Set in the original region of Arciel, Legends Rising is a route-inspired, but not strictly route-based, Pokemon roleplay. Pick a faction, pick a class, and strike out into the wild to take on the League, master Contest coordination, research the mysteries of Pokemon and Arciel, and much, much more. Will you be a classic trainer? A criminal? A farmer? Choose your destiny on Legends Rising.
Post by Senara Spargo on Dec 12, 2019 19:19:28 GMT
From pool to pool they hopped until they were at the bottom, which Senara climbed down to from the shortest of the elevated lakes before recalling Crepe to his pokeball. She began running her hands along the walls and shining her mining light on the dozens of little holes and bumps on the wall, trying to decipher a pattern. It was only when she had run her hand over them a few times that she recognized "words" among the indents.
While not legally blind, Senara had gotten used to things like braille at a young age. She grew up with the very real possibility that any damage done to her other eye would be the end of her ever seeing again--something her mother had been too quick to remind her whenever she was complaining about it growing up. Maybe that was why the old hag had pushed for her to learn braille. Either way, she hated when skills her mother had insisted upon her turned out to be useful after all. If the pute ever found out the amount of smugness would kill her. "I found something over here," Senara said aloud, and it echoed up the cavern to Shalin so clearly it was eerie, "They're not hieroglyphs. It's braille. But...I didn't think that Braille was that old..." She continued to run her hand over the words, frowning as the water-worn rocks made some things skip or some words end in bad places. "I'm only getting bits and pieces from it, though."
Senara finally found a word that wasn't worn or something she didn't recognize. After repeating her touch a few times to confirm, she spoke the word aloud: "Harmonic."
She kept one hand on the braille and the other rose to cup her chin in thought, her brow furrowed beneath her helmet. "Interesting. 'Harmony' has so many meanings in lore, both historical and mythological. Disturb not the harmony of fire, ice, and lightning; the harmonic balance of the Aura trio; etcetera. But I'm not familiar with Arciel's myths."
Shalin Nariya WC: 360 Lest these titans wreak destruction upon the world on which they clash...
Post by Shalin Nariya on Dec 13, 2019 17:23:32 GMT
"I've heard of Braille, but only by name," Shalin answered, briefly turning around to recall Levy. "There were ruins in Hoenn that had similar markings, but they were so remote that even I found them too difficult to get to." She approached the wall Senara was examining so she could bring her voice down and still be heard. Didn't want to attract angry wilds down here - not with how cramped it got the farther down. Shalin did not care for battles in cramped quarters.
"...Harmony?" Shalin paused for a few seconds as she listened to Senara recite the Kantonian myth. She added in a soft voice that was not quite a whisper, "There is a similar Johtonian myth about the wings of the sea and the wings of the sky. The fire, ice, and lightning you speak of were under the wings of the sea. Under the wings of the sky were three ferocious Beasts that ran too fast for words." She continued to recount the legend of the Warring Triads that ravaged ancient Johto and Kanto, shaping the lands into what they are today. "Neither am I, though...but I'm excited to uncover Arciel's mythology myself."
After the riveting discussion, Shalin swiveled around, seeing if there were other tunnels of similar archaeological structure. Or better yet, more of this Braille that Senara could read and she could not.
{WC: 229} {PC: 15} {Shalin: 44/61}
Last Edit: Dec 13, 2019 17:24:05 GMT by Shalin Nariya
What Shalin would find was there were no other tunnels or otherwise. As if this particular room were sectioned off from everything else, all that was was the room of pools itself. There were a few areas where some braille was not too worn that read words like 'reverberation' and 'song' but in what relation these things were was difficult to know. Perhaps one of them, though, would realize that the pools themselves seemed to shake and tremble a little more than they should have at each word spoken aloud.
Post by Senara Spargo on Dec 16, 2019 12:33:38 GMT
She nodded along to the explanation of one of Johto's similar mythological stories, and Senara took a few steps back from the braille to look for more. Shalin found them before she did but was quick to catch up and "read" them as well. "Reverb...reverberation..." she ran her fingers over that one a few more times, piecing it together with the first, then onto the third which was, admittedly, far easier with its shortness, "...song...ah?"
Senara lowered her hands from the cave walls and turned around to face the lowest pool. She narrowed her eyes, clicking off the mining helmet as she went over to the lip of the water and sat besides it. Once she was seated in the cool, yellow glow of the crystals beneath the water, she started to hum. The water's trembling increased and decreased with the volume in turn. Senara turned to look at Shalin with a faint, sly grin.
