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.
Winter was coming, Eri could feel in in the area around her. Everybody she passed on her way down the street was bundled up like a snowstorm was on it's way, pokemon staying close to their trainers to preserve warmth, fire types attempting to heat up their surroundings- anybody who didn't have somewhere to be was sheltered away inside buildings- well.... except Eri. It was just another trip around Birch for this bubbly star guide. When the stars had told her to go look for more stars to exchange business with so that her name could be further around, she dressed up and left with no questions to the sparkly lights.
Dressed up in her finest, sparkly dress, something probably not very fitting for winter, and practically skipping down the street, Eevee egg cradled in her arms, she was a girl with a mission! Passing a cafe, eyes sparkling, searching for her next big hit, the next star that shone despite than the foggy surroundings- and that's when her gaze settled on a young boy waiting for his mum outside the shops- oh!
Rushing up to him, smiling she tilted her head, "Oh hi there, star! Where's your mum?" The boy stared at her like she'd grown a second head- which was an expected response, after all- but Eri was dressed up in bouncy, sparkling clothing! She shouldn't scare kids, right? After staring at her for probably a solid minute the kid scoffed and walked into the store, mumbles about stranger danger flicking off his tongue.
Oh... Well, there was always other people! Hands moving to puff out her skirt further, because that was really the issue with just happened, she continued forth, eyes flicking from person to person. She was going to find a star who's life she could change- she had to- the stars wouldn't be very happy otherwise, and the last thing she wanted to do was make them angry at her!
In the cold, Marcus has supplemented his normal suit with a similarly styled overcoat for warmth. He has been standing patiently outside an office waiting for it's idiosyncratic opening hours to come so that he may deposit some paperwork pertinent to his arrival in the region. For many or even most people, this would, perhaps be a time of intense boredom, but for Marcus, it's a time for potential. Not just the potential for the egg he has been looking after to hatch, sitting as it had been for the last few days in a nest of blankets in his bag, but also for training his own abilities. He has obtained a collection of three near-identical river-worn pebbles, found in a stream near his childhood home, and is using his telekinesis to levitate them, making them orbit each other in as complex a manner as possible. He is focused intently on this task, but fails on a fairly regular basis as he drops one of the stones or causes their orbit to falter completely. If any passersby are watching this unusual sort of practice, he is oblivious to it.
The streets really hadn’t been busy at all, but Eri never gave up! Beaming at a stranger selling newspapers, waving at a passerbys with sparkling eyes- looking for her next star. And that’s when she saw him, a stranger… floating pebbles- like planets orbiting a sun, around… and around… and around.. A very loud, very audible gasp left her lips, and before Eri knew what she was doing she was moving forward towards them.
“You!” Her voice was loud, and fairly highpitched. Grabbing at her skirts as to not trip over them when she ran the girl approached the stranger, eyes wide as she peered at hat he was doing. “I can see it now- you- stranger- are a star!”
She bent down where she stood, as if to try get a better angle at the orbiting pebbles to see what was behind the trick- but there were no invisible strings just pure… “And you’re blessed by the stars too, it seems!” She pulled herself upright, a huge beaming grin on her face. Hands at her hips, and head tilted slightly she moved to right herself.
“Sorry, where are my manners- Eri Novae- future breeder to the stars. I see a bright future in store for you, stranger!”
Marcus looks just a little bewildered. It's not like people haven't commented on his practice before, but never in such a ... enthusiastically incomprehensible manner. After a moment, he judges it better to stop doing his telekinesis before his new conversant causes him to drop them; that would be quiet embarrassing, after all, and returns the pebbles to his hands. "Hello?" He asks as she starts saying something about stars. Ah, she's introducing herself. Well, then. "It is good to meet you. I am Marcus Spinnaker, and I will be an explorer and trainer in this region - at least as soon as I can file this paperwork" - here, he gestures at the shut little office with a sign for the explorers league that he's standing next too. "That said, I don't think I am blessed by any stars, I'm afraid. My powers are from me and me alone."
Marcus Spinnaker- oh he was an explorer! Eri's eyes practically glimmered as she listened to him, hands holding tightly to her waist as she continued beaming at him. "Good to meet you, Perigee!" her gaze followed his to the explorers sign, and she let out a hum. So he came out of region, then? That explained a big, she'd never seen him around before- not that she was graced to be from this region but still!
What an interaction the stars had planned for her, to meet somebody who shimmers so brightly, gifted by something they'd entrusted to him. A soft laugh left her lips at his second explanation. "Oh, don't be silly, star! Everything in this universe is decided by the stars, your powers, my gifts- even fate itself, me seeing you here, all pre-decided by the stars above!"
Marcus is taken aback. Normally people are a little less idiosyncratic in their metaphysical formulations. Or maybe she wasn't - maybe this was just some local faith and star-worship was perfectly normal in Arciel. How would he know? It's not like he was paying much attention to the details of small-town religion when he researched the region. So perhaps it would be best not to question it. Talk about something less ... potentially contentious. She had implied that she also had a talent of sorts, perhaps that would be of noteworthy discussion? "Your gifts? I take it you have a talent like my own?"
