Music in Media: Deadlock by Stealing Sheep

19 March, Saturday, 10 a.m. | Spring

"Are you avoiding us?"

"I'm not! Stop talking nonsense!"

"Then where are you—"

Thud. The door of the guest room opened a little thanks to a grey water bottle.

Awoken by the noise, Rae quickly sat up. She glanced through the gap of the half-ajar door and glimpsed Cheren and Icosa arguing. Everyone was already up except her. She wondered if Lenora and Hawes were going to mediate. By the sounds of it, they probably weren't there. Perhaps they were at the entrance waiting for Calliope.

"You're going to go off alone somewhere for some 'training' again," said Cheren, arms akimbo with a sigh. "You weren't this studious. It's like you changed after you came back."

"Then you don't know me," retorted Icosa.

"Yeah." Cheren slammed the coffee table. "Look, you up and disappeared last night and refused to let me follow you to your 'training'. What are you really up to?'

"You won't understand."

"And why won't I? No one will understand you if you don't tell us anything."

"Great."

"You're an adult, Icosa. Stop being childish."

Icosa summoned Noivern out of its Poké Ball. "If you wish to stop me, why don't we battle outside? If you win, I stay. But you lose, you let me do whatever I want."

Rae laid down and covered the sheets over her head. Last night was enough of a headache with the Hisuian Samurott and Nono and all their revelations. She didn't need to wake up to this. At this rate, she might as well be struck with vertigo.

But the ruckus grew too loud, too much. With a sigh of resignation, she got up, flung the door open and let the slam do the talking. Icosa smiled nervously at her while Cheren shifted his glasses up his nose.

"Calliope is coming," Rae said upon finding the silence too tense. "Since you returned, you've been avoiding us, really. Like you have some place else to be."

Icosa twirled his long hair. "Well, I do. There is something that I must do. Restoring the soundtrack is one thing, but it's not as significant."

"There's something more significant than that?" Rae felt bile rising up her gullet and coughed. Perhaps it was a side effect of last night.

"There are other things that need to be restored. Like justice."

"And where exactly do you think this justice is?" Cheren paced around the room, glancing out the window to see if Calliope has arrived.

"Dragonspiral Tower," said Icosa resolutely. "That or Abyssal Ruins."

Footsteps. Laughter. Talk of history.

Calliope had arrived.

"I'll get going," Icosa said and bade farewell. As he passed by Calliope, however, she held onto his sleeve and gave him a sideways stare, to which he tched and tried to shake off but to no avail. "Let me go. I have no interest in ancient Hisui things."

"It's related to the codes in Abyssal Ruins."

She was about to wheel herself to the tablet when a brilliant Idea struck her and she pointed at the chartreuse-haired adult who was rolling his eyes and gestured at the handles of her wheelchair. Icosa, at the verge of spouting a feisty remark, barely restrained himself with another tch and a forceful push that almost made her fall off her wheelchair had she not gripped onto the arms in time. She simply commented that he had grown more and more detestable by the day, but she was very understanding of his festering wounds that had themselves been pried open by some justice warrior or another, to which he flinched.

"You don't know anything about me."

At this point, it grew clear that perhaps only Calliope could put Icosa in his place, for reasons that eluded everyone else.

"I know a great deal about you, even the things you're about to do."

"Oh yeah?" Icosa swept his bangs aside and leant forward, not bothering to mask the hostility in his voice. "And what is that?"

"Become intoxicated with regret. Just because you can pursue some things, doesn't mean you should. You will do it anyway." Calliope tapped the handle with a hand and the wheelchair resumed its motion. "On the 23rd of March, Unova will descend into pandemonium. You will disappear once again, the coward that you are, the black Mareep of the Kalomiris family that you are."

"You're threatening me with a prophecy?"

Calliope laughed. "I'm not threatening you and there is no prophecy. I'm simply stating the facts. I know all these and more because I am sensitive to the ravages of time. And time itself is such a delicate creature."

The wheelchair squeaked to a stop in front of the tablet. The footfalls that followed gradually came to a stop. The only thing that didn't stop was the train of impulsive and intrusive thoughts chugging within Icosa's mind, the obfuscating smoke making it hard to concentrate and make out Calliope's intents and identity. Who was this woman who seemed to know everything about the past, present and future, as if living unbounded by time, as if immortal and omniscient yet perhaps not omnipotent, or if she were indeed omnipotent, was refusing to do anything except observe?

