Well, time for a brief bit of actually going where the plot wants me to.

Lillie: Bonnibel… I’m sorry… I ended up getting lost, yet again…

It’s not even like I got here first. Lillie is pretty much just apologizing for existing at this point.

Lillie: I wandered around completely lost until I ducked into the apparel shop… And then I saw this outfit, and they said it was the last one they had in stock, so I bought it… Even though I don’t think I’d ever have the guts to wear an outfit like it… Hah…

Yeah I noticed you haven’t changed. Also you look like you’re about to cry, so…I really hope they made your model able to wear other clothes and you’ll eventually change before the end of the game.

Lillie: But the woman working at the store did tell me where to find the library! So I guess you could say it was all for the best. …Though the library was actually right past the apparel store, if I’d just kept going.

Then a giant horse runs over, startling Lillie. It doesn’t startle Bonnibel because fucking nothing startles dittochild.

Hapu: Bonnibel. Been a while, friend.

Oh don’t you start. I’m still mad you were only saving that pokemon because it was somebody else’s properly.

Looks like your island challenge is coming along favorably. That must be pleasing to the tapu.

I do find this element really evocative.

She asks me who Lillie is. Lillie, assuming no one would bother wasting the breath on saying who she is, introduces herself. Hapu apologizes for the part where nearly getting run over by a giant creature may have been startling.

Doesn’t seem like you’re a trial-goer. What are you up to?

How can you tell, though? Is it the apologizing? Because I bet it wouldn’t take much to make Hau apologize for existing either.

Seriously, I am really interested in how people can tell at a glance which of us is pleasing in the eyes of God and which is a failure, especially if you can explain to me how in the hell Hau is passing.

Lillie: Oh. I’m actually, um, studying the tapu’s ruins. For…various reasons of my own.

She sure sounds like this is not a legitimate thing in itself, doesn’t she? And we know Oak was once a great trainer, and Gary decides to be a professor after doing reasonably well as a trainer himself, and Prof. Labsafetyfail similarly manages to get as far as the League before settling down to get beaten up by pokemon. (And it certainly calls into question what we know about pokemon if only people heavily invested in battling ever get to be allowed to do research.) I wonder how many professions have implied “must have been this competent a trainer to apply”? Kind of like jobs that don’t care what college degree you have, just that you have one. Meanwhile Lillie is the equivalent of someone who dropped out without even finishing highschool.

Hapu: Well, that’s some fine initiative.

“Initiative”. It sounds positive, and yet, she sounds sure there’s no way Lillie’s actually accomplished anything yet, even though Hapu has no idea what Lillie’s doing or how long she’s been doing it. I wonder how much there’s the passive assumption that no one without pokemon ever actually succeeds at things. Everyone who’s anyone important is always also a top trainer, even at completely unrelated jobs. And if you believe that, then it can start to be true as you push more and more people into being trainers simply because you’ve made life not being a trainer more difficult than spending months hiking around with fire spewing lizards. And I’d bet there’s huge overlap between “people unable to be pokemon trainers” and “people who have some physical problem that might, in some way, matter for any other job” which means it’s obviously a great metric to use with no downsides whatsoever. I wonder if there’s a hidden cottage industry around faking it.

Hapu goes on to say, I’d be happy to show you the way whenever you’d like to go. which is quite nice, because we also know that if you’re not a trainer, you’re pretty much trapped in the few pokemon-free areas. Come to think of it, there’s even fewer of those now! Back in the early games, the towns were pokemon-free, even if they had apparent pokemon habitat in them, like headbuttable trees. Now pokemon could attack you pretty much anywhere, so Lillie’s only hope is staying close enough to people that someone else can jump in when a small rat takes umbrage at her existence.

My Mudsdale here is as sturdy as all get-out. She can easily carry two.

1) Okay now I get the tumblr pics.
2) “Two”? Tauros is smaller than that and it smashes apart boulders just by choosing not to turn aside. Pokemon are absurdly strong. The only question of how much they can carry is how much you can balance on them.

Lillie: Thank you for your offer.

And that’s it for Hapu. That was a lot more random than the first encounter, so I assume it’s to remind us she exists for the next time she shows up, which will presumably be important.

Lillie: Shall we check out Malie Library first though, since we’re here?

