farawayplace | intro post 8)

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intro post 8)

[ A lone figure can be seen walking up the western beach of Ohritori, past Banyan Labs and towards Turnbloom, carrying a backpack and dressed warmly (beanie, turtleneck, cargo pants, gloves and boots) despite the tropical weather. They seem to be talking to themself, looking around with jerky, birdlike head movements, and poking at a classic Pokégear on their left arm. ]

"Now ain't this a pickle. Don't think I stumbled into weirdspace, don't think I'd be eligible to bubble up twice in a lifetime, but if this beach is in INDIGO I'll eat my hat. And that means... drat. The POKéGEAR's no use either. 'Area unknown'? Come on. It's not even doing anything interesting."

[ They over-enunciate the words "Indigo" and "Pokégear", as if each proper noun were its own sentence. ]

"Well! Nothing for it! Guess I'll hoof it 'til I meet someone to ask for directions."

[ With that, they start whistling a tune and continue on their way... ]

((OOC: Heh, been a long time since I wrote this character... or did LJRP at all, for that matter. But I saw advert posts about Faraway Place and decided I might as well dip my feet back in. Hi all! ))

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A ten-year-old's hanging out in the yard of Banyan Labs, poking at random things on the ground, exploring and just getting used to the place he's recently started living in, and initially doesn't pay much mind to the stranger passing by. That is, until Gold hears them talking, over-enunciating proper nouns in a familiar way he hasn't heard since he left Johto. It's a dialect he doesn't speak himself, but it strikes him right in the homesickness, and Gold turns to look at the passerby with the purple turtleneck and the Pokegear, then rushes after them, holding onto his backpack to keep it from jostling too much.

"Hello! Excuse me!" he calls out, running to catch up to them. "Are you from Johto?!"

((ooc: Hi! Welcome!))

[ The stranger had just started to consider whether they should double back to go bother whoever the local Professor was, when Gold takes notice of them and makes the decision moot. ]

"Oh! Hey kid!"

[ Mandy immediately breaks into a grin and stops to let Gold catch up. ]

"Nah. Other side of the falls - came from CINNABAR, live in CELADON these days. Although... haha, seems I've somehow wandered pretty far from home now. Not quite sure how I got here!"

[ They hold out a hand. ]

"Name's MANDY. Pleased as punch t'meetcha."

Gold stops in front of Mandy and looks them over briefly, as he usually does when meeting new people.

"Oh, you're from Kanto?" Gold feels like he's been meeting people from there a lot recently. "I'm from Johto! I came from New Bark Town, now I live in Olivine City... Um, I guess I live here now though." He glances over his shoulder at Professor Banyan's house. Then he realizes Mandy's just drifted to Ultern, and he's got the responsibility to tell them what's up, so he straightens his back a little.

"Yeah, that happens! Um, I mean, I ended up here just like that when I was trying to go to Goldenrod City, and it happens to a lot of people? They call it "drifting"... I think I saw a pamphlet about it?" Gold pauses uncertainly, trying to think of what else he should tell a newcomer about Ultern. "Oh! And this region's called Ultern!" Yeah, that's kind of important.

"I'm Gold!" He accepts the handshake cheerfully, but tilts his head at the name. "MANDY?" he says, mimicking Mandy's pronounciation. "Kinda girly name... but there's "man" in it too...?" he mumbles, looking over Mandy, confused. Is this a woman or a man...?

((Gold has met at least one nonbinary person before, but too briefly to learn the concept ^^;))

"I see, I see."

[ Mandy pauses to puzzle over Gold's explanation of Ultern and its propensity to mysteriously pick up new residents. The idea of a phenomenon like that confuses them - a place that nonlocally interacts with people who've not even been there yet? That shouldn't be possible. Maybe instead of it being Ultern itself, it's really something like a local Ulternian Legendary porting people around? ]

[ But Mandy sets this line of thought aside for now. Better not keep the kid waiting! They grin at Gold trying to puzzle out their name, and then lean down to reply in a low, conspiratorial voice. ]

"Yep! That's 'cause neither option fits me very well. But it's no problem - I'm one of the other options instead! Don't know what it's called in this language, but don't you worry about that. 'Not quite a boy, nor quite a girl' is good enough."