With a soft, quivering voice, she explained the tablet's message in simple terms. While it was written in a Hisuian language, the subject could not be more relevant to Unova, speaking of a fourth Legendary in the Forces of Nature: the Love-Hate Pokémon, Enamorus. The Pokémon was never recorded in Unovan history and before the spike in interest in Hisuian history, little to nothing was known of this Pokémon. The text on the tablet was conveyed in blank verse, which Calliope easily translated to the modern tongue.

Like the other Forces of Nature, Enamorus possessed an Incarnate and a Therian Forme. The Incarnate Forme saw her as a pink genie , slim humanoid which resembles a genie with four magenta horns on its forehead. White hair; thick strands shaped like a heart on top of its head; white lips; two pointed pink ears; eyes yellow with beady white irises and no visible pupils. Chest full of magenta spots shaped like diamonds and pebbles; a teardrop on her navel. Her body rested idle on a dream cloud, her tail long and brown and resembling a boa in constriction, wrapped twice round her neck like rings. The people called her the Herald of Spring, for her love gave life to Hisui, with such hearty whirlwinds known as Springtide Storm.

In her Therian Forme, she resembled a flying cloud turtle and snake hybrid Pokémon. Her feet were magenta three-toe flippers connected to pink arms with single magenta, magatama-shaped spots on the front legs. The trailing cloud now ringed her body, leaving bare her pink belly, with the end having a small cloud tail; her belly had a green gem where her navel should lie. The long, brown snake-like tail was coiled on the cloud body, acting as the top of her shell; the false snake head remained, as do the heart-shaped markings along it. In this forme she was known to be vengeful to those who disrespect any form of life, descending from the clouds to deliver a wrathful, ruthless punishment.

"Together, the four Forces of Nature represent wind, thunder, harvests and fertility. Their Therian Formes are the key to their connection with the Tao and, of course, the Tao Trio." Calliope whirled around to face the group, pleased to find Icosa attentive. "The Therian Formes align with the Four Images, or Sixiang. Therian Thundurus is the Azure Dragon of the East, Qinglong of Spring, Dawn, Wood and Shaoyang. Therian Tornadus is the Vermilion Bird of the South, Zhuque of Summer, Midday, Fire and Taiyang. Therian Landorus is the White Tiger of the West, Baihu of Autumn, Dusk, Metal and Shaoyin. And last but not least, Therian Enamorus is the Black Tortoise of the North, Xuanwu of Winter, Midnight, Water and Taiyin."

Meeting faces elaborate with confusion, Calliope explained that these were Taoist concepts that would be foreign to them. Rae understood a little thanks to her conversation with Zoroark. Everything in Unova operated in accordance with the Tao or the Way. The Hisuian Samurott mentioned the Way too. It was very likely that Nono had knowledge of Taoism as well. Perhaps Pokémon were smarter than humans.

The glaring contradiction could not be missed. How could the Herald of Spring, Enamorus, be representative of Winter? Yet Landorus was accurate and fitted Autumn. As for Thundurus and Tornadus, she wasn't quite sure.

"But there are eight directions, not four," said Icosa bitterly. "Are you saying there's another undiscovered quartet? And this is such a stretch it's bullshit. Only stupid people will believe this."

"Make of it what you will." Calliope wheeled herself towards a long table where Lenora had placed handwritten copies of the codes she found in Abyssal Ruins. "There is a second quartet."

Icosa scoffed. "The four Mythicals?"

"You know them intimately. The Swords of Justice." Calliope averted her gaze from him and shook her head. "These logograms Lenora found are very important."

"Are you really changing the subject?"

"Why can't I?" The woman was amused at his exasperation. She tapped the table twice and got to writing, underlining the parts translated from the hieroglyph. "These are but my humble interpretations."

King defeated Light alone.

Unown joined King in a day.

King called Wanwu beings.

King is hope and future.

The great King Harmonia.

"I get how those symbols look like Unown and perhaps most likely the final line would be Harmonia... What do you mean by 'Light' and 'Wanwu'?" Lenora scratched her chin.

"The first hieroglyph is reminiscent of AZ's Eternal Floette and hence the Light of Ruin. I believe it was what caused the tsunami." Calliope tapped the side of her wheelchair. "Wanwu is everything and everyone."

"What a strange chain of events," Rae mumbled. "Unova's history is so dark."

Cheren sighed. "Unification is a bitter thing."

"But what now? Now that we know all these things, what must we do?" Lenora asked Calliope.

Calliope wheeled herself towards the door. "We have to pay Abyssal Ruins a visit. Before that, we should check out the Striaton Gym."

"What kind of prophecies do you have about it?" Icosa sneered.

"It will burn down when the sun sets."