Help Wanted

Do you love Pokémon? Are you fascinated by ancient artifacts and unsolved mysteries? Do you want to be a part of something BIG and change the course of New Logora's future?

THE REVIVALISTS are looking for dependable, hard-working individuals with a love of history and a sense of adventure to assist them in the revitalization of our beautiful region. We're on the verge of bringing New Logora back to a state of glory and bounty it hasn't seen in thousands of years—but we need YOUR help to make this dream a reality! TOGETHER we can restore New Logora's lost legendary Pokémon and their legendary prosperity!

• Trainers with capable Pokémon strongly preferred—several jobs will require working out in the field where assistance from or protection by Pokémon is extremely useful. (Quick battles to determine suitability may be held in some locations.)
• Serious volunteers only, please. There's a lot of hard work to be done, and while it should largely be safe we need everyone to be responsible and careful.
  • Up-to-date insurance coverage is a plus. Speak to Treg in Denath Village if you're in need of a policy.
• All volunteers will be well-compensated for their time and effort!

Volunteer opportunities are available in Denath Village, Szlazan City, Baaresa Town, Rune City and Etaoin City! Stop by today and see how you can help CHANGE THE FUTURE!

Etaoin City's pedestrians kept to themselves most days, eyes straight ahead and moving as quickly and efficiently as they could without appearing to rush. It would be nice to chat with the neighbor you'd just run into or to listen in on a passing couple's conversation, but socializing and people-watching were best left to the evenings. If you had to walk during the day then you were better off hurrying along to wherever you were headed before the sun melted your shoes and fused you to the sidewalk.

As such most of the people outside that afternoon flatly ignored the group—two men, a woman and a teenager—huddled outside the local Revivalist headquarters, instead marching straight by and into their respective air-conditioned destinations. It was none of their business anyway. The murmur of casual discussion had just given way to raised voices, however, and against their better judgement a few passersby stopped briefly to hear snatches of the quarrel.

"This is a phenomenally bad idea," the boy repeated. He didn't bother hiding the acid in his tone or the ice in his glare—he just leaned back against the face of the building and made the man he was arguing with shudder ever so slightly in spite of the heat.

"Aw, come on, Nari, you're overreacting," the man protested. He stopped fanning himself with the sheet of paper in his hand and skimmed its text again. "I think I covered all the bases, and I'm pretty sure that if I saw one of these flyers pinned up somewhere I'd be interested in checkin' it out... it should do exactly what we need it to! What's the problem?"

The man winced when the boy snapped at him. Less than half his age or no, the kid had no problem lecturing him like a teacher who'd caught him passing notes. "Really, Treg? You really need to ask why I think it's a bad idea to pull random people off the street when we have no idea how well they understand the work we're doing? Why it might be a bad idea to target this request toward a group that consists mostly of overexcitable children who wander the region just to make their Pokémon beat each other up? Why it might be even the tiniest bit inadvisable to trust a rabble of total strangers with delicate artifacts and sensitive information and—"

A hand on the boy's shoulder cut off his rant. "That's enough, Naritanu." The woman's tone was soft but firm, and Naritanu relaxed—if only slightly—at the rebuke. "Have a little faith in your colleagues, please. I'm sure Treg took all those concerns and more into consideration before proposing his idea." She stopped, then glanced at the boxes stacked tall by the HQ's doorstep. "And before having... how many copies of this flyer printed, exactly?"

"Five thousand in this first run," Treg replied, a little heartiness coming back into his voice. He gave one of the stacks behind him a cheerful pat. "Gotta achieve maximum dissemination of the message, y'know? Anyway, it's really not as tragic as you're makin' it out to be, Nari." He flashed a grin at Naritanu that the boy did not return. "I'm not sayin' that we just let the volunteers run wild in the shrine rooms. They'd mostly be workin' around the same mountainsides and gardens and so on that people explore all the time. If they're gonna be around anyway, I thought, why not take advantage of that? There's plenty we can do to make sure that any volunteers and their Pokémon are up to snuff.

"From there our people would be watching 'em like Osgrave while they worked, and we'd still be the only ones handlin' things in the restricted areas. Someone proves they can be trusted, that they're really invested in making New Logora as bountiful as it used to be once upon a time, maybe then we bring 'em in to assist with the more sensitive stuff, sure, but not a minute before. And as for making sure they know what they'll be gettin' up to? Well, that's the point of the flyers in the first place, isn't it? Says right there," Treg added, holding the paper out to Naritanu and indicating a line.

