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"What happened to you wanting to see Uxie?" Absinthe asked as she and Keiko appeared next to Reno. "It's probably best if I don't, considering what happened last time I interacted with him," Keiko pointed out, recalling that Uxie wiped her memories back in Hisui. "Besides, I want to try to make up for what happened in Realgam Tower to Ulla," Keiko pointed out. She felt like Ulla had been distant with her since, then, but they only interacted once since, and it was Ulla basically not wanting to put Keiko in harm's way. She was exaggerating the situation a bit, but she also wanted to take the chance to protect her oldest daughter if needed.

Absinthe had the urge to tell Keiko that she saw Ulla as a younger sibling and was invested in her safety as well, but it didn't feel right. She was picking up on Keiko's neediness and didn't want to be involved in that. "Guess I can't blame ya," Abby shrugged passively.

Reno would already be off and moving as they manifested in the area of Stow-on-Side, looking over his shoulder at the other Snagems. "I'm going to go get this production started. Meet me by that big mural just northwest of town. I'd rather not have a dozen of us wandering up to a stall to watch me do a thing. Might scare the small timer cult members from doing what they're supposed to." Reno called out, already moving into the downtown in order to find some of the shopping stalls. While one or two of the group that followed him might not listen, at least not having the majority of them all waiting around the stalls should keep things calm.

It would take a minute to figure out which stand he was looking for exactly, after all it wasn't exactly hard to find produce stands in a small farmer's market. But eventually, there would be the stall. "Hey there. I need 3 of the loose cordyceps there." Reno asked, pointing towards an open basket of a few dried mushrooms that were sitting on the table. And were notably beside a few packaged containers of them, which were notably cheaper for a similar amount of mushrooms. The shopkeeper would give a small nod before taking Reno's cash and counting off the ones Reno was grabbing.

After that, Reno would find himself at the mural, waiting to see what came to meet him and the other Snagems.

Cera and Chum would appear next to Reno almost as soon as they'd gone outside of Trainer Hill, both of them having to get their bearings before they could catch up. "Mural, right."

After a few seconds, Reno would feel a sudden ping in his mind before Cera's voice rang exclusively in it. "Hey, Reno, before we get too deep in... how much do you know about the Dark One?"

Following Reno's orders, Absinthe and Keiko moved about Stow-on-Side in their own ways, wandering about the area mostly aimlessly, and both of them avoiding the stalls. After some time, they would converge at the mural. While Absinthe focused on Reno, waiting for what would be expected of them next, Keiko's gaze moved to Ulla. The way she played with her Pokemon like a normal girl brought a smile to her face. Ulla seemed happy and healthy, and that made Keiko happy, though she still felt like she owed her daughter.

The Snagems would remain at the mural for at least thirty minutes, visitors to the mural coming and going as they stood around, mostly tourists. It wasn't until there was a brief moment where it was just the Snagems standing around, no tourists, did something of note happen. From parts unknown to any of the Snagems came a sophisticated looking older woman. She wore a plain black dress that went all the way down to her ankles, just shy of her shiny black closed toe shoes. Over her dress was a white blazer, a string of pearls hanging from her neck and a black broach pinned to said blazer. The broach was the most interesting thing about her outfit, made of ebonite it was designed to look like the symbol for the Dark type and with the Alolan Persian following behind her it was clear she fancied herself some kind of Dark type specialist.

"It's interesting, isn't it?" She asked any nearby Snagems as she approached and looked up at what's left of the mural and the towering statues beyond it, her cat wrapping itself around the elder possessively as it gave the Snagems the stink eye. "To think something so outwardly beautiful and unassuming would had some a marvelous and ancient secret. From destruction came something even greater. Poetic almost, isn't it?" The old woman said as she turned to lock eyes with Reno, smiling at him before slowly approaching him, her heels clacking against the stone ground.

