<a href="https://possiblyfunny.tumblr.com/" style="text-decoration:underline;">possiblyfunny</a>:
<p>...</p><p><i>[Okay, cool PC. A couple of cool rocks and an incense- good taste. No potion, though. <small>And whatever that item was supposed to be...</small> Look, I couldn't care less about what's on this PC at the moment. First and foremost- Avatar, are you okay with being this close to the tank? You looked nervous around it earlier and didn't seem to like it. I just wanna make sure you're okay before I do any more digging.]</i></p>
[ With no real reason to hesitate, you go on and check your PC boxes, not entirely sure what to expect. ]
[ … The computer’s screen falls black for an uncomfortably long amount of time. Long enough that you’re almost certain it’s crashed. Just as you’re about to give up, though… ]
<a href="https://the-sunfl0wer-garden.tumblr.com/" style="text-decoration:underline;">the-sunfl0wer-garden</a>:
<p>Lance, you're so different compared to other beings I have seen lately. (no offense.) Do you know what happened to you...?</p>
“…”
“There are certain things a human is not meant to do.
And now, as far as this world cares, I no longer exist.
Please, young one… be careful.
There are things out there that would eat you alive.”
Red narrows his eyes as he stares down at Cody, shutting up and listening as they explain. The corners of his lips twitch as they finish, the shadow cast over his eyes falling ever so slightly heavier.
“… So, that’s how it is, hm?”
“Barely… any different…”
“… Exactly what I…”
“…”
“I’ve gotta say, you’ve really got a way with words! You’re so articulate when you’re scared, Cody.”
He snickers to himself, hopping off the grave and pacing around, looking between the other and the Ghosts.
“Observant, too~! You’re right, I really couldn’t be bothered to care what you think of me. I’m not exactly here to make friends. I’m sure that’d the last thing you’d want, anyways! See, I’m just here to satiate some curiosity.”
He leans in front of Blastoise, tilting his head.
“I would like to formally apologize to the oversized Sobble-in-a-shell for my language. I’m not exactly used to being around others… Twenty-six years of imprisonment wouldn’t really teach a guy to have a filter, heh.”
He waves a hand nonchalantly, completing the circle.
“And as for your marketable figurine of a rat, well… I’m not interested in being a snotty kid forever. Unfortunately, I don’t need any hacking done to screw up my game badly enough to change some things around.
But, hey… I’m not here to make chit-chat with a couple of one-note monsters. It’s all about you, the most REAL one in this room. Cody, Cody, Cody, star of the show~! Let’s get back to the point. I know you don’t exactly think highly of… things like me. What was it you told that one poor girl- ‘You’ve had more than a decade to get over yourself,’ right?”
He throws his head back, cackling as if the old remark is the funniest thing he’s heard in his life.
“I meant it when I said that I don’t CARE. But I AM nosy, and your vitriol towards REDs in particular is just so interesting… Even seein’ the face clearly strikes a nerve. So honestly, I’d LOVE to hear EXACTLY what you’re thinking…”
“If only you were willing to spit out any fighting words, that is! But you’ve been so much more polite than I expected, after all the reading I’ve done…”
He passes by in front of the other, looking off into the distance.
In that moment- a moment of passing footsteps, of the blink of an eye, of a lack of care… something heavy fills the air.
A damning presence looks down on Cody with a dozen eyes, countless mouths, gnashing teeth and twitching claws, two hundred and fifty-five whispering voices. It’s a disgusting and shambling creature, a sick and unholy patchwork of amalgamated hearts and yellowed blood, wrapped up in tattered flesh and backwards fur, mismatched feathers and scales and blubber and skin. Writhing, wheezing, bleeding, rotting, every misplaced piece existing out of sync.
Something impossible. Unknowable. Invalid.
The feeling it imposes upon them is suffocating. Like not breathing for years, like something vile filling their lungs, a sickness that is rising, thrashing, tearing, desperate for a taste of “fresh meat” if one could even call a dead trainer that anymore.
“It almost seems like there’s something you’re worried about,” the voices from within it hiss, layered countless times under the casual and teasing tone of Red’s own that is lost under the madness…
… Yet the instant the words spill from his lips, that awful sensation is gone as quickly as it arrived. Everything is as it should be. Despite how intense it was… It was little more than two seconds of some sick kind of illusion.
Was it even real? Was that pain all false? Red hasn’t lifted a finger, no less even looked Cody’s way.
