Blahsadfeguie

Dr. Odin gave Cutler a sort of mildly odd, confused look, which seemed quite out of place on a face as wise as his. "Tye...?" he repeated, mostly to himself. "Another friend of yours, I presume? No, I don't know such a person's whereabouts... Was he traveling with you when you arrived at my house?" For a while, he acted as though he didn't know anybody named Tye, but a few seconds later, something clicked.

"Ah, yes," uttered the Alakazam, "There's a charming young Pachirisu that lives a few blocks down from here with the name Tye. This wouldn't happen to be the friend you were talking about, would it?" Again, he talked as though Tye had not been the first to knock and enter the Odin residence, and personally inform the Alakazam that Cutler and Liana were coming, as he had claimed he would do in the first place. Something just didn't add up...

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Digital

Cutler listened to Dr. Odin with surprise. 'How could he not know who Tye was...?' Cutler muttered in his thoughts. 'It was Tye who knocked on his door and mentioned our arrival...and even Tye himself had said that Dr. Odin was a friend who lived here and had answers to everything. Something's not quite right here....' Despite his thoughts, he didn't show a look on his face that may betray what he was thinking. He didn't mention anything further about Tye being with them before-hand. "Right, of course.... I guess I just kind of assumed you'd know who he was, being you're such a genius and all...." He glanced over at Liana, not wanting her to say anything about Tye being the Pachirisu that had announced their arrival.

When the Alakazam mentioned the Pachirisu that lived a few blocks down, something suddenly clicked in Cutler's mind. That Pachirisu that he himself had locked eyes with when they first came through the streets.... It couldn't be.... Could his imagination be acting up again...? Or was there something...off about what was going on here? "Yeah, that might be him, actually..." he said. "He is a Pachirisu that I met out in the Field.... I've come to trust him quite a bit, actually, in the short time we've been together. Unfortunately, we got separated out in the Field. But you're saying he lives nearby? That sounds like a great coincidence...." He looked over at Liana and said, "Liana, I think it's time we left...at least for now. I want to go see Tye again." He looked back over at Dr. Odin. "Thank you for your hospitality and willingness to help us out. You've told us a lot, and I'm grateful for it...but I think it's time I took my leave. Like I said, I want to see Tye again, to make sure he knows I'm alright. Could you tell me where he lives, exactly? I want to check and see if he's home right now."

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The D.J. C.J.

Liana was, at this point, confused. She might have been distracted but she knew Tye had introduced them...now he hadn't? Of course, she hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary until now, so wrapped up in the world, and she was about to voice her opinion when she realised Cutler's glance, and fortunately kept her mouth shut.

Still, it was a time like this that she admired Cutler. Unable to get the grasp of what was going on here, she was starting to feel a little frightened, yet Cutler seemed to be skilled enough to keep it all together. What was going through his mind that she couldn't follow?

It was times like this she wished her Papa was here, but she was certain that Cutler could help her. The only thing she could do, right now, was wait to see what Cutler was thinking, and try and figure out exactly where - or for that matter, who - Tye was. In the meantime, she looked around, to see if there was anything she could do - or at least somewhere she could hide if the situation got particularly violent - but in an open town, there didn't seem to be anywhere to go but out in the open. There had to be some way she could help...

Blahsadfeguie

Dr. Odin, upon hearing Cutler's declaration of his next intentions, stood up with a start. "Now, now," he said calmly but assertively, "There's no need to rush. You've just come from a long journey from the field. You could use some rest, and I'm sure your friend will still be there tomorrow." His attitude strangely took a rough turn; as much as he tried to hide it, his tone suggested that he would not allow Cutler and Liana to leave just yet. A few moments later, he began to explain why.

"As a matter of fact," the Alakazam continued with a sigh, starting to pace around the room a bit again, "There is another reason why you are here. As I may have mentioned before, I am performing research on interdimensional travel. My pursuits are centered on the Creator, and his abducting of humans from another dimension. My reasoning is as follows: if the Creator possesses the power to travel between dimensions, than what's stopping the common folk from discovering this power themselves? And thus, I began development on a device that can reach beyond the limits of our known universe and extend into another."

He glanced back at Cutler. "But I ran into a dead end. I had nothing to base the target world's energy on, and my device was unable to pinpoint it among the masses of different energy signatures in the multiverse. That's where you come in. As a human, surely your body must contain some trace amounts of this energy. I'd like to make you a proposal. If you stay and allow me to perform some experiments with you (nothing permanent or strenuous, of course), I'll offer you and your young Celebi friend room and board for however long my research takes. And, when it is complete, I will allow you to be the first to use it. I understand that you may be eager to return to your home world." His speech finally finished, he awaited Cutler's response.

