farawayplace | [MINI EVENT] ☆T A N A B A T A☆

Entry tags:

!event,
mingle post

[MINI EVENT] ☆T A N A B A T A☆

Those from the four regions of Kanto, Johto, Hoenn and Sinnoh will be very familiar with the sight of bamboo stalks that are left outside decorated with colorful and sparkly paper decorations. There are people gathering around, helping one another put up paper amulet of varying colors to tie around the bamboo branches. On each amulet is a single wish that’s been handwritten by someone.

One can only hope that their wish will be heard…

At night, there’s a surprise to be found: an alternate colored Jirachi is out dressed in what’s clearly a handmade costume. Around its neck, is a colorful paper chain made of sparkly origami paper.

Not only has Jirachi come to grant wishes, Miniors are out and about bright and colorful. They’ll be dancing around seemingly trying to invite people to come join them in the festivities.

((OOC: Happy Tanabata! In the morning is a general mingle post. But as the evening sets in and Jirachi appears, it will start granting the wish written on your amulet whether big or small -- wealth, a long life, or maybe a way to return home. You're free to catch Miniors too, and there's a slightly better chance of encountering a shiny one as well. Just be careful of the ones still in their shell or you might just get a rather explosive surprise...

This event can take place at any town, so feel free to specify a location!))

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A. Wish
Completely in earnest, Buson was also tying up his own wish: the clumsiest, worst-looking blue paper crane you've ever seen, full of unfolded creases, lopsided, and uneven. If not for the beak and at least one uncrumpled wing, it wouldn't be possible to tell it was a crane at all!

This was the best paper crane he'd managed, the others were... well, they look even less like cranes, he was proud of this one! He looked like he wasn't sure if he should tie the others to the same long piece of string or just this one that looked (relatively) good compared to the other eyesores. He vaguely wondered if someone would laugh at his other attempts.

"I couldn't even finish all of them in time, huh?" he said, sounding disappointed, as he looked at the crumpled up birds. "There's no way an amateur could fold 27 in one day, huh... at least I got up to 7. Well, it kind of ripped, so maybe 6... that's gotta count for somethin', right?"

He kind of still wanted to keep trying, so he brought the paper along, but he had a feeling he'd miss the night and wouldn't finish in time, so he wound up folding and tearing a piece of the blue paper, just to write his wish instead.

"I want my friends to live happily, without fear or despair. -B"

B. Sugar Stars

The Minior are unusual to Buson and he's a little alarmed when he first saw the disintegrating shell of one scatter into dust—he'd nearly stepped on it, unaware, and for a second worried he'd crushed a Pokmon underfoot unaware)—until the Minior core flew up gently glowing.

"... cute little fella, aren't you? Did you just evolve?"

He wasn't sure what the shell was down there, maybe it's like a coccoon?

It didn't seem to say much, just smiling away. There were a lot all around. Buson didn't really get what the occasion was, but they looked a lot like konpeito. His belly rumbled at the sight.

"... makin' me crave konpeito."

C. Temptation

That... sure was a Legendary Pokemon and a shiny one at that. Imagine those odds?! The little costume's cute and all, but he didn't care about that right now, he could catch it! He could make so much money off of that. He could afford a house, he could run away, he could live comfortably! It wouldn't even have to go to Team Rocket, it could go to someone who just wants a Legendary Pokemon for some reason... but hey, would anyone even pay as high for it? ... he can't believe he's thinking like this right now, when Rayquaza being experimented on is still bothering him, but. It was so tempting. Maybe it could be his ticket out of his life back home.

He won't buy a place here, he wants to keep his money clean, but... a chance like this probably won't come up again in his world, what are the odds right? It'd be perfect, they won't know about it because it's in another world, he'll capture the Pokemon, cash it in his world, it won't be traced back to him, and he can escape, maybe even convince Bashou to come along, if he's going to be rich.

(Or Bashou'll turn him in. He can't imagine that, but... or Bashou'll refuse, and he won't be able to escape, because he won't want to leave Bashou behind, and he'll just have to sit there with his dirty money and knowing he ruined even the peace he had in Ultern.)