[ Mandy winks at the end for emphasis. ]

Edited 2022-10-30 22:22 (UTC)

Gold leans back a little on instinct, not entirely comfortable with anyone he doesn't know well getting that close to his personal space, but the explanation has him just nodding blankly.

"Oh, okay," he says, clearly not totally getting it.

Suddenly, another voice, smooth and deep yet somewhat muffled and tinny, comes from one of the Pokeballs on Gold's waist, speaking like a human.

"You know, like Jinzel," the voice states.

"Oh okay, like Jinzel?" Gold glances towards his Pokeballs, not even blinking at the sudden voice, just nodding with clearly more understanding. "Yeah, that makes sense." Somebody you can't really call either a man or a woman... Gold thinks he knows what that's about now. He looks over Mandy again and nods to himself. Yeah, he figures he can see it.

However, neither he nor the voice seem to have any intent to explain that interjection to Mandy. Gold's too deep in thoughts with the new information, and the mystery voice - or Umbar, as he prefers to be called - waits to see how Mandy reacts.

[ By the time Umbar chimes in, Mandy has stood back up, and they cock their head, almost birdlike, at the new voice. Another Pokémon who's learned to talk? Almost certainly; whoever it is can be balled. Legend? Strong psychic? One of those Rotoms that picked up the knack from possessing communication devices? Hm. Another thing to file away and think about later. For now, they continue to address Gold directly. ]

"Ah! Good to see you've got someone so sharp looking out for you too. Imagine their advice has been mighty handy, if you got dropped here like I did. Drifted? Y'know what I mean. If you don't mind me asking... is your pal there a friend from back in JOHTO? Or did you meet after you came here to ULTERN?"

Gold's starting to notice Mandy's odd way of moving their head. However, it reminds him of Jinzel, the Ho-oh in human form, so Gold makes the logical conclusion that odd, birdlike movements are just a non-binary thing.

"Oh, yeah, Umbar's super smart!" Gold brightens up, happy to hear somebody praising his Pokemon. "It woulda been really hard if he wasn't here, and my other Pokemon too! They all came with me from Johto. Oh, hold on, I'll bring him out!"

Gold takes out the one Lure Ball in the middle of his regular Pokeballs, and throws it gently to the side.

"Umbar, come out!"

In a flash, Lugia, the guardian of Johto's oceans, appears majestically. Well, he's just standing there, really. He smiles politely to Mandy.

"Nice to meet you! My name is Umbar," he says. "I'd offer a handshake, but, well..." Umbar gestures with his hand, which is about as big as Gold, and chuckles softly.

However, he's subtly keeping an eye on Mandy. Though they don't seem dangerous, Umbar can sense something just kind of... off about them, enough that it's worrying him. Thus, he drew attention to himself to casually join the conversation and look out for Gold. He shows none of this on his face, though.

[ Mandy's eyes go wide as Umbar emerges from his ball and renders Mandy's earlier speculations moot. Somehow, even though they'd considered the possibility that the voice was a Legend who'd decided to accompany this boy, they hadn't expected to be standing face to face with one! ]

[ After just a second or two of shock, though, Mandy is able to compose themself and return to their accustomed smile, if a little shakier. They wave at Umbar with their right hand, and put their left over their chest. A sign of respect? An attempt to help calm themself? Perhaps a bit of both. ]

Haha! Sorry, just got a little startled there. Sure you understand. It's an honor to meet you in person, sir! I will consider my hand shaken in spirit.

Gold and Umbar both watch Mandy's shock with some amusement. Reactions like that never get old!

"Oh, don't worry about it. It's a common enough reaction," Umbar replies flippantly. "People often get surprised enough to swear out loud, so yours was a fairly mild reaction, honestly. Anyway, Mandy, was it? If I may ask, what do you do for a living?"