It’s as if nothing even happened.
“I wonder, I wonder, what it could be~?” the man babbles on as he walks away, feigning ignorance- because he must be, he must be screwing around with them at this point, right? How could he NOT be?
And now he’s laughing- giggling to himself under his breath, like this whole ordeal is some joke that only he’s in on.
“After all, I’m just some harmless little video game character. I’m not even real, right?” he chides, “Certainly nothing like one of your big bad players who could crush your shoddy little cartridge cause you decided to be a little bi…”
He trails off, managing to catch himself.
“… Decided to misbehave. What, you don’t think I hold any real power over this place, do you~? I can’t cause…”
“… Permanent damage.”
He slows to a stop several paces away from the monochromatic trainer, spinning on his heel to look at them with a smile that could be described as warm, but…
From heart, to flesh, to grin- there’s not a single warm thing about this man in this moment. Only proven further by a final remark, laced with a threatening kind of curiosity.
“So would you like to stop trying to play nice and tell me what you really think of me… Or are you gonna let me get bored?”
[ You've heard rumors. Too many to count, actually. Word has spread far and wide about RED—not yours. Of course not. You aren't stupid.—being locked in some ... amalgamation of a location. ]
[ ... ]
[ They called it "Glitch City". You remember seeing your Red with hollowed eyes, mumbling about a place where everything was wrong. ]
[ That was before you knew. Before you were aware. ]
[ You walk yourself through the steps. Safari Zone. Leave. Say no. Save. Restart. Walk. Walk. Walk. ]
[ You know the moment it happens, because a sharp pain shoots up your leg at the last step and your eyes are bombarded with a disaster of colors. ]
[ ....You try to ignore the pressing of the environment, bits and pieces of...somethings. sticking uncomfortably to you, as you look for him. ]
[ Maybe it takes an hour. Maybe 2 hours. You don't know, but you know when you've found him ]
[ ... What are you supposed to say, now? What can you say, to someone who's known a different you? When you don't know him, really. ]
[ You revert to comfortable habits, because what else can you do. You don't try to hide the sarcasm in your tone as you shift, wincing. ]
[ “ ...Well. Don't you look great, R E D. ” ]
[MAJOR Warning for FLASHING and GLITCHING imagery under cut]
The twisting, unfriendly architecture of Glitch City almost seems to resist letting Blue find the man- environments twisting and turning, structures rising and falling in his way, invisible walls forcing him to backtrack, leaving him going in circles, over and over and over.
Still, if a trainer like him was anything… It was persistent. With enough willpower, anything can be found in this place. Anyplace. Anyone.
The unmistakable figure of Red Tajiri is found with his back turned to the other. He seems wholly unaware Blue is even there, until he speaks up.
He freezes. Blood running cold.
Swallows thickly, trying to will away the sudden suffocating feeling that rises in his throat.
Turns. Slowly. He looks back at the other with an intense, unreadable stare, blood-red eyes burning into him.
“You…” he starts, turning fully. Half whispering, as if the words struggle to escape him.
Then, he stops. Narrows his eyes, squints at the other- something seems to click.
“… Ah. Ahhahaha, I see.” He hisses, and suddenly the intensity seems to melt away.
“You really had me going for a second there, buddy! Real funny. I’m splitting my fucking sides over here. But really, now- who the hell are you? Cause you definitely don’t belong here…”
He crosses his arms, smiling bitterly down at the other.
“Y'know this place would eat idiots like you alive if you aren’t careful, right? Look- I’ll just be bold here and assume you do. So: either you really ARE that stupid, unlucky, suicidal… or you must have a damn good reason to have gone out of your way to seek little ol’ me out. Mind explaining?”
