[Intro] ¡Hola, Ultren!

[grapetreasure]

[Route 1]

[If you're passing through Route 1 right now, you may notice it's a bit noisy right now. Just as you are on your way, you hear a young girl's shout.]

¡Ey! Out of the way!

[Before you know it, a purple dragon resembling a motorcycle suddenly passes through you before stopping Akira-style right in front of you. The dragon Pokemon seems a bit...mechanized compared to the ones you saw with its LED blue eyes with silver antennas attached to its eyelids and its throat and curled tail resembling glowing blue and yellow wheels before they turned back into silver.

The rider got off the dragon's back and rushes to you, which turns out to be an 11-years-old girl with her hair braided with a red and white hairclip and wore some sort of a school uniform consisting of light purple shirt with purple necktie, brown leather backpack with a grape emblem hanging on the side, purple shorts, black long socks, and brown loafers.]

¡Lo siento mucho! I didn't see you there. Are you okay?

[Turnbloom City]

[If you're in the area, you might see a young girl in a purple school uniform wandering around the city. Looks normal.

Until you noticed a purple cyborg dragon walking around by her side while happily carrying a subway sandwich in its mouth.

Do you want to interact with both of them or just a sandwich-loving dragon?]

Comments

[domeinion]

Oh, I've heard of Cyclizar! I had an acquaintance from Paldea a bit before I came here -- Tulio had one, though he didn't keep it in his team. And believe me, I know all about different versions of Pokémon. Right, Hyperbug?

[Hyperbug chirps and waves a little cannon arm.]

Well, if you're new, have you heard the basics about this place yet?

[grapetreasure]

O-Oh... I didn't know. Hahaha...

[Yeah, there is no way she can mention more about Professor Tulio after what she discovered...]

A bit. I heard it's cut off from other regions and I can't use my Rotom Phone to access my Pokemon Boxes.

[And yes, she is still a bit peeved about it.]

[domeinion]

Well, the Pokémon Storage System still works, even if we can't send ourselves back home. I'm not sure how that works exactly, and I'd like to think I know a lot about the PC, so I can see why you'd be worried about accessing your boxes. If we could only find the PC admin around here...

[grapetreasure]

[Juliana sighs in respond to this.]

Maybe.

Sorry about that. It's been a while since I used a PC before moving to Paldea. We mostly use our Rotom Phones to get through our boxes instead of PCs. I rarely encounter a PC that can access them back in most towns and cities I've been through and the Pokemon Centers there are basically pitstops.

[domeinion]

It sounds...

[Terrifying, is the first thing she wants to say. Even all these years after OLDEN turned the PC into the paradise -- what happened to Witte and Tim (it's still weird to call him by his real name now that he's not all edgelord and insisting they call him Agony) aside, that world state might've been the omni-randomizer -- oh, she never did get a chance to study that --

But Alice pulls herself out of her mental tangent string and back to the subject at hand. Accessing the PC from anywhere. Dad would've been so proud of where his technology went.

That wasn't a good thing.]

...Is it safe?

[grapetreasure]

[Juliana happily nods.]

Yeah. Everyone in Paldea uses it and the best programmers are doing their best to maintain the privacy of the boxes and the safety of all Pokemon.

At least that's what Penny said to me.

[She then sighs in dismay.]

I spent so long relying on the portable boxes, I'm a bit frustrated I have to use PCs again.

[domeinion]

That would seem like a downgrade... But I'm assured that the PC is safe here, too. Though I've never met the PC admin myself yet.

[grapetreasure]

Me neither, but then again, I can't argue about it.

[Juliana sighs.]

I just hope their PCs can connect to my boxes. My party is rotated and I don't want them to worry about me and the others.

[domeinion]

[If she were from the right canonpoint, Alice would start talking about Forrest and how he also had a rotated party and a perfectly safe PC. Unfortunately, she is not, but she nods and thinks for a second.]

They probably can! They've been working for me, even if I don't use them often. I'm not sure how the interdimensional reach works yet, but I've got a few ideas, mainly hovering around how the stream can more easily take data or incorporeal beings than physical ones -- not that it's impossible, of course, and us drifting here in the first place is just the most recent and immediate example! But because the PC system relies on data and thus digitizing one's Pokémon and reforming them, in much the same manner as the modern Poké Ball, though of course that's complicated by the mechanics of analog balls that date back hundreds of years...

[stop her]

[grapetreasure]

Okay, okay! I think I understand!

[No, she doesn't. She can't speak fast jargon. Not even her cyborg dragon could keep up as its LED eyes flashed yellow in confusion.]

Wow, I never met someone who knew computers since Penny.

[domeinion]

[Alice gives a good-natured smile and laugh and shakes her head. Hyperbug busies itself with stuffing its face.]

Sorry, I do tend to get a little into things. My dad was a PC admin, so I had a good foundation. Maybe not so much with talking to people without confusing them.

[grapetreasure]

It's okay. I don't blame you for it. I'm just surprised you knew about PCs because of your Dad. That sounds awesome!

[domeinion]

It's... not all that great.

[She sighs and shakes her head.]

But the point is I'm sure you'll be able to reach all your Pokémon from here, so at least that'll be helpful, even if we currently don't have a way out of Ultern ourselves.

[grapetreasure]

[Juliana is confused by her negative comment, but she shrugs it off. It's not her place to butt into her private life for now.]

I hope so. If my school finds out I'm missing from Uva for a week now, then it's going to be the Team Star scandal all over again.

Don't ask.

[domeinion]

Noted. Unfortunately, nobody here quite knows how to get back or to intentionally trigger the way home. Spacetime seems to bend around this place. And if anyone here is a planeswalker or has access to a machine that can access the stream, they're definitely hiding it well. On the bright side, Ultern seems perfectly safe so far, with most of the trouble being the odd prank when mysterious Pokémon decide to show up and mess with the populace.

[grapetreasure]

[Juliana_brain.exe loading error...

Well, almost. She managed to understand the second half of it, at least.]

R-Right... On the bright side, I heard there is a Pokemon League here. So I might try tackling it until we find a way back home, I think

[domeinion]

There is! I've been considering trying it out myself. It's been a long time since I challenged a Pokémon League, and let's just say that last time, my team and I weren't doing it alone. So it might be nice to attempt it.

[grapetreasure]

Well, it is boring if I do nothing but catch and battle wild Pokemon here. I should take the challenge, too. Do you know where's the first gym around here?

[domeinion]

There's one right here in Turnbloom City! Head to the amusement park -- can't miss it -- and take a right. It's a Flying-type gym, but unfortunately I don't have much data on how the leader fights. I do know he's a popular idol, though.

[grapetreasure]

Flying-type, huh? And he's a popular idol?

Huh. I might try to challenge it in a few days. Thanks for letting me know, Alice.

[domeinion]

It's not a problem! That's the trainer life, always finding new things to do. Even I didn't spend my whole first journey just studying the wildlife, either.

[grapetreasure]

You're telling me. I attended Uva Academy to become a trainer, but I never thought about what should I do as one. At least that's one side of not having one goal. It's also how I met and get to know my friends there.

[domeinion]

There are all kinds of things you can do. Oh, if you ever have any questions, let me know! I wouldn't say I'm all that hard to find.

[grapetreasure]

Okay, thanks! Ooh! Do you have a phone with you?

[Juliana takes out her Rotom Phone.]

We should exchange numbers just in case.

[domeinion]

Oh, yes!

[She pulls out a normal, scuffed-up red phone and sends her number.]

I just got one once I got here, since it was far more useful than to be without one. I really don't miss those days...