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Digital

Cutler was surprised by the sudden change in attitude that crossed the Alakazam's tone. Something was wrong...and he couldn't help but shake the feeling that it was something bad...something they didn't want to stick around for. And back in his own world, his own gut instincts were usually about seventy-five percent right. Could they be right here, too? Well, he had come to learn to trust his own instincts. And this Alakazam suddenly didn't seem as friendly as he had when they were first invited. The fact that they didn't know who Tye was, despite the fact that he clearly saw the Pachirisu step into this house once the door had been opened...that was proof enough that SOMETHING was going on.

He then waited for the Alakazam to finish speaking. A proposal...? An interesting proposal to say the least. And one with which pried at his one mental weakness...his desire to return home and see his Pokemon again.... He wanted that more than anything else...but the same thought that something was up here continued to probe him. His brain was the battle zone for a mental tug-o-war. Should he stay and possibly find a way home...? Or should he follow his gut instincts and leave? But then his eyes fell upon the Celebi that was still floating nearby. He couldn't put that little girl at risk here. He had to at least get her out of here. And the only way he was going to do that was to get out of here himself, since he had promised to stick with her. And with that, his mind was made up.

"Sorry, Dr. Odin." Cutler said at last. "As much as I would love to possibly have the chance to return to my own world...I...well, I can't. I have to at least see my friend. As soon as possible. Besides...if your experiment was successful earlier than expected...I might be transported away before I even have a chance to say good-bye. Plus, I made a promise to this girl...that I'd help her find her father. So I'm sorry, but this is one risk I can't take right now. Maybe when I'm done, I can come back and help you, though...." He started to back up towards the door, looking up at the Celebi, as though telling her to go before him. "But, seriously, though, I should get going...there's no way I'll be finding her guardian by just standing around. Thanks for your hospitality and your offer...if I find a chance, I'll probably take you up on it in the future, if possible..."

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The D.J. C.J.

Liana was both nervous and surprised still at the context of exactly what was happening - though perhaps that would be a result of this being the first time she could ever consider being in real danger, and without the assistance of her 'papa' to help her this time.

And then Dr. Odin was offering Cutler to be part of some strange experiment that would apparently send him 'home' - which threw Liana off for a little bit. While she understood about the abductions - even without Dr. Odin's description, her 'papa' was still a human himself, and she did know that - but she hadn't realised Cutler was one as well.

The thought that Cutler would accept scared Liana - after all, even if Dr. Odin wasn't threatening and the entire confusion and fear about what was going on was just paranoia, it still didn't change the fact that she'd be alone all over again. Still, why wouldn't he choose to go home, given he'd have a chance?

"...wait, what?" Suddenly, Liana's thoughts were deviated by the fact that Cutler was stating that he'd stay with her. "...really?" she whispered to herself, and had to physically resist the urge to latch onto him like the scared child that she, right now, was - the relief that at least she wouldn't be alone had washed all over her, and that did a lot to allay her fears, though it didn't change the fact this was mostly Cutler's show right now.

Blahsadfeguie

Dr. Odin listened carefully to Cutler's speech; during which he bowed his head silently, and moved hardly a muscle, as if deep in thought. After Cutler had finished, the Alakazam remained silent for quite a long time. "...I see," he finally uttered in a soft, solemn voice. He glanced back up at the Celebi. "Had I known of the situation... I would not have acted this way. I am deeply sorry if I startled you. My research is just... so important to me, and I was excited to have finally found a human... but I could never keep anyone from matters as urgent as these. Oh, how I would love to help you on the search... but I'm always very busy around here..."

"I'll go."

Dr. Odin jumped slightly at the sound of his wife's voice. As it turned out, Alanis had been eavesdropping at the base of the stairs the entire time, and had just now ascended them again. "A-Alanis?!" he stuttered, flabbergasted. "But... you rarely leave the house for anything! How will I know you'll be safe out there?!"

The female Alakazam approached her husband reassuringly. "It's these two we should be worried about sending on their own," she explained. "The Charmander isn't used to this world yet, and the Celebi is just a child. They need someone to look after them. And you and I both know I'm perfectly capable of protecting all three of us, let alone myself." Dr. Odin fell silent once again. What she said was perfectly true, and being a man of science, he couldn't deny truth. Alanis turned to Cutler and Liana. "I know this continent like the back of my hand. If anyone can get this girl to her father securely, then it's me."