Umbar goes for casual small talk to hopefully gauge Mandy a bit more. Meanwhile, Gold's standing to the side, realizing it's time for boring adult talk and he's got nothing to contribute to it, so he waits quietly.

[ Mandy seems to relax a little at the question. It's one they've answered many times before, and they comfortably slip back into the script for it. ]

Owner proprietor, JADE CITY RUMMAGE, on FOREST ROW in WEST CELADON. Used equipment bought and sold, bulk consumables, special orders in a pinch. Started out just as a POKéDEX repair shop. I'm mighty fond of the classic BILL's PC era stuff, before DEVON CORP standardized the protocols and made it all locked down and boring; I wanted to help folks who've still got their originals keep 'em up and running. But we've grown quite a bit since then. We're no CELADON DEPARTMENT STORE, of course, but we don't need to be. Proud of everyone on the team who made it happen.

[ They look a little wistful at that. ]

Hopefully they'll be able to manage the place without me. Given what your friend just said about DRIFTing and such, it might be quite a while before I can get back...

[ They shrug. ]

Well! Better look at the bright side. Maybe I'll rebuild the business here, once I get to the nearest town!

Edited 2022-10-31 19:15 (UTC)

Umbar nods and smiles politely throughout Mandy's explanation, though he's a bit out of his element. Gold's staring with a completely blank face, even though he understands more of it than Umbar.

"...I see! So... you're speaking of COMPUTERS and the like, correct?" Umbar asks uncertainly, but keeps his polite smile. It seems Mandy's speaking style is a little infectious. "All this modern technology is a bit unfamiliar to me, to be honest, but it sounds like a wonderful shop!"

"So you like weird old Pokedexes?" Gold asks bluntly, then takes off his backbag and starts digging through it. "Mine's kinda like that, I guess! I thought it was normal, but..." he pauses, making a slightly troubled face (Professor Banyan told him it's fine to call him "Uncle Beni" but he's not yet comfortable with saying it...) before continuing. "Professor Banyan said it was so weird he couldn't update it, or something? He gave me a new Pokedex, but I've still got the old one..." He keeps digging through his bag, setting it down on the ground. Huh, were there this many items here before...?

Umbar looks at Gold, but it seems like he'll be at that for a while, so he turns back to continue his conversation with Mandy.

"I'm sure your business would find plenty of customers here," Umbar says brightly. "After all, with so many people from different worlds here, there must be many different kinds of... technologies? Machines? You know what I mean." He pauses, realizing something. "Oh, yes, I believe Gold forgot to mention it, but there are people from different worlds here." Probably an important thing to say to a newcomer.

"Thank you, sir! Glad for your approval. And you're exactly right - used "computer stuff", especially portable stuff you might use in the field, have always been the core business. But before long we also branched out to basic travel equipment too, like tents and escape kits. And so many trainers come through CELADON's shopping district, almost any shop there can stock berries and REPELs and so on as a side hustle."

[ Mandy doesn't mention, of course, that they have a slight advantage when it comes to procuring those trainer-bait "bulk consumables". Speaking of which, they also notice the unusual amount of unpacking Gold is having to do. Mandy looks at the growing pile and tries to ballpark the numbers. 64, 96, 128... well! Perhaps that Pokédex he mentioned really is a pre-Devon model, and something accidentally bumped the scan button while they were talking? Gold mentioned he was from Johto, so would that make it a HANDY808? ]

"Haha, if he had trouble updating it with the local fauna, then I'll bet it's exactly the kind I'm nostalgic about! The first few generations of POKéDEXes still had the shortcuts PROF. OAK originally took to get his invention up and running... for instance, that it'd only hold 255 species at most. I can imagine the kind of problems PROF. BANYAN might've run into, trying to take it past that limit."

