[ti]story[/ti] PLASMA: Show Me The Door

Foreign light beams through the Doortal, spotlighting Laguna and making the deep waters wriggle with strange refraction. The players race after Ash, and as they push through the bismuth doorframe, a sense of relief washes over them. Aggression melts away in the face of monumental homecoming. Nostalgia, injected directly into your veins. Joy, as rich in this alien atmosphere as Oxygen is in ours.

This is not your world. But nothing has ever felt this much like home.

Clouds of coral bore through the sky, leaving neon trails. The triple suns overhead cast contrasting shadows over the spongy ground, dyeing it cyan, magenta, and vantablack.

Looking ahead, the ground bends in unfamiliar angles, as if the landscape was made without regard for physics. Humming shapes of solid light waft past on the ozone breeze, their tangerine edges fractured with time. Tricorn cliffs with play-dough sides host inverted forests of crystalline ferns.

And dancing through the alien landscape, moving with the music of the spheres and the grace of the stars, is System Admin:ProfessorAsh.

BONUS: CYCLE 4

SHOW ME THE DOOR: PLASMA STORY QUEST

The Professor seems younger, somehow. Giddy. Carefree. The Nihilego sits comfortably on her head, and as a tentacle falls across her face she brushes it away like a strand of hair. When she speaks, there is a strange echo, as if someone else is speaking at the same time.

[tangent="The voice can't follow this one now!"]"You followed me?"[/tangent] she asks, her voice light, distant, and two-tone. Emotions cross her face like shooting stars. Surprise, joy, fear. Her expression calms, settling into a jubilant smile.[tangent="This one thought it might never see this place again..."]"I'm glad that you're here. I wasn't sure we'd meet again."[/tangent]

She spins as if in slow-motion, a pirouette buoyed up by the impossible gravity of this world. [tangent="Home! Home! Home!"]"Fascinating, isn't it? This Pokemon's homeworld. Some planet out beyond the stars. It seems so happy...it's been gone a long time."[/tangent] As Ash speaks, the tentacles of the creature wiggle and flex, as if Ash and her new companion are about to swim upwards into the glowing atmosphere.

You feel the excitement too, as a note of vibrant energy within the symphony of calm and respite. It sings in your bones, telling you to jump and play and live the life you have, now that it is truly yours. The emotion from the Nihilego is so strong it's tangible. Giddying. You sense this is not an attempt to manipulate, coerce or control: the alien creature is really, truly glad to be here. To be home. Like a long-realized dream.

[tangent="It's finally quiet..."]"I can hear it, you know,"[/tangent] Ash continues dreamily, and the look on her face almost makes you cry. [tangent="The connection feels... far away, now. This one can hear itself think."]"For the first time, I can understand a Pokemon. It's wonderful. True connection, from one mind, one heart, to another. Even psychic Pokemon cannot achieve such a complete union. I feel… reborn."[/tangent]

She stretches out her hands to look at the backs of them and you see something chilling: the tentacles of the Ultra Beast have begun to take on the color of Ash's skin, and vice versa. A blueish, slightly transparent hue. She is being slowly absorbed— or else transfigured.

[tangent="This one's thoughts are free once again."]"I know what I have to do,"[/tangent] Ash says, and you feel the pieces click into place.

[tangent="Thank you for bringing this one home."]"Thank you for bringing me this far."[/tangent] She drops her hands, and her smile. She suddenly seems more like her old self. All business. [tangent="But this one is afraid..."]"But I'm afraid I can't come with you. This Pokemon needs me. There's a… voice."[/tangent]

She hesitates, then continues, words coming faster now. [tangent="DON'T GO!"]"The voice is something only it can hear. It's so loud, it has to… do something. Collect. Lights, and other Pokemon, and various things. If it tries to run away, or comes back empty-handed…"[/tangent]

Nihilego's fear suddenly stings through the air like string instruments.

Ash stiffens in its grip, unable to move or even speak, until the creature's terror fades. The rigor loosens on her limbs, and she continues, short of breath. [tangent="It keeps this one prisoner. It will take you too, soon. There is nothing but fear in the New World."]"The voice wouldn't let it leave on its own. But I can block it out. I can protect it, if I just…"[/tangent]

She trails off, as if listening to something far away, then turns back to you. Her tone is distant. [tangent="Get away, while you still can."]"It's time for you to go."[/tangent]

[tangent="We are staying here."]"We are staying here."[/tangent]

God it was so tempting.

