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[Pokémon] A Smell of Petroleum Pervades Throughout

15
Posts
10
Years
Give Elm a sip of moo moo milk to revitalise him. Both of you drink water. Both eat some eel (elm can have limpets and tea if he wants).
Leaving it up to other voices and the Narrator to decide if sneaking to the shore is safe, get some seawater in Elm's pots and set up his water purification device near the helicopter - Unless it uses precious electricity, in that case, use Elm's know how and Vesta's heat to evaporate and condense the seawater into pots and things until it's drinkable. Once you have obtained more drinking water through either method - fill some of your empty bottles.
Maybe go to sleep once you're fed and watered while elm keeps doing his thing and Vesta keeps watch. Then elm can wake you when the milk hit fades and he needs to collapse for a while and you can keep watch/train Vesta/ponder until he wakes.
Elm has a bunch of gadgets - LED clusters (you can do some pretty fancy stuff with diodes) - can anything be combined together, possibly with the TMs, to make a new weapon or gadget?
 
25
Posts
11
Years
  • Seen Aug 21, 2014
I suggest using the food in the helicopter instead of the eels, so you can see what kinds of food tins there are.
Also, ask Elm if there's some way to recharge the battery of the scanner using the half depleted fuel cell.
If you do go to the shore, have the spratchery so you can distract any Eldritch Pokemon you encounter.
 

Mr. Black

Master Of Reality
531
Posts
12
Years
Check out the imperishable food amounts stored on the helicopter . It might have water along. If the narrator wants :P Also it would be good for Elm to rest. Find some branches of wood and make a fire. Then take a nap since it's dusk and soon it'll be night. However stay alert...you're definitely not alone here.
 

Cosmic Fury

[color=red][I][css-div="font-size: 12px; font-vari
419
Posts
12
Years
Are there any safe places to find lodging? If not, then it'll likely be a good time to use a small amount of that psychotropic Moomoo milk. Besides, Elm is better off being a bit "happy" anyway.

Also, find a solar panel and cord so that you can at least charge your scanner on the go. (Dang, I think this is among the best ideas I've had here so far.)
 

Cutlerine

Gone. May or may not return.
1,030
Posts
14
Years
> Give Elm a sip of moo moo milk to revitalise him. Both of you drink water. Both eat some eel (elm can have limpets and tea if he wants).
Leaving it up to other voices and the Narrator to decide if sneaking to the shore is safe, get some seawater in Elm's pots and set up his water purification device near the helicopter - Unless it uses precious electricity, in that case, use Elm's know how and Vesta's heat to evaporate and condense the seawater into pots and things until it's drinkable. Once you have obtained more drinking water through either method - fill some of your empty bottles.
Maybe go to sleep once you're fed and watered while elm keeps doing his thing and Vesta keeps watch. Then elm can wake you when the milk hit fades and he needs to collapse for a while and you can keep watch/train Vesta/ponder until he wakes.
Elm has a bunch of gadgets - LED clusters (you can do some pretty fancy stuff with diodes) - can anything be combined together, possibly with the TMs, to make a new weapon or gadget?
> I suggest using the food in the helicopter instead of the eels, so you can see what kinds of food tins there are.
Also, ask Elm if there's some way to recharge the battery of the scanner using the half depleted fuel cell.
If you do go to the shore, have the spratchery so you can distract any Eldritch Pokemon you encounter.
> Check out the imperishable food amounts stored on the helicopter . It might have water along. If the narrator wants. Also it would be good for Elm to rest. Find some branches of wood and make a fire. Then take a nap since it's dusk and soon it'll be night. However stay alert...you're definitely not alone here.
> Are there any safe places to find lodging? If not, then it'll likely be a good time to use a small amount of that psychotropic Moomoo milk. Besides, Elm is better off being a bit "happy" anyway.
Also, find a solar panel and cord so that you can at least charge your scanner on the go. (Dang, I think this is among the best ideas I've had here so far.)


Oh, sure. Solar panels. There're hundreds of them just lying around all over the beach.

You dismiss that idea immediately and light a fire near the side of the helicopter with some of the timber from the wrecked houses. You think about having some of the food from the helicopter, and get as far as investigating the tins – they all contain something labelled FLAVOURSOME PASTE – before you realise you have no tin opener, and resolve to cook another eel instead. There are two left.