"Oh, sure." Naritanu rolled his eyes as he took the flyer. "Because those terms aren't vague and flowery at all. I take one look at this and I know exactly what I'm 'reviving' and why it needs to be done. Crystal clear." He crumpled the paper in his hands with only an attempt to make the gesture look absentminded.

"Everything'll be explained when they get there and when they set out on a job," Treg insisted.

The woman nodded. "And I assume we can reprint the flyer if we need to clarify anything else?"

"Er... yeah, Liruda, we can do that... not right away, might have to wait for another paycheck..." Treg's face flushed a little and he fanned himself with a hand to pass it off as overheating. "Either way, kiddo, at the rate we're going we've got to get some extra hands on deck somehow. We're closer to bringin' back the legends than anyone's been in centuries, but there's still so much to be done, so much to find and to research and to prepare for, and, well... it's a lot of work for just the Revivalists as they stand to take on, isn't it?" He shrugged and glanced around at the others. "Everyone's doin' their best to keep things on track, of course, but we've all got work that keeps us busy, too. Evten's out campaigning with Governor Voclain, Liruda's got to shoot for the show, I've had appointments with clients out the wazoo, the Prof's about to disappear to Unova again for a few weeks... and we all remember what happened last time someone interrupted your rock-collecting up in the mountains when an urgent meeting came up..."

"Mhogri knew perfectly well she shouldn't have startled Sableye and me while we were working," sniffed Naritanu. "She only needed three stitches afterward anyway... oh, all right, all right," he huffed when Treg stared pointedly at him, "I'll concede that we're all busy, and we'd get the work done... faster if we had more assistance. But I don't understand why we're in such a rush that we're willing to recruit anyone who can win a Pokémon battle or two, or any random person who happens to be loitering around by the bay! Surely"—he turned and gave the others an exasperated look—"Surely you two agree that it makes sense to be more selective about all this, don't you?"

Liruda only frowned slightly by way of answer, but the fourth member of their group shook his wizened head and smiled. The old man took the crumpled paper from the boy and gently smoothed it out, the better to squint at it and give it another read.

"I like the idea, personally," he said at length, handing the flyer back to Treg when he was through. "It's not just that we're a bit undermanned, either—the Revivalists have been at this for a very long time, and we're all quite close to what's going on and what needs to be done. Inviting a new group of young trainers will bring in fresh eyes, fresh ideas, fresh perspectives..." He smiled again, a wistful twinkle in his eye. "This extra help could be just what we need to put the final pieces of the puzzle together."

Treg gave him a clap on the back that made him stumble. "That's what I like to hear, Gadari! In fact, while we're on the subject of young trainers with fresh ideas..." With one fluid motion he hefted several boxes of flyers and pressed them into Gadari's hands, almost staggering the elder all over again. "I thought it'd help the whole shebang if you took a stack or two of these back home with you! What with the high season picking up you're gonna get a lot of trainers passing through your place, aren't you? You can hand these out to 'em along with their new Pokémon!"

Liruda cut Naritanu's derisive laugh short with another shoulder squeeze, though she did raise her eyebrows at her colleague all the same. Even Gadari's smile faltered a little; he waited a few beats to gather his thoughts before answering. "Well... that idea I'm not quite as sure about, Treg," he said at length. "It'd definitely get the word out to trainers, but remember that I do deal primarily with starter Pokémon. Everyone who comes to see me is usually a brand-new trainer looking for their very first partner; they're not likely to have much in the way of experience, and it wouldn't be fair to ask them to put themselves and their very green Pokémon out there like that. I mean, imagine if those Murkrow flocks started acting up again, if something went wrong out in the badlands..."

"Hey now, don't get me wrong, Gadari," Treg said hastily. "That's precisely the type of trainer we'd be turning down for volunteer work. I'm not expecting 'em all to jump over to the nearest meeting place and sign up with their brand new baby Crocoal or whatever, no! It's not so much that we'd be recruiting them now as it is just... gettin' the idea in their heads, y'know? Get 'em thinkin' about it so they'll know to look us up once they're strong enough. Give 'em something to tell any more experienced trainers they run into. That much more word-of-mouth advertising, see?"

