Scene #7978:

Owner	Pose
Alexis	There was a lot of cake left. More than humanly possible to eat it all... So Alexis left her Snorlax there to help with the matter. Though it might be more than even one Snorlax can handle, but he'll do his best! The big lug wouldn't be much help where Alexis was going, anyways. Following up on one of Staren's probe surveys which takes one to the small automatic outpost in what appears to be a section of area entirely skies and clouds? Interesting. "Yeah, this is more my speed. Spread the wings, get the ol' exploration itch scratched." Eagerly she took out a pair of pokeballs, releasing her Flygon and Flametalon. She climbed on Mirage's back, and the insectoid dragon took off, with the fiery falcon following alongside on her own. Then first thing Alexis did was reach back to pull the scrunchie out of her hair, letting it flow free in the air as they took flight. "Now, let's see what we can find up here in the literal big blue!"
Staren	"I'm not letting him have ALL of the cake." Knight comments, as there is the sense that it is somehow her cake, but a few slices are set aside for him. It IS taking up an awful lot of room in the fridge now, after all. Those Two are tagging along for the exploration. Syril carries a staff and is outfitted with a laser pistol and breastplate by Staren, but explains that with wind magic though he can't freely fly he can at least make sure he has air and avoid getting hurt in a fall. Knight has more preparation to do, and an attempt to put warm clothes together and layer has resulted in her combining her grey-with-maroon-accents schoolgirl uniform with tights and a fleece and duster; Staren's also given her an armored breastplate and ion rifle and emergency supply box (she put it in a backpack) and a sword hangs at her side. All the warm clothes are a bit bulky around her torso. Staren's flying a hovercar with the two riding along. She's smiling at seeing Alexis in her element. (Conversation may be over radio to avoid the wind) "I'm glad you're finally getting a chance to explore Secundus! There's more stuff out here than I can handle, we really do need more help like this. And will with the next expedition too." Knight is watching Alexis let her hair flow free. After a moment she leans out the window so that her hair and maroon scarf can do the same, giggling happily. "Do you have any particular hopes for what we'll find?" Staren wonders.
Alexis	"Nope!" Alexis replies cheerfully over the radio. "That's the point of exploring. Too many expectations might cloud your perception and miss something interesting just because you didn't expect it! Doesn't hurt to let the fliers have some time to stretch their wings in a less crowded environment, either." It doesn't take long for their entirely at random because Alexis just picked a direction and took off route to come across a large bank of clouds. They're fluffy and whitish in color, as one might expect of clouds. Though as the group gets closer it becomes apparent that fluffy doesn't necessarily mean they don't have a physical structure to them, as Windburn the Talonflame glides down to perch on a protruding cluster of cloud stuff like it was a large rock. Alexis nudges her own ride to glide down a bit closer. Takes out a tennis ball and tosses it, which bounces across the surface of the cloud bank. "Looks like the clouds serve as land mass here." Windburn takes off again, retrieving the ball. "Like islands in the sky." She turns towards Staren and Co in the hovercard with a smirk. "Guess Skylands is more of a pun than I thought."
Staren	Staren nods at the comment about avoiding preconception. They find: Cloud-land! Staren parks the car near Windburn. She casually steps out. Syril prods the cloud with a food before standing on it. Knight more extensively prods and tests it, leaning out of the car to pat and stomp before finally -- one hand clinging to the door white-knuckled -- stepping out onto the cloud, eventually starting to giggle and trying to relax her hand. Staren smiles. "I haven't seen clouds you can stand on in... awhile." She looks somewhat wistfully into the distance. "Well. I guess this brings up all sorts of questions? Is it JUST clouds? Or is there perhaps a sort of... cloud-geology, different kinds of structures? Or an ecosystem up here?" She fishes high-tech binoculars out of her bag to look further 'inland'.
Alexis	"It's been some time, yeah." Staren and Alexis are probably having the same thought for a moment there. Then she puts her attention back to the expedition. Mirage sets down, buzzing what almost sounds like a giggle like the clouds are tickling to stand on. Alexis slides down from her back, and accepts the ball back from her fire falcon. "Go take a look around for us, Windburn." The avian nods, and takes back off to do a long circle of the cloud island. Using a Flying type to do aerial recon is a time honored Trainer tradition after all. Then Alexis crouches down, grabs a chunk of cloud with her hand, and tugs. Twists a little. Tugs again. Finally the lump snaps off in her hand. "It's solid, firm enough to stand on, but it isn't too firm to... hmm." She gives the lump a squeeze. "Still a bit malliable though. Clouds do have more in them than air and water, like dust and such. Maybe it's just more dense in this region, making it firm enough to support weight."
Staren	"It's water." Staren points out. Knight was opening her mouth to say something but Staren said it first, and she nods as Staren continues, "At its densest, it's water. The liquid that doesn't support weight, not like this anyway." Knight bristles for some reason, crouching down and feeling the cloud with her hand to test its temperature. Staren continues, "Well, discounting exotic forms... So the question is, is this merely an exotic form of water, or is there a magic field or the like on it?" She gets out some tools to try and cut/dig free a sample to save for later. Syril kneels down and licks the cloud to see how it tastes.