After you and Elm have eaten and drunk, he shows you how to set up the Water Purification Device. It's basically a solar still; you won't be getting anything out of it until morning at the latest, since the sun's gone down and it's quite cool now. To speed things along, you boil some over the fire, and refill the two Water Bottles that you drank from.

You see nothing out of the ordinary as you collect the water, but you can't help but scan the waves uneasily.

"Is there any way I can recharge the Pokédex?" you ask Elm. "I've been using the scanner quite a lot, and it doesn't seem to like it."

He ponders.

"I don't think you're in luck there," he says. "That's an old model; it's not rechargeable. It takes three lithium cells."

Figures. All those lithium batteries the Narrator let you find back when you'd forgotten about using the scanner were probably meant for something, after all.

"How's the translation going?" you ask.

"Slowly," he sighs. "It's not Sumerian cuneiform, but it looks like an earlier language that gave rise to it instead. I'm not really a linguist, or a programmer, but I'm trying to help the program learn how to do it... Well. It's going to take a while."

He sounds tired, and you offer him a sip of MooMoo Milk to keep him going. He refuses, however.

"No, thanks," he says. "I'll just have a nap... You, uh, keep watch or whatever it is you're doing."

(Note that actions involving other characters may not turn out as planned. You can only control the player character.)

He goes back inside and stretches out on the floor of the helicopter. Soon, he is asleep, and you are standing alone on the silent beach.

The hours pass. You think about training Vesta some more, but really, she needs opponents to fight against or she won't get any stronger; you've already taught her the only 'move' you can think of. You have a go at making another move-using machine instead, but it doesn't seem to work; you just don't have enough random mechanical crap to sling together.

A little after midnight, Elm wakes with a start from uneasy dreams. You nod silently at his tale of a sunken city, and of strange amphibian beasts below.

"The Deep Ones," you say, when he's done.

He shivers.

"Mm. Right. Anyway. You sleep now, and I'll keep—"

You shake your head.

"No. You sleep – you'll need to be alert tomorrow to fly the chopper. I can sleep while you're flying."

"Fly the chopper? Are we leaving?"

"I think we found what we came here for," you tell him. "I'm not sure we should even still be here now, to be honest. I get the feeling that the longer we're here, the more likely we are to die."

Elm nods.

"I know what you mean," he says. "We could always fly out now, if you want."

That hadn't occurred to you, for some reason. Man, do you feel stupid.

Othodox's Fatigue is rising.
 

Mr. Mammoth

One cool snowman
812
Posts
12
Years
Hmm... flying away right now would get you away from Cianwood quickly. However, after having those bad dreams, is it really good for Elm to be flying that helicopter? The last thing you'd want is him falling asleep at the wheel (or whatever you steer helicopters with). Also, who knows what unspeakable horrors may roam the skies during nighttime...

I'd say stay until it is morning again.

(For the record I thought I'd say that I'm really enjoying this text-based adventure so far. Your writing always manages to put a smile on my lips as well as keeping me interested in the story, Cutlerine! Keep up the good work, man!)
 
25
Posts
11
Years
  • Seen Aug 21, 2014
Then again, the fear that the dream caused could help Elm stay awake while he's flying. I say go now, but offer Elm some of the MooMoo Milk before you leave, just to be safe.
 

destinedjagold

You can contact me in PC's discord server...
8,593
Posts
16
Years
  • Age 33
  • Seen Dec 23, 2023
Open the "mission objective" to see what we still need to do.
'Cause the only thing I remember now is our mission to go to Cianwood. After that, then what? Go back to the mainland, and then what? o.o
 
15
Posts
10
Years
Ordinarily I'd rather go in the day when pokemon will be more visible but the only flying nocturnal pokemon I know are the various bats and hoothoot/Noctowl. And the bats will stay in the caves and the birds won't be anywhere near Cianwood, you could probable go now. Ask Elm if the batteries from his three laptops are the right lithium cells to power the pokedex - they're rechargeable too.
 

Mr. Black

Master Of Reality
531
Posts
12
Years
I suppose we're done from here ; we investigated the town as the mysterious metal stranger told us. What about heading back to olivine and go to the lighthouse as we promised.
 

