Air Continent ~ Bone's Abode

[Namohysip]

East of Pokemon Square, after the winding roads and a few pleasant lakes, there sat a small and somewhat isolated building that was simultaneously well-kept and a little bit foreboding and cozy at the same time, in a strange, contradictory way. A once cute house modeled after a Cubone's helmet had become a small house with stone fashioned into gigantic, larger-than-life bones. The colors were light shades of tan and brown, with some reds and greens, and there were ample plants around the garden. When Bone wasn't in the mood to go out, she had ample supplies to last.

Maple had set up a portal near the side of Bone's home that rejected most who tried to go through. For the team, however, they could pass without resistance.

There was something odd about the home. It was large and foreboding, yet it had a large entryway at the remnants of what might have been a Cubone skull-shaped front. It had been modernized since then, made friendlier and squarish, but still rounded and hut-like at the same time. It even had a second floor with two small windows where the eyes used to be.

There were several targets near the front of the yard and several spare bone clubs lined up near the entrance when Bone wanted to practice her skills. Everything about this place felt old and retired, but Bone refused to acknowledge either about herself--not just yet.

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[Tanuki]

Barely familiar. The entire place felt strange; from what he saw to the ground he tread, it all gave Zane a sense of deja vu. He could almost feel Jolt snoozing on his shoulder. Every annoying mission came from that stupid mailbox, which Jolt always read with gullible excitement as if every outing saved the entire world. So many missions. Rescue after rescue, lost berry after lost berry, even climbing a mountain to beat up an electric chicken.

None of it kept anyone from running him out of town.

Nostalgia, or about the closest Zane had to it, ate a warm hole in the pit of his stomach. He ran his claws along the side of the approximation of the house he couldn't return to; a mockery of the home he couldn't remember. And here he was on an all new adventure with all new people that all wanted to run him out again.

In short, a lot that Zane didn't want to think about. Instead, he went to the pile of bone-clubs. He'd figure out something stupid to do and keep his claws busy. Maybe he'd try juggling. He'd start with one bone, so as to not embarrass himself in front of the nobody in his audience.

 

[Fusion]

This area was entirely new to Vix, if not vaguely familiar to her woodland home. Under normal circumstances, she would have stayed with the group and discussed more of what to do, but seeing arguably the most noticeable of the group slip away pulled her into the unknown. It might just be her overthinking things, but she had the feeling Zane wasn't feeling too well.

Vix had several moments on her silent pursuit of Zane to get his attention and see what was wrong, but none of them felt appropriate. Zane lumbered on, and Vix along with him without him knowing. It wasn't until he stopped that she figured, now was as good a time as any.

Of course, that was easier said than done. The last thing she wanted right now was to say the wrong thing, which led to her not saying anything for a bit. Eventually she decided to take the simplest, easiest route. She slowly floated to the Zangoose's side, hopefully not startling him too much when she said, "Hey, Zane. What, um, are you doing?"

 

[Tanuki]

Zane screamed, instantly turning around and hurling the bone at the litwick. "Vix?" So deep in thought, he didn't notice Vix in the slightest. He didn't even consider the possibility someone might follow him, stunting his already abysmal perception. "What are you doing?" He almost felt bad for throwing the bone at her, but he didn't feel particularly apologetic at the moment. "What do you want?" Or polite.

 

[Fusion]

The bone stuck in Vix's head, which one would imagine would hurt, but one would also forget that wax lacks the ability to feel pain. If anything it was like sticking a sticker to someone's forehead.

She didn't get too close, wanting to respect his space.

"I was, possibly, worried about you. I can understand not wanting to stay while everyone's planning either a rescue or how to deal with Diyem being... himself, but you just left. I don't think anyone knew you left either, what would we do if something happened to you?" Her flame dimmed slightly at the thought.

 

[Tanuki]

Zane narrowed his eyes. Worried about him? Had she somehow read his mind just to make fun of him? "Were you even there? They made it extremely clear they didn't want me." He sat against the wall, two bone-clubs finding their way into his paws. She was just being nice. He didn't bother entertaining her claim. "Worry about the people in danger. I'm fine." The clubs found their balance in his claws, and without much thought, he started tapping a simple rhythm on some nearby rocks.

 

[Fusion]

To be entirely honest, even Vix couldn't lie and pretend he was more liked by the group. It might be true, but it wasn't right.

"I'll worry about the people I can, which surprisingly isn't the two that got separated from us. At least they have each other, but if you got lost, you'd be all alone," Vix sighed.

