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

[domeinion]

I see. Mine was, too, for a while, but it's a long story. Actually, all of this might be. I'll keep a look out, though. One of them's got to show up some time.

[She punches in a food order and smiles with what she hopes is reassurance.]

My name's Alice. If it's not any trouble, what about you? What's your name?

[red_berry]

For a while? Red wonders what that's about, but isn't curious enough to ask.

"Mm," he agrees, also hoping one of them will show up. Well, he'd prefer his Green to show up, but it might be interesting to meet another one.

"Red," he says, and after a small pause, asks "...Other Reds?"

Since if there are multiple Greens, there should be multiple of him too.

[domeinion]

A lot of them, actually. They aren't all named Red, either, but some of them. There's one here, though he looks a good deal younger than you are. And I'm not sure if Ash counts, he's got a few more differences than usual, but enough similarities...

[red_berry]

"Hmm." Multiple Reds, and an Ash, whoever that is... And another Red that looks younger. That does bring an idea to Red's head.

"Golds?" he asks, surreptitiously pointing a thumb at the waiter at the cafe, who looks a lot like the Gold Red knows from home, but smaller. If there are younger Reds, there might be younger Golds too. So maybe this is another Gold... or even the same Gold, but younger? He's not sure if that's possible, yet, but it seems possible in a place like this.

[domeinion]

Yes, him too! Do you know him? The one in my timeline was called AJ, but I'm aware of Gold. He seems like a nice person so far. Definitely good to talk to about strange phenomena.

[red_berry]

"I know... a Gold."

Red pauses, then takes out his phone, typing on it for a while. Then he leans over to show Alice what he wrote.

"he looks like the gold i know but really small??? like he's baby?? idk if he's the gold i know but from the past or a different gold?? :???"

Red's expression does not change in the slightest when he types this or when he shows it to Alice.

[domeinion]

[Okay, so this needs to be kept quiet! Alice understands that much at least. She nods, looks over at Gold quickly, and then back at Red's message.

...huh, he's a lot more excitable and emotional via text. Some people are just like that. Still...]

Holy Dome.

[She can't help but express surprise.

Still, she writes in the margin of her notes in response.]

Possible! Dimensional connections are made via not only space but time. .: time travel, accessing multiple points via stream = possible! But if he's from before you he might not know if he's your Gold. Specific variables you know of that might mark him as different? e.g. hair colour, accessories, speech patterns, patron/religion if any, team composition, known family ties & surname

[red_berry]

Though it's probably better that this is kept quiet, the main reason Red communicated this over text was just... he didn't think he'd be able to explain all of that through talking out loud. He's grateful that Alice's keeping this on the downlow, though.

He reads through Alice's writing and thinks about each of the identifiers. Hair color seems the same, accessories... unknown, since Gold's wearing an uniform right now. Speech patterns, also unknown since Gold was talking in a customer service tone. Patron or religion... All Red knows about the Gold from his world is he's not a fan of Arceus. Team and surname, those Red knows. He takes a moment to type a summary of what he knows down, before showing it to Alice.

"hair color - black, matches
accessories - ?
speech patterns - ?
religion - not arceus?
team - meganium, lugia, togetic, umbreon, furret
surname - drum
family - sister named soul, dad named kevin, fiance (i guess??) named silver, other family members = complicated???

do u know if any of these match waiter gold?? idk anything about him other than haircolor [sweatdrop emoji]"

[domeinion]

[She thinks for a moment and taps her pen on her paper. Then she writes surname yes

Underneath that,]

He also mentioned seeing another Gold in another world once. And these.

[She draws a Poké Ball with a semi-transparent top and what looks like a Togepi waving from inside it.]

This style.

AJ was never all that religious either. That's an understatement.

[red_berry]

The surname matches, then. Meeting another world's Gold... Well, if that happened, Gold hasn't told Red about it at least. The Pokeball drawing has Red confused for a moment. A Togepi, that matches. This style? Of what? Oh... The Pokeball? Now that he thinks about it, Red saw Pokeballs that weren't translucent earlier. So the Pokeballs in other worlds were like that?

Red takes out one of his own Pokeballs and shows it to Alice. A Charizard is visible inside, waving at Alice.

"...It's unusual?" he asks, referring to the Pokeball style. If it is, then maybe this Gold really is the Gold he knows. The first name and surname match, and at least one of his Pokemon, so... it's starting to seem more and more likely.

[domeinion]

[Alice nods and pulls out a Great Ball of her own -- opaque, a little scuffed from years of use. She waves at the Charizard, too. It's only polite.]

There are some places with them, but most without, from what I can tell. I do have to wonder how Poké Ball technology came to diverge over time? It had to have been some time after the widespread move to digital machines over Apricorns...

[red_berry]

Huh, it really is opaque. Strange seeing one of those so up close. He'll set Charizard's Pokeball on the table, next to his Pikachu, so they can chat if they want to. (Charizard makes a goofy pose in response to Alice waving back, but when he's set next to Pikachu, the two start talking, glancing at the opaque Great Ball. They seem weirded out by it.)

