Tales From Pocket By EMPIRE Chat

Every passage that takes you from one place to another is a portal.

Pictured above is a photo of Craig Saddler also know as The Nemato Killer.

Formerly a homeopathic experimenter working for the Lu he who was tasked with studying carotene algae.

He used his newly acquired knowledge to assassinate a covert Nemato officer who was standing as a Lu under the codename Desmond Mallion.

Death by algae is a slow and agonising kill method and the officer was in immense pain for a considerable length of time as they were held in place by Craig and the parents of Desmond who had been made aware by Craig that the Nemato officer was not in fact their son.

Due to this attack being performed on a Nemato officer while currently working undercover it was initially believed that Craig was a part of some sort of counter-initiative.

Unfortunately it was simply an unprovoked attacked by a madman that had disvocered a method by which to harm Nemato officers and simply wanted to kill a Nemato just so that he could test out the theory.

Soon after Craig was taken in by Lu authorities who lavished him with praise and rewarded his efforts.

The found the real Desmond in secret and killed him as well because before his discovery they had already told the Mallion family that Desmond had been killed by the Nemato officer.

Craig was unable to be held accountable for his crimes while under the protection of covert Lu forces.

By the time that the enemy base where Craig was kept had been infiltrated by allied forces Craig had already been relocated.

To this day no-one knows the location of Mr. Saddler.

However there have been no further incidents following the aforementioned murder.

At least it's a comforting thought that maybe this murder was simply a single attack and now that Craig's curiosity has been suitably satisfied no more individuals will meet their fate.

If Craig is encounters Nemato authorities Nemato are equiped with weapons that scatter shore fly larvae to damage Craig's protective algal sheet.

Recently a Waorani location situated inside a protected area of the Suisha region was decimated by Lu invasion forces.

Surviving locals were relocated to a region of Suisha located further away from Lu populated areas.

An individual named Sammaeran was instrumental in ensuring the safety of many locals and escorting them from danger.

Unfortunately Lu forces were too extensive for local authorities to resist and there were many casualties.

The land itself was also turned into a desert but covert forces were able to set up survailance methods within the new localised desert to help prepare for any future Lu invasions around the surrounding area.

Unfortunately Lu forces have occupied an area where a passageway exists leading to an area of Suisha not natively populated by Lu.

This was however without the Lu knowing the significance of the location they had just acquired.

Said passageway was situated within an extensive area that the Lu claimed and as such the Lu saw no special significance in the passageway itself so merely built on top of it.

The passageway is not currently boarded up on the non-Lu side of it as identifying the other side of the passage will be a long process.

However despite the open passageway being within the Lu desert it is situated in an alcove that is out of the way of any realistic routes one might take to their destination.

This means that Lu are not likely to stumble into the entrance before authorities are able to seal up the other side of the passageway.

Pictured above is an amphibious eight-legged horse with an onboard preternatural generator.

Authorities use these to clean up accidents and provide aid to the people of Pocket.

Trained horses are responsible and eager to please.

Their wild cousins can be dangerous if not approached in a kind manner.

This is no issue for most people but Lu are notorious for their disrespect.

When CT's are working please refrain from distracting them during their service by attempting to feed or pet them.

CT's are available for public use but unless you train horses please do not attempt to collect them from the wild as they might become frightened and stampede away.

As you can imagine with their large size this can be dangerous to anyone who happens to be standing out in the open in the direction they run.

Whether intentional or not pathways crossing over rivers with vegetation growing heavily around the bridge are naturally occuring gateways across Pocket.

Unless manually altered the passage crosses the water but as the foundation here is fairly commonplace they're regularly utilised.

This creates a problem as many people forget to reset the passageway after they have used it.

It can be troubling when done in Suisha as clueless Lu accidentally wander into the wrong place.

Lu can take that opportunity to launch an invasion if the passageway isn't reset.

Letting auhorities know which passages you've used can ensure that Lu don't get the opportunity rather than have authorities have to track down the needle in the haystack.

Often believed to be the ancestral home of the Lu it is in fact coincidentially similar.

