2022 18:55:10 GMT
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“Yes. Yes it is.”

His expression was rather deadpan as he said this. Of course it was a literal question mark. Just look at it! Wasn’t every Unown just a letter or some other thing? Either way, the Unown stared him down while he examined it and used his app thingy on it. Alexei then asked where he got it.

“It yeeted itself at my head” he answered truthfully. “Don’t know why. It used my head like a nest, like it was some kind of-oh there it goes again” came continued deadpan speech as he watched the Unown fly into his hair, using the little spikes to make a nest of sorts. It was a weird one, that.

“So what’s up with this app, anyway? And where do you get them?”


@tag




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played by

Ven

Alex / Lexy
he / him / his
thirty
december 22
Mistralton, Unova
homosexual demiromantic
fortree gym leader
gym leader
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5,045 posts
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TAG WITH @alexei
Alexei Ivanov
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POSTED ON Jan 11, 2022 19:00:54 GMT
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The literal question mark-shaped Pokémon exhibited behavior similar to—

Extremely similar to the behavior that one of his own Pokémon had. Very hard habit to break.

“They’re attached to you,” he chuckled as the data finished capturing and reflected in the app—and then the question about the app was posed.

Wait. You said you were at the beach stalls, right? Helping out an overwhelmed guy man the stalls? Did—did your group finish all the order requests?” he inquired. Because it was strange

If they were at the same event, didn’t he also get a mysterious device?

At the same time, though, there was also another question about the app itself.

“It’s fucking cursed,” he grumbled. “Moment it downloaded itself onto my phone, I’ve tried to erase it so many times without any luck. Anyone—and everyone—who’d managed to finish all the orders during that cooking thing got a copy of the app,” he explained.

Talk about malware, huh?


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Josh

Josh Dragomir
He/Him/His
30
Feb 5
Lavaridge Town
Eyes For Izumi
Exec VP of RaiCorp
Senior Ranger
i used to dream in the dark of palisades park.
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886 posts
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Josh Dragomir
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POSTED ON Jan 11, 2022 19:07:32 GMT
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“Huh. Maybe I’m thinking of something else I was at, then” he remarked, blinking a few times in turn. “So basically, there’s no way for me to get one. It just… Downloads itself? Shame. I woulda liked to start looking into all the different Unown.”

He shrugged his shoulders as he reached over to scratch what constituted a head for the oversized eyeball. “Nothing for it, I guess. I was just helping out some kid manning a shop, so maybe we’re not thinking of the same things. Regardless, what’s the big idea with this Unown hunt anyway? Like, the thing downloaded itself, and wants you to scan them all. Surely you could have just taken it to a shop and gotten it removed? Hell, I could probably do it myself. So I assume you’re doing this because you want to.”

@tag




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Ven

Alex / Lexy
he / him / his
thirty
december 22
Mistralton, Unova
homosexual demiromantic
fortree gym leader
gym leader
חקל דמא
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5,045 posts
part of
TAG WITH @alexei
Alexei Ivanov
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POSTED ON Jan 11, 2022 20:38:35 GMT
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“Yeah, anyone who had a phone would get the app downloaded straight into the device without us even doing anything,” he confirmed with the shake of his head. Ugh.

At least the damned thing wasn’t doing anything else other than taking up space in the phone; which was alright with him—however he still wanted it to be erased; but well, yeah, no dice.

“I’m pretty sure anyone else who has this app—and I’ll let you know now, there’s quite a number of people who do have it too—have already tried what you suggested. And unfortunately we’re all stuck with it.”

He sighed.

“Either way, it’s kind of like a smaller version of the Pokédex, but it only records this one particular Pokémon: Unown.”

As if to show the other man what was all about it, he then popped the ‘main menu’ open to show him the collection of words that had been gathered so far.

“Do any of the words in here look familiar?”


