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Told in present tense. ", "count": "86", "submission_left_submission_id": "2997447", "submission_left_file_name": "4480162_Rylasasin_stars_of_iron_p8a46_going_bump_in_the_._day_.rtf", "submission_left_thumbnail_url_huge": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/huge/4480/4480162_Rylasasin_stars_of_iron_p8a46_going_bump_in_the_._day_.jpg", "submission_left_thumbnail_url_large": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/large/4480/4480162_Rylasasin_stars_of_iron_p8a46_going_bump_in_the_._day_.jpg", "submission_left_thumbnail_url_medium": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/medium/4480/4480162_Rylasasin_stars_of_iron_p8a46_going_bump_in_the_._day_.jpg", "submission_left_thumb_huge_x": "269", "submission_left_thumb_huge_y": "123", "submission_left_thumb_large_x": "200", "submission_left_thumb_large_y": "91", "submission_left_thumb_medium_x": "120", "submission_left_thumb_medium_y": "55", "submission_right_submission_id": "2997455", "submission_right_file_name": "4480172_Rylasasin_stars_of_iron_p8a48_stealing_supplies.rtf", "submission_right_thumbnail_url_huge": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/huge/4480/4480172_Rylasasin_stars_of_iron_p8a48_stealing_supplies.jpg", "submission_right_thumbnail_url_large": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/large/4480/4480172_Rylasasin_stars_of_iron_p8a48_stealing_supplies.jpg", "submission_right_thumbnail_url_medium": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/medium/4480/4480172_Rylasasin_stars_of_iron_p8a48_stealing_supplies.jpg", "submission_right_thumb_huge_x": "269", "submission_right_thumb_huge_y": "123", "submission_right_thumb_large_x": "200", "submission_right_thumb_large_y": "91", "submission_right_thumb_medium_x": "120", "submission_right_thumb_medium_y": "55" } ], "description": "And so we take a break from the sex for some predictions, some thoughts, and some predictions.\n\nBecause of FA rules, this was split into two chapters. I decided to merge it back on the IB version.\n\nThe rest of Part 8 can be found [url=https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mCRZdG7xGSzXWMyupl66ciLuJmZFdENCnvapqt96Dxg/edit#]here[/url].\n\n[url=https://inkbunny.net/submissionsviewall.php?rid=c6a9fd4348&mode=pool&pool_id=59838&page=1&orderby=pool_order&random=no&success=]Also, obligatory link to the comic itself to which this is a fanfiction of.[/url]", "description_bbcode_parsed": "And so we take a break from the sex for some predictions, some thoughts, and some predictions.

Because of FA rules, this was split into two chapters. I decided to merge it back on the IB version.

The rest of Part 8 can be found here.

