farawayplace | Suddenly in the midst of a Summer Festival--

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Suddenly in the midst of a Summer Festival--

There's a distinct sound of waves, and bustling of people nearby.

In the coastal city of Turnbloom the sun is bright and warm, and the scent of the sea wafts through with the cool gentle breeze that makes the glittering pinwheels spin, and the leaves on the palm tree dance.

Today the streets are extra decorated with these cute, colorful and floral shaped pinwheels. It seemed the people who were out in the streets were dressed in colorful summer attire--either casual, or the more traditional yukata. It seemed like with the booths were set out for both food and games for festival of some kind that was currently underway.

Just how did you get here, and why? A mystery, and it seemed the people in the streets didn't seem to notice anything out of the ordinary as they go about enjoying their time out on this bright sunny day.

(🌺Please don't forget to check out the OOC post for those who haven't yet!🌺)

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Crystal's head turns when she hears the familiar voice. She wants to greet Gold as a normal friend, but he's always saying something ridiculous, and this time was extremely to point.

"What's that supposed to mean, Gold? Of course I'm Crystal."

"Ugh, I guess you are," Gold sighs, irritated. "Why'd it have to be you..."

Though she seems a bit different, that annoying tone is definitely the Crystal Gold knows. Nobody else she could be. Despite his irritation, he relaxes a bit, thinking he's in the company of somebody from back home.

"More importantly, how'd you get here? I got really lost on my way to Goldenrod City and I really, really need to go back!" He pauses, cringing a bit as he realizes he shouldn't have admitted that to her. "Uh, don't tell anyone I'm going to Goldenrod City, by the way."

He'd promised he wouldn't go to Goldenrod City while it was swarming with Rocket Grunts, after all.

"Gah! You're even worse than usual! What's with that response!?"

Crystal huffs in reaction to Gold's tone with how he's reacting to her. It takes a moment before she can calm down enough to even dream of answering his question. Which seemed like a weirder one than even she would expect from the pool cue freak. It's a question so weird it makes her forget to ask him where his Pichu and cool cue even are.

"How'd I get here? I took a boat obviously. Professor Oak asked me to go to a new region to do some catching and research...though now that you mention it, I don't remember it specifically being here. Either way- how do you end up on a coastal area when you're trying to get to Goldenrod?"

Gold stays tensely quiet as he waits for Crystal to calm down, biting down his instinct to respond aggressively, and lets out a small relieved breath as she starts to talk again. He wasn't aware Crystal knew Professor Oak, but he mentally files that away as something new he didn't know about her. Not worth asking her about.

"Don't underestimate me! I get lost really easily!" Gold says almost proudly. "And anyway, Goldenrod City is near the sea! I think! Isn't it?"

He frowns thoughtfully, before getting a bit more serious.

"Anyway, is this really a whole different region? I don't think I flew such a long way... I mean, over a whole ocean? That's a bit too much! I feel like maybe something's off here."

"I don't remember getting lost easy being one of your bad habits..."

Crystal gives a ponderous look at the boy, tapping her chin as she considers what he's saying here. She also doesn't remember him having any Pokemon that can carry a person in flight. Something seems a bit weird about this situation in her mind, if only she could put her finger on it.

"No Goldenrod isn't near the sea, at least not so close that it has a beach in plain view. As for the whole 'new region' thing, it has to be. I've never seen a festival like this in Johto, Kanto, or Hoenn."

"Well maybe you don't need to know about all my bad habits," Gold grits out defensively, then winces internally. After getting into a bit of a fight with Crystal the last time they spoke, he doesn't want to aggravate her further.

"Really? It looks to me like the festivals they have in Ecruteak City. But I guess you'd know better... You do live pretty close to Ecruteak."

So at this point enough has been dropped that Crystal is definitely confused and suspicious as she glances around and then looks at Gold curiously.

"If by close to Ecruteak you mean Violet, then yeah?"

"Huh? No, like... Between Ecruteak and Olivine?" Now Gold is confused too, staring at Crystal. He's certain he knows where Crystal lives, and she couldn't have moved since they last spoke. So who is this person, then? Same hairstyle, same outfit, same name... Gold gasps in realization.

