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.
It hadn't been long after he resumed his pace that Soren came across another small, round creature doing a series of squats. Smaller than him, anyway. Recognizing it as having a similar appearance to the child he'd seen earlier with the Tauros, it was easy for Soren to write it off as being either a sibling or distant relative of the little person he'd seen earlier, and for a moment he debated stopping to see if they needed help locating their relative. Like the one he'd seen before, this kid also had some little punching gloves on, but they were too preoccupied with resting in the shade of a tree to really pay him much attention.
When Soren did eventually get close enough that his presence could no longer be ignored, only then did the child turn around and acknowledge him with a brief nod of his? hers? their head and a jovial "Makuhita!". Soren lifted a hand in greeting and returned the odd sentiment, letting out a "Makuhita to you too!" and wondering just what region that particular phrase might have originated from. It almost sounded Alolan, at least from what little information he had of the area.
There wasn't much else to be said; Soren debated trying to converse with the small child, but they seemed more inclined to take a nap than anything. So, without slowing down his pace, and with a brief wave farewell, he continued on his way, wondering over how many more children he'd run into on his way East.
Zappa - Lv2 Rotom (4/5 Energy) Dizzy - Lv6 Rookidee (2/5 Energy) Testament - Lv6 Barry (3/5 Energy) Mr. Satan - Lv3 Mr. Nose (5/5 Energy) Miltank - Lv1 Miltank (5/5 Energy) Misdreavus - Lv1 Missus (5/5 Energy)
Another few minutes later found him coming upon a lone figure standing out in the middle of the field, heavily gloved arm outstretched to the sky while two small ... birds? swooped down and up in tandem. One of them he recognized as being the same species as Dizzy, but much, much larger. The other one was a multi-colored red and grey flying-type, he presumed, and one he wasn't all too familiar with. The guy was shouting out commands in a strong, confident voice, directing each of his pokemon in whatever drills they were practicing. It didn't take him long to notice Soren, and when he did the stranger let out a shrill whistle, grounding both pokemon on either side of him as he turned so they were face to face.
"Ahoy there!" The birdkeeper called out, cheerfully. Soren, though weary from what seemed to be a walk that was much too long, managed to lift a hand in greeting and looked from the stranger to the two birds he had beside him. The grey-haired birdkeeper looked over Soren, in his worn sweatpants and loose, baggy clothing, and the scuffed and dusted state of his shoes before following up with, "Long walk?"
"Yeah," Soren agreed, a hand rubbing at his neck. He saw the stranger's gaze slide over to the tattoos he had on the back of his hand, though the other was still stuffed into his pocket and out of sight, and he caught a familiar suspicious stare he knew all too well. He put on his best friendly expression, taking the hand away from his neck to stuff into his other pocket, and bent his knee a bit to he was slouching, looking as least threatening as he possibly could.
It worked, but not in the way he'd hoped.
"You look like the kind of guy who'd be right at home in a battle." The birdkeeper said, which left Soren wondering just what the heck he might have meant. As he moved to ask outright, the stranger pointed at him, the challenge in his eyes all too clear. "Care for a go? The name's Anson, by the way, but - eh, there was a band that got really annoying back in the nineties people kept confusing me with, so you can just call me An."
"An," Soren echoed, and rubbed at the back of his neck again. He thought how tired Dizzy and Testament might be, and of how much longer he had to go before he was effectively done and in another town. The last battle he'd won had given him a bit of spending money, which was nice, but he wasn't too sure if he had the heart to put Dizzy through the rough and tumbles of battle again. He did have other pokemon he could use, tho...
After weighing the pros and cons, Soren eventually gave a nod of acquiescence. An grinned toothily over at him and let out another whistle, shriller than the last. The sound drew forth the odd red and grey and black colored bird, which gave a high-pitched trill in response as it flapped its wings to soar out onto the makeshift battlefield. Soren picked through the pokeballs he had and let Zappa fly after consulting the pokedex, thinking that its Thundershock ability would prove a boon more than anything.