Cutlerine

Gone. May or may not return.
1,030
Posts
14
Years
> Open the "mission objective" to see what we still need to do. 'Cause the only thing I remember now is our mission to go to Cianwood. After that, then what? Go back to the mainland, and then what? o.o

Open the what now? You'd accepted the possibility that the voices in your head are a sign of incipient madness, but if the voices themselves have started going mad you don't hold out much hope of getting back to the mainland without announcing you can fly and jumping out of the helicopter.

> Ordinarily I'd rather go in the day when pokemon will be more visible but the only flying nocturnal pokemon I know are the various bats and hoothoot/Noctowl. And the bats will stay in the caves and the birds won't be anywhere near Cianwood, you could probable go now. Ask Elm if the batteries from his three laptops are the right lithium cells to power the pokedex - they're rechargeable too.

Ah yes, the laptop batteries. Of course, they look like they're each the size of the Pokédex on their own, don't they, but who knows? You might be able to fit them into a slot designed to take a pair of button cells.

To take your mind of the depths to which your own imagination has apparently sunk, you check the status of the Bad Egg.

The Egg Watch: It appears to move occasionally. It may be close to hatching.

> Hmm... flying away right now would get you away from Cianwood quickly. However, after having those bad dreams, is it really good for Elm to be flying that helicopter? The last thing you'd want is him falling asleep at the wheel (or whatever you steer helicopters with). Also, who knows what unspeakable horrors may roam the skies during nighttime...
I'd say stay until it is morning again.
> Then again, the fear that the dream caused could help Elm stay awake while he's flying. I say go now, but offer Elm some of the MooMoo Milk before you leave, just to be safe.
> I suppose we're done from here ; we investigated the town as the mysterious metal stranger told us. What about heading back to olivine and go to the lighthouse as we promised.


You don't really think Elm's going to fall asleep at the controls. He's just had several hours' sleep and presumably has got used to taking his sleep in fitful bursts; you don't think his internal clock has been synchronised with true day and night for several years.

Preparing to leave, you kick sand over the fire and it goes out with a sharp hiss; the smoke rises up through the air and, as if waiting for it, something big bursts from the water and soars over your head.

For a moment, you see nothing more than a huge teardrop shape across the moon – and then it slams down onto the ground a little way past where the fire used to be, sending clouds of sand rising up around it like a choking cloak.

With the sudden change in light level you are totally blind; you can't see anything at all except the moon and the glint on the helicopter blades, and you automatically stumble backwards from where you think the thing landed, almost tripping over a half-buried bone.

There is total silence.

If there are more Pokémon around, they aren't attacking. Perhaps the thing in the dark is too fearsome for anything to challenge its kill, you think uneasily. And then, more optimistically: perhaps it's gone.

But then you hear the slow squeal of tortured steel as something unforgiving is dragged along the helicopter's flank, and know that the thing isn't going anywhere at all. It's right here, and it's determined to take the lot of you with it.

The vivid emerald flash of Vesta's attack blinds you all over again, doubling your helplessness with an incandescent after-image – and, worse still, the thing doesn't seemed to have noticed it at all; there is no sound or smell of seared flesh, no cry of a creature in pain.

You want to cry out, but you don't dare speak. You want to know if Elm's OK; you want to tell Vesta that if she can see the creature she needs to boil out of the webbing and kill it. You want to cry out and run over the bone-crushed sands to some fortunate place where there are no uncertain creatures lurking in the dark.

The scraping noise stops.

There is the sudden sound of a hard weight on metal—

A man's voice in the dark—

And then there is nothing.

You stand there for a long time, paralysed by fear, until eventually the moon has perceptibly moved in the sky and you dare to talk:

"Professor?"

"Othodox?"

Vesta, says Vesta.

"You're all right?" you ask.

"Yes," he replies. "I – I think so. I thought I felt something touch me back then, but. I don't know. I might have imagined it."

"I think it's gone," you say. "Did you see what it was?"

"No. Felt sharp and wet. Could have been anything."

Your eyes are becoming accustomed to the gloom now; you can see Elm, a few feet to your right, standing rigid in the dark.

"Let's get out of here," you say.

"Definitely," he agrees.

