002; [VOICE | ACTION, caverns expedition rewards]

[antiseptic]

[From all the laughing going on behind him, one may guess that Jade is at a party. Unfortunately, that isn't the case.]

For those unaware, we've come across some strange stones while searching for the mine and delivered them to the labs for analysis. It's been a hectic week, so we haven't received the results until now, but it seems like we've found quite a large variety of evolution stones. If you're in need of one, I'd suggest you hurry to the labs, before the greedier members of our expedition snatch all of them.

[Honestly, he'd rather keep them for himself (and maybe the Rangers), but his superiors insisted on distributing them. Something about a token of gratitude.]

[And now, a public voice post to everyone, which may be somewhat hard to decipher as the laughing in the background grows steadily louder.]

Does anyone have any experience with persuading unwanted Pokemon to leave your homes? Normally, I'd simply dispose of- [Ah. That could be construed in a negative light.] - that is, dispose of them if necessary, although generally I prefer to drive them out. But it seems Duskull has taken quite a liking to his new friends and I'd rather not harm them.

[There's a loud crash behind him. Jade sighs.] Although I'm beginning to reconsider.

Action:

[Late evening finds Jade heading down to the newly-discovered Mausoleum, Sandshrew trotting along beside him and Duskull swooping around cheerfully over his head. He tries to avoid anyone exploring down there, mostly because he guesses most people wouldn't approve of what he's doing. Which would be trying to pry open the vaults and take a peek at the coffins.]

[He has reasons for doing so. Honest.]

Comments

[highliber]

Do they? I admit I don't know a lot about spirits. My interests have always been in the more physical world.

There's one haunting my personal project. Charles keeps chasing it off when he can, but it just comes back.

[antiseptic]

[As it happens, his speciality is with Ghost types! Not that he's about to tell Zavora that.]

I don't suppose you know any trainers specializing in Dark type Pokemon? That should drive them off quickly enough. Other Ghosts types may work as well, but if they're anything like my Duskull, they'd contribute to the chaos rather than assisting you.

[highliber]

[Zarvora happens to BE dark type, but she's not about to tell Jade that. She's also hardly a trainer.]

Obviously not. That would be too simple.

I've never paid a huge amount of attention to Pokemon, and recently this has been coming back to haunt me.

[antiseptic]

[He rubs his temples.] Even if you had focused on Pokemon research, our current knowledge is frustratingly incomplete.

But oh well, it's not exactly something we can help. I hope your work hasn't been too terribly compromised by your visitor.

[While he doesn't share Zavora's passion for ancient technology, her work is still quite interesting and could be valuable.]

[highliber]

I am actually starting to believe that most of the lost knowledge from before the fall, of Pokemon as much as anything else, is self-inflicted.

[antiseptic]

Oh? [His eyes narrow.] Is that a guess, or do you have evidence to support it?

[Either way, it's still quite an intriguing theory.]

[highliber]

Mostly conjecture. We do know that they used to have some method of trapping and bending pokemon to their will, but there are no records left of how they worked.

[antiseptic]

[It's a good point. And considering how taboo the practice is nowadays- ]

Ah, I see... And the easiest way to ensure the methods won't be utilized again will be to destroy the records that pertained to their usage. Yes, this all makes sense.

But why destroy other types of knowledge? [So much has been lost, from knowledge of Pokemon to engineering know-how and records of the past.] It almost seems like an attempt to actively weaken mankind.

[highliber]

Well meaning extremists. It was our uncontrolled use of technology that got us in trouble in the first place.

Of course, it was also a huge number of other factors, if you think about it realistically. But if you were a more lazy type of thinker, it would be easy to fixate on one cause out of many as the cause and easier still in the chaos of The Fall to sabotage any chances at making the same mistake again.

That's my theory on what happened until better evidence comes along, at least.

[antiseptic]

It's not a bad theory. [He's carefully neutral, unwilling to agree or disagree until they have more evidence, although it seems unlikely to happen. The fall had happened so long ago.]

I wonder if the machines we found at the cave could be due to other extremists. I doubt we'll ever match the power of the old world, but the Union has been growing in force lately.

[highliber]

[She'd be suspicious of someone who jumped on her theory right away, anyways. It's a tenuous chain of logic.]

I don't see why we can't match the power of the old world some day. We might achieve it in different ways, but they were human just like we are. They didn't have any mystic wisdom that we can never match. It wasn't a mythic golden age.

[antiseptic]

No, but they were more ruthless in their treatment of Pokemon. [One only had to look at the trapping devices they were talking about earlier to see that.] Even that alone would have made it much easier for them to gain power.

[highliber]

And their hubris got them almost destroyed. Our power, when we achieve it, will look very different. If we cannot rely on Pokemon as our servants as they did, we will just have to develop our own strengths.

[antiseptic]

Yes, and how long will that take us? We've already gone through one iron crisis. The mines there will deplete eventually, and with how difficult it is to mount explorations, the next crisis may not be so easy to resolve.

And that's not even taking into consideration other resources we lack.

[highliber]

It will take a while. Granted. Probably not in our lifetimes.

[antiseptic]

Probably not. But it would certainly be a sight to see.

...Assuming the Union survives through our lifetimes, at least.

[highliber]

Well, nothing in life is certain.