Location: Home, Mawile's Room
Date: July 13th

Today, Ampharos announced a "Coworker Alliance Project" initiative he was working on, or CAP. Ever since the night of the sleepover, he'd been thinking that the Society doesn't do a lot of activities together, or even make an effort to get to know one another. We all live in the same building and work together yet know so little about one another. He wanted to change that, and that's what he hoped CAP would accomplish.

He assigned us CAP partners, and we were to come up with a project the two of us could participate in daily. He didn't say how long this CAP thing would go on for or if we'd ever change partners, but the length of the initiative wasn't the point. It was to get to know each other through cooperation and daily interaction. Since he didn't want our CAP work to interfere with our regular work, we were to discuss an appropriate meeting time with our partners.

My CAP partner was Mawile and Lyra's was Swirlix. Dedenne and Buizel were paired, Jirachi and Archen were paired, and Ampharos paired himself with Bunnelby.

Huh. Okay, I saw what he was going for with everyone else – they hardly interacted with each other at all – but I don't think he was aware of the talk Mawile and I had the other day. Then again, it's kinda hard to pair me up with folks I either haven't gotten to know already or haven't traveled with. Only two candidates that'd leave were Swirlix and Dedenne, and I guess their CAP partners were folks they interacted with even less than me.

Mawile didn't want our meetings to interfere with her nightly reading, which was fine by me since I normally reserve evenings for talking with Lyra about our day or anything on her mind. However, I didn't want to get up super early either. My brain takes a while to boot in the morning, and I won't be in a good mood if I'm forced up earlier than normal. We decided we'd meet directly after Ampharos dismissed morning announcements.

I asked Lyra to handle our expedition prep work since my meetings with Mawile would replace prep time on my end, and she agreed. She and Swirlix decided to meet up early every morning, so I'd probably wake up to an empty room most mornings. I reassured her that it wouldn't bother me. If we had anything to discuss, we'd do so as we left for expeditions.

Mm. The idea of doing a project together didn't sound very uh...compelling. That's not Mawile's fault, really. I'm just not the crafty go-getter type of person this whole project nonsense would be better suited for. I know Ampharos only wants us to do this to deepen our bonds, increase our teamwork, or whatever. Even so, I left the specifics up to Mawile. I didn't really care what we did. Surprisingly, she said an in-depth project would just interfere with the research she wanted to do, so she offered to let me quietly read some of the history books in her room while she did her thing.

That's...okay. I mean, Mawile and I are both quiet types, so silently reading old books matched us perfectly. Plus, this was just the thing I needed to see if humans had been brought to this world before.

After morning announcements were dismissed, Mawile and I went to her room. She pointed to a stack of books against one of the walls and said they had information that would be most helpful to me. Not sure what else to do, I guess I'll go over and pick up one and start reading.

Since Ampharos only wants us to do this for like 30 minutes a day, I don't have a lot of reading time. I'll update with my findings later.

Location: Lively Town Plaza

As boring as reading history books sounded, each one covered unique events and legends from this world. The one I picked up first mentioned a gruesome feud between colossal Pokémon named Kyogre and Groudon. At first, Mawile was content to let me read in peace, but as I started to make little sounds and comments about what I was reading, she was more than happy to provide little informative spiels.

Before Pokémon were encouraged to think as individuals, most used to travel as herds or large familial units, and everyone shared a sort of...mob mentality. Er, no, not quite that...more like hive mind. Nobody really thought for themselves, and this became especially problematic during the feud between Kyogre and Groudon. Little Pokémon factions chose sides over who was right or wrong, and war broke out among them.

Soon, Pokémon didn't rally based on species, but typing. Fire, Grass, Ground and Rock types fought in Groudon's name while Water and Ice types fought in Kyogre's. One would think this an unfair fight, but Water-types never lacked for numbers. Schools upon schools of fish Pokémon were at Kyogre's command, while countless armies of foot soldiers were at Groudon's. Other types such as Psychic, Fighting, Flying, Electric and so on chose to stay out of the conflict. There were some exceptions, of course, but generally that was the breakdown. This war was known as the Shore War, and it was the paramount event that resulted in the original continent being broken into six continents, plus the Sea of Wonders.

Mawile said some of the books have information regarding humans in this world, but I didn't get a chance to read them today. I only read enough of the one I had to get an idea of the Shore War, but Mawile and I exchanged interesting banter about humans anyway.

She said she didn't know what happened, but there's definitive evidence pointing to the existence of humans. Case in point: Mewtwo. He's a human-made clone of the Pokémon Mew. Despite being a legendary, his existence is impossible without the efforts of human scientists. Without him, we'd have no evidence humans naturally existed here beyond their primordial cave drawings.

So, humans lived in this world alongside its Pokémon denizens long enough to become scientists and create Mewtwo. What happened to them?

