pokedrifting | The Grand Opening

Entry tags:

event: mingle

The Grand Opening

[A large WELCOME sign is hanging from the buildings when you walk into Levanta Town, but that seems to be the only sign that today is any different than any other day. The villagers are simply going about their daily business. However, if they are approached they are more than happy to explain the region as well as they can to any new arrivals.

Welcome to Levanta Town in The Drifting Land!]

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[ It is! And he makes a few unsure steps towards where the sound came from. He... should probably follow you?

Yes, let's do that. ]

Come on up!

[Ho-oh has a key in hand that he's jostling the lock with -a it clicks, and the door swings open.

The second floor is more obviously a living space, one corner containing a space for food preparation and a table with two chairs, shelves of scrolls and paper and assorted goods along one wall, and some kind of garden creeping in through a back window to fill another corner.]

[ Excited nod! He's still a little bit scared of speaking. He follows you up the stairs and into the room, looking it over with just about as much interest, if not more, as he did the first room. Those shelves with scrolls immediately catch his attention, and he makes a mental note to ask you later if he can look through them. But yes, this floor really does look like a living space, so he finally decides to speak. ]

Is this where you live? By the way, you never really told me who you are. Are you one of the priests?

[ Some sort of a high priest maybe? From what he knows, the usual monks dress in much simpler clothes. ]

Uh...

[oh shit this is it]

Not quite!

... Not quite a priest or not quite living here?

A priest. Uh, you said you'd visited another "strange place" like this, right...?

Oh, yeah. Does it have to do anything with this place?..

What kind of people did you meet there? Anyone a little out of the ordinary?

[ ... "A little out of the ordinary", huh. ]

Well... There was one guy I'd call anything but ordinary. He's my future best friend, apparently. I don't think there was anyone else-

[ ... Wait a second. ]

That girl! I met her on the tree, and she... turned into a Pokemon, I think, and I kind of thought it all was a dream. Still not sure if it was or wasn't.

It probably wasn't.

[don't make him say it man.]

... How do you know? Have you met someone like that before, too?

[ Yeah sorry Ho-oh he's not going to make this easy :V ]

[Might as well just get it out.]

Would you believe me if I said I was Ho-oh?

[LET'S SEE HOW THIS GOES]

H-Huh?! But- How-

[ YOU CAN'T BE HO-OH HO-OH IS A BIRD POKEMON
also you kind of... look a bit too young...
ANYWAY YOU CAN'T BE HO-OH-

...

And then something goes 'click' inside his head, and he remembers his conversation with Gold, when he was first explained the way the Awesome Island works. Now that he thinks of it, Gold did mention multiple Ho-Ohs.
He also mentioned that he knew one who was in human shape.
Suddenly he understands everything. ]

You... really are?..

[ Still, never hurts to make sure. ]

If I'm not, there's a monastery and a ghost thing that have a lot of explaining to do.

[ A ghost thing? He isn't sure what are you talking about, but... You're Ho-Oh. One thing left to do.

And he kneels down - on both knees even this time - and bows in silent respect. He's a little bit at a loss of words - it's not every day you meet the legendary you rever, and in a human shape to that, after all. He doesn't really dare to look up either, he'd need a permission of some kind for that, right? but still manages to steal a somewhat shy and awkward glance at you. Ho-Oh or not, it still is kind of awkward to kneel before someone about your age and someone you were just talking to. ]

[………OH GOSH WHAT IS HE DOING NO STOP THAT]

-no no no don't do that it's fine please you don't have to please get up.

[THAT WAS SO MUCH MORE FLAILY THAN HE MEANT TO BE GOOD LORD

WOW DID HIS VOICE GO HIGH? NICE GOING THERE]

W-Well, if you say so!-

[ OH OKAY HE IS GETTING UP AWKWARDLY
DID HE UPSET YOU HE IS SORRY ]

[hgdshfdfhhgfgg you practically gave him a heart attack.]

Listen, I am Ho-oh, but - I'm nothing special yet. Sooner or later I'll become a bird and...do whatever it is a Ho-oh is supposed to do, but I don't know how to make it happen and the monks don't know how to make it happen and if my previous incarnation knows he's not telling.

So please don't do that. I'm not a god, I'm just a kid in training that might not work for something that might not happen for the reasons we want it to.

Uh...

[ SO MANY QUESTIONS IN HIS HEAD RIGHT NOW
SO MANY

He tilts his head puzzledly and looks at you. All this doesn't really make sense - it's not supposed to, he's never heard about anything like training to become Ho-Oh, and previous incarnations, and human shapes, and all that - but at the same time it strangely does. Maybe he just doesn't know enough yet to undestand it.

And yet, of all things he wants to ask he only manages one. ]

... Is that why you didn't want to tell me who you are at first?

Sort of. I mean, it's kind of weird to just walk up to someone going "hi, I'm Ho-oh", right?

... Yeah, makes sense, I guess.

[ Especially considering his own reaction. ]

But... I've never heard about, um, someone 'becoming' Ho-Oh?

Yeah, that...

[mm hold on okay going over to a chair and sitting down. this could be a long explanation.]

So every few hundred years, Ho-oh dies and leaves an egg behind. That's its new incarnation. The Ho-oh that lived in Ecruteak before me - he's older than the city, so when he was "born" there wasn't anyone around to see. All the monks had to go on when he died were some things he'd told them, and none of them were very helpful. So I came out of the egg - human - and nobody knows if that's a bad thing or if it's supposed to happen or what.

The Ho-oh before me - my previous incarnation - sort of...stuck around? I can talk to him when I'm asleep or meditating, and I think it's supposed to be so I can learn how to do...Ho-oh things from him, but he's not easy to get along with. From some things I managed to wrestle out of him, I am almost completely certain that I will turn into an actual bird Ho-oh at some point in my life for some reason.

[ Ohhh are you going to tell him THINGS? Better grab a chair, too! He sits down as well and listens to you attentively, a puzzled expression appearing on his face from time to time. ALL THIS IS SO NEW AND UNUSUAL? ]

Well, if it first happened before the city was even built, then no wonder there aren't any records or anything... But then again, maybe we're just from different worlds?

[ ... pause ]

And, uh... You're "almost completely certain" you will turn into a bird "for some reason"? He didn't tell you anything more specific?

Maybe.

He's really unhelpful. I don't think he likes me.

... Why not? You're a pretty nice person.

Or maybe it's supposed to be a test?

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so which came first, the ho-oh or the egg

NOOOOOOPE

I have no regrets