Also, obligatory link to the comic itself to which this is a fanfiction of.", "writing": "[center][t]Act 47a: Religion and Politics[/t][/center]\n\n\"Does it really look that bad?\" Rhetorical question of course, his 'costume' glitches and shifts until it is looking like some sort of high-tech full bodysuit, must be the original shape of whatever he is wearing. \"This should do, I'm going in now.\" And with that said, he goes into the Commander's tent.\n\nEasani does not follow him in, he has other things to do... With Duci.... that are... not here. Yes.\nThe other avalis look up at him for a moment before going back to the various tasks they were doing before. Only the commander continues to focus his attention on Mattias.\n\"Hmm?\" He says. \"Ah, you are... Stic's guest from the other day. The scientists say you had quite the friendly chat with them, even though I won't pretend to understand half of it. Anyway, I assume you're here and not there for a reason, am I correct?\"\n\nHe finds it a bit of shame that the commander isn't scientific-ish, given what he said. But oh well, that is alright, Mattias is not here to bore him with science after all. \"Yes, you are correct. I have recently gathered a wealth of information from the broad world as a whole, I think knowing these might be of use for you.\"\n\nThe commander folds his hands and places them on the table, now at full attention.\n\"Alright. Give me your report.\"\nHe reaches over and clicks a device on the desk he's currently at quick a moment before returning to his previous attention-giving posture.\n\nWithout further ado he starts reciting what he wants to say, it's something he kind of committed to memory for this very moment. \"The matter I want to start with is a 'human' matter. There is talk rising among the lands of the Grove, and slightly so in the territories they conquered. They are using something that might be normal to us, but to Pokémon it might be novelty, i'm talking about tactics, tactics beyond simply rushing the enemy head on, undermining them from within...like it was with the Sandstone Guild betraying Sandstone.\" There is a small pause. \"Novelty like this tents to be associated with humans, as is anything 'new' to Pokémon. The point is this is raising rumors that Princess Ivy, the enemy's leader, is a human. It's not know if that is certain, what is certain however is that this clout can be used by the Grove to strengthen their cause, for if they have a human this means that they must be destined to change the world...and some might rally behind that idea.\" He crosses his arms. \"...Though I also calculated that sooner or later this will also start rearing its head at Sandstone for mostly the same reasons. I do not know exactly if the idea to take the same possible advantage as the Grove is something considered...but I suspect it's only a matter of time before the average denizens also begin worshiping Sandstone.\"\n\nThe Base commander listens intently. \"And have you talked to Stic and/or the Sandstone administration about any of this? In particular the last part? A lot of this seems like it's more useful to them than us. Well, no matter, I am recording this so I'll pass it on to them at the earliest convenience.\"\n\nHe nods and continues. \"This next matter is a little more based on religion. Before you shot me down, let me explain. What is good to take note of is the dogma these religions might have, which Pokémon live by. The Drought teaches unrelenting, outlasting, and continuing unchanged. This also means accepting the status quo no matter what, even if it's detrimental.\" The human pauses for a moment. \"This fact might also effect Sandstone in some way, the changes go against the dogma of The Drought. But this all also mingles with the fact i stated previously, humans being brings of change is also a very strong fact in the belief of basically all pokémon, it can be considered a 'status quo' too.\"\n\n\"Exactly what I hear the brass is trying to avoid.\" The base commander says. \"Now, granted, this is only second hand, but from what I've heard, the idea is to empower the mons with the idea that they can be the ones making change. It's why we leave ourselves out of the propaganda posters and rallying songs we have the bards singing over there. It's why we are giving them medieval Glitch weapons instead of arming them with guns. Hell, it's why we're acting through them and offering advice and only acting when they're unable to, and keeping our involvement in these ops as hush-hush as possible... Something that I fear is going to get a lot harder as time goes on.\" \n\n\"And now we must address the thing with the ocean. You see there is a sea separating the Sands from the Grove. It's big enough that one would need a ship to cross it, without amazing stamina it's impossible for a living being to fly over it. There is also a civilization located there in a place called 'Oracle Sea', it has port cities that once held armadas of ships from the Iron King's time. It seems to have it's own share of conflict with nobles and guilds against pirates. Oracle Sea doesn't just seem to be an open sea though. It is a mystery dungeon made of islands that change, as you might expect from the nature of such a place. These changing land masses surround one big island that doesn't seem to be part of the dungeon, that is where the 'civilized' ones live while the pirates seem to make their home on the shifting islands.\"\n\n\"Sounds like just the kind of place a clandestine operation would set up shop in...\" The base commander muses to himself. \"Isolated, minimal chance of discovery, easy to deal with interlopers....\nHe suddenly realizes he's musing to himself.\n\"Er... Nevermind.\"\nHowever, just when it looks like he's about to urge him on, he instead leans forward and whispers something.\n\"Speaking of, there's something I want to talk to you later about. But I'd like you to give the rest of your report first. That other part is... classified, shall we say.\"\n\nMattias wonders what could that be, could it be that the Avali have something special to tell him? Regardless, he continues. \"There is evidence however that the Oracle Sea and the Sands might not be friends at the end of the day. The religion worshiped there is focused on something called 'The Drizzle', it's dogma is all about changing and adapting. What's more the deity this religion is based on, the so-called 'Drizzle', is a bitter enemy of the 'Drought'.\"\n\n\"Which might explain why they let the Grove pass through unharmed?\"\n\n\"That is one possibility, or they couldn't bother with the Grove because of their pirate-problem taking center stage.\" \n\nThis... will require further thought. \"Anyway, is there anything else?\" He holds his hand over the recording device button, ready to shut it off just in case that's the end of the convo... at least the official convo.\n\n\"Well there are a couple other things less pressing than current world affairs.\" He explained before delving into it. \"For starters...there is a crashed UFO in the ocean, it's somewhere quite a bit deep and dark, but it's there.\"\n\nUpon mention of that, the base commander IMMEDIATELY clicks the device and starts making a desperate cutting motion on his throat. \n\"Not on the official talk!\" He chided Mattius. \"We don't want to start a panic!!\"\nHe holds his finger over the recording device again.\n\"Okay, let me be more clear: anything not belonging in a classified folder worth mentioning? If not, I'll just reverse the tape a bit and come up with a conclusion before moving onto the 'off the books' stuff. Then we can talk about that. \"\n\n\"Oh...\" Well that leaves him a little sheepish. \"If this is the case then everything else i'm going to be talking about next should go into a classified folder.\" The human clarified.\n\n\"Okay. I'm going to reverse this tape to the point where you mentioned that UFO, and 'conclude' this conversation. Play along. Once you're gone for real, I'll send the tape to Stic. Anything we speak of next is on a need-to-know basis and is deemed classified until we have more information. I repeat, none of this next stuff gets told to Stic, let alone ANYONE else until it's deemed necessary. It's bad enough that we're having to keep exposure to our own existence to a minimum, and it's even more bad enough that we have to wean them off of tailing humans... no offense... and encouraging them to take control of their own destiny. Even if we are ... nudging... hmmm... things, in a certain direction. I mean unless a whole bunch of hostile ships suddenly appear, the last thing we need is word of alien interventions getting out. Understand?\"\nThe base commander presses a button on the device. There is a silence for less than a second before the click of another button is heard. He holds his talon on what can only be assumed to be the 'record' button.\n\n\"Yes, I am perfect. But uuuhh...\" He raises a finger. \"In that case record a little more then, there is something else i was going to mention actually.\"\n\n\"Okay then.\" The commander nods. \"Once you're done with that. I'm going to get up, thank you for your time and information, and you're going to pretend to walk out of here. Once you hear the click again, come right back and sit down, and we'll start our off the books talk. Aaaand... Go.\"\nHe clicks the button, and the device begins recording audio again.\n\nMattias now goes to report another topic, one that can be a little more 'public'. \"There is the existence of two other notable groups of pokémon. One is the Slink Clan, they are like the Wall Breakers, they go about killing nobles but they operate in the shadows way more than the Wallbreakers, From the look of things they work exclusively in Snow territory. Other than that there is also a loosely affiliated group of shopkeepers, landowners, merchants, and ringleaders. Pokémon with wealth that are not nobles but they use financial pressure to force things to go their way. \n\n\"Stic may or may not know about this. Guess we'll have to ask once we play this to him.\" THe base commander comments.\n\n\"Alright, that's all i have to report to you.\"\n\n\"Well, alright.\" The commander begins his 'goodbye' act by getting up, as if to shake his hand. \"The information you've provided will be of great help to the cause of Sandstone, and we thank you for your continued cooperation with us. And we hope that you have a safe and productive day. Someone will see you out. Goodbye, and farewell.\"\nHis hand goes over to the recording device, as he waits for Mattias to get up and walk out before clicking the stop button. \n\n\"It's always a pleasure to help!\" The human said after 'shaking' the Avali's hand. Then plays along with the act, turning around and starting to walk away. \n\nThe commander waits until he's a few steps away, the sounds of the footsteps becoming fainter in the recording, before a loud click is heard as he shuts the device off.\n\"Alright. now that we got that out of the way...\" He motions Mattias back to the chair. \"Let's talk about some off the record stuff.\"\nHe sits back down, and reaches under the desk.\n\"We can start with this.