Welcome.

[trustwellness]

You wake with the unshakable feeling that you shouldn't be here. Perhaps you were in the middle of something, perhaps you weren't. Either way, you're waking up in an unfamiliar location with no recollection of how you got here. The room you've woken up in is sparsely-decorated, though that might be difficult to tell at first given how nice the beds are...but eventually you'll notice a few things that are a little...off. Maybe the scent is striking you wrong - it's clean, but it's not yours. Maybe your bed back home doesn't support your back in quite this way. Maybe you should be seeing sunlight through your window by now. Maybe you should have a window in the first place. This isn't right, but leaving the room won't give you any more answers. You might want to grab the silver key sitting on your trunk on the way out. Don't worry though, you aren't all alone here. Once you step outside your room into the hallway, you'll notice that a few others are emerging from their rooms as well. It looks like they're just as confused and concerned as you are. Feel free to talk to them, but none of you know how exactly you wound up here and maybe some useful information can be found by exploring. If you follow the hallway to its end (and it's a very long hallway), you'll eventually arrive in the foyer. You'll find some very interesting information about yourselves on the wall near the clock. Perhaps even more importantly, if you look on the other side of the multi-pendulumed thing, you'll find other framed information that you might want to pay attention to. It could very well be the key to escaping this strange place, after all. Don't worry if you forget the rules, you can find them in every room of the building. Of course, search as you might, you won't find a doorway or a window of any sort. Getting out won't be so easy, it seems. But who knows? Perhaps your fellow captives have something to say about all of this. Welcome to Chronos University.

Comments

[feistytrader]

[Normally, he's a little calmer about being slung over the shoulder, but his expression sours pretty quickly.]

Have you seen our Pokémon?

[We have stuff to get back to, Gold-]

[uncouthhatcher]

Nope.

[Which is said as breezily as you'd expect, really, but his carefree expression from before's straightening into something more serious.]

Figure I'd ask Smith about it whenever they decide to show their damn face -- if they do, and if they don't I'm just gonna find a way to smash through a wall or somethin' 'til we find what we're lookin' for.

[feistytrader]

Good.

[...He's tempted to tell Gold about what's going on, but at the same time, if the smith guy can overhear them somehow, it's better that he keeps quiet. He doesn't need to let that guy know the, well, admittedly little that he knows himself.]

Do you think Team Rocket's behind this? It looks a little too tacky for them, but...

[uncouthhatcher]

... Don't think so. It ain't like they're a sneaky bunch, even if it would explain our partners bein' missin'.

[Mmmmmmmmm.]

Not like they've been around for a while either. [As far as he knows.] We kicked their shit in and their tails have been between their legs since! Why the hell would they suddenly come back and pull somethin' like this, right?

[Nothing to worry about, nothing at all.]

I'd think it'd be Crys tryin' to actually learn us a thing, but she'd never even joke about killin' someone. Even if I'm pretty damn sure her kick could put a hole through a man if she wanted it to!

[feistytrader]

They're coming back.

[...So much for keeping things under wraps. Silver folds his arms.]

I was investigating their return before I showed up here.

[uncouthhatcher]

And here I thought you were doin' a world tour for cuisine, but you're just doin' work like Crys.

[He's got such boring friends. Gold thinks for a moment, leaning his head closer to talk quieter, because he's got the unspoken memo on the Smithy guy.]

Mom misses you, you know, you oughta come visit more often. [That's the less important part.] Oh, and that old geezer was lookin' for you too, but he ended up choosin' me for a super cool and awesome mission since you and Crys decided you were too busy to help out~. Sucks to be you! I was just leavin' to do that before this, but now I'm wonderin' if that Lance guy ain't here too somewhere.

[feistytrader]

[Silver deliberately pauses at that and stares at Gold for a moment with some discomfort on his face, then relaxes and looks away. He doesn't want to say it out loud, but it shouldn't be too hard to pick up the message: something's happened to Lance.

...Or maybe he just hates talking to Professor Oak that much.]

