[attr="class","rosepost"]Souls? Into things? [break][break]

Horror grips at her heart for a few moments before she calms herself. She can't imagine the monster that would try it. The monster that would think it. Disturbing the divine order of things, the creation and lifespan and erosion, by pulling out the core of life and trying to immortalize it into gears or gadgets or what-have-you was the antithesis of her belief system. This place could not, then, be holy. It must be the skeletal remains of something that had scorned Almighty Sinnoh. [break][break]

The question of theology was no unanimous decision. "Almighty Sinnoh is all. She presides over time. In Celestic Town, we are the most vocal followers of Her. That said, most of my region believes Sinnoh to be one-and-the-same, a different form of Her that continues to guide time." She frowned. "This Dialga, I believe, is simply a hand of Hers, an extension or perhaps a puppet."[break][break]

Dialga was not who she prayed to. "There are many schools of thoughts, unfortunately. The biggest divide is about what domain Almighty Sinnoh even commands, but don't let me get into that." She waved her hand dismissively. "Natural consequence to the oldest interactions with the divine being up to humans to record. People make mistakes and want to confirm their current beliefs. But I understand that the divine touch ground here often. It may very well be possible to see Her before long."

[break][break]Eris Halla [break]

[attr="class","rosepost"]Afterglow left her blissfully thoughtless, a rare occurrence that let her just be, without the analyzing and worrying and planning. She felt unburdened, pressed against him and enjoying the warmth of day before the moon chased it away. [break][break]

But his comment jolted her back to reality. She would never admit it, but she'd lost track, too. Her internal clock was never wrong, yet she had seemingly stepped out of her body in trying to teach Rex a lesson. She felt a gnawing of guilt from her own carelessness. But while they touched, it was hard to think that any of it was wrong at all. [break][break]

She would have to assess all of it in the clear light of day - in other words, when she was off the island and able to think clearer. [break][break]

It felt unfair to keep these thoughts all to herself, but she couldn't make heads or tails of it, so what would Rex do with it? Instead, she stuck with a smaller truth. "You surprised me." She reached at his hand to hold it, to rub her thumb against it. "I keep spiraling, but you keep bringing me back down to earth."

[break][break]Althus Rex [break]

[attr="class","rosepost"]Eris' questions were good guesses, but she supposed it was a little of both. This place was accessible through a spatial rift and time might operate differently here. Minimally, time was the focus, like it was sacred (which it was), and that wasn't a kind of worship she saw often outside of Sinnoh. Celestic Town, her home, had been especially fervent, but she hadn't seen a lick of her faith in Hoenn. [break][break]

Until this place. She was certain this was related to Almighty Sinnoh, but it might be more complicated than the overwhelming motif of time. "It's complicated," she said after thinking it through. She wasn't sure how to vocalize her thoughts. [break][break]

She waved at Isolde the Magearna. "Very cool. The gears must indicate that this place had a thoughtful architect, right? Gears require an understanding of complicated mechanics," she thought aloud as they walked through the twisting alleys, "though things become simple and automatic once it's all working. It must have been made by someone who wanted things to work perpetually." Eternally, if the gears never wore out - which would take a very long time in the first place.

[break][break]Eris Halla [break]

[attr="class","rosepost"]Tinkatink swept her hammer over her shoulder and charged forward with a mighty battle cry. Oh, goodness, she was going to have to watch Tinkatink smash this Marill to bits. [break][break]

"Watch out"! She shouted. Marill perked up and saw the bloodthirsty Tinkatink. Wisdom dawned on the water type and it turned tail and fled.

[break][break]water/psychic/dragon || skip[break]

[attr="class","rosepost"]His theory offered no comfort. What could the guard be protecting the castle? Just the property itself? Or was there something sinister inside? [break][break]

Something time-related must be stored inside. The nonstop time motif and frequent occurrence of clocks and gears made her think there was something inside the castle that supported the land. [break][break]

"If you're right," she said slowly, "we're lucky to have escaped that first Volcanion we saw. And if there's more than one... who knows how many are here?" It went without saying that they needed to explore the castle, still. They were here to investigate. They couldn't just turn tail and leave when faced with a daunting mystery.