I wasn’t aware that was ever in doubt.

I don’t actually get to enter. The cutscene leash tightens around my neck and I am teleported, choking on hatred, into the building.

Lillie: The book that I’m looking for is a very old one. It’s a book that contains old myths and legends that Professor Burnet told me about…

It’s a shame they apparently don’t have a Google-like entity digitizing all these books. Then again, I guess in this universe there’s always a possibility a book is a pokemon and trying to read it will do something horrible.

Those tales seem to suggest that Alola’s Legendary Pokemon came from another world.

That could explain why they look so much like digimon…

I then talk to someone who’s a tourist who says you’re actually banned from using fly here. How is that enforced? Why is it enforced?

I’ve heard there is a book somewhere in this library about the Legendary Pokemon said to be Alola’s very own moon.

Yeah, this is why science and fantasy don’t necessarily play very well with each other. It’s easy to wonder if different places have different moons when you don’t understand what a solar system is, or say that the glowy thing you call a moon turns into different things when you don’t see it, etc.

At any rate, I guess I’ll have to take his word for it, since despite what multiple other NPCs say, I can’t actually read a single book on any of the bookshelves.

Alolan Oak is in a corner, but bah! He can wait. I go upstairs.

Lillie: It must be a very valuable boo, so I’m not sure if I’ll be able to take it out of the library…

Does the library not have a scanner? If the book’s old enough it won’t be copyrighted, and you could probably afford the fee. I mean, I don’t know what your money situation is, but if you’re low on funds I assume you’d have mentioned it while kicking yourself about the outfit, so.

A small child cosplaying as a witch then intervenes. Is this what you’re looking for, Princess? Give it a read!

Lillie: O-oh. Of course… The cutscene changes, and she and I have been teleported to our seats while Cosplay Witch Child stands over us, staring down at Lillie.

Lillie: Well… It’s titled The Light of Alola. I’ll just…um…read it aloud, shall I? Under the child’s unceasing stare, she does so.

The empty sky broke asunder,
a hole appearing where had been none.
A single beast appeared from it:
it was named the beast that calls the moon.

I shake my fist at you, old timey people! As I lectured Bonnibel, word choice is important! Did the sky “break”? Because if it “broke”, that suggests that what popped out of that hole and what popped out of the hole we saw may be different things, because our hole was more of a “bend/warp” situation, like I explained. These sort of details are super important! Imagine if people’s records of tsunamis were just “the ocean grew very big”. That makes it sound like a tsunami is a matter of an influx of water, right? But the most important tsunami detail is that the ocean recedes first! And because actual ancient people apparently have a bit more social responsibility than the imaginary ones here, that’s the detail they give, even if they had no idea of why it happened like that.

If they’re different effects, then the “break” holes may let through more standard legendary pokemon – or even be creating them, given we already know pokemon can be created by events. Or they may be incursions from a reality even more alien than the one jellyfish-friend came from, and causing a correspondingly worse effect when we bump into each other.

And again – we KNOW there’s different types of holes, because there were holes in the previous set of games. And the fourth gen established there’s at least one other reality that’s closely linked to ours. Just because there’s a hole doesn’t mean all holes are the same, so you need to think about how you’re describing them!

The king of Alola bowed before it:
the beast that stole all heavens’ light.
The island guardians fought against it,
but in the end they lost the fight.

And yet they’re still around. I wonder if this is connected to their areas being ruins now?

Then did the beast that brings the dark
cast its pall on the line of kings.
So would the beast that had won
mark the path for all such finished things.

So, first the king throws his lot with the new monster, then the guardians try to defeat it, then it destroys the line of kings. So evidently, actively opposing it and getting your butt kicked has a higher survival rate than serving it.

Beast of sun and beast of moon.
Through their union, they brought new life.
A fragile heir in Alola born
that island guardians would keep from strife.

I’m gonna guess Nebby.

But really interesting. Moon legendary destroys the existing monarchy to make room for their own child, I think. And the defeated guardians are tapped to babysit? I just saw the end of The Astronaut’s Wife, which I won’t spoil for you but will say you should probably just read the wikipedia page and spoil yourself, since it’s just like one interesting concept spread over a movie.