Eri's smile never left her face as her inquired further, instead she moved to dust off her skirts and clasped her hands at her chest, she always adored this part! "It's not necessarily a talent, my mums are so much better- it's just a gift given to me by the stars." Her hand moved now to gesture to the sky, and she moved closer to the stranger.
"The stars tell me things, when I ask them something or pray to them. I'm able to see the fates that they've arranged for a specific person~" Her hand moved back down now, to rest at her hip as she giggled, checking on her egg "Which means as a star guide, I can lead stars towards their bright, sparkling future!"
Once again Marcus is weighing the trade-off between "do I call this person out on being nuts" and "It's entirely possible they are a precog - after all, I am". It does no harm to be polite, of course, so Marcus goes with the latter for now. He smiles at his new acquaintance. "Oh, so you learned from your parents? That must have been very helpful; my own visions, it took me years to get reasonably evidence that they were real, and even then, I only really believed it because I have other gifts" He gestures at his other gifts by having the stones quickly circle around is hand and return to it. "Of course, I'm much more confident in my visions now that I've had more of them. I haven't actually met another psychic with passable precognition before; I've read books and talked on the internet, of course, but it's not the same. I'd challenge you to a game of some kind, but I really haven't got to the point where I can produce visions on command, let alone specific ones."
He was gifted by the stars to see the fates too?! Eri's eyes widened and she let out a soft gasp. This was stellar! He wasn't a star after, but a guide! "The stars really have blessed you to be able to aid others! You sound like the perfect guide!" She moved grab her egg and hold it up for him to see, "I've been working on ensuring I can help the stars however I can- breeding mons and such. Sometimes offering them to see their fates just isn't enough!"
She giggled now, "So you're part of an online guide community, then?! I've never met any other guides before, especially not others graced with more than one gift from the stars above- what have you done to help them out?!" She was excited.
Marcus is a bit taken aback. She certainly is *very* enthusiastic, isn't she. Well, it can only be for the best, even if he must disabuse her of her most optimistic notions. "Ah, well. I would't call myself an excellent guide - my visions seem to come more close to home than yours seem to. I mostly see myself, or those close to me. That's not to say I won't help if it's obvious, but it's not my life's work." He thinks of, but does not mention, a handful of mining accidents and equipment failures, most minor but at least one producing casualties, that were prevented by his better-than-timely intervention. "We don't really have a community, you know - there's no 'precogs online' forum or anything. I've just taken care to track down anyone who might have advice for me. It's much easier to meet people with rare talents when you can email them than when you have to find them in a specific mining town, you know? I suppose that's one of the benefits of travel, isn't it - you get to meet people who didn't grow up in the same town as you." He mutters under his breath, almost inaudibly. "You get to not meet the people who did, as well".
His visions came more close to home? That confused Eri, and she tilted her head. How can you help the stars when all you see is about you- "I've never once seen myself, I can see... everything but, really~" she laughed, and wouldn't let it known that sometimes it frustrated her. Why were the stars so picky?! They loved to play around and mess with her, and yet it was her doing things for them- being cheeky wasn't good, at all!
"Buuut... I see! So you mail star guides and stuff- sometimes we had a few come into mums shop, but I don't really associate with other guides- a lot of them take advantage of what was gifted to them-" She paused then, squinting at Marcus, "You don't, do you?"
Marcus Hmmed. "You never see yourself? How odd. I would expect that you'd see at least some visions of yourself now and again." He certainly did; it was why he was here. But then, it was rare for his visions to be helpful. He'd spent several years playing geocities and games like in in his teens, just to increase the chance that he could actually tell where and when some random snapshot occurred. It really hadn't helped. And when it came to 'taking advantage' of his visions. "I don't really know what you mean by that. My visions aren't reliable or easy to parse. Sometimes it's clear what I ought to do in response a vision, and that's usually good for me or someone I know, but it's not like I get visions of next weeks lottery numbers." He laughs nervously. "Most of my visions are pretty useless, really. I once got a vision which was just ... hours of mental footage of a field of freesias."
Eri shook her head back and forth, smile still adorning her face, "Nope! The stars didn't bless me with such an ability- I don't need to see my own future anyway! Because i'm here for the stars, not for myself!" Another soft laugh escaped her, and she shifted to once more give Marcus a once-over. He didn't exactly... look like a star guide, but still he was totally and utterly blessed by the stars- it was peculiar.
"No! They're not useless at all!" She was quick to counter his claims, eyes radiating something fierce, "Nothing you're shown is useless, you're shown it for a reason, Perigee!" A hand moved to her hip now, patting her egg "I'm sure that field was very, very important."
Her other hand moved to fidget with her bow now, eyebrows scrunched, "Your visions sound very, very different to mine. I often see what the future has planned for somebody- lottery wins, babies, deaths of loved ones.... it's... not always correct- but it usually is!"
