ETANRETLA|ALTERNATE

[Rex]

Here events on the GTS+ side of the Role Play ALTERNATE|ETANRETLA will be chronicled. In worse case scenarios, should the GTS+ RP die, this will take its place as the opposite to the Charms side and move forward as a fic.

---

When they reached Outpost Opelucid, the first thing that hit Reese was all of the snow. It was mid-August, the time when Hoenn was its hottest. And yet, Unova was snowing. Reese had only seen snow once or twice in his life; it usually didn’t get cold enough in Hoenn for it. Thus, even with his coat and Mikhail standing next to him, the Buizel was cold.

The outpost wasn’t all that interesting. A few black and blue buildings stuck out of the snow, the last remaining human buildings in the city. They had been repurposed for the outpost, and thus were under constant repair. Opelucid had been a technological center for Unova and the rest of the world, a city always on the move and looking forward, tradition and history be damned. Interestingly enough, its last Gym Leader had been an older gentleman, probably the oldest thing in the city.

Up on a hill, in the center of the town, was the largest still standing building. Done in the style of the rest of the surviving buildings, it was a bit of a tower. When humans were still around, it was city hall, as well as the home of the last Gym Leader and his granddaughter. The outpost used it as the center of operations, and thus, it was Reese and Mikhail’s destination.

“You really think we’re going to find anything?” Reese asked.

“Never know,” Mikhail replied, “I’m sure just about any human crap in that frozen wasteland will be worth something.”

“But, what’s the thing we’re actually here looking for?” said Reese.

“The job description said that they wanted ‘a great human treasure, or something that proves what happened to the humans’,” Mikhail recited.

The Buizel fell silent for a minute. He tried drawing his coat closer to himself, but there was nothing more that the old trench could do to keep more of his body heat. After a minute, he looked up at Mikhail. The Infernape was barely wearing anything, shorts and a sleeveless tunic.

“How are you not freezing?” Reese asked.

“You do realize my head is on fire, right?” Mikhail mused, “Fire Types have a naturally higher internal body temperature; we don’t have to worry about the cold as much as you do.”

“Oh,” Reese frowned. Now he felt stupid. He hadn’t had the time or the money to get any sort of education. At times it annoyed him, or made him feel like he did now. In any case, they were on their way up the hill to the building now. There was no time for any continued conversation now. Mikhail opened the door for him, and entered after the Buizel did. Thankfully enough, it was much warmer inside the building, though, oddly enough, they were the first to arrive.

“So how large is the group going to be?” Reese asked, leaning against the wall next to the door.

“I don’t know,” Mikhail replied, striding towards the center of the room. “I guess we’ll find out once they arrive!”

 

[Rex]

Posted by Xires

---

Vyrezat shivered in the intense cold. He looked up at the bleak dreary sky, the little flecks of white floating down gracefully, and sneered. Beautiful, my ass. He thought to himself. It was much colder than he was used to, he was freezing. he could already feel his leather armor beginning to become stiff in the terrible weather. He would have much preferred it if it were at least mildly sunny, but no, jack frost had decided to nip at the edges of poor Vyrezat's wings.

He gave a glance around, stopping where he was to hover. All the buildings here seemed almost shoddily built, the remains of a technological human city. he looked down at the ground, which was being softly covered with a light dusting of snow. with a quick, virtually silent burst of air from his wings, he reveal what appeared to be the street, also a mixture of blue and black. Not very long after, the snow peppered the street once again, little white dots covering it up.

He gave a disgruntled sigh as he thought how he could be back home with his beloved Vespiquen, but shook his head. The entire reason he was here was so that way he could care for the Vespiquen he loved so much. Not only that, but his unhatched child was waiting for him to return rich and famous. He remembered fondly how his sweetheart had begged him not to go, claiming it was suicide for him. It had taken him hours of convincing to reassure her that he would be just fine.

He looked towards the center of town, towards the large building. He remembered the invitation stating that the building was the center of operations, and thus it was probably the place he was supposed to be headed. He flitted lazily towards the building, his wings giving a low hum as he did so.

When he arrived, he had barely enough time to see an Infernape enter the building. He grimaced, one of his needles lifted slightly towards his left eye as he remembered the Hitmonchan. He closed his one good eye and looked out through the damaged one like he had done so many times before. As expected, the world was a blurred mess of white, as it had always been. He gave his head another quick shake, ridding his head of these foul memories, before he entered the building.

