Welcome to Gaia! ::

The old man would watch as Rachel deposited the coins, the girl unable to actually see his eyes pointed in that direction nor did he turn his head but she could feel his gaze and knew he was watching. When the last coin hit the bottom of the box she felt a chill wash over her, the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end. Was there a draft in here? Ignoring that though she asked her question to which the old man replied. "A simple request. Most would be more specific. Let's see what my friends can show us. Rabsca! Erutuf eht em wohs!" The robbed man would gesture with his hands over the Rabsca, the bug Pokemon's orb beginning to spin in place rapidly and give off a bright glow until an image was produced in it, that of Rachel.

"Behold! A not too distance moment! You are raising your newest Pokemon, a Dragon to add to your built collection of Dragon types at this point. It appears you take a liking to the type at some point." He said as Rachel could see herself in the orb, surrounded by several Dragon type Pokemon. The orb would spin again and the image change, now to one of the city of Hammerlocke, if Rachel was familiar with it. "Your love of Dragon types shall lead you to the city of Hammerlocke in the region of Galar. It is there you will meet the city's Gym Leader, Raihan." He said, the image changing to show Raihan battling in his stadium. "You will become intrigued by the Dragon trainer and will desire to learn the Ways of the Dragon from him and become a specialist as well. But that is not where your relationship with the man will end!"

Again the image changed, now showing Rachel following Raihan around as he signs autographs for his fans, then changing again to show Rachel helping him take pictures for social media, and then changing once more to show her doing a stream alongside Raihan now in front of the camera. "You will become an aid to Raihan and from there build up your own career, refusing to remain in his shadow, not that your teacher wants you there, no, he pushes you to step out into the light and become a renowned Dragon trainer alongside him!" With that the orb would dim and the images disappear.

"And that is all I shall show. Let it be known this is only one possible future, you can decide your own fate." The old man explained to Rachel.

[Happy Requiem Mask Shop]

"Information you say?" The person asked as they drew back and away from Tristen, standing up straight, their twin Yamask also pulling back from Tristen though seeming to be more disappointed that he wasn't here for a mask. "If the adolescent requires information than information are the wares I shall offer. Precisely what information do you hope to acquire?" They asked, turning their back to Tristen as they spoke and removed their mask.

Their face would not remain mask-less for long as they hung up the Dusknoir belly mask and picked up another off the wall, a white one with numerous question mark and exclamation mark Unown painted on it in a stylized manner. With their new mask on they turned back to face Tristen. Now that Tristen could get a good look at the mask he could see the eye holes were placed where Unown eyes were, the boy much more capable of seeing the person's eyes in this mask than the last one.

[Loyal Three Battle Tribute]

With the three Pokemon released the old men that carried the Tera Crystal to the field would begin to beat on large ceremonial drums with oversized mallets, the beat becoming increasingly quicker and more aggressive as the Terastalized Grimmsnarl stomped along with the beat. With a final slam against the drums the Grimmsnarl would let out a cry and raise a fist to the sky, its arm hair twisting together and forming something of a club on the end of its arm. It was armed and ready for battle.

"Under the wing of the Living Rainbow we thrive and by the grace of the Loyal Three we endure! Oh Loyal Three, we thank you for the sacrifices you made for the humble people of Kitakami! You Heroes of Kitakami, we honor your sacrifice this evening by giving you our eternal thanks! Dear Companions, please continue to watch over us as we pay tribute to your selfless endeavors. Accept our tribute, Loyal Three!" The old man who released the Grimmsnarl would make a little speech as he stood in the middle of the field, waving around a burning stick of incense in one hand and a stick with masks styled after the Loyal Three hanging from it in the other. With his final declaration he would step off to the side of the field and thrust his stick downward and declare: "Great Heroes! Save us from the Demon of Oni Mountain once more!"

With that said the Grass Terastalized Grimmsnarl would respond to the officla start of the battle, letting out a fierce roar and stomped on the ground a couple times. Its stomps caused the earth beneath the feet of the Snagems to rumble slightly, a sign that this was not just any random Grimmsnarl but a powerful and well trained one. After its last completed stomp, just as Demon Wing inhaled to ready a Fire Blast and Grimmsnarl with one foot in the air to feign another stomp, the Grimmsnarl would lash out with its free hand sending a fist made of hair flying from it towards the Charizard's belly only for it to make a sharp upward turn and deliver an uppercut to its jaw to prevent that Fire Blast from coming out. Grimmsnarl used Fake Out.

In that same moment Amaranth's Pidgeot flapped its wings with vigor and created a jet stream on their side of the field, increasing the movement speed of Pidgeot and its allies. Darts' latest recruit did nothing, no doubt befuddled over the situation it found itself in.