Alexis	"Maybe it's aether. Isn't that what they called the stuff that wasn't terrestrial in old before science times?" Alexis uses her pitching arm to flick the lump she hand, getting two skips like a stone across water before it fwumps back into the cloud mass. "Wouldn't be the first time something like that proved to be true in a different part of the Multiverse. Especially since Secundus... seems to be like the pieces that couldn't be fit into things. Or didn't fit anymore." The clouds taste damp. Probably expected. It's like licking a really wet cottonball, for lack of a more descriptive detail for texture. "I wonder i--" Alexis is interrupted by a cry from Windburn. Looking up one can see the Talonflam circling the cloud mass. And she's chasing... what appears to be like a jellyfish, but 'swimming' in the air by puffing mist or something out of it's bulbous balloonish body. "Hey, local wildlife!"
Staren	Staren automatically goes into Professor Mode, holding up a finger. "Actually, Aether was a hypothesized medium for the transmission of light. Sound goes through air and other matter. A boat gets dragged along by water -- before electromagnetic radiation was understood, the idea that it could go through 'nothing' was senseless to some, so an 'Aether' was hypothesized to be the thing that light moves through, even beyond the atmosphere. Currents in the aether would drag light and distort our vision of the stars..." Staren finishes, reflecting, "Of course, the truth turned out to be stranger... And in some parts of the Multiverse it probably does work that way. Maybe even here, for all we know." Staren takes another sample of cloudstuff, squeezing and prodding it curiously. "Of course, the word 'aether' also appears as many other things. An 'element' alongside earth, air, fire, and water and the like. The place that Planeswalkers move through. And so on." Air jellyfish! Staren watches it. "Interesting!" Syril blehs at the cottonyness of the cloud and stands up. Knight slowly stands up, looking down somewhat anxiously at the cloud. "I wonder if there's more of them?" Staren gets out the binoculars and looks the way the jellyairfish came from. "You'd think there would be birds... ooh, what if birds never evolved here, but whatever property allows for solid, floating clouds have given rise to all kinds of other flying life? I wonder what the air jellyfish eat?"
Alexis	For the moment there doesn't appear to be any other air jellyfish to be seen. But if one looks off to the far side they would see what appear to be some odd acclimation between fish and birds. Which look mostly like fish but with fins and tails that have grown out like an avian, thin elongated scales and spines taking the place of feathers. Maybe the jellyfish was hunting that flock.. school.. group, and Windburn interrupted it. Being much more bird than fish. The air jellyfish decides it's had enough of the chase, and turns around to sting Windburn with its tentacles. As it turns out, it's not poisonous. Instead it's 'sting' is an electrical shock, much like a taser. Of course it just used a taser on a Flying type, getting an abrupt avian shriek out of Windburn as she's knocked for a loop. She drops a few meters until Alexis, fearing she's not going to recover in time, just recalls her to her pokeball. "You might have something on the alternate evolution theory."
Staren	"Air fish! Do they breathe through their gills or do they have lungs?!" Staren wonders. "Do they control their altitude with swim bladders or do they flap and glide like birds? Or do they have cloudstuff in them increasing their buoyancy! Ooh, Mom would love to see this!" Knight, who is thinking to herself that she hadn't thought so much about zoological questions but now also starting to wonder, is startled and looks over. "Huh, what?" "Not you." Staren waves a hand. "Other Mom. I mean other other Mom. ...The person my Mom, I mean, alternate future you, married. She's a xenobiologist. There's all kinds of neat creatures to study in the Multiverse, figuring out how they do stuff could help people replicate it with technology or magic and benefit people, that kind of thing." Her ears perk up and Staren turns to look towards the jellyfish again. "Now that's curious. How's it do that? I don't actually remember how electric eels work... but I guess now we know how the jellyfish catches food if there aren't, like, air-plankton to filter feed on." Knight honestly hadn't been reminded of the whole... alt-kid situation for days and is just sort of staring into space parsing this reveal with questions like how bad of an idea is it to ASK about other-other-mom, how much similarity is there, blah blah destiny blah blah timelines etc. Syril asks, "Hey, can I see that a sec?" and Staren hands over one of the cloud samples; he tests with whether it responds to air magic like 'air' or if he doesn't seem to have any direct control over it.
Alexis	Alexis smiles at Staren. "And the best part is we won't get answers to everything on the first trip, so there's plenty of reason to explore farther. We've only seen, what, a small part of just this area. Not to mention Secundus as a whole." Then she shakes her head a bit. "The sad part is that's not even the weirdest relationship complication I've heard. Though it is kind of up there." Then turns her attention back to the flying fish. Cups a hand to her chin thoughtfully. "Some water pokemon can float to maneuver out of water by some ability to altering their bouyancy to be lighter than the air around them. This is probably similar, but cranked up. Presumably other necessary life functions have adapted as well... I don't know if I brought anything appropriate to take a live specimen." The cloud mass may respond, but it seems to resist changing too heavily. It really wants to hold it's form as is. So the large islands of it don't abruptly fall apart, presumably.