He floated lazily over to a corner, his wings thrumming as they always did. He landed quietly, and gave the pair a quick look over. He hadn't seen the Buisel enter, but apparently it was traveling with the Infernape. The Buisel; dressed in an overcoat, grey pants, a brown scarf, and a grey ski cap, looked to be as if he was some sort of working class citizen. The Infernape was barely dressed at all, blue shorts and a tunic that lacked sleeves. It was all he could do to keep himself from sneering at the pair.

When he spoke, it was in a rasping voice, almost comparable to a piece of sandpaper when it is ground against a piece of wood. "I would assume you two are here for the expedition." He glanced at the Buisel, and crossed his Needles, judging the Buisel's age. "You seem to be a bit... inexperienced. Are you quite sure you are able to go out on such a venture as this?"

 

[Rex]

Post by Zapi

---

Without anything to shield him from the cold air, it was needless to say that Kenneth was freezing. Even the Persian’s black “gloves” did little to warm his paws – whatever material they were made of clearly wasn’t created to protect him from the cold. And, of course, the pendant dangling from his necklace wasn’t any help; it was only a makeshift fire stone, after all. Prior to arriving, he had no idea that Unova’s weather would be like this, so he dressed rather lightly. He was starting to regret not bringing a coat, or at least something to wear on his body.

Despite his predicament, Kenneth tried to look on the bright side. The chilling weather did make him feel quite awake and alert – he felt prepared for just about anything. And, that aside, he was about to embark on what might turn out to be the most important journey he would ever make in his life. Of course, he still wasn’t entirely sure what exactly they were supposed to be looking for on this quest, but that didn’t matter to him as much as the possibility of discovering something about his birth.

He took some time to observe the city as he strolled toward the Outpost. It appeared that the place – Opelucid, if he recalled – was once a very technologically advanced human city. Although quite a few buildings remained standing, it was obvious to Kenneth that they’d been rebuilt or repaired countless times by Pokémon, and that they probably looked quite different now from what they originally looked like when the city was still inhabited by humans.

As he neared the entrance to the Outpost, Kenneth watched a Beedrill who must have arrived just before he had flutter into the building. He couldn’t help but feel a little jealous of the leather armor that the bug Pokémon was wearing; it must have offered at least a little more protection from the intense cold than his own clothing (or rather, lack thereof) did. He then entered the building, just behind the Beedrill, and noticed that a couple of others had already gathered there. One, a rather young-looking Buizel, was wearing a coat, scarf, and ski cap that didn’t seem to be too helpful in terms of keeping him warm. The other, an Infernape, didn’t look at all bothered by the weather – but Kenneth wasn’t surprised, as the Pokémon had a flame on its head, so it must have been a fire-type.

Fire… Kenneth winced and quickly looked away from the Infernape as painful memories began to enter his mind. Burning, everything burning… forests, buildings, towns… the town… He felt his heartbeat speeding up, his breathing becoming heavier… he was nervous, or excited, or both – he couldn’t really tell. He had hoped that there wouldn’t be any fire-types in the group, but alas, there was one there already, and he wasn’t sure if he could bear to look at the flame on this one’s head every day from now on without driving himself insane. Please don’t let one of my incidents happen on this journey, he pled silently, to no one in particular. Please…

After a few moments he had calmed down considerably, his breathing and heartbeat returned to normal. Just to be on the safe side, though, he averted his eyes from the Infernape. He heard the Beedrill say something about the Buizel being too young for the hardships of the journey ahead, or something. That’s an awfully inconsiderate thing to say, he thought. He wouldn’t have signed up for this if he thought he was inexperienced, right? He wanted to voice his opinions to the Beedrill, but he kept quiet, not wanting to risk starting a fight this early on.

---

Lucca held herself high as she strode through the streets of Opelucid, appearing completely unfazed by the weather. She was accustomed to the extreme cold by now, having lived in Unova for a little over a year. Even though, being grass-type, she naturally should’ve hated the icy weather, the Treecko was perfectly fine wearing nothing but a light blue scarf to shield her from the cold. She carried her sunhat beside her – showing up at the Outpost wearing it in this weather would make her look silly, and first impressions were very important to her. She feared she might have to abandon her precious hat – one of her only belongings that she hadn’t stolen from someone else – due to most of Unova being this cold, but perhaps she would start wearing it again once she was more comfortable around the others in the group.

