timelymaid | fifth bubble; video/action for ecruteak.

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fifth bubble; video/action for ecruteak.

[ Aradia's sitting at a table with a sizeable stack of books and her binder opened to red-inked notes that can't be read clearly on the screen. She's got the pokegear propped up against something, and she smiles absently, clearly ordering her thoughts. ]

Hello! This is Aradia. I've been doing some reading - well, I suppose it's rather a lot of reading? - about the legends of this place. Jade, thank you again for that book! I actually read a reference to it there, and then it took me a little while to locate other mentions of the topic - it's been nearly two weeks? - because I suppose I'm really in the wrong region for this, but -

Hm. I'm rambling. Anyway! Here's a story that some of you might find interesting.

A long time ago, there was a pokémon known as Regigigas. It seems to be part of a creation myth, like a few others - the task Regigigas completed was pulling the continents into place. When it had completed that task, it created three golems in its image: one from an icy mountain, one from rocks, and from one magma. Regice, Regirock, and Registeel. For a time they were worshiped by the people of the land, but this would not last. They were so powerful that the people grew afraid, and took action.

Using magic they sealed away the master of the golems, Regigigas. The three golems it had created were spirited away to a new land, for if they were to come together Regigigas could rise again, and the people of that land feared that would mean endless destruction. The golems were all sealed away, their locations lost or forgotten.

[ Aradia falls silent for a minute or two, making a note in her binder, before looking back up. ] I'll admit it isn't exactly overflowing with details, but I thought I'd share anyway. The legend itself is apparently native to a place called Hoenn. "We built this" - that was in the translations they released. I wonder what it refers to in specific? The placement of the continents? This world's civilization? I really want to go to Blackthorn sometime soon to see for myself! Oh, and the rest, if you weren't following the news, I guess: "Man ends, pokémon ends, everything ends. New worlds inherit new dreams." We've certainly got worlds aplenty represented here, anyway.

This place does have something of a knack for cryptic messages, though. "Our words shall remain here for the ages. Thus we shall erect a pokémon statue outside. They possess great insight and refuse the outside world. We humans must learn to walk in harmony with them. We depart for their sakes."

I wonder how many more of these little messages are hidden around the realm. I suppose we'll just have to find out! At least reading about this makes it easier to know what to keep an eye out for when we're exploring! Although reading about all of this also makes my "to see" list absurdly long, so maybe I ought to stop until I've caught up with that.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I see... well, I honestly don't find it that complicated, since it seems like an intentional version of the situation that we are all currently in, the fate angle aside. Though, if someone hasn't grasped the time disparity between this world and their own, I can certainly see how they'd be baffled by it.

...I had gathered that, yes.

I think you're the first person to keep up with the explanation, actually! [ This is a startling revelation. She's managed to completely lose everyone else somewhere along the way. ] Is your world similarly complex?

I wouldn't say it's that complex, exactly, but magic does have plenty of nuances that the average person wouldn't have any hope of grasping and we do have an understanding of the existence of other worlds. Combine that with the fact that this place presents the idea that traveling to another world does not necessarily mean that you travel to or from an equivalent point on the world's timeline, and it doesn't seem that far-fetched to assume that another pair of universes that are linked together would behave similarly.

I think being from worlds where the existence of other worlds and universes is possible does tend to help in understanding things here. And weird time things, well - that's my entire jurisdiction!

I'm sure it does, yes. Admittedly, I'm sure this place is an anomaly to practically everyone, but I feel like we'd understand it far better than someone who would not have already been aware that other worlds already exist.

Though, what do you mean by that, exactly? I assume that's related to that game-are those the sorts of powers you can expect to receive by playing it?

Yes! For me, at least. I'm the Maid of Time. Maid is my class; time is my aspect. I can therefore control the flow of time - usually. I can't do it here, obviously.

[ Actually she's still a bit put out by that sometimes, so. ]

...Really? Are there any limits to that ability? If not, that's positively absurd.

...Not in a negative way, of course. It's simply beyond most things I'm familiar with.

I can freeze people in time and travel back - although once I travel back and alter something, that "me" would be from a doomed timeline, and would therefore have to die. I've died quite a lot, really! That's what I was made for, though.

