Crown City is fairly large, with an advanced section near the city limits, but a section in the middle of the city, called the "old town", is cut off from the rest of the city by a body of water, it has old style houses with trees and wild Pokémon spread throughout it. The old section also has many waterways going through it.
This thread is so I can RP here for Arezu because it's her hometown though it doesn't exist in-guid. This just represents her house in the old town + a couple places for her to visit, not the whole city.
Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2017 5:31 pm
Aʀᴇᴢᴜ L. K ᴀ ᴛ ᴢ ccciiicccc
She felt guilty being so close to home and not visiting, particularly when she had failed to visit last time she had been in the city. In fact, Arezu couldn't remember how long it had been since she'd spoken to her family. I'll visit after we find Celebi. Her parents could wait.
Instead the girl walked the familar path through the streets. Hakuren walked beside her, his impatience bleeding into the illusion he wore. Perhaps it was his tight-lipped focus, or maybe it was the way Ai kept looking all around them, but there was a definite tension to the air. It felt like the calm before a storm. Arezu chalked it up to her own worry, assuming the feeling would go away once Celebi showed herself unharmed.
The large botanical garden where they had always met Celebi was closed today. Arezu wasn't sure why and neither she nor Hakuren cared to check. With Ai's help they unlocked the front door while Hakuren's illusion kept wandering eyes from noticing. Ai locked the door behind them, tail whipping back and forth with short, tense movements.
They stopped surrounded by trees, the distant glass walls barely visible through the foliage. "Well." Arezu swallowed, realizing there wasn't really much else to say. She slipped the hard-won clear bell from her bag, lifted it in the air, and brought it down with a heavy swing.
A high note called, like tumbling water. A wind rustled the leaves, and suddenly Suicune was standing behind them. He lifted his head, but made no move to interfere.
When nothing happened after a long moment, Hakuren leaped forward and wrapped his illusion's hand around Arezu's wrist. He lifted her whole arm up, dragging the bell along with it, and jerked back and forth. The bell's call bounced all around them, loud and continuous. Hakuren would have kept going but Arezu's wrist ripped out of his hand as she flew back into the grass.
Celebi clung to Arezu's torso. "I found you! I found you, I found you!" She'd been so excited she knocked Arezu right to the ground. Her big eyes looked close to tears. "It was so dark, and I couldn't see anything for so long, and I tried to get out but I couldn't and I thought I'd never see you again!"
Arezu sat, overwhelmed with relief. Though one hand held Celebi close on reflex, she dropped it when she saw Hakuren staring. He had dropped his illusion, and when Celebi turned she recognized him. "Kuu!" She darted over and pulled him into her arms, spinning into the air.
"Celebi! Stooop!" He laughed and wriggled from her arms, landing in the grass with a delighted smile that turned a bit petulant. "Where were you, Bee? You will not believe the crap we had to do to get this stupid bell." He kicked at the thing where it rested forgotten in the grass.
"Ohh, I'm so sorry, I..." She shook her head, clearly gathering her thoughts. She knew their reunion could only distract her for so long, but where did she even begin to tell what she knew? "I was trapped, and couldn't hear anything, not even the wind..." She paused, having noticed Suicune standing over them. "Ah! Hello!"
Suicune nodded to her, his eyes conveying that he didn't mind skipping the formalities. They could speak later... right now, didn't she have something to say?
"Ohh, Zuu, Kuu, I don't know where to start." Celebi wrung her hands before her body. Arezu reached out with a delicate touch, waiting until she had eye contact. "It's okay Celebi. Tell us what happened." Arezu's steady eyes just reminded Celebi of how much she loved her friend, making her eyes tear up. She wished she didn't have to say anything, wished it was all a lie. But it wasn't, so she took a deep breath and began.
"It started last year, when you didn't show up." Hakuren butt in. "What do you mean 'didn't show up'? We came like normal!" Celebi shook her head slowly. "No. You didn't. When you didn't show up, I was so worried, I flew all over the city-" Hakuren piped up again. "What are you talking about? We came and told you about going out to travel and do the gyms and stuff."
Celebi settled on the ground to calm herself. "No, Kuu. That might be what you remembered, but... that's not what happened." Arezu felt a chill, but Hakuren just puffed up angrily. Before he could bark out anything, Celebi said, "Please, just...listen to what happened, okay?" Hakuren grumbled but settled down.
"So, I looked around everywhere for you when you didn't show up for Zuu's birthday. I was so worried, I went all over the city. A lot of people saw me." For Celebi, who was very secretive, to have been flying through a populated city like that... "I tried to look for your house, just like you described it, but it just wasn't there." At this, Arezu finally spoke up. "You must have just taken a wrong turn or something. Maybe... you visited from the future and that's why we missed each other?" Celebi sighed. "I wish that were it, but... no."