Mawile said there were a few prevailing theories. One stated that they were turned into Pokémon and lost their memories of their previous lives, including their names and the fact that they used to be human. Another theory predicted that they were sent to a different world because of a horrible cataclysmic event that necessitated evacuation, or a horrible science experiment gone wrong, or banishment at the hands of an insanely powerful Pokémon. Ultimately, nobody knows what happened to the humans that used to live here, and not enough scholars are interested enough to research further into it. She found that ironic considering how many times this world had to be saved by bringing a human in from another world. One incident ended with many humans being brought in, but ultimately deceived and returned to their world upon their defeat.

"You'd think we'd want to look more into the nature of humans helping us out if they played such a key role in saving our world. But no, most Pokémon prefer dismissing it as mere legend or fairy tales."

So, that's why humans were considered myths. Maybe the Pokémon world wants to be self-sustaining and doesn't wanna admit it needed help now and then. If history is repeating itself, then perhaps I'm here for the same reason – to help this world. With what? Maybe apprehending the culprit behind the stone incidents, but...I'm not so sure. I mean, of all people, why would I be chosen?

I'd have to look more into those legends during our meeting tomorrow.

After our meeting ended, I felt much better than I did yesterday. I felt like I had a better grasp on this world, and I felt like I was doing some crucial work. I was no longer Ampharos's little peon building the World Map. Now I was acting like a historian doing research on this foreign world I found myself in and learning more about what my purpose was. And, most importantly, I was getting answers!

The entire time I've been in this world, I've had nothing but questions with more sprouting from the snippets of information I could find. Now, I'm getting solid, definitive answers. Back in Serene Village, if I asked if humans existed, I'd get told no and called foolish for believing a fairy tale. Now, after just one meeting with Mawile, I got told yes and reassured with some evidence that I'm not the first case of this happening. Got reassurance that my being here isn't just some freak accident. I'm here for a reason. I'm meant to be here. I never had that back in Serene Village. And, my Arceus, does it feel good to have that weight lifted off my chest.

See, this is what I needed. Not some advice from Ampharos or Eris, or a pep talk from Lyra. Not reassurance from Nuzleaf or the Society or whoever. Answers. Solid, reassuring, satisfying answers. That's all I need to ease my worries and anxieties. That's all I wanted.

And for the first time ever, I felt so happy to have come here. I couldn't have gotten that answer in Serene Village – it's too remote, too out of the way. The boonies.

Anyway, I need to wrap this up. Lyra has our inventory and mission prepared and has been impatiently pacing since I started writing.

Location: Home, Bedroom

Today's expedition wasn't anything to write home about. Same old, same old.

Lyra informed me that although their first meeting won't be until tomorrow morning, she and Swirlix talked while she waited for me and they decided to have their project be...well, it's Swirlix, so of course it's food-related. They were gonna spend time gathering recipe ideas from everyone and extra supplies to cook with, and their first experimental creation would come to be tomorrow morning. Perhaps they'd let the Society have a taste of what they came up with as well.

Ahaha...she was all giddy and excited. She hadn't helped out in the kitchen since she lived with her Pops (aside from our arrival here when the Society relied on us to feed them, of course), so to have a cooking buddy made her really happy.

She asked what Mawile and I came up with, and I told her how I did some reading and found out about the Shore War, and how I'll be reading legends involving humans tomorrow. I told her how humans coming to this world and turning into Pokémon were considered only legends in this world, but there's evidence that they actually existed – like Mewtwo. When I proposed the question of what she thought happened to them, Lyra got all excited and started spouting off her own ideas.

"Maybe they got called off on a big adventure and will be back any day now! Maybe they went into hiding to avoid their Pokémon overlords! Maybe they turned into Pokémon like you did, Irau! Maybe they started Pokémon families and lived their remaining days in peace and loved the world so much that they never wanted to leave and blah blah blah."

Okay, I'll be honest – as cute and charming as her excitement was, she talked a lot. I didn't fall asleep on her again, but I tuned out as she rambled. It's good she has so much energy and is passionate about the stuff we're doing, but my Arceus is it exhausting trying to keep up with her sometimes.

Eventually, I had to raise my vine similar to how a human might raise their hand to cut someone off. It worked, and she stopped talking. We can continue this conversation tomorrow. It's getting kinda late, and a certain someone has to be up super early to meet her cooking buddy.

Of course, I wrote this entry while Lyra was rambling so we'll go to bed at the same time. She wanted to get some stuff organized first, so by the time I finish she should be back.

Tomorrow's another day of excitement and discovery!

A/N: I know legendaries are genderless and should be referred to with genderless pronouns like they/them, and for the most part I try to conform to that unless otherwise indicated in-game. However, I've been reading a lot of TC-96's Pokemon comics on deviantart and referring to Mewtwo as he/him just feels natural. I'm sorry if I've offended anyone by doing so.