Marcus wobbles a hand in the air and concedes the point. "Well, yes. Useless is a strong word. Nothing is truly useless, even if it's only use is the pleasure of a beautiful sight. But there are uses and then there are uses. I don't think there is any higher power planning my visions. If there is, they must be playing a longer and deeper game than I can see." He sighs, looking almost weary for a moment. . "It must be very useful to have visions that are predictably of importance. I've only managed to increase volume since I was a child, not winnow out the chaff. Maybe I will manage it, but it is much hard to train than my other gift."
A stubborn head-tilt is what followed, "You might not think it, but your gifts were given by the stars." why didn't he understand? It was simple really, and it kinda frustrated Eri. "The stars mean well, they must have plans for you to make you work harder and unlocking better aspects of your visions!" His apprehension and sighing did nothing to quell Eri's confusion. She didn't know how else to really explain it, after all!
"You're very lucky to get two gifts, which must be why the stars are playing around!" she smiles, her hold on her egg changing slightly "It's probably difficult to harness two stellar energies at once, but once you've been able to do that you'll do great things!"
A glance now, to the door where he was supposed to hand in his... explorers thing? "Are you in a hurry to hand in your... form?"
Marcus is also, perhaps, a little frustrated by the religious stuff. "It's not *that* unusual to end up with multiple powers, especially if you put a lot of effort into developing them. I know you care a lot about your visions and your ... stars, so you do that and honestly it sounds like you have a better handle on how that goes than I do, but I am going to claw out every damn inch of skill and power I can from any path I can." He almost snaps, almost rants. This is important to him. When his attention is drawn to the office, the tension washes out of him just a little, as he sinks down a little, rocking back and putting his once-gesticulating hands in his pockets. "Yeah, but the damn office's hours are 'when someone is around'. I guess I could come back tomorrow? I was hoping to get this done today but I have no sense for when someone is going to be around to take the form." He was, in fact, quite annoyed - his travel insurance was dependent on his registration with these people, and he had Pokemon to train, and an egg to hatch, all currently sitting in his backpack doing nothing.
A pout permanently set on her features now, why was he giving her that tone? She'd done nothing but be kind, and yet he was acting like she was annoying him and not giving him useful advice and trying to help. "...The path the stars set out for you, you mean?" her voice was almost insistent, and her hands moved to hold the egg closer to her, taking a small step back. When people gave her that tone, something they lashed out, it wasn't uncommon- though usually it happened amung those she gave predictions to.
"What i'm saying is the stars gifted you with two powers and that you're lucky, you don't need to go off. One stellar being to another, if a star heard you with that tone your futures could be twisted unnaturally- and nobody wants that." Her hands uncrossed and she clicked her tongue now, an awkward expression on her face.
Right, so there was nobody there. An offer, something to ensure the stars kept better track on the stray. She shifted to grab her phone, "...I live just around the corner- how about I text you when the stars are back in position?"
Marcus, realizing that he has upset his conversant, schools his features and his tone. "I'm sorry.", he says flatly. "I didn't mean to give offence." Clearly this was going downhill, and he did not wish to alienate a potentially valuable friend over a metaphysical difference. That would be pointless. Still, he ought to explain. "I"m still not very comfortable with the idea that anyone, no matter how well-intentioned, has more control over my life and skill than I do." He will politely rebuff any assurances that the stars are benevolent and/or wise as missing the point, and try to end the conversation there.
Seeing Eri get out her phone and suggest they talk later. "Perhaps you are right. We should resume this conversation when I've had a chance to rest and clear my mind." It is politer, of course, to bear the blame for this argument himself. He will politely hand over his phone number and confirm that it works.
At his apology Eri let out a hum, twisting her phone in her hand awkwardly. He hadn't meant to offend the stars, she understood that! It just came out a little harsh is all, and she didn't want him to upset the stars and have something awful happen to him. "But the stars aren't people, they're stars- like- kinda like gods-" He however didn't seem to want to have more of the conversation, and her assurances were left in the dust which she didn't exactly understand.
But whatever, the stars had decreed the conversation change and she put on her best smile, exchanging numbers and texting him with a few star emojis to ensure it worked before pocketing her phone once more. "A-Okay! I'm usually wandering the streets around here daily, so if you need me you'll probable stumble into me- i'll text you if the stars arrive back here anytime soon."
Marcus nods. "Thank you for the consideration. I look forward to hearing from you. For now, though, goodbye." He listens to Eri's own goodbye, before turning his attention back to his practice. She leaves, off doing whatever errand had sent the young seer travelling around town in the middle of winter, or so Marcus supposed. He waited for another hour in the snow, periodically checking on the egg in his pack, until finally an elderly man with a large backpack ambled down the street and unlocked the door, apologizing profusely for his poor timing and citing some difficulties with a Snorlax three miles away.
Mod Call
Whenever you need modding, simply post a link to your thread and a short description of what you need.
Looks like we're all caught up on modding right now!
06
04
00