"At first I thought that too. I just wasn't good at navigating human cities, or maybe I had gotten the time wrong. But the truth was that you never came to the city at all. I don't know exactly what happened but some humans saw me in the city and captured me. They put me in this place," she shivered. "It was so dark, and I felt like I was floating but I couldn't feel anything, or hear anything... I couldn't sense anything at all. But before they put me in there, I.. I saw you, Zuu. You were laying in a chair, with all these vines...wires coming out of your head. Kuu was there too. I heard them talking about memories, an experiment... but I forgot most of it. I was in there for so long, but then... then I heard you ringing that bell and I knew how to get back." Celebi curled into Arezu's arms, shaking like a leaf. "I was so scared."
[ Adding the claims from the Halloween event to Arezu's inventory ]
Arezu looked over Celebi's head to Hakuren, beyond at a loss for words. What could they even make of this? It just sounded too bizarre- besides, they both remembered seeing Celebi just before leaving last year for Vaniville Town in Kalos. Something had clearly happened to Celebi, and she was just...confused.
"We need to leave this place." A voice calm as water sounded in their heads. The three turned to see Ai looking at them. "...Ai?" The espeon's tail swiped the air, belying the anxiousness behind her calm voice. She wouldn't meet their eyes, instead staring into the trees. "If-if what she says is true, these people could come back for her...or you."
Ai had never spoken a word, never even given an indication she could communicate. She barely even spoke to Hakuren except when Shion was involved. Even Hakuren was unnerved by this, and he had his illusion back up before Arezu had stood. "Okay. I think getting out of here would make Celebi feel better anyways. Let's-" she paused, "Let's go to my house."
Ai looked at Arezu sharpley. "That's-" She was cut off by Suicune when one of his ribbons fluttered wordlessly before her mouth. This was something that needed to be seen. Ai protested silently, standing up to the legendary with what she thought was right for her trainer. Even as he looked down at her with the full force of his gaze, the small espeon stared back. But a part of her wondered if he was right while no parts of him held anything but one belief, and so she said nothing.
Hakuren created an illusion around Celebi before they left, giving her the appearance of a buneary. As Arezu traced the streets back to her house, she felt a nagging thought burrowing into her head. There was a part of her thinking that these streets didn't feel as familiar as she'd thought. That she hadn't spoken to her parents in over a year, because there'd always been some excuse not to. That now that she thought about it, she couldn't really picture what the inside of the house was like aside from her own room.
When they reached the place where her house should be and it wasn't there, she just held Celebi close and stared at the apartment duplex in its place. "I'm sorry Arezu." Ai's voice was small, and quiet, and Arezu probably didn't even hear it. Her house, her parents...they were supposed to be here. Maybe they had moved without saying anything.
"Celebi. Take us back a year." In Arezu's arms Celebi stilled. After a few moments she did as asked, taking them back to that day a year ago. The duplex stood before them, unchanged. "Again." Another year, still the same. "Again." Still the same, even five, ten years back. "Zuu..."
"Okay, can someone please explain to me what the heck is going on?" Hakuren complained, his voice overly loud. Celebi popped out of Arezu's arms to give him a swat. "Haven't you been paying attention?" Hakuren started to protest but Arezu cut him off. "Where are...where are my parents?" Her throat felt so dry. Where was some water? They should go home so her mom could get them something to drink.
"Arezu. I'm sorry. You don't have any," Ai spoke softly. "The heck do you know about it?" Hakuren barked, confused and angry. Arezu shook her head. "No, we're just in the wrong place. I'll just call them. Oh.." she stared at her phone, which had no signal. Of course... they were still in the past. "Celebi, could you take us back? I need to call my parents."
It was when Celebi returned them to the present that all hell broke loose.
[ Officially claiming celebi from my summon item, taking a crystal shard out of Arezu's inventory to make her shiny :u Active party for this post can be found in the bumps ]
The moment Arezu's party reappeared, the dozen operatives hidden around her house attacked. They had been coming from even before Celebi escaped, the moment Arezu entered the city airspace. The direct line to the gardens had thrown them off, and Celebi's time jump had almost helped the small group unknowingly escape. Instead, they returned to an ambush of an intense psychic weight that crushed them all to the ground.
Even so, they might have easily escaped had they realized what was happening and had Celebi take them away. But a swift order put her in the center of a cosmic Imprison attack layered with dark powers to keep her in check.
What saved them instead was Ai, who knew just enough about their attackers to trip them up, and Suicune who took advantage of the opening. With a howl he summoned a biting wind that pushed back the attackers. He seized the others on his back, punched a hole in the defensive circle around them with a hydro pump, and leaped through.
They may have been prepared for him, but the power brought to control him was diverted to the unexpected presence: Celebi. Leaving Suicune open to get them free. He ran swiftly through the night, mane billowing around his passengers. All of them, even Ai, had been knocked asleep. But Suicune was tireless, and so he ran through the night far, far away and even farther still. The air the others breathed was his purifying wind, and any trace that may have let their attackers track them disappeared. It did not, however, blow away the fetters of the tampering in their minds so easily, though Suicune let it blur the edges a little.
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