Intro post - Winding up in Ultern

[red_berry]

[STARDUST BEACH]

It's a windy day in Ohritori Island. Not stormy, but the waves are high. And on Stardust Beach, a man is standing alone, watching the waves. He's tall and thin as a beanpole, wearing an oversized plain white T-shirt that makes him look even thinner, like the wind could make him fall over any moment now. But he stands there without falling, motionless. It's a bit of an eerie sight.

If you approach him, he looks at you, hair blowing in his face and covering most of it.

"...Not Alola," is how he greets you.

[POKEMON CENTER]

Later, you can find Red sitting at the cafe in the Pokemon Center, hair still a complete mess from the wind, typing on his phone and ignoring a cooling cup of tea front of him. There's a slightly grumpy Pikachu, also with wind-frazzled fur, sitting on his table and nibbling on a rainbow Pokebean.

But if you're not at the Pokemon Center, you might instead see a post on Pippi, the Ulternian version of Twitter.

[ONLINE]

Red Sr. (@)scarlet_ellipsis posted:
[Image of a Pikachu standing in heavy wind with his face scrunched up. The caption over it says "it fucken WIMDY"]
he hates this weather!! [several laughing emojis]

(ooc: This is Gold's player, bringing in a different character from the same AU! Come say hi to Red, either in person or online! He's a lot easier to talk to online though XD)

Comments

[radleyslittleevie]

Evie appreciates Red's thoughtfulness, but is still confused.

"Okay! What's different?"

[red_berry]

"...Beach."

Red reaches to dip his hand into the sand and lifts some of it up to show the star-shaped sand to Evie.

"This."

It's the easiest difference between Alola and wherever Red is now that he can show. Hopefully the Eevee will understand what he's saying. Now, where is he, anyway? And how did he get here, and why is Green not here...

"...Where is this?" he asks, since that's the most important question.

[radleyslittleevie]

"Oh. Yeah, that's really different! It's so pretty!" Evie exclaims.

"This is Ultern! People and Pokemon are getting brought here from all over!"

[red_berry]

"Ultern..." That sounds important, so Red repeats it to himself.

People and Pokemon are brought here... So that's why he's here. Maybe Green ended up here too. He should ask about him.

"...Green?" is all he manages to vocalize of that question, though.

[radleyslittleevie]

"... Green?" Evie is confused again. "There's lots of pretty green things here: grass and trees and even some Pokemon!"

[red_berry]

"Ah... Mm." Red nods. Well, it's a good response to what he asked, but not a response to the question he wanted to ask. He'll try again.

Instead of trying to describe Green, Red takes out his phone and takes a moment to silently tap and scroll through it before he finds a photo of Green, then shows it to Evie. It's a young man with spiky light brown hair, wearing sunglasses and standing in front of an Alolan beach.

"Seen him?" Red asks.

[radleyslittleevie]

Evie looks. "Oh! No, I haven't! But it's a big place; he could be here!"

[red_berry]

"Mm," Red agrees. Well, if Green could be here he should start looking for him. Maybe on some mountain or cave? Or a Gym, or a cafe, or a tourist spot... Green talked a lot about the places he wanted to visit in Alola, but what were they? Maybe if he finds similar places in Ultern, he'll find Green...

Lost in thought, Red forgets he was talking to somebody and just sits there for a while in silence as he's trying to remember. Sorry, Evie.

[radleyslittleevie]

Evie is patient and waits.

"I could help look for him!" she says.

[red_berry]

"Oh." Red blinks, eyes focusing on Evie again. Right, the talking Eevee. "Thanks."

That's nice of the Eevee. Now that Red thinks about it, maybe the Eevee has a name. Red should introduce himself too.

"Red."

...No, that's not enough. Red points at himself a second after saying his name. Hopefully that's enough to communicate.

[radleyslittleevie]

Evie understands. "I'm Evie!" she chirps. Which sounds the same as Eevee, so it might be confusing.

[red_berry]

Red nods. An Eevee named Eevee... Or Evie. Probably Evie.

...He's not sure what to say next. Conversations are hard. If Green was here, he'd be able to keep talking easily. ...If Green was here, what would he say?

"...Nice to meet you," Red says after an awkwardly long pause.

[radleyslittleevie]

"You too!" Evie chirps. "I love making new friends!"

[red_berry]

"Mm."

Well, Red's conversation script has been used up. He wants to go look for places Green might be in, and Evie wanted to help Red find Green too, so right now he figures it'd make sense for them to go in different directions. With that thought in mind, Red just stands up and turns to walk away without another word.

[radleyslittleevie]

Evie, of course, doesn't understand. She moves to follow. "Where are we going?"

[red_berry]

Oh, he's being followed. Well, he doesn't really mind going together either.

"Green," he replies, then pauses. "...Looking for Green."

[radleyslittleevie]

"Okay!" Evie says happily. "Where should we look?"

[red_berry]

"...This way."

Red points in the direction of the city. He figures if Green's somewhere here, it'd probably be somewhere with a lot of people.

[radleyslittleevie]

"The city is fun!" Evie trots along happily, leading the way.

[red_berry]

"Nice," Red says with a completely flat voice. He means it genuinely though. It's nice that the city he's going to is fun for an Eevee. Maybe his Pokemon will like it too.

Now that he thinks about it, he should bring out one of his Pokemon. Maybe Pika would get along with Evie. And so, Red brings out one of his Pokeballs.

"Pika," he says, and a Pikachu appears out of the Pokeball next to Evie.

"(Oh, uh, hi!)" Pika says in Pikachu language, a bit surprised to suddenly be brought out, and waves awkwardly at Evie.

[radleyslittleevie]

Evie is delighted!

"Hi!" she exclaims. "Do you like it here?"

[red_berry]

Pika is kind of thrown off by the question.

"(Uh, it's-)" and a sudden burst of stronger wind blows sand into Pika's face, and he closes his eyes, spitting sand out once the wind slows down again. "(Buh! Bleh!)" Then he wipes his eyes and carefully opens them again. "(...It's a bit windy! Not, um, a big fan of that.)"

Red snaps some photos while that's happening.

[radleyslittleevie]

"Oh. Yeah, that's not fun! Sand here doesn't taste good even though it looks so pretty!" Evie says.

[red_berry]

"(Well, I doubt - bleh - sand anywhere else tastes better,)" Pika says with a bit of an awkward laugh, still spitting a bit of sand out. "(So far, I can't say I like it here! Er, where is "here" anyway?)"

Red's still taking pictures, both of the Pokemon and the scenery around him.

[radleyslittleevie]

"That's true! It's really nice here in other ways, though!" Evie says. "It's Ultern!"