She got a bit closer, still off to the side. Surprise surprise, it's not easy talking to people that don't want to be talked to. At least he doesn't want to be alone, seeing how he hasn't sent her away yet. "I get most of the team are, to put it nicely, not wanting anything to do with you, but that's not true of everyone. I know I like having you around. If I didn't spend so much time by myself, I'd probably have spent a good amount of it with you."

 

[Tanuki]

The rhythm hitched for a beat so he could look for the punchline in her eyes. Don't think about it. She just wanted to make him feel better. "I can make it fine on my own," Zane lied. Before coming here, he didn't know what a move was. "You like—?" not worth pursuing. Get back to drumming. For some reason, it felt a bit soothing. Probably because it distracted him. One two three four, one and two three four, one two and and four and, "If you like having me around, you have bad taste," two and three four, one and two and three four, he liked that one.

 

[Fusion]

"Jokes on you, I have no taste," Vix joked. "Maybe everyone else has bad taste for not wanting to have you around. I mean, you know Dave? He's a bit of a bitch, yet I don't see anyone really batting an eye at him aside from like, a couple of us." She felt she might be wrong but, that's not the point right now. "Still, I wouldn't want to see him ostracized either. Just like how I don't like seeing it happen to you."

The flame on Vix's head started to dance to the simple beat Zane was making. It helped her not think about the bones he was using as drumsticks, or the one still lodged in her head. "Call it naive, but I don't think anyone should be treated the way people treat you."

 

[Tanuki]

Zane did his best to ignore her. The more she talked, the madder he got. He chewed his teeth, hit the rocks until and even after she stopped harder, harder, harder until one snapped. "Some people deserve it!" He kept his eyes straight ahead. He didn't reach for a replacement either, rubbing his temple instead. "When someone acts like a tool, can't contribute anything, and pisses everyone off, they get what they deserve."

He tried to find another drumstick, but none of them felt right. "When this is over, what happens?" Too heavy, too light, too long, short, nothing. He finally met her eyes, waiting for an answer.

 

[Fusion]

Vix's flame flickered, threatening to snuff itself out. Yeah, this is going about as bad as she thought it could. She searched for an answer that would suffice, but it was like trying to hold onto air. She couldn't bring herself to lie, she couldn't come up with an answer, and she found it hard to admit that she simply didn't know. So, she didn't. Not right away.

Vix kept her gaze locked with Zane, seeing the anger in his eyes. Strangely, she found it hard to look away, but at the same time, it hurt to keep looking. It was a different, wrong-feeling feeling she hadn't felt. As she realized the moment was getting drawn out, Vix looked away.

"I don't know, Zane."

 

[Tanuki]

Zane took a deep breath. Vix didn't deserve his ire. She was trying to be a good person, just with the wrong person. "We're gone. We never see each other again." He plucked the bone out of her head as half of an apology and got back to drumming. "If we're lucky, we'll forget it all. A loss without a memory's like a wound without a scar. Never happened."

He hadn't talked to anyone about this. No one gave him a chance to, sure, but he never even thought to. "I don't like my luck, so I don't want to risk a scar. I don't want happy memories stolen or friends I'll never see again." He shook his head. Why was he telling her this?

 

[Fusion]

Oh yeah, right, that. The "Hero's Aura." Vix believed it wasn't a problem for her, thanks to her mentors, but it would still be a hassle for most of the team. She silently cursed not being able to relate to anyone else on that front. It'll make trying to help them all the more difficult.

"I see," Vix said. "That's, yeah... I can see your point." Coming up with things to say was starting to get frustratingly difficult, she just wanted to help. Vix took a deep breath, the flame on her head calming its dance as she tried to relax herself.

"Even if most of us were to forget all of this, I don't think they're gonna let it stop them from enjoying themselves. It shouldn't stop you either, honestly." She floated a bit closer, remaining eye level with Zane. "Once you get your memories back, do you really want them to be nothing but you being alone? Pushed away from everybody? With little to no friends at all?"

 

[The Walrein]

Despite his best efforts, Jaro soon fell behind Zane, getting lost in the crowds of Pokemon Square. Great. Of course that would happen; his relative movement speed to Zane made it inevitable. Wouldn't be the first time Jaro had failed because he hadn't taken into account his most basic limitations. He'd just been so caught up in wanting to try to be the hero for a bit that he'd forgotten.

Ugh, he supposed he'd better just go back to the Grass Continent for that meeting, then. Where had Maple said she was setting up the portal, again? Near... "Bone's" house, right? After getting directions from someone in town, he made his way to the Marowak's house - where, to his surprise, Zane and Vix were talking in the front yard.