[ The mention of "different worlds" stops Mandy short, though. Once again, they're suddenly out of their depth; they'd heard rumors of that type of thing in other regions - Opelucid in Unova, or whatever that nonsense was with Team Rocket's brief expansion to Alola - but that kind of thing had never come to Kanto, as far as they knew, so they'd never bothered to investigate or think about it. Although... ]

"Now that you mention it, that would sure shine some light on a chat I had earlier, with a girl on the coast. I couldn't figure out what in the world she was talking about half the time, but if what she was talking about was her world, that stands to reason, doesn't it?"

[ Mandy finds their mind racing at the possibilities. Umbar's right; if this is a region where people might show up from anywhen and anywhere - even mutually exclusive anywheres - then that means spare parts become at once more obtainable and more precious. More importantly, Gold is proof that among those transplanted immigrants, there'll be active demand for the oldest equipment again... the kind that can still underflow or glitzerpop under the right conditions. They let just a little of that excitement show on their face. ]

"Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Gotta get into town and get myself situated first! No sense putting the cart before the MUDSDALE."

Edited 2022-11-01 18:58 (UTC)

"Ah, I see! A store with many purposes, then," Umbar says, nodding. Berries and Repels he understands, better than computers. It all seems very... normal. Umbar still can't tell what exactly Mandy is, but they seem mostly harmless. Still, the odd, uncomfortable feeling of something not-quite-right lingers.

Though, when Mandy's attention is drawn to Gold's unpacking, Umbar takes a look too, and blinks. That's far too many copies of TM49 Fury Cutter for anyone to be carrying.

"...Gold, how did you come across those?" he asks, just in case. He doesn't know what Gold was up to before encountering him, after all, and it wasn't out of the realm of possibility that he'd acquire a few (or a lot) of extras.

"I didn't!" Gold says, annoyed. "I got one from Bugsy, I dunno why there's so many now!" He dumps an armload of them onto the ground. "Maybe I can sell them or something..." He keeps digging through his bag. Where the heck is that Pokedex?

"Yeah, the Professor said my Pokedex was all weird and like, weirdly programmed or something? And you're right, he said it didn't have space!" Gold grins, a bit awed at Mandy guessing totally right. "And it used a lot of the space it had for, like, useless stuff like changing the way it talks and, uh..." He tries to remember what Professor Banyan told him. "There was a lot of stuff for, like... making it not break when it encounters something weird? Failsaves? I dunno, it was complicated, but I bet you get it more than me."

While Gold is searching for his Pokedex, Umbar decides to not address the issue of the multiplied items quite yet, and continues the discussion with Mandy.

"That does sound likely. I've seen quite a few people from different worlds already, myself. For example, one girl who looked exactly like someone Gold knew, and who knew someone who looked exactly like Gold. It was quite the confusing conversation before they realized they were from different worlds!" Umbar chuckles at the memory. "So it's perhaps best not to take any assumptions for granted in this region." And as Umbar says it, he finds himself wondering if perhaps he should be taking his own advice. Maybe whatever is off about Mandy is simply normal wherever they're from. They do seem like just an ordinary shopkeeper, excited to follow their passion for their job.

"Found it!!" Gold shouts in triumph, interrupting Umbar's thoughts and anything else he was about to respnd to Mandy with. Gold stands up, Pokedex in hand. It is, as Mandy suspected, a HANDY808 model, or at least something that looks just like it on the outside. Gold opens up the Pokedex and stares at the screen, surprised. "Huh, that's weird. Hey, is this broken? What's it doing?" he asks, pushing the Pokedex into Mandy's hands, a little scared that he might've broken it on accident.

The Pokedex shows just a white screen, no UI, with black text in the middle stating "MISSING NUMBER encountered. Scan aborted. Please contact PROF. OAK for information."

[ Mandy takes one glance at the screen and grimaces a bit. Best to get this cleared away quickly, just in case that word rings a bell for Gold's... still somewhat intimidating guardian. ]

Ah! Yep, sure seen this before, my old HANDY505'll do it too sometimes when it tries to scan something that doesn't register properly as a POKéMON. Just a moment...