For now, finding our Pokémon and a way out of here is our biggest priority.

[uncouthhatcher]

[Either or, but he knows his friend. Damn, that sucks, his mission's all for nothing if Lance is gone in the first place, the hell is he supposed to do. He clicks his tongue and moves away, waving his hand.]

Silver, buddy, I've gotta find all my stuff too! They took my bag! I had snacks I was savin' in that thing, not to mention my skateboard and cuestick are in there! Whoever took our shit has got something worse than a few angry words comin' their way, rules be damned.

[feistytrader]

[...Well, that's not nearly as important as their Pokémon, but at least he's not the only one missing his things.]

I know how you feel, but don't break any rules yet.

[uncouthhatcher]

[Screw you his local snacks are super important!!!]

What's the worse they're gonna do, put us in detention? I'd like to see 'em try! I've never done time in a classroom and I ain't plannin' on it!

[FIGHT THE MAN]

[feistytrader]

They have our Pokémon. Use your head.

[God damn he wouldn't mind smacking the shit out of him too but come on, man-]

[uncouthhatcher]

[goddammit dude why you gotta bum him like that]

Rules or not, the one that's gonna die is Smitty if they touch a hair on any of their heads.

[........]

Or a petal on Sunbo's. And whatever the hell Sudobo and Polibo are made of.

[feistytrader]

He's gonna die either way.

[Now that that's out of the way-]

Be careful what you tell other people. We don't know if we can trust any of them.

[uncouthhatcher]

[THE MOST LENGTHY PAUSE.

Look at this face, Silver. This is the face of a man who has said a Lot.

This face is also turning away so he can get some ingredients for a meal for two!]

Yeah, sure, whatever.

[feistytrader]

...What did you tell them?

[Gold-]

[uncouthhatcher]

How I regularly save the world and that it's pretty much ending every year because of this and that, that we're pals that know each other even if we don't know anyone else, some of 'em asked about Pokémon 'cause their region-country-places don't have them...

[..............]

And that I kinda left Pryce for dead in the time stream.

[that's all]

[feistytrader]

...We're both going to die.

[Gold for the love of god learn an ounce of subtlety, would you-]

Don't tell anyone about Pryce.

[uncouthhatcher]

I didn't say his name or anything! And he was just a footnote, promise, I was talkin' to that king guy and the topic of killin' people came up.

[the nuts one.]

Besides, we ain't gonna die. We've got people to get back to, yeah?

[feistytrader]

[...He's not optimistic. At the same time-]

We've survived worse.

[uncouthhatcher]

Exactly. So we'll come out on top here too! No problem, no problem.

[Not a single problem.]

[feistytrader]

...Yeah. We'll see.

[There's not much more that can be done about it for now, at any rate.]

[uncouthhatcher]

[It's true, which is why he's made them sandwiches. Here. Have your sandwich.]

So what about your investigatin' kept you from visitin'? You know Mom basically treats you like her other kid, right? That house is pretty much yours.

[... And Gold feels the same way, so.]

And don't give me that "I didn't want to involve anyone" crap, 'cause I know that's what you're gonna say. You oughta treat yourself nicer since you can!

[feistytrader]

I...

[Have been called out, shit.]

That's not important right now.

[uncouthhatcher]

Silbo, buddy, there's nothin' else we can do about anything right now, so of course I'm gonna catch up with you! Shit's been crazy and this is like, the first point of relaxin' I've had since I woke up.

[... Which is probably saying something that he's saying something, honestly, since Gold's big on appearing the most fine. He doesn't mind as much with Silver.]

And it is important. [With a jab at Silver's chest.] The rest of the Pokémon miss you too, dude, and... [...] You ain't got a reason to be alone anymore.

[So don't act like you have to be remains unspoken, but Gold's scowl should say as much. This has apparently been held in a while if it's coming out right now.]

[feistytrader]

...You don't know that.

[But rather than explain himself, he's going to awkwardly shift around and bite on his sandwich.]