Taylor
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Lone Wolf
Mythstar
Posts: 491
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Taylor Finch
OOC Username: Lea
Arena Points: 72
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Post by Taylor on Apr 6, 2023 21:11:01 GMT 9
Clicking through menus had led Taylor to a rather ominous-looking area indeed. Staring up at the golden statues, she got a sense of just how tiny she truly was in this place. Her steps made no sound on the spotless ground, and somehow that felt more disconcerting than expected. Mumble and Zazu were both tucked away in their pokeballs for the moment, and Taylor was oddly relieved; she had the feeling this place might give the wee tykes nightmares.
It was difficult not to cringe from the imposing figure that approached. It’s not real, it’s not real, it’s not real ran through the woman’s head in a chant, but somehow the logical mantra failed to entirely banish the feeling of cowed insignificance.
A few beats of silence followed the imposing figure’s words, before Taylor took a deep, fortifying breath. “I’d like to offer a home to one of the ghosts here, please.” She hoped she was understanding how this worked, correctly. “The Vulpix, specifically.”
She blinked rapidly as she processed Seta’s next words. “Would it be too trite to say they look lonely?” she asked, voice soft and eyes shying away from the golden mask. The tiny phantom of the pokemon in question lay curled at the foot of one of the towering statues, clearly separated from the rest of the spirits. “I suppose I can’t say for sure if they’d like to leave, but I’d the opportunity to find out…” This last trailed off thoughtfully, blue eyes soft as they watched the little fire fox.
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C0D13
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Bug Maniac
Administrator
Posts: 2,101
Trainer Class:
Player Name: C0D13
OOC Username: Ladybug
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Post by C0D13 on Apr 7, 2023 1:07:37 GMT 9
Seta regards you, as if weighing your intentions from behind their golden mask. The phantoms in the hall fade in and out of existence, the Vulpix shade dissipating soon after you spot it. Are these the true ghosts? Surely the spirits of the Everworld rest beyond doors. Perhaps you are merely seeing echoes of echoes. Memories of what once wandered and now slumbers.
"Loneliness implies the yearning for something missing or lacking. Many of the phantoms in my charge lack form or function, or miss the warmth of flesh or sun. Many more have long forgotten what they once held."
Seta moves down the hall beside Taylor, leading her to a door-shaped hole in the wall.
"Find what has been lost. Replace what is lacking. Remember what was forgotten."
You pass through the darkness. It's as brief as blinking, and you find yourself in a new world.
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Taylor
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Lone Wolf
Mythstar
Posts: 491
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Taylor Finch
OOC Username: Lea
Arena Points: 72
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Post by Taylor on Apr 11, 2023 0:33:16 GMT 9
The Vulpix fading out of sight had Taylor flinching in surprise. Had she really so wholly misunderstood this place? In truth she was still getting her footing in the more conventional areas of the game; she really shouldn’t have been shocked to have misinterpreted something in this more ethereal area. Thankfully, while the golden-masked NPC didn’t seem particularly impressed by her response, they seemed to find it sufficient enough to allow an attempt at recovering the little fire-type, at least.
She was led to a yawning, door-shaped portal, nodding as she turned over what Seta had said. Okay, so the phantoms here needed to remember what it was to live, if they were to return to the overworld. That… kind of made sense? She did her best to fix a mask of ‘oh yes, I completely understand what you mean and what I need to do here’ on her face, despite the jarring uncertainty that she currently played host to.
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Taylor
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Lone Wolf
Mythstar
Posts: 491
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Taylor Finch
OOC Username: Lea
Arena Points: 72
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Post by Taylor on Apr 11, 2023 0:34:55 GMT 9
“Find what has been lost. Replace what is lacking. Remember what was forgotten.” Clear as mud.
The words rang in Taylor’s ears as she nodded and took a step through the doorway, doing her very best to not be intimidated by the looming, all encompassing black void that filled it. They really weren’t playing around with the atmosphere in the Everworld, huh? Thankfully the press of that darkness didn’t last long, and after a moment, she found herself blinking around at an equally otherworldly scene…
In the centre of this space lay the tiny curled form of a Pokémon – the Vulpix that had drawn her eye in the previous chamber. If anything though, this iteration of the creature looked even more incorporeal and faded than the mirage from before. As she watched, its form flickered like a guttering candle, only just barely holding on to substance. The once copper-hued back lifted and fell far too slowly; with the nose tucked beneath the Pokémon’s tails as if in slumber, this was really the only suggestion that remained of life in the poor creature. Did Pokemon need to breathe here? Likely not. And yet that tiny back rose and fell, rose and fell…
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Taylor
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Lone Wolf
Mythstar
Posts: 491
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Taylor Finch
OOC Username: Lea
Arena Points: 72
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Post by Taylor on Apr 11, 2023 0:42:40 GMT 9
Finally tearing her eyes away from the flickering phantom, the young woman turned her gaze on the rest of the room. Dozens of floating orbs filled the space, and some had Taylor squinting to look upon, they were so bright. Others, meanwhile, emitted a far softer glow. Some flickered while some gave off a strong, steady luminescence. Some were white while others held clear or faint hints of colour; blue, red, green, yellow, cyan and magenta filled the space.
