Jack's Beginning

Zero does indeed seem to have found something on the edge of the clearing that Jack has come to not even a little consider home. On the far side of one of the trees, the green stuff, the grass, has been completely torn up! The dirt underneath is loose--not unlike the graveyards back home, in fact, during the zombie themes! The dirt had looked just like this, all loose and easy to punch a hand through, where someone had been buried alive under it! How fascinating!

Jack's interest is split, however, as he hears a soft rustling behind him. He turns to find a small pink shape emerging from the tall, thick grass surrounding the clearing. It's feline in apperance, with pink and tan fur and small charms sticking out from it's bulbous tail. It looks up at him, sniffing at the air, and mewls softly. It doesn't seem particularly hostile or even afraid, as strange as that may be for Jack, just curious as it sits on its back paws and stares up at the pair.

The small pokemon stands up and takes a few bouncing steps forward to sniff at Jack's fingers. Seemingly liking whatever it smells, it shifts forward and butts against his hand, a soft purring audible as it nuzzles. Whatever Jack was expecting from his question, though, he doesn't seem to be receiving much of an answer....unless it has a witch named puuuurrrrrrrr, which, honestly probably isn't the worst name that Jack has ever heard a witch have.

The small feline is more than happy to allow Jack to stroke it, arching its back and moving around to give him the best access. It's purring is alarmingly loud, almost like the hum of one of Dr. Finkelstein's machines! It doesn't react much to his attempts to speak to it, and Jack can't be sure if this is due to a lack of understanding, or if it's just ignoring him. The purring quiets as Jack pulls away to investigate the digging, and the pink pokemon sits a few feet away, licking its fur and ignoring him so long as the dirt doesn't splash on it.

Jack's long, lean fingers are alarmingly good at this whole digging thing, and it's barely ten minutes in when he manages to wrench from the earth a black box. It's black, cool to the touch, and engraved with some sort of silver design of interlocking squares that Jack, for all his knowledge of occult runes and the arcane, doesn't recognize. It's alarmingly light, the material unknown, and around a foot in every direction. It also has a single shape that isn't a square--the outline of a hand with long fingers, each with a simple oval where the finger print would be.

Jack finds that his hand fits perfectly in the center of the the marking, each of his fingertips barely pressing against the circles when the engravings begin to light up, spreading from that center point. If he attempts to pull away, he finds that his hand seems to be stuck to the box, which seems...significantly heavier. It barely budgets if he pulls away. As the engravings finish lighting up, some of the etchings seem to shift on the box and there's a soft *click*. The box begins to...dissolve is perhaps the best word, the materal melting away underJack's hand to reveal a small pile of...stuff. There doesn't seem to be any trace of the original box at all, even under the various items that it has been replaced by.

The mysterious pile of things contains four neatly tied parchment scrolls, two jars, one large and full of some sort of greenery and one small with some sort of orangeish paste, and a small box with hinges, not unlike what Jack might expect a ring to be displayed in. Two of the scrolls are tied with a red ribbon, one is tied with a yellow ribbon, and the fourth is significantly smaller and tied only with a piece of string. The larger scrolls seem to have a series of intricate runes on them that make his head hurt to look at, not dissimilar from the etchings that were on the box, in fact. The smaller scroll has symbols much more in line with those he's seen in the black book--or she thinks, anyway, because when he next blinks, he's staring at a simple paragraph written in an almost perfect standard english font of some kind. It doesn't say much, and probably raises more questions than it answers, but seems to speak of using the other scrolls to 'capture' the essence of pokemon. It reads...very much like an instruction guide.

The larger jar, when opened, smells strongly of herbs and medicine, not unlike the creams that Gram-Gram used to use on him when he burned his hand on the fire. The smaller jar smells...weirdly sour and gross to him, but Zero hovers close, looking at it intently when it opens, and the small pink cat stands, stretches, and looks up at him with big, shining eyes. It mews pitifully, batting at one of his legs with claws retracted. The box swings open to reveal a shiny, smooth glowing green stone...it's very warm to the touch, in fact.

The cat doesn't stop batting at Jack's leg, trying to get his attention, until he finally rescrews the jar's lid and sets it on the ground. The skitty crouches down, peering at it, butt wiggling mightily--and it pounces on the jar of orange junk, landing on it and sending it rolling on its side. The skitty flops on the ground in the process--and immediately flails and twists back onto its feet, ears pressed to its head as it hisses in frustration. As Jack looks at the rest of the goods, it bats at the jar until finally accepting its inability to open the lid and sulking with its back to Jack and the jar both. It's fur is bristled, ears flat, and tail coiled neatly around its legs.

It doesn't react to Jack's request, but it's also rather close to his feet--close enough that he's capable of reaching the cat with the scroll easily enough.

The scroll falls on the pokemon and boops it on the head. It spins, flashing Jack what he imagines is the feline version of a disgruntled expression (which sums up the majority of cat expressions, really, or at least most of the haughty familiar types...). If it would have reacted to the affront or not, Jack isn't sure--because as it starts to respond, the scroll touches the ground and it's ribbons shoot out in a red blur to wrap around the kitten's belly, and the rest of the scroll quickly follows. The pokemon is cut off from view, but visibly flailing and fighting as the paper shape starts to glow and blur around the edges. There is much hissing and howling coming from within, but as the glow finally fades down, the feline has vanished. In its place is a parchment paper with an image of a curled up sleeping pink kitten drawn in the center of the sheet.

Jack will find his book beneath the tree, and as he approaches, it begins to flutter violently, pages turning on their own until it falls open somewhere in the middle. As he watches, colors begin to appear as the page starts to form images and words. A small feline--a Skitty, according to the top of the page, licks its paw in a picture on the page, and words slowly fill themselves in. It's as the last word darkens on the page that Jack feels something--pain, flaring into existence on his skin. He absentmindedly realizes that the parchment is no longer rolled up and sticking out of his pocket, but he's a bit too preoccupied with his burning...

The front pages of the book look...well, much like the last time Jack looked at them. Whatever caused the instructions to settle on the other scroll doesn't seem to have done anything for the words on the book. They're as confusing as they were the first time, sadly.

Jack's path leads him through thick trees and tall grasses, though he does pass a small, still pond at one point in his walk. It isn't the freshest, cleanest water, but his approach scatters a few small rodents of some kind into the underbrush. If they'd been drinking it, it must at least be somewhat safe, right?

[How long does Jack intend to walk? Is he looking for anything in particular? Please include a perception roll in your next post.]