Unfortunately for them the Grimmsnarl didn't stop just there, while it put a pause on the dragon attacking it still had two other targets to contend with and thanks to the Tera Crystal it had plenty of power to spare for them. Deeming the Gimmighoul far less of a concern it focused its sights on Pidgeot, leaping off the ground and with a single bound leaped over the entire field to bring its now glowing pink hair club down upon the Pidgeot, screaming savagely with flicks of spit coming from its mouth, as if to intimidate along with its attack, the Fairy energy helping with the emotional manipulation. Grimmsnarl used Spirit Break.

Back on the side lines Clare would have a blue haired woman and her strange looking Growlithe step up alongside her, the girl munching on some dango, holding a stick with her remaining two dango in one hand and a camera in the other. "Phew, this festival is crazy, isn't it?" She asked Clare as she stepped up along side her, her speech kind of mumbled as she ate. After swallowing she spoke again. "So, did I miss anything good?" Perrin asked as she pulled her camera up and began to take a picture of the battle. "I'm Perrin, by the way."

Tristen took out a small pad to start taking notes; trying to find the first available page that he could get to. Freth stared in confusion, seeing Tristen already had been doing some work on it, presumably from the packets that he looked at here and there during his stay waiting on the others, let alone the festival. “I was trying to get more information pertaining to the festival’s history and the legend of the ogre.” Tristen said. “I was wondering if there was more to the story than what was in packets or what was presumably common knowledge in town. The most that I got is the usual story of the Loyal Three doing battle with the ogre and falling to their injuries and that the ogre is possibly still around, living up in the mountains. Or at least that’s the story being told to keep kids at home and in bed.” Tristen said. “I was trying to see if there was any other evidence pertaining to this other than old signs and word of mouth.” Tristen explained.

Demon Wing’s mouth would be forced shut by the sudden uppercut he took, recoiling back as he shook his head. Some growls would come out of his mouth as he noted the rapid attack to Pidgeot as well, while he was still reeling from the Fake Out. Meanwhile, a glance at Gimmighoul showed that it wasn’t doing anything… yet.

Crystal would take a deep breath, doing the best she could to keep calm, which having such a powerful Pokémon in front of them helped. She had to keep her head, otherwise they stood no chance. Hopefully, Darts and his Gimmighoul would somehow contribute. In the meantime, though, she’d be thankful of Ammy and her Pidgeot’s Tailwind, hopefully helping them take off sooner. “Right, Demon Wing, fire off a Flamethrower,” she ordered, figuring to go for something more accurate and simple this time.

The Charizard nodded, taking a deep breath and opening his maw… before a coin hit his forehead and caused him to flinch very briefly, breaking his focus for a moment. It was precious time, though, that Crystal did not enjoy losing, as the crystalline grass ogre might be more able to prepare now after that. The Charizard would resume his attack, releasing a gout of flame at the Grimmsnarl, but he also didn’t look terribly happy from that. Crystal, on her end, would now have her hands into fists, with her ears also laying flat against her head. That. Damned. Pokémon! It was one thing to make herself look like an imbecile, but now his Pokémon used Demon Wing as a prop or something just to make its plan work, not caring how it would have affected their ally! Light, of course he’d wind up with a Pokémon that acted like him… No, we just needed to focus, just needed to do the battle. That’s all they needed to do. Get through this battle, and hopefully win. We’ll see how this goes.

Tristen listened intently, giving this mask salesman his undivided attention. Though he had to admit this individual’s word choice like calling him an ‘adolescent male’ for instance was weird. But it was odd as the salesman was, he was listening intently to all he had to say. The ogre actually exists, and apparently is a Pokémon of all things. Though…honestly, that part wasn’t surprising. What was is that a new mystery arose, where there were those that were apparently sympathetic to the ogre. At least somewhat. The town, originally at least on good terms with this ogre? Something stolen from the ogre? But even more… “Wait, so there are people now that leave food out for the ogre now? Like even to this day?” That would be the only way people would actually know this ogre still existed. But it started to confuse Tristen. Question amongst questions as he started to read over what he had.

“What’s wrong?” Freth asked.

“If there were people who knew about the reason why the ogre attacked, why is the festival under the context it has then? Like everything is the ogre’s fault?” Tristen asked.

Freth sighed, though it wasn’t a disapproving one. Tristen still was trying to hang on to that innocent naivety, if albeit subconsciously. “Tristen, I would have imagined you would have figured that much out by now.” Freth said. “Small amount of people knows one thing. The majority see another thing. What happens? This sort of thing happens today.”

“…oh…they’d think the ones on the side of the ogre are crazy and even if they believed them, nuance probably wasn’t that much of a thing. They saw a Pokémon who relentlessly, savagely beaten this Loyal three for as all they knew an act of revenge, which isn’t really any better.” Tristen said. “Either way, the truth effectively gets lost to history.”

“Exactly.” Freth said.

“So, what was stolen from the ogre? Is that still known?” he then asked the mask salesman. “And if they know for sure the ogre still exists, then presumably, the ogre has been seen since that day?”