[ Mandy fishes out a bit of wire from one of their innumerable cargo pants pockets and begins fiddling with something under a plastic cover. After a bit of effort, the Pokédex's screen goes blank and starts rebooting. They spend a few more tense moments waiting for the reboot, and then, once the UI returns, scrolling through the SEEN index to make sure the entries there look normal. Finally satisfied, Mandy breathes a sigh of relief and returns to their accustomed smile. ]

Edited 2022-11-02 00:18 (UTC)

There you go! Should be all better. Just make sure your POKéDEX is properly latched closed before you pack it away from now on; that way, you won't accidentally trigger scans when there's no POKéMON nearby. The good news is, if you do see an error like that, it's usually harmless. There's a little reset button under the battery cover, here —

[ Mandy indicates the spot, pointing at it with the bit of wire, and then closes up the Pokédex and hands it back to Gold with a grin. ]

— and if you just use a bent paperclip to poke it, it'll clear the error and restart the electronics. Right as rain!

Gold watches with curiosity as Mandy reboots the Pokedex, constantly standing on his toes and hopping a bit, trying to see it better.

"Whoaaa..." he says quietly in awe as he watches. He smiles when Mandy hands his Pokedex back. "Thanks..." He pauses, trying to think of what to call Mandy. Not mister or miss, so he settles on: "Mandy! So it works now?"

He points the Pokedex at Umbar and presses the scan button to test it right away.

"MISSING NUMBER encountered. Scan aborted. Please contact PROF. OAK for information," a mechanic voice rings out.

Both Gold and Umbar blink in confusion.

"That's weird. It used to scan Umbar right... And the voice is kinda different..." Gold mumbles to himself, pressing another button. "Oh! It went back to normal!" he says, expression brightening immediately, turning to show it to Mandy. The screen is showing the regular Pokedex UI, and the SEEN index looks normal too. "Look! There's no need for paperclips after all! Is that one of those failsaves?"

"How fortunate," Umbar says, leaning in closer to see it. "I do wonder why it did that again. Perhaps there's something in the air, affecting it?" He slowly looks at Mandy pointedly, before giving a friendly smile. "I'm sure our resident Pokedex expert has some guesses, hm?"

(Unbeknownst to either of them, the Professor Oak of Gold's world did a lot of research into glitch Pokemon and made sure his Pokedex never freezes fully around them. Also unknown to them, the sixth item in Gold's backpack is now his bicycle. Good thing backpacks can fit so many of the same item with no problem!)

((ooc: oh, missingno-duped key items are funny. be prepared for it to look like there's only one bike... except if you take it out or deposit it in a PC, there's still one bike left over, Bartholomew Cubbins style!))

[ Mandy is this close to panicking. Gold wasn't even scanning them! He'd pointed his Pokédex at Umbar! Was it seriously doing some kind of 360 degree sweep whenever you activated it, just sort of scanning opportunistically? If it was a Professor Oak original, it would theoretically make sense - he was handing them out to new Trainers who might not know what to look for, so the device might as well scan everything if possible - but... gah. How to even handle this? ]

[ No. No. They force themself to relax - at least outwardly - as much as possible. There's got to be some sort of plausible explanation they can suggest that won't give the whole game away. ]

"Well! It's. Certainly not the result I expected! Guess it's speculation time, then. No assumptions, like UMBAR said. Hm..."

[ Mandy snaps their fingers, coming up with an idea finally. ]

"...GOLD, when you first came to ULSAI, how long was it before you used that POKéDEX for the first time?

"The little I heard about ALOLA's trouble with the ULTRA BEASTS involved some people radiating some... weird energy after falling through a wormhole. Maybe it's detecting that on me, somehow, since I DRIFTed here an hour or two ago at most? I assume your POKéDEX has worked on at least some of the native POKéMON since you came here, so it'd have to be something left over from the journey itself, not just that the POKéMON you're scanning are from a different world than you."

