Group RP Pokemon: Evolution Quest (IC thread)

"I'm not actually sure. At least four, I think. I was thinking that if everyone holds on, it might be able to get you all over, but that probably wouldn't work so well for a stealth mission, huh?" She shrugged. Truth be told, she still wasn't sure about Aine's spellsong either - not because of the spellsong itself, but the fact that her own teleportation was banking on the barrier recognizing her own past, whilst Aine was from... where was she from anyway? Summerton?

 

@WavePearl

Four people minimum. That's the number of people Xuehua said the ring could transport. Honestly, Mawile had her doubt that it could transport at least three times of that number, but it's not like they had any other choices, right? And speaking of holding on while teleporting, Mawile might not know this, but a chain of people holding hands (metaphorically -- these "hands" can be paws, wings, tails, or whatever) could also work as long as someone in the chain held onto the ring's bearer. If this actually worked and Celine was in the chain, everyone might as well assume that the teleportation was banking on the barrier recognising her past instead of Xuehua's -- albeit not that much since her papa (i.e. Celine's bio dad) took her away from Spikeford when she was a toddler.

@122 Generation

"By the way, Atelier, we haven't even visited our supposed air support yet," Blacky reminded one of the resident tacticians. "Radiant Sky?" the other tactician asked, to which Blacky gave an affirmative nod. The thing is, they only had information of the sect's whereabouts. No actual visit yet as of now.

(Should we play the visit to Radiant Sky Sect out? Or should we do it off-screen?)

 

(I think we were banking on a response to that letter Aine sent, six pages ago, and waiting for a response. If we want to save time, then all we would need is just an affirmative reply)

Atelier replied, "The first thing we did here when we arrived was to have Aine write a letter to our air support - assuming they would comply, that is. I don't know if we have enough time to visit the highlands, as our friend Ampharos suggested earlier. "Whether they have replied yet, or not, we may want to wait until tomorrow. The hour is late. Who knows? Maybe we'll have a response by then."

He decided to finish the rest of his cream stew. "Oh, and Xuehua, I don't think we'll need to teleport everyone. If that were the case, we might as well launch an invasion, but I doubt our chances of winning if we did that."

 

"Then whoever going in first will need to have Rollcall Orbs on hand," Mawile added to Atelier's remark. She then asked after finishing her Pinap juice, "But the problem is, who should we prioritise?"

"If I may," Chief Ampharos raised a hand, never mind that the gesture might go unnoticed due to his longer neck. "I think Celine should go first. You know, with her birthright and all." Cue said girl's "Huh?" as she raised her head from the drafted letter. I mean, for Arceus' sake, the suggestion itself was unexpected coming from Chief Ampharos (one might expect it to come from either Blacky or Josson instead).

"Honestly, I would rather have the advance party go first," the Jolteon knight suggested. His reasoning? "This should not be their first rodeo, after all." In a way, it was true, though Josson's only way to verify this was from the other Eeveelutions' accounts -- primarily Blacky's.

Speaking of Blacky, the two suggestions so far spurred him to ask his Glaceon friend, "Oh, Xuehua, can the ring take one more?" By "one more", he meant one more passenger in addition to the usual four. "Celine can take my place if it can't," the Umbreon said, causing both Celine and Josson to incredulously look at him. "Dude, really?" Celine's eyes widened in disbelief. "Are you sure?" Josson looked into his eyes. Yet all Blacky could do in response was to nod.

 

"I'm sure I can try to take Celine with us. If it doesn't work, we can try and guide her through the barrier from the inside, but I doubt we'll have to worry about it." Xuehua gave Blacky a nod of her own.

 

Yes, the Fennekin brightened up with gratitude at the possibility to tag along. It didn't really sound like a promise yet somehow felt like one. And here's to hope it would actually work when the time came...

(@WavePearl @ChocoChicken @122 Generation Ready for the next day -- just enough for a reply to Aine's letter to come -- before time-skipping to the raid? Or do we have any other loose ends?)

 

(My vote is for timeskip, too.)

