Destiny Village ~ X-Eye Cauldron

[Namohysip]

"Joule constantly traveled worlds," Soda said. "It was kind of his thing. Bastion of hope and second chances or whatever dumb shit he spouts." He shrugged. "I guess it worked out aside from now when he went and got corrupted."

But to Dave's next question, he snorted and said, "There are tons of worlds like this. Not exactly the same, but similar deals. No humans, but stories of 'em. The occasional crisis that calls for them because of how their energy works with Pokemon, and all that crap. Save the world with friendship and hope, blah blah blah."

 

[Dragonfree]

"Hmmm." Joule was a big old happy optimist, huh. And now he was captured and/or dead. Nice.

"Right. So... you're a human? Your partner? Or were you just a couple of Pokémon trying and failing to fix things?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Right, you're one of the smart ones." Soda sighed, looking down. "...Yeah. Yeah, I was human. I was human a long time ago. Sorta forgot what it was like for the most part, y'know, being a Zoroark for longer than I've been anything else. But we didn't really go off and save the world from some eldritch catastrophe like these guys are. We were sorta lowkey. Still big, but, you know." He looked down. "We fixed things just fine. I saved the world. Everything was all hunky-dory."

 

[Dragonfree]

Well. "Guessing 'Soda''s not your actual name, huh."

Fuck. He was a goddamn human, too. A human who'd never made it home.

"So, what, did your Voice of Life not let you go back when you'd fixed things?" Was the Voice of Life Maple? "Or did you choose to stay?"

 

[Namohysip]

Soda held the glass a little tighter, then pushed it away so he didn't risk breaking it.

"Partner and I talked it out," he said. "I had a home to get back to. I figured that when it was all over, I would be able to go home and say my goodbyes. I told them early. I wasn't going to be some idiot who would keep it a secret and leave them all heartbroken. So when the world was saved, we had some tears, we hugged and all that gushy bullshit, and then we made a journey to a tall summit. It was where we were told to go."

Soda hesitated. He didn't want to go on, but Dave asked, and he'd already given some of the answers.

"When they tried, though... they said I had no body to return to. I had died."

 

[Dragonfree]

A cold, awful feeling congealed in Dave's stomach. Diyem had promised to return them to the moment he'd taken them, right? Time wasn't supposed to be passing back home while they were here?

"Shit. That's... Jesus." How... how did that even work? "Did they say what was supposed to be happening with your human body while you were there? Were you just, what, in a coma, and then died?" Would Soda even know that? Fuck.

He took a long sip of his beer. He had a feeling this story wasn't about to get any less depressing. "So then... what happened to your partner?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Yeah. Yeah, I didn't really know what happened to my body, and nobody in the Powers That Be told me about it, either. They didn't really know. They said that they just searched for a suitable person that'd help them, I answered, and that was it. They didn't think to check on what happened or anything, just that apparently, either I was already dead, or the act of taking me away, killed me. So." Soda shrugged. "Doesn't matter anyway. Even if I could go back now, it'd've been decades. I'm worlds away and decades away from that life. There's nothing for me back there anyway. Friends, family? To them I just died. Classic tragedy, who cares..."

He tapped the glass. "Obviously, I fell into a fucking massive depression for a while. My partner, though. She was there for me the whole goddamn time. We stayed where we stayed like always, we got close, we..." Soda looked away. His illusions faltered. "Sorry. Fucking, this is stupid to talk about. None of it matters anyway."

 

[Dragonfree]

"Shit," Dave said again. He'd been hoping this chat might illuminate something about the God Squad, about who could be trusted, but it was hard not to just think about where the fuck Diyem was and whether he'd ever get home, with this poor fucker in front of him, an actual human who'd just gotten stuck here for the rest of his life while dying away from everyone he cared about.

He chugged down some more of his drink.

Mia narrowed her eyes at Soda. "You didn't answer the question. You said you lost your partner and got exiled."

 

[Namohysip]

"Yeah, well maybe I don't want to answer that, how's that sound?" Soda snapped, but despite the venom of his words, his voice had no power.

"...Eventually I got over it. My life back at the human world, yeah, I had good stuff, but I also had good stuff in the Pokemon world, and I was stuck leaving things behind no matter what choice I made. So, having one forcibly taken away from me... I guess it was a pride thing." He took another swig of the first drink, downing it completely, and started on his second.

"Got a new career. Decided to play to my strengths. Became a master of espionage, scouting, stuff like that for the country I settled in. Being a human-turned-Pokemon, my talents were sort of unrivaled. All this crap isn't anything new." He gestured vaguely upward, which made little sparkles and other swirling object illusions. "Nobody would be prepared for advanced illusions because most Zoroark aren't capable of it. My partner wasn't as good with spying so she just took on a normal job in t he military to help out with defense. Since she lived with me, she got strong the same way Pokemon who chill with humans normally do.

"One thing led to another, and..." Soda looked up. "Well. I helped keep the peace for the world. I guess it's fate for powerful heroes to do that in worlds like these. It took the interest of the god of my world. He wanted to offer me a..." Soda hesitated, "...position."

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave scowled at that. “The god of your world. So, Arceus? Different Arceus?”

 

[Namohysip]

Soda nodded. "Yep. Not too different from this one all in all, at least in terms of stuff like position and all that. But y'know, I thought it was a little weird, too." Soda tapped his claws on the glass. "Why would someone like that approach me for a proposal like that, y'know? Well, as it turns out, the organization I worked for thought the same thing.