The ancient kigs sang their thanks
for Lunala with song of flute.
Two tones rang out across the alter–
a perfect pair, ever after mute.

Okay, so there were still kings despite the pall and it being a “finished thing”, and somehow the humans are really grateful for the “heir” who is heir of what, exactly?

Anyway I guess I gotta get some flutes.

???: Isn’t it great? My dad’s books are all great!

Ah, that’s why it’s such crap, it’s a secondary source. Yeah, that usually is where the fuckery sets in.

Lillie: What? I mean, yes, it is. But when you say your father… Isn’t this book…very old?

Acerola: Yeah, it belonged to my dad.

Ooooh. That does make more sense. Still going to assume secondhand source, though. This sounds a lot like some guy writing about what his sister’s friend’s cousin’s uncle heard from a drunk guy.

I know I don’t look it, but my family used to be pretty much royalty.

Child you have five pounds of gold wrapped around your arm.

I assume this is meant to be talking about why her clothes are all weirdly stitched, but seriously, it’s witch cosplay. Designer should’ve toned it way down if it’s supposed to just be a raggedy dress.

Acerola: I had to have all my dad’s books moved here so they didn’t get ruined by the Pokemon. I can tell you lots of other old stories about Alola, too! You interested?

If you have any primary sources, very.

Lillie: Well…that would be wonderful! I would be delighted, if you did. I think I’ll stay here… But I know why you’ve come to Ula’ula. You’ll be undergoing another trial, won’t you, Bonnibel? Good luck with it. I read that Ula’ula island’s Electric-type trial can only be reached by the bus on Route 10.

I then walk around.

It’s only be reading some really terrible books that you learn to recognize the good ones! I agree, random NPC.

Oh and there are books I can read here!

The Legendary Pokemon and the Tapu
A great and terrible battle waged between the
tapu and the Legendary Pokemon, but neither
side could claim victory over the other.
Upon finding themselves equals, the Legendary
Pokemon then gifted the tapu with great power
of unknown providence.

That’s really weird. They’re equals in power, which impresses one side so much they give a powerup to the other? Shouldn’t the tapu be able to kick their asses now?

See, when something similar goes down in myth, it’s usually some sort of specific boon and not just general “great power”. If they gifted them immortality, say. But then that’d be bringing up the question of pokemon aging, which, despite cemeteries, no one seems to want to touch.

The Guardian Deities of the Islands
The tapu regularly keep themselves closed tight
in their shells as they absorb nature’s energy.
After many long years of absorbing such energy,
their shells become hard and sturdy.

Hey, you know what’s more interesting than that? How they’re not capitalizing “tapu”.

I wonder how many people will capitalize tapu anyway. I’m going to guess all of them.

The Tapu and the Island Kahunas
The tapu choose the kahunas of their islands
and entrust them with special sparkling stones.
What reasoning they use to make such a choice,
however, is not at all apparent to observers.

Oh, that’s interesting. Another layer of stress for Hau – not only does he have to live up to his grandfather as a trainer, but even if he does there’s no way to know if it’s what they wanted or if he’s failing in some other way.

The Guardians and the Ancient Kings
In ancient times, the tapu served as the leaders
of the armies of each island’s king, but if they
used their Z-Power in battle, it caused great
destruction across the islands.
Because of this, the tapu came to no longer
lend their aid in the wars of men.

Huh. So it’s “their” Z-Power, and it doesn’t seem like they have the option of not just z-nuking the place when the king triggers it. So, while it does seem like the z-power is something contributed by the human, it doesn’t seem like the pokemon has any choice in the matter but it’s some sort of possessing force. What happens if you try to use z-power with a disobedient pokemon (oh, and can you mega evolve them? I assume I’d have heard about it if you can’t.)?And that’s particularly weird when it requires a crystal to hold, so they should’ve been able to solve this issue by just chucking the crystal into the sea or something.

ALSO. So there were multiple kings, but at the point of the legendary moon monster, there’s a singular king of the islands. But when talking about the “heir” period, there’s kings again. Did the guy become sole king because he got moonfriend to beat the shit out of everybody else, and then when it turned on him the other guys returned to power? Or had he already taken power, but then made a really bad decision with the whole bowing to the moon thing?

Well, maybe I’ll find out more eventually.