Trial of Light: Taylor

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.

TRIAL OF LIGHT
You're in a room filled with bright, shimmering light. Your Pokemon is lying in the center of the room, its form insubstantial and flickering. You notice that the light is coming from dozens of floating orbs, each a different color and intensity. Some are too bright to look at, while others pulse and dance like fireflies.

Find the right combination of orbs to restore your Pokemon's solid form.

SPOILER: Click to show

{THEME}

Taylor

“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…

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.

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!

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.