Staren	Staren nods with excitement at the 'so much more to explore' comment, then looks confused at 'relationship complication.' "......oh, right." She glances at Knight, then back to Alexis, and shrugs. "I think it might be just how Secundus works, Arthur's alt-dad is here too." She winces briefly after saying that, for some reason. Knight gives Staren a look, crossing her arms. "I know better than anyone how many versions of me are out there running around the Multiverse. It's not a Secundus thing, it's a me thing. With everything we've got going on, it's no wonder some of me are in Secundus. I've met your mom and the non-crazy version of Ren whenever they dreamed their way to Wonder--" She blinks at some thought. "...Oh shit, she WAS always in that form." Knight slumps. "We really are all like this, huh... You... you really did save me forty-five years of trouble... no wonder Ren brought such a big cake. ...I should... I should leave some sort of note for if any of the others ever come back..." Staren just sort of looks awkward. What do you say while your alternate-universe alternate-timeline mom-who-is-still-a-teenager works things out? Syril, at least, seems less focused on that. He pulls one hand back like a pitcher, and then HURLS the bit of cloudstuff inland, with some extra magic 'oomf', to see if it flies like a rock or like a feather. "You know... with stuff like this, you could make weapons for people who can use air magic. ...Other stuff too! Make solid objects we can move around like with our mind, if you attached cloudstuff to them, right?? Ooh. Ooh! You could make a hoverboard, like her favorite movie!"
Alexis	"A hoverboard that actually works. You'd think with the infinity of possibilities of the Multiverse, that'd turn up more often." Mirage tilts her head, and Alexis laughs lightly as she pats her shoulder. "Not that I could replace you guys. I'm more of a rollerblade type, anyways." She watchs Syril throw the cloud stuff much more forcefully than her skipping stone toss earlier, as it arcs across the cloud island like a light rubber ball would. "This stuff is pretty impressive, yeah." After another moment of consideration she climbs back onto Mirage's backside, and with a coaxing nudge of her heels the Flygon buzzes her dragonfly wings to lift off the ground. "I didn't bring anything for an actual capture of non-pokemon creatures, but I still want to get a closer look at those flying fish." Which is the direction she directs her bugdragon mount to fly off towards. Her insectoid flight is quieter and more nimble than Talonflame's, hopefully they can get a bit closer without stirring up anything.
Staren	No one else here has the correct context to appreciate Alexis's hoverboard snark and they all just sort of cock their head to one side and look at Alexis curiously for a moment. Then Syril jumps in the air and cheers, "Yeah, hoverboard! Ooh, I have an idea, get me a chunk of cloud large enough to stand on!" Staren gets to work cutting/digging some free with her tools, eventually Syril is flying around on it like Goku, although it takes him a few tries to not immediately fall off, laughing cheerfully! "This is so cool! You should get one for Diamondus, too!" Knight brightens at that thought. "Oh hey, yeah, he'd be able to freaking fly with it too! We can leave a little cloud in Wonder in case he ever comes by again." Then she looks thoughtful and concerned that she said the wrong thing. "Err, her? Is that one...?" Staren shrugs. "If you haven't seen hiiiiii-errrrr-them, I sure don't know either. I haven't met any of you since I was like six. But statistically it seems likely." While the other two have their conversation, Syril flies after Alexis and Talonflame on his little cloud. He tries to do a cool pose flying alongside them, then loses his balance and awkwardly drops to hands and knees, clinging to the cloud as he tries to move it fast enough to keep up.
Alexis	Upon closer inspection one can see that Alexis' previous hypothesis was pretty close. The flying fish have fins and tails of outgrown scales or spines that function like wings and tailfin rudders. Gills flutter on their sides, though it doesn't look like they're for breathing, these look more like they're sampling the air currents as a method of navigation rather than their breath. It's also making apparent how Mirage got her name as the Flygon hovers, her insectoid wings are almost silent in doing so, making it easy to forget she's there. Idly Alexis flicks open a notepad app on her C-Gear to jot down a few observations. Then next time she can make preperations to try and catch some live specimens.
Staren	Syril is not a zoologist, but when he sees Alexis taking notes, he records some closer-up video of the skyfish on a com-unit.
Alexis	Alexis isn't, technically professionally, a zoologist either. But you do the field work for several of the various Professors over your career as a Trainer and you learn to do these things. To be fair, she enjoys the exploring and finding more than the in depth research that comes later, so it probably works better that way. Once she's satisfied with what she's got she nods to Syril, and guides her pokemon mount back towards the cloud island they left Staren and Knight on. "I think we've got enough to analyze for now. Later we can use your auto-post as a staging ground for a deeper investigation into the region."