\" he says under the desk. He quickly comes back up, and loudly plops a large object right onto the desk. A familiar object of wood and steel, a device with a trigger, a chamber, a barrel, and a large banana-shaped clip. One that any human, even one not very familiar with earth firearms can easily recognize. \nThe silhouette of an AK-47. Or perhaps, an AKM or AK-74 or Type 56 or something similar. An AK of some sort, with a larger than normal magazine. A closer look would reveal minute differences than your typical old earth 47, but otherwise it at least looks the same as one.\n\nAfter coming back and being presented with the old firearm, Mattias stared at it. At first it's like he is not understand what he is seeing but...\"Why would anyone use wood as a rifle-making material?\" Yes, he does recognize what this is. Though he doesn't seem to know why the commander is bringing this up. \n\n\"... Really? That's the question you're asking?\" The base commander deadpans. \"Not... 'and where did this come from?'\"\n\nHe raises a brow. \"Wait, you mean this isn't from around here?\" Mattias must have assumed it belonged to this base. \"Where did you find it then?\"\n\n\"Yeah, I wish it was someone's collection. It'd save us all from a massive headache.\" He says. \"No, you see, it all started when I assigned one of our crew, Neso and his pack, to a bandit-clearing mission. It was supposed to be a simple job: Go in, wipe out and/or capture the bandits, come back. The little 'vee's first combat mission. Easy peasy. Well, from the debrief, it started out that way, but then the bandit leader whipped this fucking thing\" he lightly slams his fist on the thing. Obviously he has no real love for the weapon on the desk. \"And just started spraying the cave with it. Poor veers got his arm injured by it, and he was hospitalized for a day or so. All things considered we were lucky on that count that it was just an injury and not a death.\"\nHe looks down on the thing.\n\"Oh, and don't worry, the thing is out of ammo anyway. And no one around here is rushing to put more in it, not that we have any on hand for this thing, so no worries about the thing going off.\"\nHe leaves out the part where they rescued Josclyn. As it's not really relevant information to the topic at hand.\n\nNow he is starting to realize what this is about, and that it can't be a good thing. \"So you're telling me that someone gave that gun to a bandit?\"\n\n\"That's what we'd like to know.\" The base commander groans. \"We're still not exactly sure where he got it. There was one bandit survivor, but he either doesn't know where his boss got the thing, or he's lying his ass off despite everything. I mean, we have our suspects, though not many of them really check out or have alibis... Actually, now that I think about it...\"\nHe gives Mattius an intense stare. \n\"Do you know of ANYONE, either an individual or group from your world that would give someone like that a weapon of that sort?\"\n\n\"I do have a suspicion of my own, and while this would be the perfect excuse to strike at them...\" He looks closer at the AK. \"But on the other hand I feel like this weapon, even in a bad condition, is better than what they would have provided...believe it or not.\"\n\n\"Yeah come to think of it, it's a stupid question anyway.\" The commander looks at it. \"Because we already analyzed it and already know of this model's origin, it being a USCM export weapon, quite common during the USCM civil wars and Occassus Crisis, as you can tell by certain features. Unless you have a USCM in your universe that makes the exact same model the exact same way, it couldn't have come from there. So it would beg the question of where they got it. As for ourselves... We have our own suspect list. \"\nHe takes a breath. \"The Miniknog are, of course, the prime suspects. They've got the MO to do this, and the resources. Plus, they absorbed most of the USCM in the aftermath of the USCM civil wars. While the Miniknog themselves use energy weapons almost exclusively, it would be just like them to dump some very old USCM weapons on an unsuspecting planet just to cause chaos, especially if they knew we were here, or they were trying to keep everyone else distracted from their own operations.\"\n\"And then of course, there's the USCM themselves. While they're technically all gone now, there are still some organizations that have descent from them. Like Shellguard, the SRS, various pirate bands, etc. Not to mention the occasional clandestine operation or enclave. Though, Shellguard uses its own weapons nowadays and has its own line of weapons for sale, they don't sell this old junk. And SRS definitely wouldn't be doing this, as they're our allies, and the MO isn't there anyway. And we can safely rule out the Knightfall as again, wrong weapon type and they're pretty much extinct anyway.\"\n\"Then there's the Occassus. They used these weapons A LOT during the war, and spread them all over. Though, the likelihood of an Occassus holdout here is astronomically low. And even if that was the case, they're more in the business of killing non-humans than giving them weapons. They're not big on the subterfuge game, unlike the Miniknog.\" \n\"The only other running suspects are space bandits or space pirates. Can't really rule them out, even though most pirates would probably be more interested in capturing mons and selling them into slavery than selling low-list bandits weapons like this. But... you never know.\nOf course that's assuming someone actually gave the bandit leader this gun in the first place. If they did, they certainly didn't teach him how to operate it properly. Or even tell him about the basic concept of reloading. At least according to the debrief. For all we know, that... 'Nee-do-King' might have just come across a crashed pirate vessel or abandoned cache somewhere with one working model, or robbed someone else who did, and this could be simply a one-off. Hopefully that's the case. Though until we know for certain, I'm keeping this a secret from the sandstone operation, because... again, we really don't need them going into a panic over one freak bandit with a gun he didn't even know how to use properly.``\n\nThe human ponders on all of this for a moment. \"Frankly, everything seems to be leaning towards this 'Miniknog'. A Pokémon just finding it by chance seems very unlikely, if that was the case he probably would have wasted all of his ammunition on other things.\"\n\n\"Hmmm... that's a good point.\" The base commander says. \"Still though, we haven't had any other encounters yet with firearms of any kind in 'mon hands. And besides, if it was the Miniknog, I would think our first encounter with it would have been in Grove hands and not some random bandit's. Though then again, this is the Miniknog we're talking about here....\"\nHe rubs his chin. \n\"You know, speaking of, though a little off topic, did you know that the big gun outside wasn't actually supposed to be here as an artillery cannon? At least, not in an anti-ground sense. It's actually a SODR. Static Orbital Defense Railgun. It's supposed to be used to skeet-shoot pirate ships or the like before they can start operations here. It's just that we had to press it into a fire-support anti-ground role that one time.\"\n\n\"Oh? Really? So that artillery is actually a weapon to be fired at large aerial targets?\"\n\n\"Large aerial targets, orbital targets. That sort of thing. \" He corrects him. \"Though, it's never been used for that purpose. Though speaking of, I believe you said something about a crashed UFO?\"\n\n\"Yes.\" He nods. \"There is a crashed UFO in the ocean. Doesn't look like the denizens of the sea know what it actually is as it seems to have been there for so long that it's 'part of the environment' by this point.\"\n\n\"So how did you find that out?\" The base commander is now very interested in this. \"Could you describe what it looks like? From that description I'm guessing there's no insignia or other identifying marks on it. Any estimate on how long it's been there?\"\n\n\"We have someone exploring the ocean floor.\" He says. \"As for how it looks, yeah nothing we can identify it with, and the description I got of it was 'just put a plate on top of another plate, that's how it looks like. And it's circular, not very helpful, I know.\" He sighs. \"But he was sure that what he saw was a UFO, he got close enough to confirm that.\"\n\n\"A flying saucer? Only people that fly those things that we know of are Penguins. Nasty little buggers, but most of the time, more annoying than actually a threat\" The base commander replies.\n\n\"...There are Penguins in space?\" Though the only 'penguins' that Mattias knows of is Piplup and the like.\n\n\"Yeah. Penguin pirates. With flying saucers. And handguns. And tanks. It's as ridiculous as it sounds.\"\n\n\"Oh, I see.\" It sounds pretty ridiculous, even for him. \"Aaaaanyways, do you plan to do something about this crashed saucer in the ocean?\"\n\n\"Well, honestly it doesn't sound like much, and since it's far away from Sandstone, and since you already have someone on it by the sounds of it, probably not. It sounds like it's too old to be of any real interest at the moment anyway. Though keep us posted if you turn up anything else in that area.\"\n\n\"Alright. I will just tell old Boris that he has the green light to keep surveying it.\" He nods. \"There is also something else that I want to ask for your help with though...if you can spare it, you see there is another human who says he wants to start his own mystery dungeon as an experiment. He's...kind of stupid, let's say that.\" And he is trying to be as light as possible when saying this. \"No one wants to care about him but I'm a little wary of him doing something detrimental if left to his own devices.\"\n\n\"Start his own mystery dungeon? What in the....\" The base commander really doesn't know what on earth he means. \"How does one even 'start' a mystery dungeon? It sounds like these mystery dungeons just kind of 'are', no one 'starts' them.\"\n\n\"Oh right, you didn't understand the information I gave to your scientist when I was here.\" He deadpans this time around. \"The dungeons were 'made', believe me. We got reason to believe whoever made them is called 'The Maze', and all mystery dungeons are their handiwork. They are quite the builder since they make life out of things such as iron, rock or even ice, shaping them into golems. The evidence to this fact is the 'language' used by those that worship The Maze, you know, those dots drawn on certain patterns?\" But alas, he is getting off topic. \"Anyways...as i was saying, his idea of 'making' a dungeon might certainly boil down to digging up a cave network and polishing it into a living space, which he will try to fill with denizens to try some experimental things to see how it affects a small society isolated from the world.\"\n\n\"So basically you want us to subject some poor saps to an experiment of his to run some little cult-like experiment of his in a, quote, 'dungeon', that's just a cave?\"\nThe commander narrows his eyes.\n\"... No.\"\n\n\"No no no, you misunderstand, that is not what i want.\" He shakes his head and sighs. \"That is precisely what I want to avoid, so I wanted to ask for someone to be there to regulate his experiments, or put a stop to it before someone gets hurt.\" Though he realizes that by this point it might be a fool's errand to keep asking for help with this. \"But this is just a polite request, not a demand, i understand that there are much more important things to dedicate your time and resources to.