Red tilts his head. He's pretty sure Apricorn balls in his world are also translucent. But, eh, it's not relevant to what they were talking about, really. It'd be a bother to talk about it out loud, and writing it down would mean he couldn't do anything else with his phone. That'd be a problem, since he's got an idea: scrolling through his photos and looking for any with his world's Gold in them. He finds one and shows it to Alice.

It's a photo of what looks like Gold, but about 15-16 years old. He's got a grin on his face, slightly longer hair, is wearing a blue yukata, and flipping the camera off. Next to him is what's clearly a Silver, around the same age, wearing a black turtleneck and making the same pose as Gold. They seem to be indoors somewhere.

"...Your thoughts?" Red asks. To him, it looks like the same Gold, but he's only ever seen one Gold in his life. Since Alice seems to have met, or at least seen, multiple, maybe she could tell if it's the same person easier than Red can.

[domeinion]

Hm... [She leans in.] He looks the same. It's definitely not AJ. And that's the Silver you were talking about, right?

[It looks like Silver, or Four for that matter, but Alice has only seen or heard of either of them in passing. So it's more of a guess on her part.]

[red_berry]

"Mm," Red nods. He's more familiar with Silver than Gold himself, so he doesn't have many photos of Gold alone. He types on his phone again, then shows it to Alice. He couldn't help but make an inside joke Alice wouldn't get, though.

"no thats my son red jr. :P

anyway what do u think?? what's the chances this is the same guy? u know alternate worlds better than me right?? so ur the expert! i wanna trust my gut and say its the same gold but idk... :?"

[domeinion]

[Alice hums as she ponders this, and she writes some more, filling the rest of the page before passing it off to him.]

There's a saying we have in science. We can't prove something conclusively right, only conclusively wrong. But it's highly probable, from what you told me. Effects on timeline = unknown, previous known instances of people being drawn from different points: -Void (observation area beyond time, no lasting effect) -Omni-randomizer (complex manipulation of multiversal physics and causality to bad). Ultern almost certainly neither.

[red_berry]

Red reads this, a few times even, thinking it over in his head. He pauses for a moment before typing something, and showing it.

"so does that mean, if it's him, i shouldn't talk to him too much or timelines might go all screwy???

[domeinion]

[Alice turns the paper over to start writing on the other side.]

Inconclusive. If void - everyone already knows, working to fix - no detriment. If OR - can't get worse (colloquial; very much can get worse) - people who already knew talked to each other, also conspired to outwit randomizer successfully (team swap) .: helpful BUT kept secret from others but still interacted
This is neither scenario; effects unknown

I want to say "use your good judgment," but that's not very clear, is it?

[red_berry]

"hmmmm yea... ^^; not clear at all!! i guess going with my gut is the right call then???

o yea one more question!!! kinda nervous to ask but... is there no way to go home from here???? o.O"

Red still shows no expression on his face, but he's worried. With the way he's been hearing people he met and passed on the street talking about drifting, and Alice talking about this place like it's some other dimension entirely, he's starting to put pieces together into a picture he doesn't like.

[domeinion]

[Alice shakes her head with a frown. She sets down the pen.]

Unfortunately, not yet. This place has been subject to this dimensional travel phenomenon for what sounds like years, but I wouldn't give up just like that. We never know what could happen. The source is probably here in this region, and I intend to find it.

[red_berry]

Red leans back, and lets out a sigh. He glances at a plastic bag he's got leaning against his chair, clearly from a local shop, before typing his next message.

"well fuck!! i guess i can't go home huh... i had souvenirs for people back home too :///

i guess i could give gold's souvenir to the gold here?? even if he's not the same one maybe he'll like it!!! and i don't wanna lug these souvenirs around for no reason >.>

i hope you find the source tho!! and if i find it first i'll tell you ^o^"

Red figures he'll be travelling around the region, so maybe he'll stumble across something big. That seems to happen sometimes, after all. (And yes, souvenirs are the most relevant takeaway from the revelation that he can't go home. It's not like he visits his home that often anyway.)

[domeinion]

Of course! I'm thinking of taking this place's Gym challenge soon, so that'll mean a lot of travelling around the islands. Do you do that, too?

[red_berry]

"there's gyms?? nice!! i was just gonna wander around in the wilderness and live in a cave like usual lolll but if there's gyms i'm gonna challenge them \^o^/"

Since Alice didn't say anything about it, Red figures it's fine to gift his souvenirs to Gold. He'll just avoid saying anything that'd let him know Red knows him in the future, and everything will be fine.

[domeinion]

[Alice looks to the side and nods.] In a cave? I did that for a while, but it wasn't fun per se. But I guess if you decided you want to do it.

[red_berry]

"it's fun for me!! ^^ idk why nobody else thinks so but that's just more caves for me!! [sparkle emoji]"