As a grass desert of sorts it resembles the Lu's home and so the Lu found a way to travel into Miatiglea and attempted to transform the land more to their liking.

However, Miatiglea is resistant to change and can be actively aggressive towards those who litter.

Needless to say it wasn't long before the Lu found themselves to be fighting the environment itself.

In the panic that ensued the Lu stole some natives for them to enslave and fled the area.

In their haste they forgot to correctly enclose the passageway between the two worlds believing that if they distanced themselves far enough away from the last place they entered they would be okay.

However, the method they used relied on clouds of water vapor and as such as climate changed over time so did the position of the passage.

Years later after the mistake was forgotten the passageway purely by chance over a long enough period of time migrated over to the Lu's new location.

These people ignorant of the past fell into the pattern of repeating the process.

However by this point, that open passageway had migrated over other lands and as such had picked up many other races while on its travels.

Now the formerly barren land was largely occupied by races that understood the nature of Miatiglea and lived there comfortably while not developing the land.

The new Lu interlopers refused to believe that the local's attempts to convince them to leave were in their benefit and the Lu became hostile.

It seems that no bad deed goes unpunished as the arrogant Lu who defiantly ignored warnings once again fell victim to Miatiglea's immune system.

Now that the Lu had more permanent records the stories of the land became a part of Lu culture however in typical Lu fashion they adapted the stories to be more appealing to the Lu rather than being factually accurate.

This lead to the Lu exhibiting hostile behavior against random individuals including their own.

Luckily the passageway being connected to water vapor meant that trying to accurately predict the next position without having the knowledge of how the passageway functions prevented them from being able to launch a well prepared attack.

Elementals more commonly known as Golem are an extremely common race that can be of many shapes but generally resemble other races of Pocket.

Most races' bodies consist of a complex structure of various specific organs and skeletal structure.

Golems are instead one single piece made entirely out of a single material.

Depending on the material it can appear transparent in the right environment.

This usually being an environment that's medium consists of the same material as their body or at least a material that shares a similar color and density.

Golems may of may not be able to flow their body similar to fluid materials whether or not the material they are made of can actually flow in that way within their current environment.

Even in an environment that consists of their exact material golems are able to resist their bodies becoming blended with that other material.

If their bodies appear transparent it can be difficult to judge their expressions and when naked they can be inperceivable to the naked eye.

In Suisha structures like these used to be a method of travel between the Lu's native home and the region of Axelland.

However, these are only functional using certain methods that differ to those commonly used for most landports.

The methods are too numerous to explain them all here but documentation on them can be found in book stores and Axelland related topics online.

However this information is forbidden from being distributed within the Lu's native home to ensure that the Lu there don't use them themselves to invade Pocket proper.

Though the device itself is only very cramped and small the dwelling it connects to can be used as a stopping point.

It's somewhat akin to service stations where travellers can congregate and meet up with each other before moving onto another location.

Some Lu in their native home have seen these structures without knowing their function and developed their own as an aesthetic patio piece.

Similarly they have bought places with these structures built outside pourely based on their appearance.

Often these designs have been altered so they don't actually function because the native Lu simply don't understand them.

Older structures from a time when they were used by the Lu themselves before the knowledge of how to use them was lost to the native Lu or modern structures that are built to be accurate to the originals are still functional.

Some native Lu have purchased the landport and the dwellings adjoining them only to get irritated by people that use the landport and attempt to use the dwelling or stop themselves short realizing that something is off and appear to the owner to be loitering at their door.

Axelland is part of Suisha.

It used to be freely accessable from the Lu's native home.

After an incident with the watermen's rivals all known devices that were used to transport to Axelland from the Lu's native home were all destroyed.

However, since the devices are a natural occurance in most regions including the Lu's native home in time further devices were found.

This was long after the watermen no longer enhabitted the Lu's native home.

This lead towards the Lu forgetting about how to use the devices.

Now the watermen aren't here to tell them and the Lu that didn't know got rid of the ones that did there's no remaining way for any of them to know.