\"\n\n\"Even if that wasn't what it sounds like, we really don't have the manpower to be babysitting someone, especially for....... this.\" The base commander shakes his head. \"I'm afraid the answer won't change on that.\"\n\n\"That is understandable.\" Well, this could have gone worse, maybe this is the best outcome out of asking for help in this. Mattias avoided a bigger headache and might have to deal with just a slightly less severe headache. \"Anyways, that's all I have to say as of now, so if there is nothing else...I shall take my leave. If anything else comes up regarding that UFO I shall come and tell you.\"\n\n\"Alright. Well, we thank you for your continued cooperation with us. And best of luck on your endeavors. I trust you can see yourself out.\"\n\n\"You are very welcome. Thank you for your time.\" The human gets up from his seat and walks out of the commander's tent.\n\n[center][t]Act 47b: Predictions and Worries[/t][/center]\n\nAs Mattius chatted up the base commander back in Sandgun, a very different meeting was in the works.\n\n\n\"Is this an important matter?\" Shrewn asks. \"Stic is not at his workstation right now but I can take you to him.\"\n\n\"You could say that.\" Neso tells him. \"Our packmate here,\" He nods to Veers. \"Had some visions or something right after he evolved. And, since the only other psychic type we know of is that Stic guy, we figured it was best to ask him about this.\"\n\n\"Alright then.\" Seems like he agrees to take them to the Meowstic. The Sandshrewn turns to the side and starts heading toward one of the doors, passing by the stairs. \"Please follow me, I shall take you to him.\"\n\n\"Very good.\" Neso tells him, and they follow him to where Stic currently is.\n\nThey are guided to a place with many bookshelves, most of them filled with books. Originally there wasn't many books in the mansion to warrant a place like this, but after all the records collected over the existence of the once-Four Eyes guild were to be transferred to it's new base of operations, this library was set up.\n\nThey find the Meowstic they are looking for sitting at a table in the center, seems like his reading a book right now, as it is one of his hobbies.\n\n\"Stic, right?\" Neso asks, getting his attention.\n\nStic raises his head and looks at them. \"Oh, hello there...\" He wasn't quite expecting to meet new Avalis or even a Synth.\n\n\"You have visitors, Stic.\" Shrewn respectfully says to the psychic feline. \"I hope this isn't a bad time, they say they have something important to speak with you.\"\n\n\"Do not worry, it is quite alright.\" The Meowstic said to him before turning to Neso and the others. \"To whom do I owe the pleasure of this visit?\"\n\nWell it seems like the leader of Sandstone can take it from here, and he guided visitors to where they needed to go. The Sandshrew takes his leave and leaves them to their talk.\n\n\"Well, it's like this.\" Neso says as he brings Veers forward. \"See, our packbuddy here, Veers, evolved into an espeon right after-\"\nSeph and the others give him a look, and Neso quickly changes his tune from what he was going to say.\n\"-Well, let's just say 'certain activities'. And then, well, he got these weird visions. \"\n\"I saw visions of weird monkey men, wars, plagues, bad things.\" Veers gives a little whine. \"It was confusing, and scary, and I don't know what any of it means.\"\n\"And since you're the only psychic type we know of to talk to about this sort of thing around here, we figured we'd come ask you, maybe give him advice, from one psychic type to another?\" Neso finishes.\n\n\"Hhmmm...Visions you say?\" He closes the book he was reading to focus his attention on Veers. \"I had something very similar happen to me, it was confusing and scary to me as well...i am very certain that you had visions of the future.\"\n\n\"Really?\" Neso asks. \"I wonder if one of them involved us coming here...\" He gives a chuckle. Everyone looks at him with an annoyed look.\n\"Sh-should I tell you about them, or?\" He wonders if this older psychic type is capable of reading him even though he's an espeon now.\n\n\"In these times i don't have visions, so i couldn't predict your arrival here, the ones i get are few and far between and they don't go very far. But when I was young I had many visions of the future...which helped me steer my future in the direction I wanted.\" The Meowstic explained. \"By the sound of it, whatever you saw must have been alarming. Can you still remember what you saw? if yes then you could 'show' it to me.\"\n\n\"Show it to you? How... Do I do that?\" Veers asks, still not used to his psychic powers in the slightest.\n\nThankfully Stic is very understanding and knows how to make it easy for him. \"Don't worry, i'm not going to ask you to do much. Just recall everything you saw in your visions as best as you can, you might 'feel' something intruding on your head, like a sensation that might make your fur stand up a, you don't have to be alarmed by that, it's just going to be me peering into your mind.\" He explained to him. \"If you feel like you need a moment, just tell me when you are ready...\"\n\n\"Well... I'm as ready as I'll ever be.\" Veers sighs. \"go ahead.\" He recalls his visions to the best of his ability. Every stray detail he can, from the main events down to what was on the walls in various places. \n\nThe Meowstic raises his ears, revealing the glowing eyes hidden under them. And like he had said, Veers can feel the sensation of something creeping on him somewhat as the Stic begins examining the Espeon's thoughts. \"Hhhhmmm...i see...\" The Meowstic mumbles, though he is sound a bit surprised and worried. \n\nAs the visions creep back, He begins to shake a little big, these images are scary, especially for such a mind new to this whole thing.\n\nHe can feel how uncomfortable Veers is feeling, Stic feels some pity for the Espeon, it's certainly quite disturbing, these visions he had. \"Alright, I have seen enough, you can stop.\" His ears lower back down.\n\nThe espeon lets out a huge gasp of air in sheer relief. That was.. an unpleasant experience. He hopes this won't become a regular occurance.\n\n\"Hhhhmmm...so those were your visions...\" Stic sounds uneasy as he speaks. \"I can understand why it would scare you.\"\n\n\"It does look bad, very bad.\" He nods. \"I can't put into words how bleak it is, but if you wish I could try showing it to you. Though I am skeptical, visions of the future can be fickle, especially if you decide to act to change it. Things might not happen the way you saw them, for better or worse...but they might come to pass.\" He is really trying to think of how to further aid in this. \"Say, out of all of those visions, which of them you think is the one closest to our present, Veers?\" \n\n\"I... Don't know.\" Veers replies. \"I don't even have any idea what was even really going on in any of them.\"\n\n\"Hey just out of curiosity...\" Neso asks, scratching his head. \"What exactly did you guys see? He didn't exactly tell us when he had them. He fainted right after having the visions..\"\n\"Er....\" Veers rubs the back of his hand nervously. \"And when I woke up, I... wasn't exactly in the mood to talk about it.\"\n\nStic looks to the Avali \"I might be able to give you a direct idea of what I saw, if you allow me...\" This of course means making use of his mental powers once more.\n\n\"Alright. Lay it on me.\" Neso tells him. \"Might help if we have a third opinion here.\"\n\nThe Meowstic's ears begin rising again. \"Alright, be ready, i'm doing it......now.\" Linking himself to the mind of the Avali, Stic begins 'showing' him the things he saw, to him it will feel like suddenly having memories that are not his own. Neso now has all the details of the visions that were shared from Veers to Stic and are now being shared to him.\n\nNeso's face shifts and contorts as the memories of the visions are shared. He even begins to shake a little bit, but he remains as composed as he possibly can during all of this.\n\nWhen he finished imparting the last of it to Neso, he lowered his ears back down again. \"...That is all. What do you make of all of this?\"\n\n\"Hmmmmm....\" Neso puts his talon to his chin in thought. \"Quite disturbing, indeed. But I'm guessing you're looking for specifics? Let me think here...\"\nHe takes a few moments to gather his thoughts before continuing. \n\"Well, I have no idea about that human. Or that 'iron king' thing. Same with the 'Ivy' thing. ... Wait, Ivy? As in... Princess Ivy? Getting help from someone that ends up betraying them in the end? That's my guess. But since none of us know what Ivy even looks like, who knows? ... Space battle of some sort. One side was obviously avali and allies. As for the others... no idea. Looked vaguely Apex-ish. But some of them not so much. Plague to strike somewhere... I don't know much there either. Be on the lookout for a plague perhaps? But it was up in a colder region by the looks of things. \nThose last ones though... those I can be a lot more specific on.\"\n\nHe raised a brow. \"So you can somewhat make out what was on those visions, no? I honestly think I saw that human before but I do know where he would be right now.\"\n\n\"The first few are rather vague. The one with the cages and things... I know exactly what that is. Those ape-men with the armors and white coats. There's no mistake about their identity, any Avali soldier worth their ammonia would recognize them anywhere.\"\nHis expression turns dark and angry.\n\"... Fucking Miniknog. The vision, if it's actually true, seems to imply they've got, or will get, some sort of research facility where they do Nexus-knows-what to the people here. Nothing good, I can say that much. Never is, with those bastards. And if the armors and coats weren't enough of a dead giveaway, that last one gives it away. That's Big Ape. Or at least, one of them.\"\n\nAll this information is starting to get Stic kind of worried, the things surrounding these visions seem to be worse the more they uncover it. \"I see...\"\n\n\"And unfortunately that's all I have...\" Neso says.\n\"I'm... I'm glad you could help me with this.\" Veers adds in. \"I'm sorry we took time out of your day...\"\n\n\"There is no need to be bothered about that, Veers.\" Stic says reassuringly. \"Though i don't know how else i can provide more help with this. You know the future, maybe you can change it...\"\n\n\"Let us hope so. If that miniknog facility is in the present somewhere, I only wish we knew where it was...\" Neso sighs sadly.\n\nAnd he can only wish they find where it is, as it seems to be important, and these 'Miniknog' sound like a lot of trouble. \"Is there anything else...?\"\n\n\"Not really...\" Neso says. \"We... we thank you for this.\"\nVeers however, does something unsuspected.\nHe goes up to Stic, and gives him a warm hug. \n\"T-Thank you. For helping me with this...\" He whispers.\n\n\"Of course, you are welcome.\" Stic replied as he also hugged the Espeon. He is happy to help of course.\n\nVeers smiles back, and the rest of the group does as well. They then turn, and take their leave, leaving Stic to his studies as he was. Though, with the disturbing visions still in his mind.\n", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "
Act 47a: Religion and Politics


