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[attr="class","star2"]He hasn’t been back since the day the rift split the blue above sky pillar. Or well, he hasn’t traveled within the rift again. But he stood among the ruins of the draconid spire, staring up.[break][break]

Wondering. Curious, but distrusting.[break][break]

Ultimately, it’s the former that wins out in his mind. But even with his wariness of the rifts, Fern knows this one is different from the border. Maybe that’s the effect of having carried the shard for so long. He doesn’t know.[break][break]

It’s just something he felt.[break][break]

“I can try to recall where I went when I was here the first time,” Fern remarks to the group once they’ve landed within the crumbling city. “But admittedly, I didn’t stay long.”[break][break]

A nod is directed in Cillian Quinn ’s direction. “I’ll default to your leadership.” From his pocket, he produces the remnants of the shard that had revealed this whole place. “Pity this won’t seem to help.” He turned the pale sliver of crystal in his palm. No longer warm, though it still caught whatever lowlight there was, producing a short lived glimmer of brightness.[break][break]

As they take those tentative beginning steps into the strange, decrepit city, Fern cannot shake that same odd feeling he felt the first time moved through the abandoned streets. That burning sense of being watched from afar. Observed, perhaps, by something equally as curious as himself.[break][break]

In the distance behind them, flashes of muted orange clash with the darkened urban sprawl. Darting in the stretch of every shadow from afar.[break][break]

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Cillian Quinn Tempest Quinn Calpurnia Kubrick // let’s goooooo tapu kokooooo[break]

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[attr="class","tag"]fern delaney Tempest Quinn Calpurnia Kubrick

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“I’ll do my best to provide any additional info I can,” he answers with a nod, as he tucks the shard away and turns to follow. “From what I recall, it was all a lot of…this.” He gestures around at the towering skyscrapers and defunct buildings. No greenery, no open spaces or withered parks. Though he supposed if there were any sort of flora, it would have crawled up the buildings and overtaken the city ages ago.[break][break]

“I wonder what happened.” It’s no more than a musing thought as they approach the old police station, though like Temp he recoils at the pungent scent.[break][break]

But he’s not about to stand around and become Megolopolan chow, either, so into the station he goes. As Calpurnia Kubrick shoves an old, bloated body out of the way he grimaces, but peers over her shoulder. “Glad you’re good at this sorta tech. See anything good?” He too, misses the blurry dart of their follower drawing nearer and around the side of the building, as he turns away to inspect the rest of the room.[break][break]

A hallway off to the side seems to lead to a long forgotten locker room. Curious, he steps away from the group. Footsteps echoing as his boots thump against the tile.[break][break]

He turns to look back over his shoulder, curious to see if any of the others have followed. Seeing no one, despite the pervading sense of some foreign stare. When he shifts to move forward again, though, he finds himself nose to nose with..a Pokémon?[break][break]

Initially, he’s not all that sure because the fact that it was looming just ahead of him, waiting, causes a startled bark of sound to volley up his throat. In turn, the creature snaps its arms together, shielding itself. Hand pressed to his chest, he blinks at the familiar outline in the lowlight.[break][break]

Is this a pigeon??[break][break]

No, no, it’s some other sort of bird, though. Fern isn’t too familiar with an island spirits native to Alola—perhaps he should’ve paid better attention to his history courses in school. But the tapu koko seems to know him. His head tilts to the side curiously as it slowly peeks back out, and then mirrors the move. Humoring his scrutiny for all of a few seconds before it starts prodding at him with the pinchers of one, shelled arm.[break][break]

It flits around him with buzzing insistence. Tugging at strands of hair and poking at his cheeks. “Woah, hey!” The exclamation does little to quell the island spirit’s investigation as it pulls at his jacket, clearly trying to rifle through his pockets.[break][break]

Like it’s been waiting for the chance. “Have you been tracking me? Clever bird…thing.” But the only thing he’s got in his pocket is…he fishes out the primal shard and the tapu koko goes still, honing in on it like a furret finding something shiny. [break][break]

“Uhhh, I found…something—it found me? Not sure,” Fern calls back to the others as he abandons his own investigation and returns to the office area. The tapu koko remains stubbornly fixed to his jacket—warily peering around his shoulders at the rest. Though the burnt orange plume its head would’ve been noticeable. He holds the shard out and away, and soon enough it abandons its caution and begins to attempt making grabs at the glittery gemstone again.[break][break]

All the while, the motley pair are unaware of the creaking sounds of something bumping into and around the hollow metal lockers of the room he’d failed to investigate.