[break][break]silverio delfino [break]

[attr="class","rosepost"]She flinched as the Volcanion stepped closer, then perished before their very eyes. She looked at Silverio suspiciously for a moment, as if he'd had telekinetic powers and used them on the sentinel pokemon. But she quickly shook the thought. Clearly, this fella had been on his last legs already. [break][break]

She tried not to think about how it had defended the castle with its dying breath. "Right. Moving forward." She followed him with stiffer movements, feeling a little emotional about the pokemon despite her resolve to not think about it. [break][break]

And then she saw it: the large, expansive ballroom was filled with a sea of skeletons. She held a hand to her mouth to keep from screaming, taking labored breaths at the sight and stepping closer to Silverio without intending to. Horror turned her blood to ice. Had these been people who followed Almighty Sinnoh and died to some other cause? Had these been people attacking this holy place? She was so positive her god had reign over this domain specifically, and yet, she had not imagined the expanse of death she saw here. [break][break]

Althus Rex had had doubts of Almighty Sinnoh's intentions, of Her divine power and knowledge... but his experiences had been abstract. Seeing it up close, the kind of damage that had occurred - that she believed to be a result of Almighty Sinnoh - made her shiver.

[break][break]silverio delfino | 27 uncover thousands of human remains (bones) in the mechanical kingdom's castle.[break]

[attr="class","rosepost"]Ride the train? "So long as we don't get motion sick," she mused. She had never been on a train. Pokemon moved fast like it - faster than it, too - but she felt like the odds of getting dizzy on a train were higher than getting dizzy on a pokemon, since you had some control of the latter. [break][break]

The gigantic castle doors had already been cracked open, but now it swung wide. A Volcanion like before approached them, but it's whizzing and whirring sounded hindered. Broken. It moved uneasily towards them. As it stepped out of the castle and into the sunlight, it became clear that there was a giant gear nearly bisecting it. "What... who could've...?" She looked between the pokemon and Silverio, as if he would have an answer of any kind. As if this whole place could be made to make sense.

[break][break]silverio delfino | 23 encounter a broken down volcanion that has been crushed by metal or gears who gains a moment of lucidity/life, but "dies" or malfunctions before it can impart any information.[break]

[attr="class","rosepost"]The other woman's reaction to the combee was amusing, but Keiko also appreciated the non-violent approach. Combee were pest pokemon to most, so they often got the short end of the stick when they were simply curious little fellas. [break][break]

"I got him." She extended both hands and snapped her fingers quickly to get its attention, the curious Combee coming close to investigate the sound and her moving fingers. [break][break]

She opened her palms to him as he fluttered close, and he rested down tentatively. "Combee are native to Sinnoh, but even the ones out here are pretty gentle." It buzzed in her hands. "Maybe some sugar water would be good for him?"

[break][break]MAISIE MAUDLIN [break]

[attr="class","rosepost"]"You gotta stop bonking things." Urgency had long since melted into exhaustion. Still, Tinkatink paid no mind to Keiko's troubles and continued to smash flowers, rocks, and anything else along the path. It wielded its hammer with such wild abandon and simultaneous joy that Keiko felt almost guilty for encouraging it to behave. Almost. [break][break]

She had taken to walking with her pokemon beside her more to give them more time to stretch their legs. That, and it helped acclimate them to listening to her. Most of the time, at least.

[break][break]water/psychic/dragon[break]

[attr="class","rosepost"]What did she want to do here? "This place is all about time. I think it's somewhere special to Almighty Sinnoh, so I want to learn more." Discovery was a good goal, she thought. There was so much ground to cover. [break][break]

"Scavenging... gears?" Her family collected old clocks, but they were hard to find since everyone in Celestic Town kept those kinds of things near and dear. Many were heirlooms. That said, she was no expert in repairing them. "Does your companion know how to find them?" The pokemon looked native to this land, though Keiko didn't know its name.

[break][break]Eris Halla [break]

[attr="class","rosepost"]Keiko wasn't a very indulgent gal given that alcohol meant giving up control, and she rather liked being in control of herself. There were plenty of things to give her a buzz, like a successful high-pressure delivery or - her more recent discovery - Althus Rex . [break][break]

It's all to say that she was still in business mode in the bar, trying a mocktail and planning out tomorrow's route on her Rotom phone. Well, until she kept hearing buzzing. And no one around her seemed to be reacting as if their phones were vibrating... so what was that about? [break][break]

Was it behind the bar? [break][break]

She leaned over her stool to see a combee buzzing and bumping into a partially-opened mini-fridge, trying to access something inside. Something was happening, surely, but she couldn't say if it was her losing her mind or Hoenn being one stop short of crazy town. After all, what kind of heist would a combee have in a bar?

[break][break]MAISIE MAUDLIN [break]