"Does it really look that bad?" Rhetorical question of course, his 'costume' glitches and shifts until it is looking like some sort of high-tech full bodysuit, must be the original shape of whatever he is wearing. "This should do, I'm going in now." And with that said, he goes into the Commander's tent.

Easani does not follow him in, he has other things to do... With Duci.... that are... not here. Yes.
The other avalis look up at him for a moment before going back to the various tasks they were doing before. Only the commander continues to focus his attention on Mattias.
"Hmm?" He says. "Ah, you are... Stic's guest from the other day. The scientists say you had quite the friendly chat with them, even though I won't pretend to understand half of it. Anyway, I assume you're here and not there for a reason, am I correct?"

He finds it a bit of shame that the commander isn't scientific-ish, given what he said. But oh well, that is alright, Mattias is not here to bore him with science after all. "Yes, you are correct. I have recently gathered a wealth of information from the broad world as a whole, I think knowing these might be of use for you."

The commander folds his hands and places them on the table, now at full attention.
"Alright. Give me your report."
He reaches over and clicks a device on the desk he's currently at quick a moment before returning to his previous attention-giving posture.

Without further ado he starts reciting what he wants to say, it's something he kind of committed to memory for this very moment. "The matter I want to start with is a 'human' matter. There is talk rising among the lands of the Grove, and slightly so in the territories they conquered. They are using something that might be normal to us, but to Pokémon it might be novelty, i'm talking about tactics, tactics beyond simply rushing the enemy head on, undermining them from within...like it was with the Sandstone Guild betraying Sandstone." There is a small pause. "Novelty like this tents to be associated with humans, as is anything 'new' to Pokémon. The point is this is raising rumors that Princess Ivy, the enemy's leader, is a human. It's not know if that is certain, what is certain however is that this clout can be used by the Grove to strengthen their cause, for if they have a human this means that they must be destined to change the world...and some might rally behind that idea." He crosses his arms. "...Though I also calculated that sooner or later this will also start rearing its head at Sandstone for mostly the same reasons. I do not know exactly if the idea to take the same possible advantage as the Grove is something considered...but I suspect it's only a matter of time before the average denizens also begin worshiping Sandstone."

The Base commander listens intently.  "And have you talked to Stic and/or the Sandstone administration about any of this? In particular the last part? A lot of this seems like it's more useful to them than us. Well, no matter, I am recording this so I'll pass it on to them at the earliest convenience."

He nods and continues. "This next matter is a little more based on religion. Before you shot me down, let me explain. What is good to take note of is the dogma these religions might have, which Pokémon live by. The Drought teaches unrelenting, outlasting, and continuing unchanged. This also means accepting the status quo no matter what, even if it's detrimental." The human pauses for a moment. "This fact might also effect Sandstone in some way, the changes go against the dogma of The Drought. But this all also mingles with the fact i stated previously, humans being brings of change is also a very strong fact in the belief of basically all pokémon, it can be considered a 'status quo' too."

"Exactly what I hear the brass is trying to avoid." The base commander says. "Now, granted, this is only second hand, but from what I've heard, the idea is to empower the mons with the idea that they can be the ones making change. It's why we leave ourselves out of the propaganda posters and rallying songs we have the bards singing over there. It's why we are giving them medieval Glitch weapons instead of arming them with guns. Hell, it's why we're acting through them and offering advice and only acting when they're unable to, and keeping our involvement in these ops as hush-hush as possible... Something that I fear is going to get a lot harder as time goes on."

"And now we must address the thing with the ocean. You see there is a sea separating the Sands from the Grove. It's big enough that one would need a ship to cross it, without amazing stamina it's impossible for a living being to fly over it. There is also a civilization located there in a place called 'Oracle Sea', it has port cities that once held armadas of ships from the Iron King's time. It seems to have it's own share of conflict with nobles and guilds against pirates. Oracle Sea doesn't just seem to be an open sea though. It is a mystery dungeon made of islands that change, as you might expect from the nature of such a place. These changing land masses surround one big island that doesn't seem to be part of the dungeon, that is where the 'civilized' ones live while the pirates seem to make their home on the shifting islands."

"Sounds like just the kind of place a clandestine operation would set up shop in..." The base commander muses to himself. "Isolated, minimal chance of discovery, easy to deal with interlopers....
He suddenly realizes he's musing to himself.
"Er... Nevermind."
However, just when it looks like he's about to urge him on, he instead leans forward and whispers something.
"Speaking of, there's something I want to talk to you later about. But I'd like you to give the rest of your report first. That other part is... classified, shall we say."

Mattias wonders what could that be, could it be that the Avali have something special to tell him? Regardless, he continues. "There is evidence however that the Oracle Sea and the Sands might not be friends at the end of the day. The religion worshiped there is focused on something called 'The Drizzle', it's dogma is all about changing and adapting. What's more the deity this religion is based on, the so-called 'Drizzle', is a bitter enemy of the 'Drought'."