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Josh

Josh Dragomir
He/Him/His
30
Feb 5
Lavaridge Town
Eyes For Izumi
Exec VP of RaiCorp
Senior Ranger
i used to dream in the dark of palisades park.
awards
886 posts
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TAG WITH @josh
Josh Dragomir
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POSTED ON Jan 11, 2022 20:42:50 GMT
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Well, that was something, wasn't it? He still thought he could get rid of it if he was able to take a crack at it. But he wasn't going to try and tamper with the man's phone without permission. Either way, it seemed like he was trying to get this Unown Dex thing done for the hell of it. He showed him the Unown Dex then, and asked if any of them looked familiar. "I've seen Unown in my travels across regions, but very few that were actually Trainer owned, or even found in Hoenn" he admitted, scratching his head in turn. Something in his pack began wobbling, though he didn't notice at first.

"I suppose on the bright side, with this many trainers after it. Maybe the app will delete itself when you find them all. That, or hack your device. Either or."

@tag




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played by

Ven

Alex / Lexy
he / him / his
thirty
december 22
Mistralton, Unova
homosexual demiromantic
fortree gym leader
gym leader
חקל דמא
awards
5,045 posts
part of
TAG WITH @alexei
Alexei Ivanov
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POSTED ON Jan 11, 2022 20:47:42 GMT
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At the mention of the app going berserk and deleting everything in whoever had it installed in their respective devices, he shuddered.

“I hope not. The only word in this entire mess under the entries for the question-mark Unown that’s familiar to me is ‘Thundurus’, but that’s only because that’s one of the djinni from my home region. Everything else is just a big-ass question mark at this point.”

Although… there were some other words that were easier to understand.

“…I wonder why the word ‘help’ is in this mess. It’s scary, honestly,” he remarked, showing the other entries to the other man should he be curious.


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Josh

Josh Dragomir
He/Him/His
30
Feb 5
Lavaridge Town
Eyes For Izumi
Exec VP of RaiCorp
Senior Ranger
i used to dream in the dark of palisades park.
awards
886 posts
part of
TAG WITH @josh
Josh Dragomir
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POSTED ON Jan 11, 2022 20:52:55 GMT
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Now that he looked at it, it did kind of spell out "Help" and "Thundurus" didn't it? He squinted a bit as he looked it over. "Well, with the sentence structure, it's very well possible it could be a cry for help. How it's relating to said legendary though, is the biggest concern" he brought up in turn. "It could mean they're asking us to help it. Or they're being attacked BY it. Though the latter doesn't seem likely. Because otherwise why would it be encoded this way if it was a distress signal? Pokemon can't read code."

He scratched his chin a bit as he thought on it. "If there is help needed, then it's likely human related in some form. But that's just guesswork on my part. Though they must be quite the hacker to put that on everyone's phones like that. And they'd have to have a way to get a signal out to that specific point too... And why did it require completion of a certain task?"

@tag




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played by

Ven

Alex / Lexy
he / him / his
thirty
december 22
Mistralton, Unova
homosexual demiromantic
fortree gym leader
gym leader
חקל דמא
awards
5,045 posts
part of
TAG WITH @alexei
Alexei Ivanov
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POSTED ON Jan 11, 2022 20:59:04 GMT
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“See, that’s the thing,” he recounted as the other man asked about the origin of the app itself.

“After everyone who helped out that Slurpruff manning the stall down at the Night Market in Slateport—well, specifically the ones who were able to complete all fourteen orders—we got this weird thing as part of the payment for our services.”

It was just an innocent-looking chip, back then. But the thing is, after whatever was inside the chip had installed itself on his phone, it had been rendered unusable.

“Once the app was installed, the storage device that was included with the stuff we got—at least mine, from my observations—became useless. Like, I tried to restore the chip to get more information from it, but it didn’t work. It’s weird…”

He then wondered about the others that also had the app were faring.

“Have you like, noticed any other Unown—anywhere else? Asides from that one you have right now.”