"Are you a good singer, Shalin?" She spoke softly, testing if the water vibrated to her words as well. When it did she returned her attention to the water. "I have a theory. I'm, well, not the best singer in the world, admittedly," My shower head has yet to kill me for my singing at least! "But if I'm correct, something will happen with these pools of water if a harmonic melody is sung to them--that is, singing notes that sound good together without singing the same one. I'm not sure if it requires a specific tune but if we can try just a single note to start with that may prove to be a valuable start. Want to try it?"
Her voice was ever so slightly higher in pitch than Shalin's own, so she started off with a simple soft note, holding it like one would in a vocal warm-up rather than a song proper. The water rippling along behind her helped her feel like she was onto something, but she needed Shalin to follow up to be absolutely sure if she war correct!
Hearing Senara's words echo, Shalin closed her eyes in thought for a few seconds. "It...actually makes sense." She wasn't well-versed in music theory, but she understood Senara's point enough. "Though I am musically inclined," she continued, looking for the most flat ground she could find near the pool, "it's not in my voice."
She used her feet to tap out a speedy rhythm from one of her favorite songs. "There's this arcade game called Step Step Revolution, and it's wildly popular where I'm from. It's about hitting panels with your feet, in time to the music. Admittedly, I'm not too knowledgeable in harmonics, but maybe an instant it all we need." She maintained the same rhythm as before, slowly lowering her voice on each beat until (hopefully) she located the harmonic Senara was going for. The pools of water seemed to react to Shalin's pitch as it decreased over time, as well.
{WC: 153} {PC: 16} {Shalin: 68/85}
Last Edit: Dec 17, 2019 3:02:14 GMT by Shalin Nariya
The echo of Senara’s voice and Shalin’s steps causes the water in the pools to tremble more and more. The glow of the stones at their base heightens as the water seems to retreat somehow lower lower lower still. They were draining? Indeed. After almost a minute, they were half of what they once were. If one reached into the pool now, they could touch the bottom now— and the crystals below. If one touched them, one would find they are removable— but pulling them from the water caused them to collapse into a sediment… a sand? What kind of powder was this?
Post by Senara Spargo on Dec 19, 2019 19:31:54 GMT
Her eye stayed tuned to the water as her held note blended--well, harmonized was the proper term--with Shalin's own in a pleasant way, and slowly it widened into a look of pure excitement and surprise as the water in the pool began to drain away. Where had it gone? She had no idea. How did that happen, and how was it activate by the sounds of their voices and steps? Again, she didn't have an answer. A lot of mysterious things happened in the world and they were certainly not her area of expertise. Without yet dropping the note except to take a breath now and then Senara bent down and caught one of the stones in her hand! She drew it up out of the water but, in an instant, it dissolved into some sort of sand or powder. Her brow furrowed and she did the same so that she had two handfuls of the substance before drawing back and, at last, dropping the song. She placed the powder on the stone flooring of the cave and scrapped any that was stuck to her hands into the little pile she'd made. "What in the world...hang on."
She clicked her mining helmet light so that it was right on the powder, then fiddled with the pockets of her bag until she drew out a pair of goggles with a magnifier lens attached to it. She flicked it over her eye and started looking much closer at the larger grains of whatever this was, hoping she could identify it by just this small amount.
"Shalin, can you check if the water's height in the other pools are lowered, too? And if their stones do the same thing? If I can't figure this out on sight alone I have some tools to test it but...it may take a little while." Good thing she had packed for a few day's time. One of the tests, though, she could do very quickly. Senara called Baby Girl out of her Pokeball again and took a piece of the powder and put it, gently, into her outstretched paws. "Que pensez-vous, petite fille? Est-ce quelque chose que tu mangerais? Est-ce un bijou?" She turned it in her paws, then brought it to her mouth and gave it a chew.
2aMhOcydp_ [Profession (Minerologist) Roll: +10 to identify the powder!]
When Shalin's voice dropped to exactly one octave below Senara's, the pools of water drained to the point where she could stand in one of them. She, like Senara, wanted to examine the crystals more closely, but found them to disintegrate upon being removed from the water. She brought the powder that used to be the crystal over to her partner in exploration, only to find she had pulled some out of the water herself--and a much larger quantity at that. "I've never seen anything like this," she quietly said to Senara, showing her more of what were the aquatic crystals. She gently lowered her powder-filled hand below the surface of the pool she collected it from, observing what, if any, effects immersing the substance would have.
"I can check the other pools while you're busy with that one. Let me know if you find anything!" With that, the blonde turned toward the other pools to see if they had drained as well. She followed Senara's directions the best she could, though if given the chance, she would bring one of the crystals partially out of the water to see what happened when only half-exposed to air.