"...It's like an Officer Jenny situation!" Gold exclaims, then nods solemnly. It all makes sense to him now. "I totally thought you were another Crystal. ...And you thought I was another Gold! So I'm the Nurse Joy! How many of me are out there? Why did nobody tell me?"

He's half talking to himself by now, oblivious that this probably makes absolutely no sense to Crystal.

"Noooo- oh no what?"

Gold is going off about something absolutely crazy now, there's no way this is correct. Also who even is Officer Jenny and Nurse Joy? At this point Crystal decides to grab Gold by the shoulders and look him dead in the eye with absolute seriousness. She seems to recall a strange theory she read before when she was spending time in Hoenn.

"You...what Pokemon did you get from Professor Elm!"

"Wha-"

Gold startles, freezing up when Crystal grabs him by the shoulders. Professor Elm? How did she know he got a Pokemon from Professor Elm? Did she know Elm? Did Elm send her after him? Did he want his Pokemon back? No, that's ridiculous. Too paranoid, Gold, reel it back. Gold calms himself down, taking a deep breath, and glares at Crystal.

"...Chikorita. So what? What's it to you, huh?!"

Okay, maybe he didn't manage to calm down entirely.

Crystal stops and stares, before letting go of Gold and stepping back to reach for her pokeballs.

"So it must be like that. You're a version of Gold from another dimension. I heard Steven Stone was looking into weird hypothesis like this but I never expected to run into someone like that."

Gold might think she's talking nonsense herself, but then she releases the pokemon and standing before Gold is a Meganium, and suddenly her story might seem to have a little more credence.

As soon as she lets him go, Gold steps back and dusts his shoulders, frowning, keeping an eye on her hand as she takes out the Pokeball.

He stares at Crystal blankly as she tells her idea, and keeps staring blankly as she brings out her Meganium, though he also takes another step back as it materializes, and places a hand over one of his own Pokeballs.

"So you have a Meganium too. Cool, that proves you're from another dimension! Only one Meganium exists in the world," he says flatly, but then shrugs. "But sure, I'll believe it. There's so much weirdness going on around this whole situation that another world makes the most sense."

(Meanwhile, in one of Gold's Pokeballs, a Meganium senses a possible friend and wants to come out and say hi.)

"Mega came from professor Elm, and you know the 'starter' pokemon are all beyond rare. Don't be so snippy."

Crys huffs at Gold's attitude about the whole thing, and Mega himself is leaning forward to give a sniff to Gold and maybe trying to look at his Pokeballs for friends. His trainer reaches forward to pat the Poke and tell it to back up a bit because this new Gold seems pretty on edge.

"It wouldn't be the first time experiencing something weird between all those villain teams and the legendaries."

"They're rare? I didn't know that," Gold says. Genuinely, he had no idea. If Professor Elm ever mentioned that, Gold didn't remember.

Gold goes still a bit when Mega leans forward, but relaxes when Crystal draws him back. One of the Pokeballs on his waist shakes a bit, and Gold glances at it. "Carn, you want to say hi?" he asks as he lifts it to eye level. It's the same kind of see-through Pokeball Crystal would be familiar with, so Gold sees his Meganium nod inside, and brings him out. Carn the Meganium immediately makes friendly noises at Mega, leaning in to sniff at his neck flower, which is probably a Meganium greeting.

"Villain teams? Oh, like Team Rocket? They were doing something at the radio tower in Goldenrod City." Gold gasps. "Is that how I got here? Team Rocket sent me to another world with radio waves??"

After all, if radio waves could make Magikarp evolve, who knows what else they could do?

Mega makes a pleased noise and also does a sniff of the other Meganium's flower. Even if the naming conventions were different and the pokemon something about this Gold was familiar enough to her. Though the mentions of what he says makes her brows furrow a bit in thought.

"Team Rocket...the radio tower? I've never run into them doing anything like that before. They seemed way more interested in causing trouble trying to use Celebii when I ran into them."

Crystal crosses her arms, it seems like their worlds were more different than she thought.