[ Mandy is pretty sure it doesn't work that way, even if they never paid too much attention to all that Faller business; weren't those folks still attracting Ultra Beasts weeks later? But it'd be a way to correctly pin the issue on Mandy's own presence, without making it sound like something intrinsic to them. That is, unless Gold had used his Pokédex within the first couple hours after Drifting in. In that case, the fact that he didn't trip the failsafe himself, until now, would immediately debunk the theory. ]

Edited 2022-11-02 07:14 (UTC)

((ooc: oh nice, schrodinger's multiplying bike. XD))

Ultra Beasts? Wormholes? Gold tilts his head. This is all way above his understanding, but he assumes Mandy knows what they're talking about.

"Umm... I did use my Pokedex after arriving though?" he says, a bit confused, but the memory of that first day here is still fresh in his mind. "I appeared on the beach, then met Nami, who mentioned some Pokemon I dunno, so I checked my Pokedex but it didn't know it either..." He recounts the events, mostly to himself, pondering. "I didn't scan anything though so maybe that woulda happened if I did."

"It sounds like a perfectly reasonable explanation," Umbar says brightly, having kept a close eye on Mandy's reactions throughout the conversation. He can't be certain, but he gets the feeling that Mandy's not a bad person at least, despite whatever secret they're clearly hiding. He'd be fine with dropping this and letting Mandy keep their facade up. Still, he can't help but ask "I don't suppose that energy could be responsible for that item in Gold's bag multiplying?" while pointing at the pile of TMs on the ground. At this point, he's just curious to see how Mandy talks their way out of this one.

[ Okay. Umbar is going along with it. Gold is going along with Umbar. And so, Mandy gets their composure back just in time to not visibly react when Umbar asks the follow-up question. Does he already know? Did he know from the moment that 'dex said "MISSING NUMBER" out loud? Is he just toying with them? ]

[ ...even if so, Umbar isn't challenging the story where Gold can hear. That's good. It means, no matter what he suspects, he at least doesn't consider them an immediate threat, or a danger to Gold. That's... that's the most important thing here. They try to look casual and confident. They can do this. ]

"UMBAR, sir, despite some niche technical skills, I'm no PROFESSOR or scientist. Everything I know about ULTRA SPACE is stuff they said on the news, and they didn't mention anything like that. But if there was that type of side effect, I doubt they'd've brought it up. The FALLERs were already getting harassed by weird alien POKéMON; it'd just encourage regular humans to bother them too."

[ Mandy doesn't wince, but they want to. The theory sounds good. It makes sense at first glance. But it'd fall apart if you picked at it at all. If Ultra Space energy or whatever intrinsically wrote to possessions, then Ultern's locals would have noticed it; it'd be considered a normal part of Drifting. Since it isn't... this will probably be enough, in hindsight, to convince Umbar that something else is up, if he wasn't already convinced. Even if he doesn't think Mandy was deliberately fibbing. ]

[ Well! Nothing for it, but to see how he reacts, and whether Mandy's implicit argument – that "a person ambiently duplicating items" is the kind of anomaly best kept a secret, for that person's own sake – is enough to convince him to keep a lid on things. ]

Edited 2022-11-02 17:29 (UTC)

"Ah, I see," Umbar says, non-committally. He can definitely see the holes in this theory, but he's willing to play dumb. "Well, I suppose I know nothing about this "Ultra Space" you talked about..." Though he has heard of Alola's anomalies, the name humans have given it isn't familiar to him, so he can technically claim that. "Your theory could just as well be true, as far as I know."

Unfortunately, while Umbar is perfectly willing to let it go, Gold has no reason to do so.

"Huh? No it can't," Gold says directly, looking at Umbar like he's being dumb. "I dunno about Ultra Space or Fallers or whatever, but I haven't seen any weird alien Pokemon and my items haven't multiplied when I meet a new person drifting to Ultern until now." He pauses, then looks at Mandy with a newfound shine in his eyes. "Wait, was that you? Do you have a secret special power to make more items??" Though he's excited, he makes sure to lower the volume of his voice, since it seems like a secret.

Umbar stands there silently with a complicated expression, a frozen, polite smile that is both awkward because of Gold's straightforwardness, and sharp because he's keeping an eye on what Mandy might do now that Gold may have discovered something they didn't want revealed.

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