A smile lifted the woman’s lips as a relieved exhale escaped. She knew what to do here – or at least, she had an idea – and that helped to dispel some of the anxiety she had been fighting against. Light colours were additive; blue and red combining to make magenta, green and red making yellow, all three primary colours combining to produce white light, and so on. Her scientific background meant that this was something that she recalled with very little effort. The phantom she needed to restore to physical form was insubstantial and washed out, but throwing a bunch of white light at the problem would be too easy. No, she’d need to combine colours, intensities and pulsing patterns to correct the anomalous properties the Pokémon displayed.
But first, she’d need to figure out how to actually move the orbs…
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Taylor
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Lone Wolf
Mythstar
Posts: 491
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Taylor Finch
OOC Username: Lea
Arena Points: 72
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Post by Taylor on Apr 11, 2023 1:01:50 GMT 9
Approaching one of the bright, white, solid orbs, she took a breath and held up a hand. Nothing happened at first, but as her palm inched closer to the sphere, it slowly began to move. At no point did she physically touch it, but it acted as though shepherded, moving faster the closer she came, always moving away from her touch. She experimented, now bringing the same hand around to the other side of the orb, and was gratified to see that it moved in the opposite direction. Good, it was like the interaction between opposite magnetic poles. That, she could work with.
For now, she kept her distance from the slumbering shade; she didn’t think there would be a time limit once she began interacting with the tiny fox, but wasn’t willing to risk it. For now, the creature’s connection to this place seemed stable, if far from ideal. She figured it was best to get all her ducks in a row before risking jeopardising that. At the moment that meant sorting the orbs into some sort of order.
Eventually, after some indeterminable amount of time, she had the room arranged to her liking. White lights were grouped together, and then followed groups for each colour, in a ring that roped around the room and surrounded the player and Pokémon. From there, the spheres with brighter, more intense lights were positioned closer to the walls, while the flickering, pulsing and guttering ones remained nearer to the centre. Taylor took a moment to breathe, eyes scanning the newly organised space.
Next came the tricky part.
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Taylor
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Lone Wolf
Mythstar
Posts: 491
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Taylor Finch
OOC Username: Lea
Arena Points: 72
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Post by Taylor on Apr 11, 2023 1:47:55 GMT 9
“Okay,” she breathed, thinking it through. “The flickering first.” Decision made, she crouched down to watch the Vulpix and spent a few minutes monitoring and observing how its form blinked in and out of view. After a short while, she abruptly stood, chewing on her lip as her eyes moved now to scanning the closest orbs. Ignoring colour and intensity for the moment, she searched. Had someone been watching, they might have noticed the fingers of her right hand tapping out a rhythm on her thigh.
“A light that flickers with the same rhythm and frequency, but out of step...” she murmured to herself, pacing and most likely sounding completely insane to any spectator. Finally, she picked out two options, bringing them close to the Vulpix but not yet introducing either to the phantom. Crouching, she peered at the orbs and pokemon, monitoring the flickering for a moment before grinning and discarding the leftmost orb to a far corner of the room.
“Come on, destructive interference…” she breathed, crossing the fingers of her left hand now as her right ushered the pale yellow, pulsing orb towards the Vulpix. Once it came close enough, it seemed to fall victim to some other force, escaping the influence of her palm and floating towards the phantom as though sucked in by some odd form of gravity. As soon as the borders of the sphere touched the tips of the spirit’s fur, it seemed almost to pop, bathing the creature in light.
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Taylor
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Lone Wolf
Mythstar
Posts: 491
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Taylor Finch
OOC Username: Lea
Arena Points: 72
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Post by Taylor on Apr 11, 2023 2:04:04 GMT 9
Taylor squinted against the glow, the fingers on both of her hands crossed now as she waited for her eyes to adjust. Once they did, she beamed to see the little spirit’s glow had stabilised, no longer winking in and out of view. “Hell yeah,” she grinned. “Physics, bitch!” The correction seemed to have done the tiny fox some good, she noticed, noting now that although the change was subtle, the rise and fall of that tiny back seemed to have sped up to a more normal speed.