"Which might explain why they let the Grove pass through unharmed?"

"That is one possibility, or they couldn't bother with the Grove because of their pirate-problem taking center stage."

This... will require further thought. "Anyway, is there anything else?" He holds his hand over the recording device button, ready to shut it off just in case that's the end of the convo... at least the official convo.

"Well there are a couple other things less pressing than current world affairs." He explained before delving into it. "For starters...there is a crashed UFO in the ocean, it's somewhere quite a bit deep and dark, but it's there."

Upon mention of that, the base commander IMMEDIATELY clicks the device and starts making a desperate cutting motion on his throat.
"Not on the official talk!" He chided Mattius. "We don't want to start a panic!!"
He holds his finger over the recording device again.
"Okay, let me be more clear: anything not belonging in a classified folder worth mentioning? If not, I'll just reverse the tape a bit and come up with a conclusion before moving onto the 'off the books' stuff. Then we can talk about that. "

"Oh..." Well that leaves him a little sheepish. "If this is the case then everything else i'm going to be talking about next should go into a classified folder." The human clarified.

"Okay. I'm going to reverse this tape to the point where you mentioned that UFO, and 'conclude' this conversation. Play along. Once you're gone for real, I'll send the tape to Stic. Anything we speak of next is on a need-to-know basis and is deemed classified until we have more information. I repeat, none of this next stuff gets told to Stic, let alone ANYONE else until it's deemed necessary. It's bad enough that we're having to keep exposure to our own existence to a minimum, and it's even more bad enough that we have to wean them off of tailing humans... no offense... and encouraging them to take control of their own destiny. Even if we are ... nudging... hmmm... things, in a certain direction. I mean unless a whole bunch of hostile ships suddenly appear, the last thing we need is word of alien interventions getting out. Understand?"
The base commander presses a button on the device. There is a silence for less than a second before the click of another button is heard. He holds his talon on what can only be assumed to be the 'record' button.

"Yes, I am perfect. But uuuhh..." He raises a finger. "In that case record a little more then, there is something else i was going to mention actually."

"Okay then." The commander nods.  "Once you're done with that. I'm going to get up, thank you for your time and information, and you're going to pretend to walk out of here. Once you hear the click again, come right back and sit down, and we'll start our off the books talk. Aaaand... Go."
He clicks the button, and the device begins recording audio again.

Mattias now goes to report another topic, one that can be a little more 'public'. "There is the existence of two other notable groups of pokémon. One is the Slink Clan, they are like the Wall Breakers, they go about killing nobles but they operate in the shadows way more than the Wallbreakers, From the look of things they work exclusively in Snow territory. Other than that there is also a loosely affiliated group of shopkeepers, landowners, merchants, and ringleaders. Pokémon with wealth that are not nobles but they use financial pressure to force things to go their way.

"Stic may or may not know about this. Guess we'll have to ask once we play this to him." THe base commander comments.

"Alright, that's all i have to report to you."

"Well, alright." The commander begins his 'goodbye' act by getting up, as if to shake his hand. "The information you've provided will be of great help to the cause of Sandstone, and we thank you for your continued cooperation with us. And we hope that you have a safe and productive day. Someone will see you out. Goodbye, and farewell."
His hand goes over to the recording device, as he waits for Mattias to get up and walk out before clicking the stop button.

"It's always a pleasure to help!" The human said after 'shaking' the Avali's hand. Then plays along with the act, turning around and starting to walk away.

The commander waits until he's a few steps away, the sounds of the footsteps becoming fainter in the recording, before a loud click is heard as he shuts the device off.
"Alright. now that we got that out of the way..." He motions Mattias back to the chair. "Let's talk about some off the record stuff."
He sits back down, and reaches under the desk.
"We can start with this." he says under the desk. He quickly comes back up, and loudly plops a large object right onto the desk. A familiar object of wood and steel, a device with a trigger, a chamber, a barrel, and a large banana-shaped clip. One that any human, even one not very familiar with earth firearms can easily recognize.
The silhouette of an AK-47. Or perhaps, an AKM or AK-74 or Type 56 or something similar. An AK of some sort, with a larger than normal magazine. A closer look would reveal minute differences than your typical old earth 47, but otherwise it at least looks the same as one.

After coming back and being presented with the old firearm, Mattias stared at it. At first it's like he is not understand what he is seeing but..."Why would anyone use wood as a rifle-making material?" Yes, he does recognize what this is. Though he doesn't seem to know why the commander is bringing this up.

"... Really? That's the question you're asking?" The base commander deadpans. "Not... 'and where did this come from?'"

He raises a brow. "Wait, you mean this isn't from around here?" Mattias must have assumed it belonged to this base. "Where did you find it then?"

"Yeah, I wish it was someone's collection. It'd save us all from a massive headache." He says. "No, you see, it all started when I assigned one of our crew, Neso and his pack, to a bandit-clearing mission. It was supposed to be a simple job: Go in, wipe out and/or capture the bandits, come back. The little 'vee's first combat mission. Easy peasy. Well, from the debrief, it started out that way, but then the bandit leader whipped this fucking thing" he lightly slams his fist on the thing. Obviously he has no real love for the weapon on the desk. "And just started spraying the cave with it. Poor veers got his arm injured by it, and he was hospitalized for a day or so. All things considered we were lucky on that count that it was just an injury and not a death."
He looks down on the thing.
"Oh, and don't worry, the thing is out of ammo anyway. And no one around here is rushing to put more in it, not that we have any on hand for this thing, so no worries about the thing going off."
He leaves out the part where they rescued Josclyn. As it's not really relevant information to the topic at hand.

Now he is starting to realize what this is about, and that it can't be a good thing. "So you're telling me that someone gave that gun to a bandit?"

"That's what we'd like to know." The base commander groans. "We're still not exactly sure where he got it. There was one bandit survivor, but he either doesn't know where his boss got the thing, or he's lying his ass off despite everything. I mean, we have our suspects, though not many of them really check out or have alibis... Actually, now that I think about it..."
He gives Mattius an intense stare.
"Do you know of ANYONE, either an individual or group from your world that would give someone like that a weapon of that sort?"

"I do have a suspicion of my own, and while this would be the perfect excuse to strike at them..." He looks closer at the AK. "But on the other hand I feel like this weapon, even in a bad condition, is better than what they would have provided...believe it or not."