The battle proceeded accordingly: since Zappa was able to levitate and float above the air, it was easily able to bob and weave in conjunction with the red bird's diving attacks. Despite the Tailwind ordered to heighten its speed, the two pokemon danced clumsily around each other, blind Tackles and Thunder Shocks firing off in back-and-forth exchanges until one of them eventually hit. With the type advantage of Thunder against Flying (something that Soren knew intimately well, if only because Flying types were the bane of the Fighting Dojo's existence and there would be a lot of group huddles over how to best clip the wings of any obnoxious bird-using opponents) it didn't take long for An's bird to be downed, and as he withdrew it he commanded the Dizzy look-alike to take flight.
With the Rookidee against Zappa the level disparity was too great, and he could visibly see the pokemon struggling despite the ever-present smile on its face. The eyes would flinch with a particularly hard-hitting hit, the combined moveset of Hone Claws and Power Trip working to decimate Zappa's health until Soren was forced to recall him to prevent him from fainting, though not without a quick and cheap Thunder Shock thrown out to try and whittle the pokemon's health to something manageable for his weaker team. With the battle tied at one-to-one, he had to deliberate for a moment over who to throw out next against the powered bird, who was peering with a look of such determination it was admirable.
In the end, he decided to throw out Mr. Nose, recalling the type advantage of rock against bird. Although the level difference was vast, against a pure rock=type the Peck attacks that the fellow Rookidee bombarded Mr. Satan with weren't as hard hitting as they could have been, even with the added stat boosts. Unfortunately, Mr. Satan only had one move in his repertoire, and it most certainly was not a rock-type, and in the race to whittle down health the Mr. Nose won by a small margin. Barely. An seemed to feel the same way, especially since he begrudgingly returned the Rookidee before any damage could be done that would make a trip to the pokemon center a necessary thing.
"I should probably train some more," An said with a bit of a sigh, peering at the pokeball he'd just returned the Rookidee to. "Or see if I can't get a few more flying-types in my arsenal. There's not many around the mountain, really."
Soren gave a small nod, recalling the path he'd walked up till now and agreeing with the observation that there weren't any that'd crossed his path. "If there are, they're probably sleeping or something. Or maybe a little higher up." He pointed to the mountains looming off in the distance. His stomach chose at that moment to let out a damning gurgle, and as it was loud enough to catch An's attention the birdkeeper stared at him for a moment before breaking out into laughter.
Despite the outcome of the battle An was nice enough to share a bit of food with Soren; things like sesame-seed balls, bits of jerky, things like that. Sitting to talk for a bit was nice, giving Soren a chance to rest before he headed off again, and their talks were mostly about his experiences in the Fighting Dojo, which An was familiar with only because of how he'd had his mentor tell him about how he swept through all the students with only a Pidgeot at his side. From time to time Soren would catch An's sideways glances at his tattoos, but he was kind enough not to say anything, and in the end they parted ways, Soren's hunger momentarily sated for an hour or so.
Battle won: received gold x3, iron x1, greenery x1, 199 Pen Zappa - Lv2 Rotom -> Lv3 Rotom (2/5 Energy) Dizzy - Lv6 Rookidee (2/5 Energy) Testament - Lv6 Barry (3/5 Energy) Mr. Satan - Lv3 Mr. Nose -> Lv4 (4/5 Energy) Miltank - Lv1 Miltank (5/5 Energy) Misdreavus - Lv1 Missus (5/5 Energy)
It struck Soren as more and more time passed that the fact there hadn't been much in the way of suburban development was a little... telling. He thought back to the signpost proclaiming the route number, but he couldn't remember for the life of him whether or not it had a connecting route to another city.
A little concerned, now, Soren took his phone out and thumbed through it, scrolling about for a map or something that would tell him just how much longer he had until he got to the next city. He was able to locate the segmented marker where he was travelling, but rather than see a city or town name denoted on the map in close proximity, he instead saw something else: Weeping Forest. Was that like Viridian Forest, maybe?