Well, an understanding of light and electromagnetic waves in general had served her well so far, so Taylor nodded to herself as she stood. It felt like she was on the right track.
“Intensity next, I think,” she decided quietly, nodding to herself and resisting the urge to reach out and pet the little Vulpix consolingly. She felt a pull to reassure it, but didn’t want to risk disturbing it before it was time. She knew if she was a strange, incorporeal sort of ghost and someone woke her before fixing things, she’d certainly freak out!
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Taylor
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Lone Wolf
Mythstar
Posts: 491
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Taylor Finch
OOC Username: Lea
Arena Points: 72
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Post by Taylor on Apr 11, 2023 2:34:45 GMT 9
This problem would involve a little less calculation and a little more estimation. The super dim lights were out and so were the super bright ones. She was looking for something in the middling range, ideally white in colour so’s to not make the next step more difficult. By the time she ruled out the rejects and gathered together the likely options, Taylor was left with three likely choices. Once again, she shepherded them over to the Vulpix phantom and positioned them near – but not too near – it.
The comparison this time had less of an obvious answer, and the young woman consequently ended up spending longer examining the options. Humming, she finally stood and had a go at pushing her best guess towards the little spirit. Interestingly, when the borders of the orb touched the dim fur, it rebounded this time, rather than bursting.
Taylor blinked owlishly for a moment. “Okay, so I guess not that one!” The reject was banished to the corner of shame, and a second option attempted. This time, it burst on contact and flowed over the tiny, sleeping form. "Gotcha!"
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Taylor
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Lone Wolf
Mythstar
Posts: 491
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Taylor Finch
OOC Username: Lea
Arena Points: 72
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Post by Taylor on Apr 11, 2023 2:46:44 GMT 9
As the light faded, Taylor beamed to see the Pokémon looked significantly more substantial, if still very washed-out. Not only that, but they moved now, uncurling from the tight, protective ball into more of a comfortable sprawl. A wide yawn was even given, sharp little fangs glinting in the multi-coloured light of the room, before a tiny puff of smoke was exhaled through greyscale nostrils.
“Aww,” Taylor couldn’t help but breathe, miraculously managing to keep her voice down, rising back to her feet and stepping quietly back. Colour next.
This last step should, in theory, be the simplest to accomplish. Vulpix were naturally a coppery/orange/red, with only a little variation in the cream of their chests. According to light colour theory, her best bet would be combining red and green light to reach yellow, and then shifting the combination more in the direction of red to keep the shade closer to the warmer, orange side of things. That narrowed the options down significantly, so Taylor turned back to the room and started her search.
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Taylor
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Lone Wolf
Mythstar
Posts: 491
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Taylor Finch
OOC Username: Lea
Arena Points: 72
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Post by Taylor on Apr 11, 2023 2:52:44 GMT 9
Although this step should have been simple in theory, it actually ended up relatively difficult in practice. Picking just red and orange orbs would have been simple, if Taylor didn’t need to make sure they were solid and mid-brightness. To add a flicker or change in intensity here would undo the previous hard work, and Taylor wasn’t sure what would happen if she messed up at this stage. She’d grown attached to the little fox during this process, and it hurt her heart to think of messing up and losing them at this point…
So she took rather more time and caution in selecting the final orbs than one might expect. Finally though, she found herself once more seated before the phantom. Before her were three orbs; a large green, a large red and a final mid-sized red. Taking a deep breath and holding it, she ushered the three orbs towards the fire-type. Squinting as they burst and momentarily blinded her, the young woman waited with metaphorical fingers crossed to see if her attempt had been successful…
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System Admin
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Administrator
Posts: 1,470
Player Name: System
OOC Username: M00K
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Post by System Admin on Apr 11, 2023 10:40:29 GMT 9
Stability. Intensity. Color. As orbs of light are returned to the phantom, it seems to regain something more. Health. Vitality. Individuality.
As if to mark the completion of the trial, one by one, the light of the colorful globes pales to a wan, unassuming gray. Everything except for you and the Vulpix, that is.
"This spirit remembers what it means to be alive," says Seta simply from somewhere nearby. "You have passed the Trial of Light."
The gray pushes close, engulfing you and your saved soul, and then a flash of vermillion as you find yourself back in the hall you started in. Back at the crossroads.
Red gates fill the sky, and Seta is nowhere to be found, though his words echo in your mind long after you leave the halls.
"Nothing leaves the Everworld unchanged."
Vulpix has been added to Taylor's box. Vulpix has learned Energy Ball!
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