<p>( <a class="tumblelog" href="https://tmblr.co/MwLrsqwNO6ZR_RhMbGALdIQ">@blue-tearss</a> )</p><p>[ .... ]</p><p>[ You've heard rumors. Too many to count, actually. Word has spread far and wide about RED—not yours. Of course not. You aren't stupid.—being locked in some ... amalgamation of a location. ]</p><p>[ ... ]</p><p>[ They called it "Glitch City". You remember seeing your Red with hollowed eyes, mumbling about a place where everything was wrong. ]</p><p>[ That was before you knew. Before you were aware. ]</p><p><br></p><p>[ You walk yourself through the steps. Safari Zone. Leave. Say no. Save. Restart. Walk. Walk. Walk. ]</p><p><br></p><p>[ You know the moment it happens, because a sharp pain shoots up your leg at the last step and your eyes are bombarded with a disaster of colors. ]</p><p><br></p><p>[ ....You try to ignore the pressing of the environment, bits and pieces of...somethings. sticking uncomfortably to you, as you look for him. ]</p><p><br></p><p>[ Maybe it takes an hour. Maybe 2 hours. You don't know, but you know when you've found him ]</p><p><br></p><p>[ ... What are you supposed to say, now? What can you say, to someone who's known a different you? When you don't know him, really. ]</p><p>[ You revert to comfortable habits, because what else can you do. You don't try to hide the sarcasm in your tone as you shift, wincing. ]</p><p>[ “ ...Well. Don't you look great, R E D. ” ] </p>
[MAJOR Warning for FLASHING and GLITCHING imagery under cut]
The twisting, unfriendly architecture of Glitch City almost seems to resist letting Blue find the man- environments twisting and turning, structures rising and falling in his way, invisible walls forcing him to backtrack, leaving him going in circles, over and over and over.
Still, if a trainer like him was anything… It was persistent. With enough willpower, anything can be found in this place. Anyplace. Anyone.
The unmistakable figure of Red Tajiri is found with his back turned to the other. He seems wholly unaware Blue is even there, until he speaks up.
He freezes. Blood running cold.
Swallows thickly, trying to will away the sudden suffocating feeling that rises in his throat.
Turns. Slowly. He looks back at the other with an intense, unreadable stare, blood-red eyes burning into him.
“You…” he starts, turning fully. Half whispering, as if the words struggle to escape him.
Then, he stops. Narrows his eyes, squints at the other- something seems to click.
“… Ah. Ahhahaha, I see.” He hisses, and suddenly the intensity seems to melt away.
“You really had me going for a second there, buddy! Real funny. I’m splitting my fucking sides over here. But really, now- who the hell are you? Cause you definitely don’t belong here…”
He crosses his arms, smiling bitterly down at the other.
“Y'know this place would eat idiots like you alive if you aren’t careful, right? Look- I’ll just be bold here and assume you do. So: either you really ARE that stupid, unlucky, suicidal… or you must have a damn good reason to have gone out of your way to seek little ol’ me out. Mind explaining?”
He taps the side of his mask with his finger, and yet again the screen glitches and it changes.
“Hmm…. Err… Hmm…”
He’s thinking really hard about this- how much is it that he’s so confused? Has he never stopped to think about it??
“Mmmmm….” He scratches his chin, you can visibly see him fidgeting- and thats when the camera feed starts to bug out- his masks changing rapidly, as if he’s mentally counting- but eventually it seems he gives up and loops through a handful.
“Alright uh- Hmm. Not sure I know the full number, But, what I do know is I did start off with…. about 255 give'r take? Once I first…. Started collecting them per-say. It’s hard to explain but, answer’s basically ‘more than enough’.”
“Heh- May have upwards of 'thousand at this point, actually.”
He taps the side of his mask with his finger, and yet again the screen glitches and it changes.
“Hmm…. Err… Hmm…”
He’s thinking really hard about this- how much is it that he’s so confused? Has he never stopped to think about it??
“Mmmmm….” He scratches his chin, you can visibly see him fidgeting- and thats when the camera feed starts to bug out- his masks changing rapidly, as if he’s mentally counting- but eventually it seems he gives up and loops through a handful.
“Alright uh- Hmm. Not sure I know the full number, But, what I do know is I did start off with…. about 255 give'r take? Once I first…. Started collecting them per-say. It’s hard to explain but, answer’s basically ‘more than enough’.”
“Heh- May have upwards of 'thousand at this point, actually.”
“ alright. suppose an apology is due. maybe, it was a little harsh to immediately assume you were hostile or malicious, so that's on me. but so far we've met someone who seems to hold very little self preservation, and then his polar opposite who seems to...be interesting enough. i didn't know what to expect from you, honestly. assuming the worst was evidently not the best course of action, though.”
“It’s… It’s understandable. I can’t say it’s okay, but I get it. It’s a dangerous world out here, sometimes… Especially exploring it all on your own. It’s fair to approach weird people with some wariness.
"Hah, you really are sweet when you want to be. I accept your apology- thank you.”
