Quote Originally Posted by C0L0R3D View Post
Okay, Sanity is dipping a bit. Let's not go over the top, and instead just focus on an area I'm surprised we haven't poked yet: right here.

Search (1): Beachwood Farmstead
With the arrival of the new day, you join the others over breakfast and share your findings and thoughts about the investigations at hand. For a short while, it puts your mind at ease to be with pleasant company and comradery and when you and the others head out, you decide to stay behind, wondering if perhaps there’s something here at the very farmstead itself. While it has always felt calm and safe while other places in town have unspeakable horrors, you want to make sure those terrors aren’t closer than you think they might be.

Not that you suspect Benni, but you think maybe there might be something around this very location in town that wasn’t uncovered simply because you and the other Savants have been here for over a week now. You start by searching the inside, but most of the interior seems the same as you’ve seen it every day you’ve been here. Homey country furniture, placid paintings of sunny countryside, and colorful knick-knacks line the shelves. Sights of peace and calmness remind you exactly what you’re fighting for here.

But then you search around the exterior, and suddenly you realize something. Every day you and the others have stepped outside to begin your investigations, you didn’t stop to focus your attention here, you’ve always headed toward some other destination in town and concentrated on the directions to get there, not on sensing Stalker presence.

Once you step onto the old country porch like you’ve done every day, you instead stop and focus here and now, wondering if there was always something here that was overlooked and never detected…

…and you find out you were right.

There was something here the entire time and everyone walked right by it every day and night without suspecting a thing. It almost disturbs you as you realize just how hard it is to detect the dark work of the Stalkers without concentrating while normal Pokémon can’t even sense the dark presences at all. And if a Savant isn’t focusing, you too can easily let it slip past your senses.

You close your eyes, carefully lettings your Savant senses guide you. As before, your spirit can feel the foul ethereal stench, and you recognize the grotesque signature as Languished. It seems unsettling that there’s something that belongs to Languished so close by, but you tell yourself it’s better to be found later and taken care of now rather than be never found at all. As you carefully walk with your eyes closed to continue focusing, you get closer and closer to the source and it takes you to a small crawl space beneath the wooden porch.

Unless you used your senses, you very likely wouldn’t have found this otherwise. You likely would have walked by it even if you did yardwork here on a daily basis. Half-buried in the dirt under the porch deck, you find what looks like a plate-sized medallion, depicting cheerful young children Pokémon at play, including a Pichu, an Eevee, and a Minccino. It almost looks like a simple art piece that you might hang on the wall of a kitchen or family room as decoration and would be right at home with Benni’s other country decorations, but it still carries the Stalker’s taint. On the back of it, there’s a filthy, oil-black ichor smeared around it.

And upon looking at it more, suddenly something about it starts to connect. Chakra mentioned something about a mural at City Hall that had ichor like this and was an art piece that depicted scenes of community, time, and belonging. He mentioned several metallic medallions were there depicting various age groups and Pokémon demographics, but the one that should have had young Pokémon was ripped out of the wall and some black oily residue was left behind.

You believe you’ve come across the missing piece.

[Medallion of Youth] was added to the Team Inventory.

You’re not quite sure why Languished ripped this out of the mural only to place it here. Were they hoping to hide it here only to use it for later? You decide it’s probably a better idea to put it back as maybe there’s something strange going on here and there’s something beyond what can be perceived.

You’re also aware Languished might come back here looking for it. While it doesn’t look like it has been moved for a while, you decide you can’t leave it here even if it might suggest to Languished that you’re onto them if they come back and find the medallion has gone missing.

Just in case, you make one more check around the house, but thankfully it seems nothing is out of the ordinary in this place that has been your home away from home for the past few days now. After having made sure the coast is clear, you find it will be easier to sleep at night, now.

Colored the Snivy (S: Grass)
Health: 16/16 | Sanity: 12/20 | Purity: 24/24 | 6/10 Kurosuōbā | Dodge Rate: 40%
Perk: Diplomacy, Repair, Security
Reincarnation Forms: Morelull, Palpitoad, Mega Audino, Pidgeot, Cinccino
EQUIPMENT:
  • Defense Armor: <Empty>
  • Jewelry: <Empty>