It was as if they had found the garden of Eden drowned beneath the horrors of the world in gods great flood.  Noah and his Arc might have survived, but they'd missed a change to return to paradise.  It was everything billed and more, with the warmth of the sun that would burn not your tender flesh for basking in its glow for too long.  The softness of a breeze that echoed the passion of the briefest and most tenderest of kisses from lost lovers brought back.  In the distance he swore he heard the gentle singing of a family member long gone, and the scent of his mother's cooking carried on from afar.  

God it was so FUCKING tempting.

And the professor looked like she was having the time of her fucking life, like she hadn't been just horrifically paralyzed, puppeted, and pilfered off to this picturesque planet.  But who could produce a proper cause for precaution in this predicament, practically more picnic than the problem is was presented to be.  Yet pragmatic philosophers peered past the present, preparing plans for phantom pains.  Proper philanthropy required perspiration, and a preparedness to pass on personal comfort.

Fate called on the Prophet, the Primadona, and the Poet to purloin the Professor.

They would need to connect their hearts, and make first contact with this alien savior, who held the fate of the world in it's tentacles.

"I know the pain of losing the ones you love all to well..."  Orion called out, clenching his fingers into fists as he let that sorrow radiate off of him, the air seemed like it conducted powerful emotions, or perhaps it was the psychic link of Nihelago, perhaps it was a placebo he would never know.  All he could do was open his heart and let his emotions flow out into the world around him as he spoke, either through his aura, actions, and articulations.  "It hurts, and it's a hole that never quite heals and leaves you feeling desperate to escape it, for any sort of relief.  I get it, I really do."  Tears began to roll down his face in defiance of the beautiful world around him, not for anything within it, but for the fact that it had to be rejected.  

At least for now.

"But if what you speak of is true, if some voice has your family ensnared in some sort of siren song, something sinister is at work and we have to band together to stop it, not just escape it!"  As he spoke his soul began to burn away at the sorrow radiating off of him, a seething passion shining through like a lantern in a foggy forest that provided a subtle sense of Deja Vu, like we'd sung this song and danced this dance before.  "I've faced the impossible before, be it a storm that seeks to consume an island so many call home, or a kegger corrupted into a killing floor, dreams of dark delusion and strife along the stratosphere.  I KNOW that we will defeat this siren song,"  He held a hand out and clenched his fist, flexing his muscles.  "Because we've done it time and time again, making the impossible possible, but we didn't just get to do that by being lucky, or stumbling around, no."  He shook his head, his eyes tingling with resolve.  "We did it by working together, both people and pokemon, uniting to be more than just the sum of our parts!"  His outstretched hand turned and thumped his chest.

"But we need to professor.  I think I have an idea of what this voice is, and what it's doing.  If your people are being controlled, probably because of the corruption in our world.  Someone likely tried to save their own hide by finding you all and using some sort of device or something to puppet you all into a platoon of corruption killers.  I've seen the fights with my own eyes, it's on sight with them and they're lean mean fighting machines.  Whatever is controlling them is likely still around somewhere, and we're going to need the professor to help to discover, discern, and disable it and free all of your friends and family.  You don't have to live out here alone, and could you really stand to be the only member of your species free?  Please!"  His hand would once again reach out, mirroring Verai's proffered palm.  "Open your heart to me and I'll show you a million reasons to fight for this world and ours, while it might hurt now, and our road will be perilous, the future we seek cannot be won without strife.  But when all is said and down we will beat our swords into plowshares and plant trees who's shade our descendants will seek refuge during beautiful carefree summer days under.  Join us, let the professor go, so we can make the world a better place!"

Orion bared his soul to the beast, pleading with it to see his point.  All he could think about was saving those they'd lost, those that the Nihelago lost, to find a way to forge a happy ending for all involved, no matter how much pain he would have to suffer in order to make it happen.  He had to make up for all of his mistakes, and live up to the sacrifice that had allowed him to get this far.