"They're going to jump at it whether you expect them to or not," sneered Naritanu, "because your flyer reads like an invitation for a pack of hyperactive kids to run out into some ancient ruins and play at being Ferdinand Bonaventura."

Treg ignored him. "Just think about it, wouldja? Hang on to those for a bit and see what the kids say. Who knows, there might even be a few folks there who're a little more experienced than usual and who'll be able to help us that much sooner, eh?

"Anyway, that's the plan," he finished, lifting more armfuls of boxes and holding them out to the others. Liruda took hers with a grunt while Naritanu simply glowered up at Treg until he sighed and put those packages down by the door again. "You can give those to the folks at your local HQs and such so they can help spread 'em around, too. I guess... I guess we'll just... send these off to Baaresa a bit... later..." He coughed; Naritanu kept right on glaring. "I've already taken the liberty of having some shipped off to Evten and the Prof and I'll be leaving the rest here for Argild's lot so they've got copies as well; meanwhile my guys back in Denath are all on board and sticking flyers up on all the bulletin boards and telephone poles. Maximum dissemination!"

Treg smiled and reached for one of the Poké Balls at his waist, releasing a Natu and tucking the little bird under one arm like a ball. "I think that's everything! I've gotta head back—you guys know how Trelni gets upset when I'm late for dinner, haha. Any more questions, gimme a call. See you all next meeting, then, and hopefully we'll have a lot of promising progress to talk about!"

He grinned broadly, gave them a wink and then disappeared as the Natu in the crook of his arm teleported back home to dinner.

Naritanu snorted and kept his glare fixed on the spot where Treg had been moments before. "Meanwhile I'd like to know exactly what he's talking about when he says 'compensation'. What budget do we have for paying all these irresponsible children and greedy treasure hunters, especially after he's gone and spent heaven knows how much on five thousand ridiculous flyers?" He stopped and thought for a moment, then growled. "If that oaf thinks he's going to hand out any of my Logos Stones for free because some kid found half a piece of pottery somewhere out in the Bay or— I'm not a charity, I don't just give my hard work and my livelihood away for nothing—"

Liruda sighed but let the boy keep grumbling, instead watching Gadari's face carefully in the fading light. "So what are you planning to do with all of those flyers, then?"

The old man half-shrugged as he shifted his boxes for a better grip. "I suppose I'll have to think about it," he said simply. "Getting the word out is a good idea... all the same, though, part of me would rather see the new crop of trainers keep their focus on their partners and their adventures and the other experiences out there waiting for them. Even if we only hand out simple tasks and watch them closely, this is very involved work with very important consequences. It's all a little much, you know?"

Liruda nodded sagely. "That's true. If the flyers do garner as much attention as Treg is hoping they will, though, then we should see plenty of help coming in without you feeling obligated to push this on rookie trainers. At the very least I can float the idea with Beck and the others back in Falantr, and I'm sure Evten and Racyf won't mind spreading the word when they can fit it in around their busy schedules."

She sighed and closed her eyes for a moment, savoring a gentle breeze that blew all too briefly through the early evening air. It had been a long meeting even without the extra time spent debating outside. It would be nice to head home and relax, even if only for a little while before she had to talk to her son about the flyers... and reread that dissertation... and talk to the producers about next week's shooting schedule...

She looked down at her armful of boxes. Maybe getting all these flyers printed all at once was jumping the gun a little... but they did need the help.

Naritanu did not take the boxes Treg had left for him. Instead he gave the packages by the door one last contemptuous glare, muttered something to Liruda and Gadari that might have been a farewell, whirled around and headed off around the corner. "This is a phenomenally bad idea," he growled, ignoring the funny looks a few pedestrians gave him as he went by.

In his haste to get home and sulk he failed to notice the young man loitering against a nearby shopfront. Nothing anyone out on the streets would normally pay any mind anyway, of course, but likely an oversight all the same given the young man's especial notice of him. His gaze followed Naritanu's brisk walk from corner to corner, and he leaned forward slightly the better to catch each word of the boy's irritable grumbling.

"A phenomenally bad idea," the young man whispered as Naritanu stalked past. "Oh, if only you knew, kid. If only you knew." He allowed himself a brief smile before disappearing down an alleyway.

Auntie would want to hear about this.