Historic accounts of the Lu have documented many of the things the watermen did there including knowledge of the science they once knew.

However, knowing that the technology exists and even the devices they used didn't enable the Lu to use them without the knowledge of how to make them work.

In Axelland, they still had the knowledge of how to use the technology but remember these were Lu that were still allies with the watermen.

They decided to use the devices to travel back and forth between their native home and their new home in Axelland but in secret from the Lu that dominate their native home since the latter are hostile.

It is said that Axelland and the watermen's devices appear to the Lu to have a particular hue somewhat similar in shade to the device's origins.

This same mysterious vision also makes other various things appear to be the same color these include twilight and fire, which have also been used as a method to travel to and from Axelland.

These are a flat somewhat disk shaped soft bodied animals that creeps along surfaces collecting unwanted material an converting it into a special form of gas dust.

This air is only harmful to Lu and certain specific races or races that have certain hereditary medical conditions who should by an early age already know the problem.

People of Pocket living in the Suisha region must take tests before entering Pocket proper to avoid the risk to their health because CC's aren't native to the region of Suisha and locals might not be aware of the potential dangers.

CC's can live comfortably within the Suisha region like they can in any other region but due to the health issues they may pose towards the Lu they are not allowed to be imported into the Suisha region due to the risk of retaliation by the Lu that live there.

The term refers to the object above which to the untrained appears as rectangular pieces of black glossy photo paper.

To those with observation skills or to the Lu (i'll get to that in a minute) these appear as polaroid photos printed onto a rectangle sat inside a white border with a larger border one one side all printed onto glossy photo paper.

If you can see the images that means you can see a form of portal designed specifically to trap the Lu.

Lu are by nature curious and don't respect boundaries so on seeing these tablets they have an instinctual habit to attempt to pick them up and examine them.

As you can guess an object that is hard to make out unless you're specifically Lu is obviously some sort of trap.

Picking up the object and holding it less than a meter from your face results in the holder being transported to the location in the photo.

Obviously nobody's likely to do that unless you're a Lu in the first place.

However people who's faces lie less than a meter above the ground should be careful not to stand on them for more than a few seconds lest they accidentally have to deal with the inconvenience of transporting themselves away and having to ask authorities to be sent back where they came from.

Centuries ago the watermen enticed the Eda to live alongside them.

As well as other things as a byproduct of that union certain regions developed the odd property of making inanimate objects come to life with various levels of sentience.

After intrusive activity by the Lu some of these hotspots became lost to time until the obvious happened.

Since by this point the term youkai had lost its usage in other contexts so now 'youkai' refered exclusively to this kind of being.

As you can see in this picture they have a habit of pretending to be ordinary household objects.

Obviously this is pointless to natives of Pocket proper but apparently the Lu cannot tell them apart.

This has lead some to believe this was the original intension and the reason being that until the Eda/watermen group was invaded by the Lu youkai served a practical purpose but after these youkai instead adopted the behaviour of being a nuisence.

However since only Lu are fooled most youkai seek to find Lu to irritate for a laugh.

This region is unstable but almost always harmless however similar regions in appearance exist within Suisha and those ones are indeed very dangerous as fast moving traffic sporadically travels along its length.

In the real Perila Zemlya it's peppered with portals that connect to internal areas.

One might be tempted to use a region such as this to travel long distances unimpeaded by obstructions and then find themselves accidentally transported to a random location.

If you intend to use the portals themselves then I suggests that you grab a schedule as inside the book it documents the routes as well as when and where the different portals will open and close.

Once in antiquity Lu attempted to use a prebuilt PZ for fast transport but it resulted in tragedy for both sides when the vehicle hurted full force into an internal area and demolshed the interior.

Since then Lu have replicated the PZ's design even modernising it to resemble the more modern PZ though they're wise enough not to attempt what they did before and now only do so out of respect to the origins.

PZ itself is not alive though it is managed by an invisible set of workers that switch the portals around.

Here's some examples of commonly found jack coral outcrops with different levels of carotene algal mats coating their structures.

Jack corals differ from regular corals by their often straight rectangular limbs that branch off at right angles to the parent stem.