 

@122 Generation

(As you wish, then. )

The next morning, neither Blacky nor Josson were at the inn since dawn. The two of them could be seen in an open field in town, engaging in a morning exercise. It took Blacky quite awhile to adjust back to the routine -- and he already managed by now.

Meanwhile, a Fletchling mailmon passed by the two warriors, then entered the inn while the rest of the squad were getting ready for the day.

(Spoiler: This Fletchling mailmon is carrying the reply to Aine's previous letter.)

 

@ChocoChicken @122 Generation

"Oh, you do?" it was Chief Ampharos who first responded to Aine's announcement. As if on cue, the Expedition Society members gathered around the blue Sylveon while also making room for the other four Eeveelutions, never mind that at least two out of the four weren't even present at the moment.

 

(Will the Winged Guardians of the Crown Tundra (i.e. Galarian Articuno-Zapdos-Moltres) join our MCs' cause? Or no?)

 

(...our characters would learn this shortly wouldn't they, considering Aine's about the check the letter)
Xuehua took a moment before heading downstairs. Straighten out her hood, make sure everything in her satchel was quickly accessible - it was the little things that could count between success and complete destruction. When she finally did, she spotted several members of the group already there. She frowned mentally - she couldn't be getting rusty now of all times.

"Well, just give the rest of 'em a minute," she said, responding to the last sentence she'd heard from Aine.

 

Atelier was last to arrive as he had slept in, having read his book of battle strategies overnight and also read one of his novels. So it was no wonder that he looked half-asleep when he showed up. His satchel looked like it was about to burst because of the number of books and tomes that were stuffed in it. As if he were doing this absentmindedly or like he was sleepwalking, he went to prepare fresh coffee.

"Good morning..." he yawned, waving to Aine first and then proceeded to grind coffee beans and mixing in Rawst berries for extra bitterness and Nomel berries for the right acidity. It was like he had missed the fact that Aine was about to read an important letter, and he still wasn't fully awake as he poured boiling water over his coffee mixture, which left the aroma wafting throughout the inn.

 

(Aye, and it's all started from me answering Wave's question about the gist of the letter (which did sound like a question btw).)

Inn - Lobby

It's not just Aine who noticed the missing people -- Archen too. "Again???" he groaned as soon as he realised who were missing. "Yeah, and that one time at Bright Flame School wasn't the first time either," Celine sighed. No, really, Josson had this one habit of training so early in the morning and he usually got his proteges (Blacky was neither the first nor the last knight-to-be he'd personally trained) involved in these sessions.

"Oh well, I should go look for them," the Fennekin mage stood up and made her way to the door. "And maybe tell pops about the coffee too~" she added upon noticing the aroma of Rawst-Nomel coffee wafting in the air just before heading out.

@122 Generation

And speaking of coffee, Chief Ampharos could see a half-sleepy Atelier doing the brewing. The latter probably would want to brew about 3-4 times the usual amount of coffee because there were more people present. "Mmm, I see someone's making coffee over there," the Kickenham guildmaster mused. It was when he realised that while Xuehua probably referred to the swordsmons by "the rest of 'em", it could easily refer to Atelier too at this point. "Maybe we should wait for him to finish too..." he added as a friendly jab to the Eevee.

Open field

One round of wandering around the town later, Celine found the two swordsmons she was looking for. She went a little closer to them, somewhere within Josson's line of sight yet out of the swords' way. And from the look of it, seems like Blacky had just recently mastered a sol-fire spellblade... or something?

Fortunately for the Fennekin, the older swordsmon decided to end the training session as soon as he saw her nearby. He and Blacky sheathed their swords as she ran to them. "Pops! Blacky! Miss Aine's looking for you!" she peppily told them. "Really?" Josson asked, to which Celine gave a quick nod in affirmation. I mean, he thought Aine looking for Blacky made a little more sense, but him too?

"Oh, pops, you better check the coffee out!" Celine added, still as peppy as before. "The inn's coffee or Atelier's?" Blacky was amused, much to Celine's confusion since she hadn't even mentioned Atelier in the first place. "His brews are good stuff, I can't wait~" he bragged about the coffee brews he'd been having throughout his journey -- and he could've sworn he saw his liege perking up. That said, the trio of two warriors and one mage went back to the inn.