"Oh, hey!" he called out to them, before moving closer to address Zane. "Uh, I just thought I might, uh, make sure you were okay after what happened earlier - but I guess you and Vix are doing... something... here?" he said, waving an arm at the bone Zane was banging against the rock. "Um, not sure if I misheard earlier, but did you say you used to actually live around here before? Is Cibus actually your home-world, somehow?"

 

[Tanuki]

Zane's drumming stopped. His gaze stayed firmly on the rock he was about to hit. She had a point. She had a really good point. "I...," didn't have a good rebuttal prepared. His obstinacy, however, refused so easy a defeat. "It doesn't matter what I want." He shook his head. The setting gave him plenty memories to draw from. "It's who I am. Here, Jolt's world, it doesn't matter. People see me, then they hate me. It's as simple as that." So simple, in fact, that he hadn't even noticed Jaro until he called out.

His face went to his claws. Great. More people. "Hi."

 

[Fusion]

Vix shook her head, deciding to answer Jaro for now. "Hey, I was following Zane to make sure he was alright." She glanced back over at Zane before speaking to Jaro again. Clearly, he didn't like talking about this sort of thing with one person, so it'd be impossible to get anything out of him with two present. Out of respect for his wants, she decided not to blab to Jaro.

"It pretty much turned into us talking about whatever while he tapped on some rocks. What about you, Jaro?"

 

[The Walrein]

Huh, it seemed like Zane had been in the midst of a somewhat-heavy conversation. Awkward. Jaro felt annoyed that his question about Zane having been from Cibus apparently wouldn't be getting answered now, but he could bring it up later, if relevant. Also, it seemed like he was actually from a place he referred to as 'Jolt's world'? So he started out living in Cibus, then traveled to Jolt's world, then came back here again with Diyem?

"Er, I was pretty much just doing the same thing as you - following Zane," he said to Vix, then turned to Zane. "Uh, I also kind of wanted to apologize for suddenly teleport-swapping places with you in the last battle. Hope that didn't screw up your strategy. Assuming that I did swap with you; I was definitely aiming for you, at least," Jaro said, then, reflecting, felt like he should explain further. "Not because I was trying to screw up your strategy or anything, it's just that my strategy for that fight involved Lugia hitting me while I was storing power with bide. And, I thought you'd be a good Pokemon to swap with because- uh-" Crap, how to phrase this... "-you're really good at drawing attention to yourself in fights, so I guessed that Lugia would be aiming for you. You have a pretty unique style of fighting, I have to say. I could probably actually learn something from you about that, even - wouldn't have to do the swapping thing again, then."

Jaro stopped to sigh. "Sorry, I'm rambling again, aren't I? I'll stop." He turned to Vix. "So, uh, what was your strategy in the last fight?" he asked.

 

[Fusion]

With how things were going with Zane, it was rather refreshing to have someone not riddled with existential dread, or some form of it.

"I'm still figuring out this new body, so all I did was the tried and true method one of my friends back home taught me," she said with a warm smile. "I just hit 'em really hard. Which was easy to do with Zane mostly taking Darkwhite and Lugia's attention for a good bit of that fight." Sure she would have lived even if she did take a few more hits, probably, but it was worth it to try and boost Zane's morale.

"Speaking of that fight, I swear I saw you get bigger during it. Like, way bigger than you are now. That was pretty cool! How'd you do it?"

 

[The Walrein]

"Hit them hard while they're distracted, huh? That works." Jaro nodded briefly, tilting his whole body except for his feet up and down slightly. "As for me getting larger... that was actually my Radiant Power! Uh, no idea why it does that... Maple said these moves are formed from our 'innermost feelings', I believe, but I... don't think my feelings are actually related to getting larger? I mean, I've dreamed of becoming a Wigglytuff a lot of times, but like, those aren't that much larger than Jigglypuff, so I dunno. I'm assuming you know what your own Radiant Power does by now?"

 

[Fusion]

"I've figured something out, but I don't know about it being related to my feelings. To put it simply, I just cover something with wax. It kinda feels... incomplete, honestly," Vix shrugged. "It sounds boring, but it took an annoying amount of trial and error, and fruit that nobody was using, to figure it out. I'll have to try and see what else I can do with it, but for now, I'm fine with it."

Vix realized that she didn't exactly know what Zane's radiant whatever was, and if it really is tied to emotions and whatnot, then it'd be a good chance to learn about Zane. Or it'll be another thing he'll try his damnedest to not tell her about.