[The Altaria flexes its wings and takes off. Alice smiles and pets it, then looks back at Manzana and friends.]

It's no worry! Half of my team knows Fly -- it's very useful, if a little redundant, but I guess they just wanted it that way. Altareon here is probably the closest to what other people are used to, out of all of them. Aren't you, girl?

[It replies with a "vui!" chirp that sounds like it's trying its best to imitate something else. She nods.]

To the lab, right? You might need to point us in the right direction. I still tend to get a little turned around.

Thanks! So it shouldn't be too hard. [She smiles.] Those Smoliv -- are they yours? Or did they just get drifted here through the stream, like we did? I guess it would make sense if it's not just humans who come.

[Alice's Altaria happily chirps and starts to descend once she spots the building. Alice herself holds on and keeps an eye out.]

I wonder if something happened there that started bringing them in, then? It wouldn't be the first time that spacetime phenomena happened outside of here, after all. Even not taking the Voices into account, methods other than the stream have been harnessed by humans, like the documented Ultra Beast incidents and -- oh, are we going too fast?

[Alice hums and looks ahead as they descend. Her Altaria lands in front of the lab and fluffs up; Alice hops off and pets her.]

Here, this should be it!

[She looks up at Manzana and the litter of Smoliv and offers a hand down.]

I suppose it is distressing to be taken someplace out of nowhere. It's not the first time for me, but things are a little complicated in my case. I'd just been settling back into the -- uh, where I was, after spending a year in Goldenrod visiting family. That's the simple version. But you're right, this is a very friendly place, as far as places one can be kidnapped to via mysterious spacetime phenomena go!

[She blinks, smiles with a tilt of her head, and shakes his hand. They might not really do that much in Kanto, but she's been enough places that she gets the gist.]

It's no problem! That's what we do. Right, Altareon?

[Said Altaria has gone back to loafing on the ground and chirping happily.]

We've met a lot of nice people so far here. But you're right, things have been a little odd. And that's only part of why we're a little odd. [Alice taps her chin, thinking of how to explain this.] They call it "drifting" here, and we call it "going through the stream." It's how the Voices -- oh, have you heard of them? Nobody ever seems to know the legend around here. I guess they must not have reached this place yet.

[Alice looks to the side at nothing, then back at Manzana.]

They must never have come before, then. How familiar people are tends to correlate with how many times, and how recently, they've come. I've accumulated loads of data, but maybe it would be helpful just to stick to the legend.

They say the Voices are a legion from beyond this world -- beyond any world we know. They're pulled through the stream -- rather, they drift just like we did, but they're not the same as you or I. They're a hivemind that is pulled into a host. Sometimes it's someone they chose, but there have been instances where they got someone else by accident or because a ritual altered the probability in the would-be host's favour -- oh, right! Just the basics. Sorry. But anyway, the Voices then possess that person and guide them on a journey. The host still retains who they are, though they are markedly changed from the experience and have a few telltale signs throughout and afterwards.

Regardless, while the Voices were originally seen as a bad omen, after an encounter with the god Helix -- I don't really know if you have the same ones here -- and the Streamer -- oh, that's an epithet of Arceus where I come from -- they slowly began to grow emotions and a purpose. There are cases -- ah, stories -- from all manner of place and time where the Voices and their hosts toppled tyrants, waged wars, led powerful beings to rise and later to fall. There are also stories where they didn't do much at all, just played with some weird Pokémon or built nonsensical structures or... learned how to drive? I don't know how accurate that one is.

Anyway! The throughline in most of them is that the Voices are a mysterious force -- no one knows what they are or where they came from, and maybe even they don't know. But what they say is that when the Voices choose you as a host -- and the reason some actively try to summon them -- two things will happen. Your home -- maybe your city, maybe your region, maybe the whole world -- will be saved from its troubles, no matter how big. And then, they'll make you Champion.

That's what they say, anyway.

Oh! That's true. They're probably very confused with how lost they are. Let's go in!

[She recalls Altareon to the ball and heads toward the lab, knocking before just opening the door.]

That's likely the case. I don't know where they went from their last known appearance, but whatever is bringing people in must have its own criteria -- or it's sufficiently different from how some people will try to willingly summon them. It would seem to be a property of the region itself.

[Alice wanders through the lab, though she does get distracted by papers and checks them a few times. She pulls out her own notebook and starts comparing her notes to the research strewn around.]

The professor must have a lot of research going on. It's no surprise with the kinds of phenomena we've seen! Oh, right -- hello? Is anyone here?

[Alice bumps into a table a few times, then walks over to the professor and his friend with a wave.]

Ulsai to you as well! I'm Alice. But Manzana here found these Pokémon -- they're not native to here, they were drifted and actually fell onto him. So he was headed here for help. Do I have that right?

[She crouches down and offers the Chikorita pets.]

Oh, you're friendly! Are you a regional form? Or something else?

I don't have room on my team right now, but...

[She hesitates. There's no right way to ask this. Things were safe for years after OLDEN, they'd all seen their lost friends in the wild again, but then that... whatever it was last year. Two runs almost lost, two hosts haunted and shutting down. Alice walks in a circle and stops.]

Is the PC safe here?