{WC: 197} {PC: 17}
{Shalin: 68/85}
Last Edit: Dec 21, 2019 5:02:26 GMT by Shalin Nariya
Shalin would find that some of the pools had lowered more than others. One in particular actually seemed to have a giant hole in it now that it continued to drain from. Senara would find that this particular rock had broken down into....
Galar Powder!
Changes one Pokemon into its Galarian form. Consumed upon use.
Post by Senara Spargo on Dec 23, 2019 18:00:43 GMT
Baby Girl made an unhappy face and shook her head, tongue hanging past her sharp teeth in displeasure. Senara snorted softly and took the little granulate from her paws. "Ça valait le coup, désolé." She returned the particle to the pile and continued to sift through it. After some time, as anticipated, she began to make some connections to other minerals she knew from work. Similar density, similar shape of the grains...she dug into her bag and pulled out a rather thick book--probably the heaviest thing she kept in her bag during cave dives!--and started flipping pages. The moss and her headlamp made it easy to read the text. No, not Alolan powder...not shiny powder--though a find of this size would have been ridiculously lucrative--but rather...
"It's Galarian Powder!" Senara exclaimed like she was letting out a cheer of excitement. It carried through the entire cave. "The stones in this pool are Galarian powder! What in the world is it doing in Arciel?...bah, never mind!" She put the book on a dry patch of stone and started digging for little pouches or containers with which to store the powder. "Shalin, do you want some? There's enough here for at least both of us..."
A moment's pause as she looked into the pool. Technically, if they scrapped every single one of these pools clean of their stones, there would be quite a bit more than enough for them both. They could sell it or keep it. But. But she had no idea what these pools of water might contribute to the cave, be it for the Pokemon that may live here or the ecosystem, or even the cultural signifigance that she might be unaware of.
A couple pouches would be fine. She'd mark this location down on her map and return at a later date, perhaps, to try and decipher more of the carvings, but she wouldn't take any more than this. She wouldn't destroy a natural beauty like this for money.
Not like...
...
Maybe I'll just keep this a secret instead.
"Je ne sais pas qui a même une forme Galar, petite fille. Peux-tu penser à quelqu'un?" Senara glanced to her Sableye, who was dipping her claws into the water and watching the ripples. Baby Girl shook her head, teeth making little clicking noises as she chittered a response. Senara sighed and nodded. "Oui, avec le recul, cela aurait été injuste si vous aviez soudainement changé. Mais tu ne l'as pas fait! Alors c'est tout bon!"
Baby Girl hissed, more grumpy than genuinely angry, and Senara finished bagging up the Galar powder as well as her other belongings. If there was another way forward now would be the best time to move towards it, just in case the water started to fill again.
Post by Shalin Nariya on Dec 23, 2019 19:30:13 GMT
Shalin looked excited the moment Senara made the discovery...but her expression turned to one of confusion when she thought about it. "Galar? But that place is so far away," she shrugged. Galar was a bit too urban for her tastes. Granted, the region had one of the largest regions of contiguous wilderness in the world, but it would not be worth getting lost in a place like Hammerlocke for the chance to go exploring there. "If Galarian powder forms here, I'm really curious what else is down here if we just keep digging deeper!" Not literally, of course - that would be violating rule zero of experiencing the wilderness: leave with what you came with.
When Senara offered Shalin a bag of the mysterious powder, she paused for a few seconds before graciously accepting it. "If you insist..." she trailed off. She wouldn't want to gather it for herself, but if Senara did and gave it to her, she technically would not be responsible for leaving the environment the way she got it. Plus, there were so many crystals around here. "I'm going to see how much deeper this place goes." With that, she began searching around the drained pools, looking for a new way forward thanks to the lack of flooding.
As Shalin searches, she finds one of the pools has completely drained and there appears to be a dark foreboding hole in the center of it now leading to… who knows where. It was technically big enough to slide into… but would she? Would either of them?
Post by Senara Spargo on Dec 27, 2019 13:53:16 GMT
Senara, with Baby Girl now riding on her shoulder, approached where she saw Shalin head off towards, finding the pool with the tunnel in the bottom of it and peering down it curiously. From it to the waterfall they'd come down from and back again she looked, considering their options. "We could try to scale the wall to get back to the river," she mused, "But I don't have a flying Pokemon who could get me up there, and the fall now doesn't have water to 'soften' it in any way. I think the only way to go for now is down."