Neither of you are in any danger of falling asleep right now. Not after that.

The helicopter rises up with a thunderous roar, and soon enough you're heading northeast across the sea – away from this ghastly, haunted island, away from things that multiply around you and never show their face, away from ghoul-haunted nights – and back towards the Eldritch Quilava.

Oh yeah.

You'd forgotten about that.

As dawn inches closer and the sky begins to lighten, Elm frowns and yells to you:

"We need to refuel soon!"

"Well," you reply, "we've got more kerosene, right?"

"Yeah, but it's not in the fuel tank, so it's not exactly useful right now. And we kind of need to land to get it in there."

You glance at the endless sea beneath you, unmarked by even the merest suggestion of land.

"Ah," you say. "How far off is Olivine?"

"I'm not sure," Elm answers grimly. "I'm hoping for close."

Something's here, says Vesta, and you both immediately start looking around wildly, thinking that some Eldritch Flying-type – or one of those unnamed things that Falkner said haunt the former Indigo Plateau – might be closing in on the helicopter, but the skies, as far as you can see, are clear.

"Where, Vesta?" you ask.

I don't know, she replies. Somewhere. I feel... something. Not even like a proper animal.

"Something like you? A little piece of life?"

I don't understand.

"Something that's life, but isn't alive," you say, wondering if that isn't actually more obscure than what you originally said.

Maybe, she says. Her flames are crooked; were she human, you would say her brow was furrowed. I don't know... But we should be careful.

"If it isn't trying to kill us right now," says Elm, "then I think our main priority is getting to Olivine without this thing dropping into the sea."

You are forced to agree with him here. You would much rather have to face a grisly monster when you land than suffer the consequences a sea landing in a helicopter that isn't capable of making sea landings.

"The fuel supply was always meant to be sufficient to take us to the islands and back, with some extra just in case," Elm is telling you. "But, well, the thing was that we were meant to remember to fill the damn tank before we ever got up in the air..."

"Do you really have to go on about that?"

"Sorry."

There is a long silence. The sky seems to sag with the weight of the moon as it slips towards the horizon; you can't help but feel that soon enough you'll be following it, down to the magic point where sky meets sea, and further down still, to a world of green stone cities and hellish fish men – where overlarge eels wind around bones studded with coral, and pearls grow in the bodies of the fat oysters nestled where eyes once were.

By the time Olivine is visible, you are growing fairly desperate. Every jolt and bump feels like a lurch towards the waves; every slip feels like the beginning of a long last plunge into the hungry foam. You tell yourself that helicopters are difficult to fly, and Elm is a novice; you say aloud that flight in small craft is often rather more juddery and uncomfortable than in large ones – but your voice rings hollow in your ears. Try as you might, you can't quite convince yourself.

When something emits an odd metallic crunch behind you, you nearly jump out of your skin.

"What was that?" asks Elm.

You turn, but see nothing besides the electrical equipment and the tins of FLAVOURSOME PASTE. After a long, futile search in the darker recesses, all you've managed to do is hurt your hand on a pointy edge.

"I have no idea," you say. "But I think I'd like to land soon."

"Well," he says, "I think you might be in luck."

You turn back to him, and see, no more than a few hundred feet off, the towering shape of Olivine's lighthouse.

Things like naked condors flap out of the trees, screeching wildly, as the helicopter roars its way back over dry land; a few unidentifiable creatures scuttle away to hide in buildings or burrows as its shadow falls over them.

Then, as dawn begins to break, Elm sets the helicopter gently down in the middle of Olivine's southernmost street.

A ragged cheer goes up from the pair of you who appreciate the danger you were in: you are back in Olivine, and you also appear to have scared most of the surrounding Pokémon away.

You take a deep breath.

God damn it, you hadn't realised how much you missed the mainland until now.
 