Aile and Tatooine would arrive just outside the festival, with Aile recalling the dragon soon after. She explained to Tati what happened on the ride over, and that she just needed to try and sort her thoughts by herself for the moment. As she joined the festival proper, the woman would take in the festival atmosphere, watching everyone walk around happily, donning their masks and traditional garb, for some of them at least. It was nice, but she couldn’t shake off her earlier feelings from the Crystal Pool. Something was up with Aden, that was something she was almost sure of. What was going on, she couldn’t give a single idea. But something was going on there, despite the message Aden himself apparently sent. And then there was her own dilemma as well. What with jumping into something way out of her depths… which was starting to seem par for the course, honestly. Arceus, it felt like any chance she had to come up for air, figuratively, she’d only get one breath before getting pulled back under the waves, fighting to get to the surface, and that’s all she could do.

Her feet would stop in front of the stall for the fortune teller, Aile blinking as she realised that she had started to completely space out and get lost in her thoughts. The woman turned to look at some of the stalls she passed. Of note, there was some sort of shooting game stall, as well as a more custom mask stall that it looked like Freth and Tristen were at. And then in another direction, she spied some sort of food making demonstration, she couldn’t tell what it was from here. Something stopped her here, though. Aile would stare at the sign for the stall for a good minute, before finally shrugging. “Ya know, screw it. This’ll either be a waste of time and money, or I might get some sort of direction. Can’t hurt, right?” With those potentially fateful words spoken, she’d enter into the tent, looking around briefly before speaking up. “Ah, hello?”

The Growlithe would jump up at Clare and nuzzle up again her leg, absolutely loving the attention it was currently getting and wanted more. It was certainly a very friendly little Pokemon. Perrin would smile as she watched Clare pet her canine, happy that the dog was happy. "Sinnoh, or should I say Hisui. That's where its breed's origins lie." Perrin explained as she took a picture of Clare while she pet her Growlithe. "It's an ancient breed that no longer exists in the wild, my family breeds them to keep the variant alive. Oh, do you mind if I take your picture? I really need to get better at asking that question first." She said with a soft chuckle before turning her camera at the battle, taking a picture at the choking Grimmsnarl. "...is it okay?" She asked no one in particular.

Perrin would soon turn her attention back to Clare, missing the Grimmsnarl coughing up the coin. "So, if you don't mind me asking...you're clearly a hybrid but what kind are you?" She asked, cocking her head to the side. "Just a curious inquiry, I haven't seen many hybrids, just a handful...that was until I came here, now I'm seeing several of them." She laughed, amused how the count jumped. "One had the most beautiful purple feathers!" She said, referencing Freth.

"Nihilego you say? Huh...can't say I'm familiar with that Pokemon." Perrin said, unconcerned with the mystery of the unfamiliar Pokemon and simply took Clare's word for it. Who was she to question such things? Moving on from that topic she looked at the picture she just took of Clare, staring at the screen on her camera and marveled over it, how the light from the various paper lanterns was reflected in her glass-like skin. "...wow, you must get a lot of work, I might say you are the first person I've met that is somehow more beautiful in pictures than in real life, and I mean that as a compliment. You are a photographer's dream." She said, looking from her camera to Clare and back. "I might just how to have a work with your employer." She chuckled.

She would turn her attention back to the battle after shaking off enthrallment with Clare's beauty. After taking another a picture of the battle going on she would respond to Clare's comment. "Oh don't worry, they'll be fine. From what I'm told this is less of a challenge and more of a show, like wrestling. The ogre always loses, as it does in the story. But you still got to make it look good, properly show off the sacrifice the Loyal Three made for-..." Perrin would suddenly stop talking as she began to focus on the words of a nearby festival goer, taking interest in what he was saying. Clare was close enough to listen in as well.

"...who do you think took it?" A man ask another man, the both of them in their early twenties.

"I bet it was one of those ogre worshipers! You know they make trouble every year around this time." The other replied to his friend as they slowly walked past Clare and Perrin.

"The Ogre Clan? You think so? I always thought they were just some punk kids trying to look cool. I didn't think they would actually go as far as to steal one of the Sacred Masks." The first man said, revealing that something 'sacred' to Kitakami had been stolen.

"Look, all I know is the Hearthflame Mask is missing and they are trying to be hush hush about it. It like the others was suppose to be displayed after the battle for the anniversary and now it's gone. If it isn't-" The second man would continue talking as they walked, eventually the two walking far enough way that they couldn't be heard clearly anymore but that was okay, Perrin got enough information from what she heard.

"...did you hear that? One of the Three Sacred Masks of the Loyal Three is missing." Perrin said, whispering to Clare for some reason even though those two men weren't exactly being quiet about it. "I didn't even know the masks would be present here today, this is unheard of. From what I'm to understand those things are usually kept under tight security in the temple...I guess they wanted to do something special for the two hundred year anniversary." The girl commented to Clare.