Was this worth it? Was escaping worth it if he was going to do it in a way he'd regret? He'd have more to regret if he stayed, so maybe it was a worthy sacrifice... who knows, maybe he wouldn't even have to use any traps and he could convince it to come along with him.

While debating that, with a smile aiming for friendly, but landing somewhere squarely in wolfish, all teeth and no warmth reaching his very stony, cold eyes, he approached Jirachi.

"... hey."

It's only when he's closed in on it that he really thought about the festival again. The way the tags hanging of its head looked like red tanzaku. Benevolence, gratitude, and respect for ancestors.

Was that gratitude he was showing...? What if his wish get ruined because of this selfishness? (But what if this opportunity was his wish being granted...!)

Edited (Not another moral dilemma...! ) 2023-07-07 11:26 (UTC)

It works. I mean, I always just hung the plain paper slips.

[Alice ponders her own wish slip, still blank as she tries to come up with a wish this year.]

Then again, Hosts aren't known for our coordination...

Yeah... but, you know, traditionally, it's as many paper cranes as the age of the oldest member of the household for long life and health, right?

I thought, y'know, maybe it'd be more specific and more... powerful, you know?

The person they're for has never had much luck with these, doesn't believe in the stuff, honestly, but I've been tryin' all kinds'a omamori and the plain paper tanzaku, like you said...

Sorry, hosts...? Are you in charge of the festival?

Oh, no! Not that kind of host. [She adjusts her hat.] My mom used to do the paper cranes, but I was never any good at it. And Dad never bothered. I'm surprised we have one holiday in common, though, most of the ones from my version of Kanto don't seem to scan to others.

S'good to find somethin' familiar, isn't it?

Oh? I'm meetin' folks from a lot of very different Kanto regions. What's your place like?

It should be closer to normal now, with standard variations like the presence of the fossil gods, which I thought was a universal constant but that seems to only be the case for the worlds and timelines I'd personally observed before drifting here, because if you take what I hear from the other people who were pulled through the stream into Ultern as a baseline, that's apparently exceedingly uncommon -- but have you ever heard of a Randomizer?

[Just stunned silence. Absolute stunned silence. The gears are turning, slowly, in Buson's head, but he only looked more and more lost. He plucked out a familiar word among all those unfamiliar concepts.]

Uhhh... I think Bashou talks about randomizers sometime. This some... programmer thing?

Something like that. But this one in particular is a machine created to alter reality. It was first developed to change something in the past, but had a lot of side effects, changing everything from species distribution to abilities to appearance. Flamesplash, could you come out?

[She lets out a Sandslash whose spines are obviously made of fire. The Sandslash, for its part, waves politely.]

My team and I -- the ones I didn't get here -- we're still randomized, even after our timeline was put back to normal. We can't change and become normal, per se, but we're stable.

[Buson, having nearly no filter whatsoever, swore loudly and nearly stumbled backwards at the sight of what looked like a Sandslash on fire, even looking away for a second, as if he thought he might see something grisly if he focused, but... it wasn't screaming or in pain. He looked back warily.

Huh.]

Like a... regional form, but, uh, random?

Flamesplash, though...? Does it use Water type attacks or something...? Who came up with the name?

Me! It's her nickname. [She pets Flamesplash, who makes a happy noise.] See, it was because I rescued her from one of those guys who sells Magikarp. She doesn't have any Water-type attacks, though. Not now, anyway. But at that point, that was what all Sandslash looked like within the region, and most people had forgotten they used to be anything else. Things are back to normal aside from a few outliers, though, it was... not the most stable of situations -- especially since it was the first such incident.

Y'got her from a con-man?

[That's a wild way to come by a Sandslash, even a reall weird one. He briefly wondered how much such an unusual Pokemon could sell for, then mnetally kicked himself to stop.]

You keep saying they weren't stable, what... do you mean by that?

...That a place affected by a Randomizer will start tearing itself apart to force itself back to normal if the change isn't undone. It was especially dangerous for species that were living in areas they normally couldn't, like the cases of aquatic Charmander, or people who wouldn't be alive without the past having changed. Like me.