Carn makes a pleased noise back, grinning happily and chattering in Meganium language. A friendship may be forming. Gold feels soothed as he watches the two Meganium interacting, petting Carn's back with a fond smile. He's still not sure how to deal with this different Crystal, but she seems nice enough. Nicer than the Crystal from back home. Or maybe just easier to talk to.

"Celebi? Like the legendary Pokemon? Yeah, I haven't heard anything about that. I think Team Rocket was trying to get their old boss back. And evolving Magikarps. And using Electrode to power up some big machine. And the radio thing. And collecting road tolls. And something about Slowpoke tails?" Gold frowns. "I dunno what the heck they're even doing half the time I meet them."

Crystal seems pleased to see Mega make a friend as he chatters back in response. Perhaps they are talking about the crazy adventures they have both been on. Crystal for the most part shakes her head as she glances back towards one of the food stands.

"They have all sorts of weird schemes. I heard about Team Magma and Aqua from my friend Emerald. They're a crazy bunch too. I think it's better to just do what we can to stop them and move on."

"Hmm... so, in other words, if we find Team Rocket or Magma or Aqua or Something-or-other, and stop their radio waves or whatever schemes they've got... We can go home?"

Gold knows it's an overly optimistic idea, but hey, it's always worked before.

"That's...simplifying it a bit much, but I wasn't saying a team was behind us being here. I think this is more of an accidental vacation?"

Which neither Crys or Mega seem to have a problem with, especially after she takes a moment to pay for some donuts to share.

"Let's just relax until we get more obvious clues."

"I can't relax on vacation now, though. My friend Silver might be in trouble back in my world! I gotta get back to Goldenrod City!"

Those sugar donuts do look good though... No, can't get distracted. ~~Not until trying to steal one in another thread~~

Crys and Mega both stop before either can take a bite of the donuts she just bought to look at Gold with an extremely confused face. Sure she would call Silver a friend...just not to his face. Nor as worriedly as Gold just did. They look at each other and then turn to Gold as she speaks again.

"Wait so...Silver? You guys are friends? Not 'rivals'? And we're talking about the red haired guy about...so tall, always scowling, might have stolen a Pokemon or two himself back in the day...that Silver?"

Gold and Carn both look confused at the confusion, but Gold brightens up when she talks about Silver.

"Yeah! That's him! I guess we kinda started out as rivals? But then things happened, and I decided he's my friend! He was kinda grumpy about it for a while, but now we're best friends!" Gold explains, and Carn nods along. "Oh, and I dunno what happened in your world, but my Silver never stole any Pokemon." As Gold says this with confidence, Carn glances at him and averts his eyes shiftily.

Crys and Mega are both looking more to Carn's reaction than to Gold's. That solidifies it enough for her and she sighs.

"Well in that case you don't need to worry about him running into Team Rocket, he's a really strong trainer after all...probably even the strongest between the three of us in my world. Even if someone beats him in a battle he just comes back even harder, right?"

She decides to neglect telling Gold about the secrets she's learned about their close friend in the time she's known him like him being an ex-Rocket or the son of Giovanni. Crys fears this Gold probably couldn't take it.

Gold keeps nodding as Crystal talks about the Silver she knows. It all fits his Silver, too.

"Yeah, you're right. Silver is strong..." Gold trails off, frowning. "I know he's strong, I'm not worried he can't defeat them! I just think there's something kind of... off about him and Team Rocket. He acts weird whenever they come up. Like-" Gold shuts his mouth, then shakes his head. No, he's not going to talk about Silver's personal issues with someone he's only just met. "Anyway, I'm just really worried about how he's gonna react to meeting Team Rocket!"

Carn looks at Gold with worry as he speaks, and gently sets his head on Gold's shoulder. Gold absent-mindedly pats his head.

"As much as I understand where you're coming from, right now we can't do anything about it so...just calm down for now."

Crys isn't sure how to take this, but she definitely feels for Gold in this moment. It's a side she's never seen out of anyone who is usually so...obnoxious.

Suddenly in the midst of a Summer Festival--

time for confusion

confusion time, my favorite time

My favorite time is snack time

how long can these two talk before they realize they don't know each other

Probably long enough it'll take Crystal to figure it out.

Yeah, Gold is for sure not getting it.

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