“… And, uh, like I said- you being anomalous is theorywork. I made some hasty assumptions about you, too… What I gather is just equivalent to… Weird vibes??”
“There’s something about you that’s just inherently hard to place. A kind of… Haziness, that makes everything about you unclear. It’s like your entire existence is fogged over, even though it should be easy to tell. Even having seen tangible records, it’s like… Even now, three different names are fighting for a place in my mind when I try to recall it.”
“Kind of unnerving, but it hasn’t caused problems- yet. And if it’s just a feeling, that shouldn’t change. But it’s an easy to miss thing that I have to pay close attention to for these studies.”
“… In the end, in spite of my misgivings, it isn’t fair for me to tell you what to do. You’re a lot stronger than I am. It’s your choice to pursue this- but I do hope I can be someone you can turn to at any point. Help, advice, guidance, and especially protection… Just say the word. I’ll be there.”
“… Oh! Yes, I do! Though, I don’t know if you’d ever get to hear from him…”
“My brother, Red… He’s a notorious recluse. After the Kanto Championship, he ran off to Gods-know-where. I know he’s not dead, if it’s any consolation. He only shows up for really important Kanto-Champion stuff. I assume it’s just to defend his title or something.”
“Hell if I know, though. You can never really tell what’s going on behind those eyes.”
<p>“ alright. suppose an apology is due. maybe, it was a little harsh to immediately assume you were hostile or malicious, so that's on me. but so far we've met someone who seems to hold very little self preservation, and then his polar opposite who seems to...be interesting enough. i didn't know what to expect from you, honestly. assuming the worst was evidently not the best course of action, though.”</p>
“It’s… It’s understandable. I can’t say it’s okay, but I get it. It’s a dangerous world out here, sometimes… Especially exploring it all on your own. It’s fair to approach weird people with some wariness.
"Hah, you really are sweet when you want to be. I accept your apology- thank you.”
“… And, uh, like I said- you being anomalous is theorywork. I made some hasty assumptions about you, too… What I gather is just equivalent to… Weird vibes??”
“There’s something about you that’s just inherently hard to place. A kind of… Haziness, that makes everything about you unclear. It’s like your entire existence is fogged over, even though it should be easy to tell. Even having seen tangible records, it’s like… Even now, three different names are fighting for a place in my mind when I try to recall it.”
“Kind of unnerving, but it hasn’t caused problems- yet. And if it’s just a feeling, that shouldn’t change. But it’s an easy to miss thing that I have to pay close attention to for these studies.”
“… In the end, in spite of my misgivings, it isn’t fair for me to tell you what to do. You’re a lot stronger than I am. It’s your choice to pursue this- but I do hope I can be someone you can turn to at any point. Help, advice, guidance, and especially protection… Just say the word. I’ll be there.”
“… Oh! Yes, I do! Though, I don’t know if you’d ever get to hear from him…”
“My brother, Red… He’s a notorious recluse. After the Kanto Championship, he ran off to Gods-know-where. I know he’s not dead, if it’s any consolation. He only shows up for really important Kanto-Champion stuff. I assume it’s just to defend his title or something.”
“Hell if I know, though. You can never really tell what’s going on behind those eyes.”
<a href="https://possiblyfunny.tumblr.com/" style="text-decoration:underline;">possiblyfunny</a>:
<p>Well, yeah, I know about Bad Eggs, Professor… I’ve seen them before.</p><p>I just- I-I’m <i>so </i>sorry if this is insensitive or rude, Professor, but… why do you keep it here? It, <i>uh</i>… it seems <i>important</i> to you…</p>
[This post contains a rapidly flashing/glitching image.]
“… The circumstances in which I aquired the egg are not something that I want to talk about, but as an academic, transparency is important to me, so… I’m willing to explain.”
“You are right. It is important to me. This BAD EGG… This was the very first anomaly that fell into my possession- honestly, perhaps the first I ever encountered.”
“… It was not originally my Pokemon. It was the sole partner of a dear friend of mine. An Absol. It always kept her safe- she was far more adventurous than me, hah…”
“The phenomenon of what this is, and why it occurs, isn’t something well understood by the scientific community. It certainly wasn’t when I first… acquired this.”
“I desperately wanted to learn why it had happened. How I could undo it. I- I needed to. But there was no information, other than the few recounts of other trainers out there who had fallen victim to this exact same phenomenon. None of us knew what was happening, nobody knew what to do- the only advice was to quarentine it, as many found keeping it near other Pokemon caused it to spread.”