[Alice breathes in and puts on a neutral face for the rest, while her fire Sandslash looks concerned and pats her hand.]

It took a lot of people, even if you don't count the Voices -- oh, recorded phenomenon of a disembodied hivemind hundreds of thousands strong that possesses people and guides them on a journey, purportedly to save their home in exchange for glory, that legend doesn't seem to be common among the people here either -- regardless! -- and years of work to try and keep the world together long enough to stop my -- the person who made it. He wouldn't go quietly -- would anyone? He was a b right b a start to the end, I guess. Even if he did have his reasons.

[The mental image of water full of dead Charmander with their tail flames snuffed out is kind of a grim one, even for someone accustomed to death, but doesn’t affect him much… Buson winced at her saying she wouldn’t be alive, though, then looked… confused, yet hopeful. His mind honed in on that, wondering if he could use this Randomizer thing to change the past too. A past where Manzana never joins Team Flare or gets out before he’s crushed to death. A past where Bashou never has to go through what haunts him to this day.

Buson’s eyes are wide and hungry, covetous of what Alice described, as if everything else didn’t matter. What’s a bunch of dead wild Pokemon or an unstable world with weird Pokemon variations that could die at any moment if he could save his friends?]

… so, this, uh, Randomizer, does it still exist? Who was that guy who made it? Noticed you… cut yourself off there, who was he to you—

[She was dead. Someone else had tried this too… he finally looked not so keen and wild-eyed like a hungry beast, and instead, he began to look wary and concerned..]

Also, why did you, uh… just now, what was that, sorry?

[What was that? A tic? A glitch in real life???]

[That's a lot at once, and Alice recognizes that look, enough that one hand flies to her side and Flamesplash makes a worried sound. Alice studies Buson before taking a breath in and out.]

He's gone.

[True. Other versions of him exist in better worlds -- she spent the world's most awkward year with one -- but the last she'd heard from her father was when he cut off communication and deactivated her bomb collar. Maybe it was ironic that Four got him after that. The other one who'd been brought back in place of someone else.]

But his research notes got out, and every so often a new model surfaces, even outside of the timeline it created, that's stronger and reaches further. I hadn't gotten a bead yet on who was behind the latest incident, but the hosts from that point would have more data...

[Alice gulps. Talking technical things is second nature, she's a scientist, and this is the research that made her in more ways than one. But the look on his face, the emotion, it's too familiar.]

...And the other thing -- it's residual commands. Sometimes I still bump into things or my voice gets a little mechanical.

[... he's scaring her, isn't he? ... he could recognize it was likely triggering something... but why is she still talking? Telling him all of these things, if she can tell he was interested in it?

He felt scummy for setting off that kind of reaction, and averted his gaze, gritting his teeth.]

You can stop now.

You don't have to tell me all of this, y'know.

[The truth was, he still had questions. He didn't get any of the stuff about hosts or residual commands, but he could tell it was something that affected her and it was probably related to this Randomizer thing. That suddenly no longer looked as appealing. He nearly didn't want it anymore, the kid's messed-up. Mechanical, commands, was she even fully human, like that?

He half-wondered if these improved models got rid of these unwanted effects.

He could push to learn a bit more, but it felt scummy. ... he still wanted to know. So maybe he'll put aside his other questions and just ask one thing.]

Just... one more thing, by improved models... do they do less of that? The residual effects?

[Well, at least it seemed Buson had some limits, didn't he?]

Edited 2023-07-09 09:14 (UTC)

[Alice blinks. He did ask. Of course she's hurting or scared or... whatever she can call it, but she's the only one here with firsthand experience with a Randomizer. It's only proper that she gives the technical information... she thinks. But when he tells her to stop, she looks at him in confusion, then sobers and nods.]