Common jack coral as seen in this photo is typically gray and reflective to some degree though sporting a matt finish.

Here it's seen growing out of a Causeway floor though it can be found anywhere throughout the lands of Pocket.

Careful cultivation of the coral can be a cheap method towards building constructs or expanding formal land.

Carotene algae has the wonderful property of being an array of colors due to a chemical they carry that can bend light to reflect different wavelengths.

The algae is edible to most herbivores but if well kept it can serve as decorative piece.

Nemato in particular however should be careful around it as it is known to attack them.

The algae can detect the presence of nearby Nemato and will turn blue if that's the case.

The algae however is an algae and as such it's very slow-moving and can only stretch out to about a meter in a single stretch.

Nemato shouldn't really have any reason to worry as the blue pigment is instantly recognised as a threat by a Nemato individual and if grabbed by the algae its slow pace and it's flimsy plant body makes it easy strip off where grabbed.

If the algae contacts the skin of a Nemato individual do what you can to remove as much as possible as soon as possible using your hands and wash the affected area with caustic or alkailine substances to kill off the algae as prolonged exposure can lead to burns, blisters or tissue damage.

Deaths by carotene algae are exceptionally rare and normally the product of Lu activity or prejudice.

In fact the only known deaths other than those connect to the Lu were from careless individuals who decided to fight the fear and use the algal mat itself as a bed or covering.

Even in this case they died from the trauma of their injuries rather than the severity.

Both jack coral and carotene algae tend to grow in locations where dead tissue can be found be it fallen trees or animal carcasses.

the Lightgate region consists of a blending of formal and casual construction and so as the name implies it stands as a gateway between areas that represent the two different forms.

Often used as terminals for transport between the two they can get busy at times and are sometimes frequented by foreign peddlers looking to sell their wares.

Unfortunately due to their resemblance to ideal living spaces within Lu culture (gosh i wonder why) Lu can sometimes accidentally venture here or seek to claim such locations.

This however is thankfully a rarity especially since only a very small part of the region actually connects directly to Suisha.

Even then the places where it does is rather isolated from Lu activity.

People of all kinds will find something to like here but since it's a mismatch of various cultures it's not really ideal for any specific one.

Here you can see how the terrain in Suisha has been complete decimated by Lu invasion forces.

In their haste to feed and grow they have left nothing in their wake.

This is the reality of Lu conquest they slaughter everything that serve them no purpose and reshape the land selfishly to their own twisted ideals.

One day when the Lu are no longer a threat we hope to heal these lands and undo the destruction of the Lu.

This may look like a nice place to stay but the lack of vegetation in and around the water and the grass dessert that lies next to it is a sign of danger.

This water has been tainted by a chemical mutagen that is used by Lu to promote unnatural growth in their grassy food supply.

Those who take from or enhabit the earth are warned to steer clear of the entire area including the vegetated regions that are adjoining to it.

These water ways are an indicator that the mutagen is present not only in the water itself but also in the land that lies alongside it.

In plants this mutagen can cause rapid growth and though that might sound like it's not a bad thing this growth is faster than a body can sustain itself leading to rapid starvation.

The second-hand effect of this is that the environment itself is depleted of balanced nutrition and completely unsuitable to consume from.

Plant eaters in such environments if not poisoned by the chemical itself find it hard to survive in the desert due to the lack of quality nurishment.

Similarly carnivorous life struggles as their malnurished food source provides little sustainance.

Lu occupied areas contain this water in abundance as well as the grass deserts.

Often the places outside of them are swarming with Lu themselves.

If such places are found outside of the Suisha region you must inform the authorities IMMEDIATELY.

Grass deserts can be major sign of a former Lu invasion disaster area and a strong indication of further invasions to come.

Do not stick around to investigate as Lu are usually present nearby and they are often actively hostile to the people of Pocket either attacking immediately on sight or attempting to lure people into a false sense of security so that they hunt them in secret.

If you find a grass desert or find some mutagen water ways seek out the nearest officer and do not run back into Pocket proper for security.