“… I was a budding academic, at the time. I’d always had interest in the field of Pokemon research and was beginning a path to become a Professor, at the time. I- I can’t even remember what I’d originally planned to study, but…”
“As I searched desperately for information on this that just didn’t exist, I stumbled on recounts of more and more similarly inexplicable oddities. They piled up, with not a single one understood, answered, or fixed.”
“They consumed my attention, and… Finally, I made a decision.”
“Nobody else had given these anomalies the light of day. All of them, simply passed off as urban legends, or the ramblings of madmen gone off the deep end. So I decided- I wanted to be the one to understand. I wanted to approach this properly, academically, so I could be the one to give hundreds- perhaps thousands- of unheard cries for help the answers that they needed.”
“… Including my own.”
“Years later, well… Here we are. I’ve a lab, and hundreds- thousands, perhaps- of notes, essays, papers full of analysis and theory, and an entire lab’s worth of hard proof on the existence of these in my possession.”
“… I understand the BAD EGG much better, now. But despite everything, the way to undo it still evades me. At the very least… I’ve procured a lot more knowledge in the meantime. I hope that’s worth something, at least.”
“ there isn't much else we can ask outside of work. i hardly know you. maybe you'll forgive my hostility, but technically there's no solid proof that you won't try to do something malicious. you've done a background check, so what exactly might skew your results? don't we have the right to know?”
[This post contains a flashing/glitching image.]
“I- Excuse me?!”
The woman visibly tenses at that, her eyes flaring.
“Is this how you treat ANY new person you meet!? ’Try to do something malicious–’ Do you REALLY think I’d–”
“…”
She catches herself, cutting her flash of anger short and making an effort to quickly recompose herself.
“… Sorry- I’m sorry. You’re right, you don’t know me… At all, really. The skepticism is fair.”
“What I was worried about is just- uh, strong evidence- from my own understanding- that you have some anomalous properties of your own that could… Impact, things. It’s nonsense theorywork, though, I- I don’t think it’s even correct. Probably. Maybe. I-”
<p>“ there isn't much else we can ask outside of work. i hardly know you. maybe you'll forgive my hostility, but technically there's no solid proof that you won't try to do something malicious. you've done a background check, so what exactly might skew your results? don't we have the right to know?”</p>
[This post contains a flashing/glitching image.]
“I- Excuse me?!”
The woman visibly tenses at that, her eyes flaring.
“Is this how you treat ANY new person you meet!? ’Try to do something malicious–’ Do you REALLY think I’d–”
“…”
She catches herself, cutting her flash of anger short and making an effort to quickly recompose herself.
“… Sorry- I’m sorry. You’re right, you don’t know me… At all, really. The skepticism is fair.”
“What I was worried about is just- uh, strong evidence- from my own understanding- that you have some anomalous properties of your own that could… Impact, things. It’s nonsense theorywork, though, I- I don’t think it’s even correct. Probably. Maybe. I-”
<a href="https://possiblyfunny.tumblr.com/" style="text-decoration:underline;">possiblyfunny</a>:
<p><i>Okay-</i> <i>Don’t </i>geek out over how cool these computers are. <i>Don’t</i> overthink this. Just think of it as a <i>really</i> cool security job… <i>Deep breaths. You got this.</i> </p><p>Where to…? We’re looking for weird stuff to document. It might be easier to spot weird things where there’s usually nothing, right? So… <i>Mt. Silver?</i> I think it’s empty up there… and if there is anything unusual it should be easy to spot… like finding meteorites in the snow.</p><p>Yeah… Yeah, let’s check Mt. Silver first. Gotta start somewhere.</p>
[Warning: Flashing lights/image in video.]
You select Camera 05, and the display comes to fully present itself on the central computer.
It seems like the drone is currently settled in a cave, hidden from the harsh weather conditions as to not be lost in the snow… Piloting it forward is as easy as pressing a few commands on the keyboard.
Thus, you begin to survey the mountain.
You notice, as you move onwards, that it already seems to be rather high up- it makes sense, though. The remote access wouldn’t be necessary for a lower part of the range, given the proximity of the lab.
And it seems the only direction to go is up.
Onwards, seeing nothing of note except rocks, snow, and wild Pokemon, until the view emerges from the final cavern before the peak, a n d-