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Digital

Cutler looked at Dr. Odin carefully as he stood with a bowed head in silence. It was an awkward moment, and when he was about to turn to leave, the Alakazam spoke up again. He listened to what the elder said and smiled to himself. Perhaps he wasn't all bad...he was about to let them go just as easily. He was about to give a slight bow and thank him again...but before he could, the other Alakazam, Alanis, spoke up. And just like that, Cutler was suspicious all over again. Though he didn't show any of it on his face. It was a good thing he grew up where he did. He had learned how to act tough, even though he wasn't. And that, in turn, led him to learning how to keep a straight face during any circumstance. And even show convincing, fake emotions if necessary.

"Well..." Cutler said, as though stopping to consider it, despite him already having made his decision before-hand. In reality, he was contemplating the best way to word his refusal. "I guess you have a point. Having somebody with us who knows the landscape WOULD be beneficial. But...we've been just fine on our own. And I mean no disrespect for you, ma'am...but we don't even know you. And where I came from, my parents always told me to never let possible dangers and people you don't fully trust keep you company." He looked up at Liana again and nodded. "Go on, Liana. We'll be leaving now. I'll be right behind you." He smiled a bit up at her and turned to look at the Alakazams again. "Besides, your place is here, with your husband, right? Not with a few complete strangers who you only met a few minutes ago. So thanks for the offer, but I think it's best if we just left and go brought Tye with us. So...bye..."

With that he looked at Liana to make sure she had already gone on ahead...and if she had, he would try to follow her out. If not, he would continue to wait for her. Though perhaps he was a bit hasty...his behavior seemed to show that he wanted them to get out of there rather quickly.

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The D.J. C.J.

Liana had smiled, nodded, and headed out shortly after Cutler had asked her to - it was almost surprising to her how reliant she'd grown on him, even despite the fact he didn't look that much older than she did.

Then again, considering her relative age, that wasn't much of a point to take - size, as she would well know, rarely was relative to age or intelligence.

The little Celebi fluttered in front before looking back, to see Cutler still talking with Dr. Odin about...well, something - from here Liana couldn't figure out what it was - and even though she could probably have listened in on it if she wanted to, something gave her the feeling that she really shouldn't - not so much for his sake as for her own.

As she looked outside, the town still seemed particularly busy, but nothing seemed to really catch her eye - however, at least now she knew where to go for a veritable library. Who knew, perhaps one day she too could end up out among the stars...of course, she preferred to learn what she could about where she was, first.

Liana started slowly humming various notes to herself, seemingly trying to makeshift a song while she waited for Cutler to finish talking. Something about this music, even if it was just to herself, felt almost magical - and definitely reassuring.

Blahsadfeguie

Alanis appeared a little disappointed at Cutler's response. She folded her hands and looked away for a few moments. "All right... I understand," she sighed. "But if you're going out into the world, at least accept these." She retrieved three berries of a pure lime-green hue from her pockets and presented them to Cutler. "These Green Berries will raise your Power by 40 when eaten. Here's one for you, one for Celebi, and one for your little Pachirisu friend."

Dr. Odin glanced over at his wife offering the berries, and a light struck his face as if he had suddenly remembered one last thing. "That's right, I almost forgot!" he exclaimed, taking out a slip of paper and writing two numbers down. "If you ever need to contact us again, here are me and my wife's phone numbers. I might be busy most of the day, working on my studies, but I know Alanis is almost always available." He handed Cutler the slip of paper. "We wish you the best of luck on your travels, and remember that you will always be welcome here." Both Alakazam bowed in unison to see them off.

__________________

Digital

Cutler smiled a bit at the lack of resistance from the pair. Maybe his bad feeling about their situation was just that. A simple, incorrectly placed emotion. He was just about to follow Liana out of the room when he was suddenly stopped by Dr. Odin yet again. 'Now what...?' he instinctively thought to himself. When he handed him three Berries, he gave them a peculiar look. "These things...will really make us stronger? Just like that? And no strings attached?" He waited fir a response from Dr. Odin before commenting on their next gift. "...Phone numbers?" he muttered. "Well, where exactly could we possibly...?" but that moment, he pulled something out. What resembled a flip phone, only the coloration matched his skin and stomach colors. "When and where did...?" he muttered to himself, but shook it off. He decided to think about it later and he accepted the slip of paper.