The way the trees were starting to clump together even closer at the edge of the road told him all he needed to know, and while any other time he might have been thrilled at the prospect of more walking, he was starting to get a little tired and a little hungry. He could always return the way he'd come and try again once he'd rested up a bit, but also he wagered he'd be able to rough it in the wilds if it really came down to it. If this was the route leading directly to the next city, the path probably wasn't too life-threatening.
Zappa - Lv3 Rotom (2/5 Energy) Dizzy - Lv6 Rookidee (2/5 Energy) Testament - Lv6 Barry (3/5 Energy) Mr. Satan - Lv4 Mr. Nose (4/5 Energy) Miltank - Lv1 Miltank (5/5 Energy) Misdreavus - Lv1 Missus (5/5 Energy)
A short time later after Soren's revelation that he'd have a longer while to go, he came across the sight of a young woman sitting on the side of the road, staring listlessly at her hands. The uniform she wore denoted a profession in caring for pokemon of some sort, and Soren found himself veering off the beaten path and a little closer to her, wondering just what might have happened to upset her so. She didn't look beaten or hurt, and she didn't seem dejected enough to have lost a battle particularly hard, so...
"Hey," He called, stopping a few feet away, his hands in his pockets. He made sure to affect an air of nonchalance, slouching a bit to make himself seem smaller and less threatening than he might appear. It was the height, people were usually on edge because of it, especially if they happened to catch the peek of tattoos through his clothes. Growing his hair out had helped probably only to the extent that people thought he was a new-age hippy of some kind, usually, but there was still the occasional situation where he'd get side-eyed more than he was comfortable with. "Is everything okay?"
The girl looked up at him and made the most distressed-sounding sigh he'd ever heard. Obviously not, and he took a step closer, head cocking curiously to the side. The girl wrapped her arms around her, hugging herself for comfort as she glanced off towards where he'd come, then looked up at Soren.
"No, everything is not okay," The girl huffed out a breath, and immediately looked apologetic. "Sorry. But it's not okay, I lost the pokemon I was looking after and if I don't find them soon I'm going to be fired."
Oh. That wasn't really so good. Soren rubbed at the back of his neck and looked up and down the road, almost like he expected to see whatever pokemon she were talking about. When she caught him looking she stared at him incredulously, her distress replaced by surprise and then, eventually, a slow morph into bemusement. She got to her feet, wiping her hands over her coveralls, and reached over to lightly push him on the arm.
"They're not around here, I've already looked."
"Oh - yeah, that makes sense."
The girl was still upset, but it was gradually fading in increments; perhaps the distraction of Soren's appearance had helped in some way. She went on to introduce herself as Dolly, and went on further to list what pokemon she had lost. Soren had no idea what an "Asooril" was - and she had to have him sound it out a few times before he got even that (she tried to tell him it was the baby form of a "Merril", but that had just drawn blank looks) - but Ditto he was familiar with. There weren't any pokemon about right now, so there wasn't much for it to transform into, if it had even transformed, so the next best bet was that it had somehow transformed into an object around here.
As they began to scour the area, at first splitting up and then combining back together again, Dolly spotted the markings on his hands and at first asked if he was an artist. His dumbfounded expression had her pointing at his tattoos, and, sheepishly, Soren shook his head and merely stuffed his hands into his pockets. Mercifully, the girl didn't persist, especially since the "Asooril" took that moment to bounce down on his head from a nearby tree, crying out in delight at whatever little adventure it had had. Dolly was quick to return it to its pokeball, and the hunt for the Ditto began in earnest.
The sun was disappearing behind the mountains far off in the distance by the time Soren realized he'd passed by the same mini tree multiple times. Dolly had taken up a resting perch a few feet away as Soren approached the strange plant, peering at it from all angles as the leaves trembled, as though with a passing breeze. But there was, of course, no breeze to be found, and after poking at the tree he stumbled back when beady little eyes blinked out at him, a tinny voice chiming out "Ditto!"