77
Posts
12
Years
  • Seen May 12, 2021
Have a meal, drink some water, and take a short rest while youre sure that most of the Pokemon are gone. Your Fatigue level needs to go down.
 

destinedjagold

You can contact me in PC's discord server...
8,593
Posts
16
Years
  • Age 33
  • Seen Dec 23, 2023
Before any of that though, see if there's something attached to your helicopter's tail or landing skids... >.>
 
15
Posts
10
Years
Wouldn't you want to rest in the top of the lighthouse where it's safe - you did promise you'd come back - why wait to visit.
Also use the scanner. I know it's about to die but it might be able to tell you what's in/on the Helicopter with you. (speaking of the scanner - shouldn't Elm know enough about basic electronics to create something that will generate the same voltage and current as three lithium cells? It wouldn't necessarily be portable but if the Helicopter became a temporary mobile base of sorts, you could plug it into something whenever you're there.)
And refill the Helicopter now so it's ready for a quick get-away.
 

Mr. Black

Master Of Reality
531
Posts
12
Years
First check out the exterior of the helicopter. Then refuel it , eat and drink. Lastly head to the lighthouse and find that stranger. WE MUST LEARN HIS/HER NAME !!!
 
25
Posts
11
Years
  • Seen Aug 21, 2014
I suggest not using the scanner. There could be a moment where it could come in handy, and I don't think now is the time. Besides, those birds were most likely Farfetch'd.
 

Cutlerine

Gone. May or may not return.
1,030
Posts
14
Years
> Before any of that though, see if there's something attached to your helicopter's tail or landing skids... >.>

There is nothing attached to the helicopter. You aren't sure if you're relieved there's nothing there, or worried that you can't see it.

> Have a meal, drink some water, and take a short rest while youre sure that most of the Pokemon are gone. Your Fatigue level needs to go down.
> This, but make sure you refill the gas tank right away for next time.
> Wouldn't you want to rest in the top of the lighthouse where it's safe - you did promise you'd come back - why wait to visit.


Yeah, why would you do that? It seems silly. It also seems silly to waste food and water when you don't need it, but hey. You're not one to disobey the voices.

You have some Limpets, some Water and a nap while Elm fiddles with the fuel tank and the kerosene.

> Also use the scanner. I know it's about to die but it might be able to tell you what's in/on the Helicopter with you.
> I suggest not using the scanner. There could be a moment where it could come in handy, and I don't think now is the time. Besides, those birds were most likely Farfetch'd.


You know they were Farfetch'd by the gigantic mutant onions they were carrying. Did I omit to mention that before? Because yeah, they were totally carrying giant mutant onions. With faces. That screamed.

The Narrator definitely did not consider this only after the voices pointed it out.

Anyway, you decide not to use the scanner, in the end, and instead make a thorough search of the inside of the helicopter – something that's a lot easier now, when it's nearly noon, than it was earlier. While you find no sign of anything on board that shouldn't be there, you do find that one of the tins of FLAVOURSOME PASTE has a tiny hole in one end. The sound you heard was probably it popping open – but you can't see any reason why it would have done so. There is literally nothing here to open it, and, squinting through the hole, you can't see anything inside it, either. To be on the safe side, you toss the can into the ocean.

"Why did you throw that can into the sea?" asks Elm.

"It was the one that burst open earlier," you explain. "I don't know... It's probably nothing, but I don't like it."

He nods.

"Sounds reasonable to me."

> (speaking of the scanner - shouldn't Elm know enough about basic electronics to create something that will generate the same voltage and current as three lithium cells? It wouldn't necessarily be portable but if the Helicopter became a temporary mobile base of sorts, you could plug it into something whenever you're there.)
And refill the Helicopter now so it's ready for a quick get-away.


You don't quite follow this logic. Elm has a doctorate in the study of Pokémon. He probably knows less than you do about electronics, and you don't know anything. Sure, he can plug things into the generator and turn it on, and he knows what batteries go in a Pokédex – but seriously, do you expect him to know anything beyond that?

> First check out the exterior of the helicopter. Then refuel it , eat and drink. Lastly head to the lighthouse and find that stranger. WE MUST LEARN HIS/HER NAME !!!

"So," says Elm, looking up at the lighthouse. "They're up there, huh?"

"Yeah," you reply. "The... steel person. Who I think might be Jasmine."

"Shall I come with you?" he asks. "I mean, I don't know if they'd want me there. From what you said, they sounded like they barely accepted you."

You think for a minute.

"All right," you say, "stay in the helicopter. If anything evil comes to try and kill you, uh..."

"I'll fire up the helicopter to see if I can scare it off," he replies. "And if it doesn't scare, well, at least I'll be in the air."