"So... he became my next assignment. Spy on Arceus, see what he's planning, and report back if it's anything sinister." He swirled the drink around. "Back home, back in my human home, there was a story about a person called Icarus, who used wings of wax to fly. Except when he flew too high, the sun melted those wings. I feel like that's what happened to the organization I was in, when they made that decision."

 

[Dragonfree]

There was a jab of something in Dave's gut. "Icarus, huh? We've got that myth." Did he come from home? Or a different but similar world, the way so many of the worlds seemed to be variations on Cibus with slightly different timelines of events?

He fiddled with his glass, contemplating what Soda was telling him. He'd been scouted by Arceus. A so-called god. Only the organization he was already working for... was suspicious of his intentions. So it wasn't, like Cibus, a world where everyone apparently just accepted Arceus's divine rule.

...Only it didn't sound like it'd ended well for them, did it. His grip tightened on the glass.

"This has all been a bit fucking vague. What's this organization, and what exactly was Arceus talent scouting you for?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Organization was called PPMG. Peaceful Preventative Measures Guild. In other words, our job was to get into organizations before they could get off the ground, sabotage them from the inside, and demoralize any efforts to cause trouble before it actually happened. Thankless, shadowy, yeah, we're a little shady, but we kept the world damn peaceful. The Arceus of that world didn't know about us. We were all trained in anti-mind reading techniques, we monitored each other, all that shit. We had our paw in every pie when you get to large-scale stuff, and that included the god himself.

"I didn't really know what Arceus wanted. It was just a weird move to make. He seemed interested in making me his right-hand mon or something, or maybe he wanted to be on my good side because my human side was augmenting my powers more than he thought. My personal opinion? He was afraid and wanted to keep me close so I didn't challenge him. I had a helluva following and it was taking attention away from him. And no god wants to be outshined."

 

[Dragonfree]

"Get into... organizations?" Soda was being very vague again. Dave narrowed his eyes at him. Yeah, this thing did sound shady as fuck, and naming itself "Peaceful Preventative Measures" didn't help - frankly that sounded like some sort of extremist cult, the same vibe as a dictatorship calling itself a People's Democratic Republic.

No god wanted to be outshined, though, huh. That certainly tracked. Thou shalt have no other gods before me and all. Which, at the same time, suggested he did have something to be afraid of, in a universe where there was an actual God.

"So... you personally had a following and he thought you'd challenge him. Not your organization, you?" Was Soda some sort of goddamn cult leader?

 

[Namohysip]

"Guess so," Soda said. "Like I said, I saved bigger and bigger things. The stronger I became, the more I was capable of, and the more I got to be known. Created an illusory forest just so people wouldn't bug me all day. Partner and I lived together pretty nicely like that..." Soda trailed off, humming, then went on. "'s far as I was concerned, I had a pretty good life. But, y'know. Heroes are mortal. They get old. And I kinda... didn't want it to end."

Soda fidgeted.

"Then one day, Arceus made... me an offer."

 

[Dragonfree]

Oh lord. Was this going where Dave thought it was going. "What exactly was he offering?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Offer was," Soda said, "I'd work under him. In exchange, I got to live for as long as I served. Tenure's apparently great, measured in centuries." Soda laughed a little. "Seemed like a pretty good gig, so I accepted immediately. And just like that my spirit was bound." His expression darkened despite his smile. "Here's a tip. Never make a deal with a god. They're all devils in the end."

 

[Dragonfree]

Of course. Of course it was. "Jesus."

It was ridiculous to even be in a world where gods were a thing, where you actually had to contend with nigh-omnipotent beings existing. But given you were in that world, somehow, the gods being shady should come as a surprise to fucking no one.

"Yeah, you know, I wasn't fucking planning to, thanks." Soda's story didn't make any sense on the face of it. "So what's your current gig about? Clearly you didn't just willingly go off to serve another Arceus. Is that who Maple really is, the dickhead Arceus who bound your spirit?"

 

[Namohysip]

"No." Soda shook his head. "This was all before Maple came into the picture. Here's the thing. I was playing between two sides. On one hand, the organization I was part of, who assigned me to investigate Arceus. And on the other, Arceus himself, working under him. And my partner... I tried vouching for her to get a similar position. Arceus said he'd think about it.

"Fast forward a bunch, and I kinda... got impatient. Partner was getting older and Arceus didn't give her the same perks yet. We were starting to fight a little about it privately, because she knew I was supposed to be researching about what Arceus was up to, but I wasn't finding anything. Organization was starting to worry that I was falling for the power.

"Then one day I up and asked Arceus. I raised my voice a little, I guess, but eventually when I was done with my rant, he said that he'd give my partner the same gig I had... if I put an end to the other organization. So, he knew. He probably knew the whole time. Guess anti-mind reading doesn't work on gods, or something.

"So, I... was stuck. Partner was being held hostage and she didn't even know it, I was being held hostage with my own power under him, and I... panicked."

 

[Dragonfree]

Honestly Dave'd been so ready to believe Maple was secretly an asshole Arceus from another world who'd bound Soda to some kind of supernatural indentured servitude. Would explain his lack of enthusiasm about God Squad work, and Maple's fucked-up power level. But he dismissed it too easily and casually for it to be a lie. So much for that. He'd better have a satisfying excuse to up and start working for the fucking God Squad anyway, after declaring you should never make a deal with a god.

He sipped his drink as Soda finished and paused. Dave raised his eyebrows at him. "You panicked?"