"Yeah come to think of it, it's a stupid question anyway." The commander looks at it. "Because we already analyzed it and already know of this model's origin, it being a USCM export weapon, quite common during the USCM civil wars and Occassus Crisis, as you can tell by certain features. Unless you have a USCM in your universe that makes the exact same model the exact same way, it couldn't have come from there. So it would beg the question of where they got it. As for ourselves... We have our own suspect list. "
He takes a breath. "The Miniknog are, of course, the prime suspects. They've got the MO to do this, and the resources. Plus, they absorbed most of the USCM in the aftermath of the USCM civil wars. While the Miniknog themselves use energy weapons almost exclusively, it would be just like them to dump some very old USCM weapons on an unsuspecting planet just to cause chaos, especially if they knew we were here, or they were trying to keep everyone else distracted from their own operations."
"And then of course, there's the USCM themselves. While they're technically all gone now, there are still some organizations that have descent from them. Like Shellguard, the SRS, various pirate bands, etc. Not to mention the occasional clandestine operation or enclave. Though, Shellguard uses its own weapons nowadays and has its own line of weapons for sale, they don't sell this old junk. And SRS definitely wouldn't be doing this, as they're our allies, and the MO isn't there anyway. And we can safely rule out the Knightfall as again, wrong weapon type and they're pretty much extinct anyway."
"Then there's the Occassus. They used these weapons A LOT during the war, and spread them all over. Though, the likelihood of an Occassus holdout here is astronomically low. And even if that was the case, they're more in the business of killing non-humans than giving them weapons. They're not big on the subterfuge game, unlike the Miniknog."
"The only other running suspects are space bandits or space pirates. Can't really rule them out, even though most pirates would probably be more interested in capturing mons and selling them into slavery than selling low-list bandits weapons like this. But... you never know.
Of course that's assuming someone actually gave the bandit leader this gun in the first place. If they did, they certainly didn't teach him how to operate it properly. Or even tell him about the basic concept of reloading. At least according to the debrief. For all we know, that... 'Nee-do-King'  might have just come across a crashed pirate vessel or abandoned cache somewhere with one working model, or robbed someone else who did, and this could be simply a one-off. Hopefully that's the case. Though until we know for certain, I'm keeping this a secret from the sandstone operation, because... again, we really don't need them going into a panic over one freak bandit with a gun he didn't even know how to use properly.``

The human ponders on all of this for a moment. "Frankly, everything seems to be leaning towards this 'Miniknog'. A Pokémon just finding it by chance seems very unlikely, if that was the case he probably would have wasted all of his ammunition on other things."

"Hmmm... that's a good point." The base commander says. "Still though, we haven't had any other encounters yet with firearms of any kind in 'mon hands. And besides, if it was the Miniknog, I would think our first encounter with it would have been in Grove hands and not some random bandit's. Though then again, this is the Miniknog we're talking about here...."
He rubs his chin.
"You know, speaking of, though a little off topic, did you know that the big gun outside wasn't actually supposed to be here as an artillery cannon? At least, not in an anti-ground sense. It's actually a SODR. Static Orbital Defense Railgun. It's supposed to be used to skeet-shoot pirate ships or the like before they can start operations here. It's just that we had to press it into a fire-support anti-ground role that one time."

"Oh? Really? So that artillery is actually a weapon to be fired at large aerial targets?"

"Large aerial targets, orbital targets. That sort of thing. " He corrects him. "Though, it's never been used for that purpose. Though speaking of, I believe you said something about a crashed UFO?"

"Yes." He nods. "There is a crashed UFO in the ocean. Doesn't look like the denizens of the sea know what it actually is as it seems to have been there for so long that it's 'part of the environment' by this point."

"So how did you find that out?" The base commander is now very interested in this. "Could you describe what it looks like? From that description I'm guessing there's no insignia or other identifying marks on it. Any estimate on how long it's been there?"

"We have someone exploring the ocean floor." He says. "As for how it looks, yeah nothing we can identify it with, and the description I got of it was 'just put a plate on top of another plate, that's how it looks like. And it's circular, not very helpful, I know." He sighs. "But he was sure that what he saw was a UFO, he got close enough to confirm that."

"A flying saucer? Only people that fly those things that we know of are Penguins. Nasty little buggers, but most of the time, more annoying than actually a threat" The base commander replies.

"...There are Penguins in space?" Though the only 'penguins' that Mattias knows of is Piplup and the like.

"Yeah. Penguin pirates. With flying saucers. And handguns. And tanks. It's as ridiculous as it sounds."

"Oh, I see." It sounds pretty ridiculous, even for him. "Aaaaanyways, do you plan to do something about this crashed saucer in the ocean?"

"Well, honestly it doesn't sound like much, and since it's far away from Sandstone, and since you already have someone on it by the sounds of it, probably not. It sounds like it's too old to be of any real interest at the moment anyway. Though keep us posted if you turn up anything else in that area."

"Alright. I will just tell old Boris that he has the green light to keep surveying it." He nods. "There is also something else that I want to ask for your help with though...if you can spare it, you see there is another human who says he wants to start his own mystery dungeon as an experiment. He's...kind of stupid, let's say that." And he is trying to be as light as possible when saying this. "No one wants to care about him but I'm a little wary of him doing something detrimental if left to his own devices."

"Start his own mystery dungeon? What in the...." The base commander really doesn't know what on earth he means. "How does one even 'start' a mystery dungeon? It sounds like these mystery dungeons just kind of 'are', no one 'starts' them."

"Oh right, you didn't understand the information I gave to your scientist when I was here." He deadpans this time around. "The dungeons were 'made', believe me. We got reason to believe whoever made them is called 'The Maze', and all mystery dungeons are their handiwork. They are quite the builder since they make life out of things such as iron, rock or even ice, shaping them into golems. The evidence to this fact is the 'language' used by those that worship The Maze, you know, those dots drawn on certain patterns?" But alas, he is getting off topic. "Anyways...as i was saying, his idea of 'making' a dungeon might certainly boil down to digging up a cave network and polishing it into a living space, which he will try to fill with denizens to try some experimental things to see how it affects a small society isolated from the world."

"So basically you want us to subject some poor saps to an experiment of his to run some little cult-like experiment of his in a, quote, 'dungeon', that's just a cave?"
The commander narrows his eyes.
"... No."

"No no no, you misunderstand, that is not what i want." He shakes his head and sighs. "That is precisely what I want to avoid, so I wanted to ask for someone to be there to regulate his experiments, or put a stop to it before someone gets hurt." Though he realizes that by this point it might be a fool's errand to keep asking for help with this. "But this is just a polite request, not a demand, i understand that there are much more important things to dedicate your time and resources to."

"Even if that wasn't what it sounds like, we really don't have the manpower to be babysitting someone, especially for....... this." The base commander shakes his head. "I'm afraid the answer won't change on that."

"That is understandable." Well, this could have gone worse, maybe this is the best outcome out of asking for help in this. Mattias avoided a bigger headache and might have to deal with just a slightly less severe headache. "Anyways, that's all I have to say as of now, so if there is nothing else...I shall take my leave. If anything else comes up regarding that UFO I shall come and tell you."

"Alright. Well, we thank you for your continued cooperation with us. And best of luck on your endeavors. I trust you can see yourself out."

"You are very welcome. Thank you for your time." The human gets up from his seat and walks out of the commander's tent.

Act 47b: Predictions and Worries


As Mattius chatted up the base commander back in Sandgun, a very different meeting was in the works.


"Is this an important matter?" Shrewn asks. "Stic is not at his workstation right now but I can take you to him."

"You could say that." Neso tells him. "Our packmate here," He nods to Veers. "Had some visions or something right after he evolved. And, since the only other psychic type we know of is that Stic guy, we figured it was best to ask him about this."

"Alright then." Seems like he agrees to take them to the Meowstic. The Sandshrewn turns to the side and starts heading toward one of the doors, passing by the stairs. "Please follow me, I shall take you to him."

"Very good." Neso tells him, and they follow him to where Stic currently is.

They are guided to a place with many bookshelves, most of them filled with books. Originally there wasn't many books in the mansion to warrant a place like this, but after all the records collected over the existence of the once-Four Eyes guild were to be transferred to it's new base of operations, this library was set up.

They find the Meowstic they are looking for sitting at a table in the center, seems like his reading a book right now, as it is one of his hobbies.

"Stic, right?" Neso asks, getting his attention.