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Cillian Quinn Tempest Quinn Calpurnia Kubrick // fern’s primal shard attracts the attention of a tapu koko[break]

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[attr="class","tag"]fern delaney Tempest Quinn Calpurnia Kubrick

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[attr="class","samjer","samjertag"]fern delaney Tempest Quinn Cillian Quinn

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[attr="class","star2"]“One of the tapus..?” Fern only dimly recalls learning about them. But weren’t they island creatures? “What’s it doing out here, then?” Surely the deteriorating, dark cityscape isn’t a desirable habitat for a Pokémon more at home in a warmer, brighter climate. He looks to the island spirit as if it might actually speak and answer, but it only continues its effort in trying to grab at the shard as it buzzes around Fern. “Dunno why it cares so much, it’s just useless rock now.”[break][break]

Finally, he relinquished the shard as he turns to Calpurnia Kubrick. Much to the delight of the tapu koko who trills and juggles the piece of primal rock between claw like pincers. “I’ll be wanting that back.” A remark that earns only grumbles and keep away gesture as the tapu koko floats higher out of reach. “Desaturated?” Fern ponders her words briefly. “Maybe it’s a byproduct of being somewhere so dark?” Unless it’s a chameleon creature, though, it doesn’t make sense.[break][break]

A frown mirrors Cillian Quinn’s though, as he too starts to notice the thump and clatter of something coming from the direction he’d just come back from. “No, I didn’t see anything.” Granted, the sudden appearance of the tapu koko had proven a bit distracting. And maybe somewhere in the back of his mind, he’d figured that whatever noise he might’ve heard previously had simply come from the Pokémon itself.[break][break]

Apparently not.[break][break]

“I can’t say I’m exactly keen on finding out what, though,” he added, moments before Tempest Quinn burst back into the room with declarations of his own.[break][break]

As the hive of furious ultra beasts begin to swarm, and Kelpie points out their exits, Fern looks toward the stairs, rather than out. Because going back outside wasn’t meant to be an option just yet, yeah. “Up it is?” Only the top of the landing is visible from their vantage—the rest of the upper level hidden away. He’s not too keen on taking the full flight, though, and so releases his dragapult. Cecilia spins around him. “I’ll make sure there’s nothing waiting for us.” The dragapult rips open a fabric tear, allowing him to make quick exit phantom force quietly up to the top.[break][break]

Fascinated by the speedy transport (and maybe also the slippery getaway,) tapu koko follows.[break][break]

Hopefully nothing is hiding out up there for him to find, as he sends Cecilia sailing back down to assist anyone else looking for a shortcut.

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Cillian Quinn Tempest Quinn Calpurnia Kubrick // fern’s primal shard attracts the attention of a tapu koko[break]

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[attr="class","tag"]fern delaney Tempest Quinn Calpurnia Kubrick

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[attr="class","samjer","samjertag"]fern delaney Tempest Quinn Cillian Quinn

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[attr="class","star2"] In the short time before chaos breaks out, Fern glances at the tapu koko with a raised brow. A crooked smirk perches on his lips at Calpurnia’s suggestion. “Well, is that the case? Are you a sneaky little mischief maker?” Tapu koko swiftly turns with a trill, obviously unwilling to truly answer. With the shard held out, it willfully fixated its attention and ignores Fern’s curiosity for the time being.[break][break]

He tuts. “Fickle little thing.” Pot, meet kettle.[break][break]

It’s lucky that it chooses to follow as they make their retreat upstairs. Perhaps it’s not quite done with him yet. Fern’s dragapult circles between the top of the flight and the bottom, and from the landing he nods down at Cillian—accepting that the underboss is watching their backs. Their scouting leads nowhere, however, and so he’s grateful when Temp spies the ledge out the window as Fern looks for any sort of door.[break][break]

The furor of the approaching poipole grows louder, and he peers over the landing rail to make sure that Cillian, is in fact, on his way up now. “Dunno about you, but I am not that nimble.” He’d probably sooner be a splat on the concrete before successfully making that jump. So he concedes to let Kelpie go first—only to scramble when she gets distracted. “What're you doing? We gotta go.”[break][break]

Once again, Ceci opens up a gateway through PHANTOM FORCE and without thinking, his hands latch onto the tapu koko as he is pulled into the portal—it nearly drops the defunct shard in the abruptness of it, but it secures the hold on its prize at the last moment before the portal snaps closed. Fern pops out with the startled island deity in tow. Just shy of the ledge, which is just fine for him as he sits astride the dragapult’s back.[break][break]

Again, he looks toward the window from the other side. Below the streets look dark, but clear. For how long, though? He beckons the next person to leap out before they get turned into poipole hive fodder.

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Cillian Quinn Tempest Quinn Calpurnia Kubrick // fern’s primal shard attracts the attention of a tapu koko[break]

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