"Thank you." Cutler said. "I'm grateful for what you're doing for us." He respectfully bowed back to the two Alakazam. He then turned to follow Liana out the door. "Sorry to keep you waiting...." he murmured. "Let's get going." He retraced his steps until they arrived at the front door, and promptly exitted. His first stop before heading out? He was definitely going to go find that Pachirisu he saw earlier. If his hunch was right...that might have been Tye. So, he began making his way to where he remembered seeing him, after making sure Liana was still following of course.

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The D.J. C.J.

"Hmmm..." Liana was following, but slightly lost in thought. "Why was I so frightened? I wonder...something about him seemed somewhat untrustworthy, but I can't place my mind on anything now. I wonder if Papa would have known...?" Of course, perhaps this was because she was used to nothing but her Papa's blunt and often harsh sincerity.

It took a second before she realised she'd been talking out loud, and Cutler would have heard her just fine. "I mean, uh, ha-ha, there's nothing wrong here, Mr. Cutler! Maybe I just needed a rest or something, but now I'm back and better than ever!" She seemed to feel the need to illustrate this fact by circling round the little grey Charmander like...well, like a very small, well-flying Pokemon.

The swing in her emotion seemed so sudden it was a wonder she hadn't caught whiplash. Perhaps it was that she was just going off what Cutler thought of his guests, considering that she didn't really know what to think of it herself? After all, even though she was intelligent, she was still young, and not so used to interaction with others yet. Something she'd have to work on - especially if one day she'd end up going beyond the stars. She had to admit, worried or not at the time as she had been, that had seemed like something she'd like to do one day.

"But why am I thinking about the future so much? Like my papa would say, back to the present!" Liana thought as she hovered above Charmander's head - it suddenly occurred to her that she wasn't much bigger than Cutler, despite being a Charmander - was he just larger than most normal Charmanders?

"So, what do you wanna do now?" Liana asked Cutler, having no idea at this present moment why she was following him apart from 'just because'. Not that it seemed a particularly bad reason.

Blahsadfeguie

"Oh yes," Dr. Odin had replied to Cutler's questioning of the Green Berries, "The berries have no side effects or anything of the kind. They may taste a little bitter, but that's nothing compared to the strength that they grant. The only downside is that they're hard to come by. But we trust that you'll make good use of them."

The sun was starting to hang lower in the sky as Cutler and Liana took to the streets once more. The neighborhood was even more quiet than usual, likely because the Pokemon were settling down after a busy day in the city. It didn't take long before Cutler and Liana arrived at the house that they had seen the Pachirisu in front of earlier. He wasn't still there, of course, but a light was on inside, a near-sure sign that somebody was home. There weren't any moving shadows or silhouettes in the window, however, so they must not have been up to anything important.

__________________

Digital

What Dr. Odin said made him feel better about thinking of Liana eating one and giving it to Tye. When the two of them arrived at what he assumed was the Pachirisu's home, Cutler looked left and right, and was a bit nervous. What if he found out that the Pachirisu wasn't Tye, and it was just a coincidence? Well, one way or another, he knew Tye had escaped from the Groudon, even if the 'Tye' that had led him to the city was fake. So if this wasn't him, then he was bound to be somewhere in the Field. He wouldn't have gotten too far, surely.

Then, Cutler finally just choked down his nervousness and raised an arm and knocked on the door firmly three times. New emotions were starting to pop up now. This time, a mixture of excitement and wonder. As well as cluelessness. If this Tye WAS the real Tye...then who was the Pachirisu that had led them to Dr. Odin? And how did he know them? Assuming, of course, that Pachirisu had actuallly BEEN a guy.

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The D.J. C.J.

Liana had managed to gloriously miss the point somehow. As far as she knew, all that Cutler was doing was knocking on one of the many doors around in this town.

Well, OK, that's selling it a little short, but she knew Cutler was worried about Tye, or whoever this was that wasn't Tye, or whoever it was that was with them earlier that wasn't Tye.

It didn't really matter to her - she seemed to be overly optimistic about what could possibly happen - to the point that she didn't really see what Cutler was so nervous about. It was just a door, after all. And even if it DID fall on him, the flames on his back would burn it up first. And then possibly spread and hit the whole town...that could be problematic.

Liana seemed to be, interestingly, getting in a better mood - since they were in a town, she was completely convinced that nothing bad would happen to them as long as they were here. Granted, she was a bit worried, but surely Cutler would protect her, and she'd do her best to protect him. Maybe she could even introduce him to Papa! That would be nice!

Liana was lost in thought, swaying her head idly from side to side, thinking millions of thoughts that had nothing to do with what Cutler was worrying about.