Making certain our timeline flowed correctly, and we succeeded as we needed to, that sort of thing.

That's... really quite morbid, though like I said, it would be rather ludicrous if it didn't have any rules or limitations to it. It... doesn't seem to have affected you much, at least.

[...even a mage is thinking that'd fuck you up pretty badly and this is from a society that merrily condones plenty of things that would cause deep psychological trauma]

I was dead during most of that. When I was dying, I mean! It was...difficult to empathize or feel things in a way that...it's hard to explain, but suffice it to say it wasn't a lot of fun!

But after all of that, I rose up. And I think that was worth all of it.

...I see. Well, like I said, you seem perfectly fine now...

[SOMEHOW THAT DOESN'T MAKE THINGS ANY BETTER!]

Did you spend the game as some sort of spirit, then?

For a bit! Then a friend made me a robot body, which I utilized for the rest of it.

[...why would it need to be a straight up robot if she was possessing it...

oh well different universe different rules he guesses]

Well, I imagine that would be much more convenient than having to deal with things purely in spiritual form. In my experience, they tend to have very specific limitations.

My psychic abilities allowed me to interact more than I could have otherwise, but...yes, exactly!

Actually, the person who made me that body is here, too.

Well, I had assumed you were allowed some sort of limited interaction, but... having a physical body is generally more convenient in a great deal of cases.

Is that so? ...there are certainly a great deal of you here, actually...

I agree! It's a lot more convenient, really.

Equius Zahhak. And there really are! Not all of us, since there's twelve - for trolls, I mean, there are eight humans to my knowledge, not counting their lusuii - but...well, you're right, a fair amount of us are here.

It's a bit strange that there are so many people from your world here compared to some other worlds, honestly. Though, I've seen quite a few from mine come and go, although the circumstances are somewhat... complicated. Then again, so are yours, I suppose.

I think a lot of circumstances are! Momo's world seems pretty complicated, too - Momo Hinamori, I mean. I wonder what it is that causes people from one world or the other to come, though? There's no pattern I can see.

I don't believe I've met this person, actually-what's her world like, if I may ask? In my world's case... well, practically everyone I've seen here seems to have been involved in a certain repeating event in some capacity, though some were from an event in the future and one was even from an alternate version of the event specific to a parallel universe.

Of course, some of their circumstances are even more complicated given that they're ancient heroes that have been summoned into the modern age.

She's from her version of the afterlife - she tends to the dead there, I believe. And people who die with regrets in her world can become something called a "hollow". I can put you two in touch if you like - it was a casual conversation some time ago, when we were comparing and contrasting our respective afterlives.

I think it's actually a bit strange that people from the same world tend to know one another - worlds are generally pretty big places!

I would be interested in that, actually. I'm not sure how relevant this sort of thing would be to our situation, but I suppose it's worth hearing about in case it does end up being relevant. That, and it's fairly interesting even if it doesn't end up having any bearing on me.

Yes, that is fairly strange. You would expect some completely random individuals to show up, but it seems to be just the opposite.

[ She will just text him Momo's gear number. ] She's really friendly, so I doubt she'll have any problems sharing what she knows with you - especially since we were chatting about it the first time we met.

Right! I know absolutely everyone from my "world", although some I spoke to more than others.

I'll keep her in mind, then. Granted, if it's simply how her world works, I don't really see why she'd have difficulty talking about it here, given that it's not something people keep private.

I simply knew of the existences of most of the people from my world-the ones that weren't from the future or from a parallel world, of course.

Some people don't seem to want to talk about their homes! Which I understand, but...well.

Well, all the trolls who have ever been here were teammates of mine. John, Rose, Jade and Dave were all humans I was familiar with to some degree...I think Dirk, Jane, Jake and Roxy were the only ones I was simply "aware" of.

Admittedly I didn't know the human lusuii, but I knew they were around.

That may be true. I'll admit, when dealing with the general public here I'm far freer with information about magic than I would be back home simply because it seems as though more people are from worlds where it's common knowledge.

...So while it's possible that trolls that aren't connected with you may appear eventually, it's extremely unlikely? That's interesting... I'll admit, the idea that only certain groups of people come here is an interesting one that hadn't occurred to me before. I have to wonder if it applies to other cases, as well...

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