She was utterly fascinated by the black and blue buildings of the large city. As she continued toward the Outpost, she entertained herself by imagining what Opelucid looked like back when humans still inhabited it. It must have been full of the very best of human technology, and it probably looked even more spectacular then than it did to her today – and that was saying something, as she thought the city was pretty amazing despite at the obvious repair jobs it had undergone. She wondered just how much of the technology whoever ran the place now was able to preserve, and more importantly, if she’d have access to any of it on the upcoming adventure.

Four others had already gathered at the Outpost by the time she entered the building. She first noticed the Beedrill and Infernape, and made a mental note not to provoke them. She wasn’t sure how aggressive they were, but if she ended up in a fight with either of them, they’d take her out easily. Of course, they’d have to catch up to her first, but they did look like they’d be quite fast. The third Pokémon she noticed was a Buizel, who appeared to be slightly younger than she was. In her mind, she immediately marked the water-type off as an easy target; if she ticked him off, he probably wouldn’t be able to do anything to her. The last Pokémon was a Persian, standing a bit away from the others, who looked like he was either exhausted or freaking out. Lucca wasn’t sure what his deal was, but she didn’t really care.

She couldn’t help but roll her eyes at the Beedrill’s comment. She really hated it when older folk thought they were so much better than everyone else because they were more experienced, or whatever. Though she knew having experience was somewhat important, it certainly wasn’t everything, and someone with no experience doing something could be just as talented as someone with a lot of experience doing the same thing. And that aside, who did this bug think he was, judging someone’s experience or lack thereof by their appearance? She really wanted to say something to him, but remained silent, remembering the Beedrill’s double type advantage over her.

 

[Rex]

Post by Flynt

---

It didn't take long for a few of the group's members to start entering. The first was a Beedrill, wearing a breastplate made from what appeared to be leather. Mikhail frowned, they were adventures going on an exploration, not soldiers going to war. He did notice the odd discoloration of the Beedrill's left eye, a telltale sign of blindness. He also noticed how unimaginably clean the Beedrill's stingers were. All in all, the Beedrill gave off the impression of a former soldier, wounded in combat and returned home, who still held onto some forms of honor.

The second Pokemon entered quickly after the Beedrill. A Persian, wearing nothing but mittens on all four paws and an amulet on a chain around its neck. Much like the Beedrill's needles, the Persian's coat was far cleaner then it had any right to be. The Persian took one look in his direction and immediately started hyperventilating. That made the Infernape snicker, though he hoped none of them noticed.

The third Pokemon entered just as the Persian looked away from Mikhail and started calming itself down. It was a Treecko, and it was very oddly proportioned, to say the least. Its tail seemed to dwarf the rest of its body, which seemed slightly small for its species as well. Mikhail made a mental note to watch where he was stepping, worried he'd crush the small Pokemon. It wore nothing but a blue scarf, putting Reese to shame by apparently not being that affected by the cold at all. The Treecko also carried a sunhat, of all things. It looked more like it was getting ready for a Sunday stroll then to go on an adventure.

Apparently not noticing the ragtag bunch of misfits behind it, the Beedrill immediately turned to Reese. Mikhail was already picking up the buzz of its wings, and its voice managed to be even more grating. The raspy quality did an excellent job masking its tone, and Mikhail couldn't tell if it was concerned for Reese, or looking down on him, by its question.

"Why don't you flutter on down here and I'll show you how 'inexperienced' I am," Reese growled, showing off his rather sharp claws.

Mikhail chuckled, "Play nice, Reese." He wandered over to the four, and knelt down, offering his hand to the Treecko and Persian. "My name is Mikhail Ginovaef, it's a pleasure to meet you both." While on the face of it this was simple pleasantry, in truth, Mikhail wanted to see how the Persian would react. Simply seeing him had sent the Pokemon into a fit, and he needed to be sure the Pokemon would be alright for the journey. It going mad and destroying what ever they managed to find simply would not do.