I didn't mean to throw you off. I seem to have that effect on people around here. As for your question, it depends on the effect. Some do more. Switching around and changing the humans, too, for instance, or changing types beyond outward appearance. If your timeline's also been exposed to glitches in reality, which can be traced to a being called OLDEN that migrated from a virtual reality through the stream after another, unrelated irresponsible-science incident, because we really do have too many of those -- oh, if you know Phancero, that's another name for it -- but anyway, in those cases then it can be hard to tell what was caused by a Randomizer and what was caused by a glitch, so that's a variable to consider. Otherwise, it comes down to the model, the person behind it, and presumably their purpose in doing so.

And... thank you, I suppose. Dome knows it's a little... difficult? Yes, difficult. From a personal standpoint.

Sorry. I guess… not knowing makes it seem worth it.

[Did Alice throw him off? Several times! Was it why he asked her to stop? No, not at all.]

… if something’s hard to talk about, you don’t have to. Especially not to strangers who won’t care… that it affects you, I mean.

That’s kinda something you gotta protect, yourself. It’s your story, so share it with someone worthy of it, y’don’t wanna tell it to someone who’ll misuse it or who’ll mercilessly pick at wounds, ‘cause it means nothing to them, right?

[Like him, for example. The only reason he hadn’t kept picking away was because the reaction reminded him of people he actually cared about, so he felt too scummy to carry on. Just that. He still wanted to know more, so he’d probably have to leave the conversation soon so he won’t be tempted to press on.]

You're probably right. I do feel responsible for making sure everybody knows what they need to, and this was my first major research project. But when it comes to my dad, that's another matter.

[With that out, she pauses, like a few too many B-presses, before she turns to go.]

But I hope you have a good festival! The people here definitely know how to put on a good one.

[It was her father who was responsible for all of that…?

He guessed it was someone close, but it was still awful to hear it.]

… yeah. You… take care.

[Something to ruminate on.]

"Chii...?"

Upon being called, Jirachi turned to Buson and hovered towards him, oblivious to his true intent. There's an innocence behind its eyes as it looked over the man with curiosity. It wasn't sure why he called him out, but Jirachi could sense that Buson wanted something.

Edited (forgot to write the subject oops) 2023-07-10 06:17 (UTC)

He knew not to make eye contact, but in his moment of distraction, gazing at the red colour, it turned, and its eyes were so clear, trusting and unknowing, that it reminded him of Evie and he felt his heart ache, like it was being ground down.

But it was either this Jirachi or many, many others. One last job, think of it as that.

“… you grant wishes, right? Can I get you to come with me…? We need help.”

It didn’t matter what kind of response he got, he had his heart set on taking Jirachi… he just couldn’t meet its gaze right now, that’s all.

While it may be hard to tell if Jirachi understood at first, the smile on its face followed by its two tassles now wrapping onto Buson's hand answers that. It lets out a cheerful trill, happily expressing to the man's need -- desire for help, and is willing to let Buson lead the way for it.

Why was it… oh, those soft tassels have wrapped around his wrist, like two soft little hands, holding his.

It had no reason to mistrust him. That sweet, cheerful voice and those innocent eyes and the way it held his wrist without hesitation. It was so light, so small, so delicate—it weighed so heavy on his soul.

It wasn’t like taking down something as strong or vicious as Raikou or Rayquaza, it wasn’t like fighting something that didn’t hesitate to kill him, it felt… so much like Evie. The innocence was so damning. There was no glory or triumph in this.

His hands were so large by comparison, he could easily choke it unconscious with his other hand and throw it into a crate or stash it in his luggage, then smuggle it back with him. What a small neck. What a fragile creature—

He stopped walking abruptly, his breathing quickened. He sounded like he could be crying, although he shed no tears.

“… let go of me. I’m the worst, lowest scum. You can’t reach the person I want to save, unless you come home to my world. And I… don’t know if it’ll be enough to convince him.”

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[MINI EVENT] ☆T A N A B A T A☆

[Chura Island; with an additional prompt of absolute awfulness for Jirachi]

A

[1/2; you know, I don't think they've ever interacted before!]

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[CW death, I’m so sorry Buson is like this today, Alice]

she's used to it, #evildadproblems

[1/2]

[2/2; never mind, he (very nearly) doesn't want it anymore / CW dehumanization, gee, thanks, Buson]

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C - A wild Jirachi appeared!

[oof]

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