"You wanted our attention, yes? You have it." She said, looking Reno up and down, her smiling fading, that sweet facade of a sweet elderly woman beginning to melt away, her Persian hissing softly at Reno. "The Exarch said the Snagems would approach us one day. Truth be told I had my doubts after so long..." She would glance around at the other gathered Snagems, taking in all their appearances. "...I expected more. No matter. Where is he?" The woman asked Reno as she quickly turned back to face him. "Where is our lord? That's why you are here, right? The Black Hero has returned." She said, her eyes lighting up as she said the words 'Black Hero', a huge smile spreading across herself yet it was not a pleasant one. In her smile it was plain to see the cracks in her psyche, it was the smile of one that has slowly lost their grip on reality over many years. "I hope you have served the Black Hero well enough but now we can give him the proper homage he deserves." She said as she looked back at the Snagems, they too now able to see her wide eyed near vacant stare and unsettling smile.

Reno would continue his own little tourist moment examining the mural and the statues that had been behind the original piece, even as he was talking to Cera telepathically. "The Dark One has had a few names over the years. One was this Black Hero, another was Ultrarius. He was alive and active around the time of the oldest Channeling and Hybrid Masters, since Maya actively recognized his name and reacted severely when I brought it up after the attempt by The Master to scare me with it. And like I said, somewhere in the center of the Ziton is some morsel of the original Dark One. Past that, it becomes more speculation than actual knowledge. One of those speculations is that Mister Mushroom was around for the first appearance." Reno would give pause for a response from Cera, however a thought crossed his mind before he could let her speak and essentially cut back in. "Also, don't ever mention the name Ultrarius to Sub. The....Dark One bits seem to react to hearing an old name."

He would be able to hear Cera's response before a very noticeable gap where he knew a person was told him that it was time for the cult stuff. Now, he could go ahead with bulldozing through this whole worship system and driving the entire reason they had come out here against them. But, for some reason, that seemed like a poor idea. So it was time to see how well he could play into a belief system he barely had knowledge on. "I'm no fool. Why would we bring the Black Hero alongside us? For all we know, the Exarch has you ordered to eliminate us the second the Black Hero is within your purview." Locking eyes with the almost blank woman in front of him, Reno pushed ahead with the conversation. "We need some demonstration as the knowledge and power your group has. The current threats against him are much more substantial than the little schoolyard brawl that your group helped instigate. Otherwise.....it might be more to our benefit to....delay the Black Hero's full reincarnation one more cycle. After all, we can wait just as long as you, but aging is much less of an issue for us" Showing a few teeth as he let his threat hang, he waited to see what exactly she was going to bite back with.

Wren arrived in Stow-on-Side, bare feet suddenly caught between warm sun and cold earth, alongside the others. Reno was running off almost immediately, presumably to go and let the Cult know they had come to speak with them. He would amble towards the town’s most famous tourist attraction, slowly making his way up the stairs and admiring the small town’s ancient structures before turning his focus to the mural and the statue hidden behind it as he awaited whatever was coming.

Upon the elderly cult member’s arrival, he would cast his gaze toward her but remain silent for the moment. Reno seemed like he knew more about these folk than he did, considering that really all he had managed to do so far was connect the spore incident at the Academy to the Parasect in Lentimas, he couldn’t be certain just yet if the two also tied into the Cult but his suspicions demanded some kind of confirmation now. The more he thought about it, the more he wondered if Moro might be connected to Mister Mushroom or at least to the Cult. He’d barely interacted with the other Grass Channeler but his specialty with mushrooms made him stand out in the Channeler’s mind now.

As the woman spoke to Reno, Wren’s anxiety spiked. Something in her demeanor spoke of someone unhinged. And unhinged usually meant bad things or a willingness to commit to bad things. He felt his hand moving toward his Artifact as the woman began to turn toward the rest of the Snagems and had to stop himself from grabbing it, though he allowed his hand to hover close by just in case. “I dealt with that damned Parasect… I can deal with you if you force our hand.” He remarked more to himself than to her.