After, Dolly thanked him profusely, both pokemon secured and tucked away in their balls so there wouldn't be any more looming threat of escape. Despite that the skies were beginning to darken ominously, she assured Soren she'd be fine, and began to quick-jog back to Birch City, weaving around rocks and the various crumbling paths underfoot. Soren waved at her until she disappeared out of sight, and then looked ahead, thinking he could spot the looming forest and noticing how the light seemed to just... be sucked right into it. Spooky.
Zappa - Lv3 Rotom (2/5 Energy) Dizzy - Lv6 Rookidee (2/5 Energy) Testament - Lv6 Barry (3/5 Energy) Mr. Satan - Lv4 Mr. Nose (4/5 Energy) Miltank - Lv1 Miltank (5/5 Energy) Misdreavus - Lv1 Missus (5/5 Energy)
The path took him right up to the entrance of a thick, ominous looking forest, and though Soren walked right up to the trees marking the transition from one route into the next, he didn't immediately head in, weighing the pros and cons of continuing on his way or else turning around and prepping himself for an even longer trip. Obviously the pros of forging ahead were that he wouldn't have to travel along this route again to get to the Weeping Forest, but also... he wasn't too sure if heading on ahead with his current group was a good idea, tired as they were.
It's as he's debating this when he feels a figure behind him and, turning, he catches sight of a young blond woman in some pretty fancy garb. Certainly fancier than what he's wearing, that's for sure, but the pokeball in her hand already tells him all he needs to know before she even speaks.
"So you're heading to the next town over? As pokemon trainers, it's practically our obligation to battle!" She declares, tossing the ball in her hand up and down. Soren found himself wondering if pokemon were coherent enough while encapsulated to get dizzy at such a motion. Wait, trainer?
"Oh, I'm not -" He began, but the girl jabbed a finger at him, looking triumphant, and proceeded to rattle off all her lists and accomplishments. Coming this close to defeating the gym leader in Birch City (was there one? he couldn't honestly remember seeing a sign for it) and how her pokemon were top-notch, the pick of the litter gifted to her by the professor herself, and oh there was a lucky omen on the day and time of her birth, so it was her destiny, things like that. Only when the girl was finished talking and looked at him triumphantly that Soren realized that it was his time to speak, and with a sheepish look on his face he fished out the licensing denoting him a pokemon breeder and showed it to her.
"I'm not exactly a trainer," He explained, and he saw the pompous air the girl affected instantly deflate. With an embarrassed look and a deep sigh, she immediately relaxed her shoulders into something more comfortable, less authoritative and gave him a quick once over.
"I... guess that makes sense. You really don't dress like one." She observed, and Soren laughed a little at that, looking down at his scuffed trainers and kicking at a rock. When he realized it had fallen silent between them he looked up, noting that like before the girl's gaze was fixed on the backs of his hands and the ink standing out against his skin. With a cough, Soren shoved them into his pockets and the girl blinked, looking up at him. A suspicious look crossed her features and she, again, looked at him from head to toe, like she was trying to put two and two together.
"... well, I should probably get going." Soren said, and the girl continued to stare at him for a moment before nodding. As he entered the forest he saw that she had already taken her phone out, and though she wasn't dialing at that moment he didn't want to linger to see if she would. Though he knew he didn't really have anything much to hide or run from, it was an instinct that had been ingrained in him at a younger age that he found hard to shake off, and the previously ominous-looking trees and bushes in the dense forest were more comfort than what he was leaving behind. He's pretty sure he could always do some camping, anyway.
Zappa - Lv3 Rotom (2/5 Energy) Dizzy - Lv6 Rookidee (2/5 Energy) Testament - Lv6 Barry (3/5 Energy) Mr. Satan - Lv4 Mr. Nose (4/5 Energy) Miltank - Lv1 Miltank (5/5 Energy) Misdreavus - Lv1 Missus (5/5 Energy)
06
04
00
Gold x3, 
Iron x1, 
Greenery x1
Chesto Berry x1, 
Clay x2, 
Pinap Berry x2
Lv8 
Pecha Berry x3, 
Generic Dye x1, 
PokeBall x2