Stic raises his head and looks at them. "Oh, hello there..." He wasn't quite expecting to meet new Avalis or even a Synth.

"You have visitors, Stic." Shrewn respectfully says to the psychic feline. "I hope this isn't a bad time, they say they have something important to speak with you."

"Do not worry, it is quite alright." The Meowstic said to him before turning to Neso and the others. "To whom do I owe the pleasure of this visit?"

Well it seems like the leader of Sandstone can take it from here, and he guided visitors to where they needed to go. The Sandshrew takes his leave and leaves them to their talk.

"Well, it's like this." Neso says as he brings Veers forward. "See, our packbuddy here, Veers, evolved into an espeon right after-"
Seph and the others give him a look, and Neso quickly changes his tune from what he was going to say.
"-Well, let's just say 'certain activities'. And then, well, he got these weird visions. "
"I saw visions of weird monkey men, wars, plagues, bad things." Veers gives a little whine. "It was confusing, and scary, and I don't know what any of it means."
"And since you're the only psychic type we know of to talk to about this sort of thing around here, we figured we'd come ask you, maybe give him advice, from one psychic type to another?" Neso finishes.

"Hhmmm...Visions you say?" He closes the book he was reading to focus his attention on Veers. "I had something very similar happen to me, it was confusing and scary to me as well...i am very certain that you had visions of the future."

"Really?" Neso asks. "I wonder if one of them involved us coming here..." He gives a chuckle. Everyone looks at him with an annoyed look.
"Sh-should I tell you about them, or?" He wonders if this older psychic type is capable of reading him even though he's an espeon now.

"In these times i don't have visions, so i couldn't predict your arrival here, the ones i get are few and far between and they don't go very far. But when I was young I had many visions of the future...which helped me steer my future in the direction I wanted." The Meowstic explained. "By the sound of it, whatever you saw must have been alarming. Can you still remember what you saw? if yes then you could 'show' it to me."

"Show it to you? How... Do I do that?" Veers asks, still not used to his psychic powers in the slightest.

Thankfully Stic is very understanding and knows how to make it easy for him. "Don't worry, i'm not going to ask you to do much. Just recall everything you saw in your visions as best as you can, you might 'feel' something intruding on your head, like a sensation that might make your fur stand up a, you don't have to be alarmed by that, it's just going to be me peering into your mind." He explained to him. "If you feel like you need a moment, just tell me when you are ready..."

"Well... I'm as ready as I'll ever be." Veers sighs. "go ahead." He recalls his visions to the best of his ability. Every stray detail he can, from the main events down to what was on the walls in various places.

The Meowstic raises his ears, revealing the glowing eyes hidden under them. And like he had said, Veers can feel the sensation of something creeping on him somewhat as the Stic begins examining the Espeon's thoughts. "Hhhhmmm...i see..." The Meowstic mumbles, though he is sound a bit surprised and worried.

As the visions creep back, He begins to shake a little big, these images are scary, especially for such a mind new to this whole thing.

He can feel how uncomfortable Veers is feeling, Stic feels some pity for the Espeon, it's certainly quite disturbing, these visions he had. "Alright, I have seen enough, you can stop." His ears lower back down.

The espeon lets out a huge gasp of air in sheer relief. That was.. an unpleasant experience. He hopes this won't become a regular occurance.

"Hhhhmmm...so those were your visions..." Stic sounds uneasy as he speaks. "I can understand why it would scare you."

"It does look bad, very bad." He nods. "I can't put into words how bleak it is, but if you wish I could try showing it to you. Though I am skeptical, visions of the future can be fickle, especially if you decide to act to change it. Things might not happen the way you saw them, for better or worse...but they might come to pass." He is really trying to think of how to further aid in this. "Say, out of all of those visions, which of them you think is the one closest to our present, Veers?"

"I... Don't know." Veers replies. "I don't even have any idea what was even really going on in any of them."

"Hey just out of curiosity..." Neso asks, scratching his head. "What exactly did you guys see? He didn't exactly tell us when he had them. He fainted right after having the visions.."
"Er...." Veers rubs the back of his hand nervously. "And when I woke up, I... wasn't exactly in the mood to talk about it."

Stic looks to the Avali "I might be able to give you a direct idea of what I saw, if you allow me..." This of course means making use of his mental powers once more.

"Alright. Lay it on me." Neso tells him. "Might help if we have a third opinion here."

The Meowstic's ears begin rising again. "Alright, be ready, i'm doing it......now." Linking himself to the mind of the Avali, Stic begins 'showing' him the things he saw, to him it will feel like suddenly having memories that are not his own. Neso now has all the details of the visions that were shared from Veers to Stic and are now being shared to him.

Neso's face shifts and contorts as the memories of the visions are shared. He even begins to shake a little bit, but he remains as composed as he possibly can during all of this.

When he finished imparting the last of it to Neso, he lowered his ears back down again. "...That is all. What do you make of all of this?"

"Hmmmmm...." Neso puts his talon to his chin in thought. "Quite disturbing, indeed. But I'm guessing you're looking for specifics? Let me think here..."
He takes a few moments to gather his thoughts before continuing.
"Well, I have no idea about that human. Or that 'iron king' thing.  Same with the 'Ivy' thing. ... Wait, Ivy? As in... Princess Ivy? Getting help from someone that ends up betraying them in the end? That's my guess. But since none of us know what Ivy even looks like, who knows? ... Space battle of some sort. One side was obviously avali and allies. As for the others... no idea. Looked vaguely Apex-ish. But some of them not so much. Plague to strike somewhere... I don't know much there either. Be on the lookout for a plague perhaps? But it was up in a colder region by the looks of things.
Those last ones though... those I can be a lot more specific on."

He raised a brow. "So you can somewhat make out what was on those visions, no? I honestly think I saw that human before but I do know where he would be right now."

"The first few are rather vague. The one with the cages and things... I know exactly what that is. Those ape-men with the armors and white coats. There's no mistake about their identity, any Avali soldier worth their ammonia would recognize them anywhere."
His expression turns dark and angry.
"... Fucking Miniknog. The vision, if it's actually true, seems to imply they've got, or will get, some sort of research facility where they do Nexus-knows-what to the people here. Nothing good, I can say that much. Never is, with those bastards. And if the armors and coats weren't enough of a dead giveaway, that last one gives it away. That's Big Ape. Or at least, one of them."

All this information is starting to get Stic kind of worried, the things surrounding these visions seem to be worse the more they uncover it. "I see..."

"And unfortunately that's all I have..." Neso says.
"I'm... I'm glad you could help me with this." Veers adds in. "I'm sorry we took time out of your day..."

"There is no need to be bothered about that, Veers." Stic says reassuringly. "Though i don't know how else i can provide more help with this. You know the future, maybe you can change it..."

"Let us hope so. If that miniknog facility is in the present somewhere, I only wish we knew where it was..." Neso sighs sadly.

And he can only wish they find where it is, as it seems to be important, and these 'Miniknog' sound like a lot of trouble. "Is there anything else...?"

"Not really..." Neso says. "We... we thank you for this."
Veers however, does something unsuspected.
He goes up to Stic, and gives him a warm hug.
"T-Thank you. For helping me with this..." He whispers.

"Of course, you are welcome." Stic replied as he also hugged the Espeon. He is happy to help of course.

Veers smiles back, and the rest of the group does as well. They then turn, and take their leave, leaving Stic to his studies as he was. Though, with the disturbing visions still in his mind.
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