Making sure her helmet light was on, and aided ever so slightly by the glow of Baby Girl's eyes in the darkness, she moved to the edge of the tunnel and peered down. If it seemed safe enough to scale she'd give it a try. If it was a drop, though, she would try to bolt a rope somewhere beforehand. Either way, she wasn't going to stop here. Not now.
Who knew what else was waiting for them down there?.
Senara had a point - with the waterfall having drained deeper into the cave complex, going back the way they came would be very difficult. The only potential Flying-type she had was Flit, and the reverberation could very well cause a cave-in. Even if they could climb back up, it wasn't like her to turn back so soon. "I'm with you," she replied, agreeing to her friend's decision to press on.
The Sableye's glowing eyes were unsettling - something she did not want to gaze into every time she turned her head back to check on Senara. She pulled her own light source back out, focusing its beam the best she could down the narrow hole where the water drained. "Can you see anything down there?" Shalin asked her, ready to be the follower instead of the leader this time around. She hated being the leader anyway.
The hole might as well have been a slide for the way in which it descended. It wasn't too steep but, as Senara would find, was incredibly slippery. It twisted, this way, that way, and eventually dumped down into - SPLASH a pool of water! Although this one was clearly moving slowly down somewhere further off. ...And was one of those Buizel back bumping Senara just now? Yes, yes it was.
Post by Senara Spargo on Jan 16, 2020 15:34:29 GMT
She was definitely not the most adept climber she knew, but with how slippery the rock was it was a wonder Senara even made it down as far as she did before she let out a yelp of panic and slid the rest of the way down. Water was also not as "soft" as film and television led one to believe. Senara gasped as she pulled herself up, trying to find a ledge in the dark, and feeling Baby Girl gripping tight to her shoulder Something was bumping against them both and she swallowed. Please be friendly, please be...oh.
"Mind that first step, it's a doozy!" Senara called up through the tunnel, a hand reaching into her pocket to grab Crepe's pokeball once again and call him out. The other kept her afloat...and occasionally pat the little Buizel that was booping her. Baby Girl hissed at it.
With Crepe afloat in the water she scrambled onto his back, squeezing out her hair. Ugh. She'd want to find a ledge to change into dry clothes as soon as possible. Going around in a deep, dank cave while soaking wet was a fast way to getting sick.
"Try to catch her before she hits the water, chéri."
Crepe bobbed his head in response and tried to position one of his large, wing-like fins under the entrance to the cavern. Sparing the woman a chilly dip would be a favor.
Having heard a splashing sound from below, at the very least there was water to break their fall. She rubbed her hand again the surface on the other side of the hole - it was slick as ice. The tunnel appeared to be a natural water slide. Embracing the opportunity, she held Levy's Poké Ball in one hand and dove down it feet first, letting out a loud "Yahoo!" as she accelerated to a speed that even surprised her. A sudden hump caused the girl to lose her hold on her partner, the Ball clacking down the tube and into the water below. She heard Levy let out a cry as he emerged from the Ball.
Unbeknownst to her, Crepe was also down there. The two competed for space in the underground lake, both trying to catch Shalin. Crepe's large wing-fin ultimately caught her. "Whew! Thanks, that was some ride down!" the green-clad female said between breaths. "You didn't happen to see a Poké Ball splash down here ahead of me, did you? Levy's Poké Ball is missing. If you can't find it, it's not a big deal; I can just re-capture him in an empty one." Levy was already on the lookout for it, but was finding it difficult to maneuver around another very large Water-type.
The Buizel remains friendly enough but is a little too happy to be bouncing on Crepe again. Poor playground pancake-- as a Pokeball drops down, though, the water puppy is quick to leap into the water after it. Thus by the time Shalin comes down as well, who should come up to the surface with a Pokeball in maw but the Buizel. Too bad she seems to not want to give it to you.
Post by Senara Spargo on Jan 18, 2020 15:55:26 GMT
Whoops, probably should have said something before this happened. Senara let out a yelp as suddenly the same Milotic from before came falling from the entry, followed shortly by Shalin herself. But at least nobody got hurt. She still had to snort hard as Crepe floundered backwards from Levy to give him more space, all while being nuzzled and bumped around by little Buizel. Cute little annoyances, weren't they? At Shalin's question, though, Senara shook her head. "I didn't, sorry. It might have fallen in the..."
Before she finished her sentence, one of the little Buizel popped up with a ball in its mouth, and Senara shined her light on it, seeing the familiar reflection of the shiny red dome. "Ah, good. Let's get that and move toward where the stream is heading? If the Buizel got here from the cavern, this should lead us back there as well." Senara brought up a hand to stroke Baby Girl's wet sort-of-fur. Baby Girl gave a low hiss of annoyance.