"Right," you agree. "See you in a minute."

"See you," he replies. "I'll get back to the translation."

You climb the hill to the lighthouse, past the scars of the Quilava's battle with the one-clawed crab, and up to the door. Here, on the threshold, you hesitate a moment. Glance back at Elm. Take a deep breath, and open the door.

The hallway is the same as ever, only now the carpet is smeared with dark, crusty blood and a thick scabious substance that looks like the dried residue of the green stuff that the crab oozed. The floorboards are undisturbed; from the pit in the corner issues a rank smell – like that of cats, but stronger and with a hint of petrol. Evidently something else has taken over that burrow – something, in all likelihood, much more dangerous than a crab.

The lift doors stand open at the end of the corridor, and you walk in without a second thought. They close behind you before you even press a button, and a moment later you are walking out into the darkness of the upper floor.

"Hello," you say.

There is no reply.

"I came back," you say. "I came for you."

"I KNOW," says the stranger in the dark. Their voice is choked; you can well imagine that they couldn't quite speak when you first appeared. "I KNOW..."

You walk into the middle of the room and stop before they tell you to.

"I went to Cianwood," you say, more to fill the time as they build up their courage than anything else. "There's no one there. But I did find something – a statuette. And I stopped at the Whirl Islands. Professor Elm was there, and he came with me. He's translating an inscription on the statuette now."

"THE WHIRL ISLANDS..."

"Yeah," you say. "I met a Lugia there. I walked into its cave and spoke to it."

There is a long silence.

"ELM MUST HAVE BEEN WAITING THERE FOR YEARS," whispers the stranger. "AND YOU, TOO... BOTH OF YOU. EVERYONE, SO BRAVE."

You hear something moving in the dark, and two solid thumps as steel feet hit the floor.

"I'VE BEEN SELFISH LONG ENOUGH," they say, more strongly. "AND I'VE BEEN IN THE DARK FAR TOO LONG NOW."

There is the sound of fast-moving metal—

—the sound of cloth tearing—

—and then, all at once, the sheets covering the windows fall away in a cloud of dust, cut clean from their moorings and letting in a great flood of light. The dusty glass burns in the noon sun, and the stranger is invisible, shining so powerfully that it seems the great lighthouse is active once again, that an angel has descended from heaven in a glorious blast of eye-withering sunlight.

For a long moment, you can see nothing at all but a vague cross of white fire. Then, blinking through the after-image, you focus your eyes on what looks to you like a freaking T-1000.

You blink again. It isn't, of course. It's a girl, her face and body mangled and smashed almost beyond recognition: her ribs sink into her chest and stab out through her skin by turns; one arm is mostly bone and the hand at its tip little better; her skull has been crushed inwards on one side near the crown, spilling out a corona of ooze across her hair. One of her eyes is missing, leaving a dark hole in her face, and her nose is badly broken.

She is also, as you expected, made entirely of steel.

You stare. In the sun, not even the horror of her appearance can detract from how exquisitely beautiful she is; she glitters and shines, sending coruscations of light dancing across the walls and ceiling. She looks like she is made of silver fire that twists and burns and dazzles in the light.

"I AM JASMINE," she says. "I WANT TO HELP YOU SAVE THE WORLD."

Please be aware that from now on, commands are subject to being cut up, as command lines are becoming clunky and ponderous. Please also refrain from repeating commands that have already been issued unless a choice has been placed under debate. The Narrator did not particularly want to apply rules such as these, but it is becoming impossible to deal with each command separately, which is detracting from the experience of this as a game.
 

destinedjagold

You can contact me in PC's discord server...
8,593
Posts
16
Years
  • Age 33
  • Seen Dec 23, 2023
I uh... She uh... Um... Wow...
Yeah, anyway... Let her join the party and head back down, and then head to the helicopter.
And oh, maybe let Vesta make a comment? >.>
 

Mr. Black

Master Of Reality
531
Posts
12
Years
So JASMINE IS THE STRANGER ?!
Ok......ok
After doing what jagold suggested ( damn new rules :P ) Maybe having a "debate" to what are we doing next ??? Also it would be a good idea heading back to ecruteak were we are protected by the gengar's power.And now i realize that we haven't visited goldenrod city yet....hmmm
 
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