Mystery Continent ~ Northern Pines

[ExplosiveTurkey]

The ninetales' abundance of cheer was as infectious as it was unsettling, though Aria was polite enough to not make a mention of it.

"Mhm, but I don't think ours was quite as popular. Not as many people wanted to fight us, and most of us didn't care much for it either."

She looked around once more, humming in thought. "Stronger ones in the arena, you said? Do the people in charge not mind you making a mess of the place?"

 

[TheGOAT]

“Apparently it sells enough tickets for them not to care!” Astrid laughed briefly. “…Months ago, things were a little different. I wasn’t able to control it like this, and… well, I didn’t have someone like you around to help. I hurt myself a lot.” A sober pause. “And others. Kinda wakes you up.”

 

[ExplosiveTurkey]

Aria raised a brow in mild surprise, not having expected the ninetales' happy exterior to peel back so soon, if even a little. 'Someone like you'... right, the corruption draining. Hers had been one of the earliest powers to manifest, and listening to Astrid, she couldn't help but wonder how much of a difference that made for her team in the long run.

"...Yeah, power's easy to mishandle, isn't it? Sorry you had to find out the hard way. I'm guessing that's when you started visiting this place?"

 

[TheGOAT]

“Yeah. It went down… something like that.” Now that they’d spent some time talking, the dust seemed to have settled completely. “…I fought the Blacklight out here. Even more than I fought it on the moon… I think, I think thisplace is where I fought with it the most. The energies in my body are constantly playing on emotions that, mm, I guess I still don’t understand that well. So, this was the right place to go and let it all flow. Was never… never much of a therapy gal, haha...”

She stared off at something, then chuckled. “I just… sorry. Do you guys deal with that stuff too? Our position must be unique to almost anyone in the universe. Multiverse. Whatever the current highest scale of order is, we’re probably like, up there with weird stuff flowing through us, huh?”

 

[ExplosiveTurkey]

Aria half-nodded, half-shrugged. "I mean, yeah, it's not often people have to deal with outside energies screwing with their thoughts. We had a few people who had trouble dealing with the blacklight, much like yourself. At the same time, it's easy to twist that to your benefit. It's like having your worst traits highlighted for everyone to see, including yourself. Gives you a problem to identify and work on."

She bent down and picked up a fistful of ash, before tossing it into the air and letting it snow back down. "Is that what you meant by soul-searching, earlier? Because I can't come up with a more charitable way to interpret blowing up as therapeutic."

 

[MadderJacker]

"... Excuse me," greeted a Gardevoir, standing some twenty yards away with his blood still up. Flanking him on either side were two great uprooted trees, their branches torn off and ends somewhat ground to sharpened points, and they bobbed in the air as if floating in an invisible sea. His eyes scanned the area one last time, finding no bodies in the area, before returning to the two with barely-hidden concern mixed with a dash of irritation.

"What was this about therapy? Why are they having you recreate the surface of the moon?"

 

[TheGOAT]

He wasn’t wrong. The Pines were vast, and it certainly took a while to get around, but she was familiar with its outer limits by now and wouldn’t be surprised if a bird’s-eye view, notwithstanding the canopy in the way, would produce imagery similar to that of the damn moon. How about that. Too bad she’d never find out.

“Well, um,” Astrid tapped a paw to her chin, “funny you put it that way. Makes it sound like a piece of modern art.” Maybe, by Cibusean standards, it would be. “…It’s definitely just been me out here though, training on my own time…”

Thankfully it didn’t seem like the Gardevoir was much of an environmentalist at the moment either; those were some big, innocent trees he was lugging around, huh. Still, did her own explanation really sound much better than being put up to this after all? He sure didn’t look impressed by it. Her generally harmless appearance didn’t quite do the forest justice after all that’d happened here, nor did it do justice to these folks who might be carrying trauma from that deafening sound that Radiance makes when beyond the point of no return.

So she dropped the look entirely and pursed her lips. “Hi there! …I’m, uh, Astrid. Was this a hangout spot for you guys or something?” She didn’t think she’d ever seen a third soul out here.

 

[ExplosiveTurkey]

"We're... fellow connoisseurs of peace and quiet, you could say."

With an amused frown, Aria focused her gaze on the two oversized toothpicks by the gardevoir's sides.

"I think we both assumed the worst in very different ways, though. Hello, Hurricane."

 

[MadderJacker]

Mergo returned with a cordial nod. "Dickbreaker." Far better than whatever her actual title would be.

 

[TheGOAT]

Fascinated, Astrid pawed at the ground. “Woah, you guys have such… um, cool nicknames! What other names do you have? Do you have, what are they called, the ‘sound’ names? Like, okay, mine is—” deep breath, “—AAAAAAAA!!”

 

[ExplosiveTurkey]

Whatever disapproving look Aria had been giving Mergo, it quickly morphed into one of bemused amusement. "...Fascinating. We did have those names, yeah," she said, walking towards the gardevoir.

"Mine was, er... Bonk."

She lightly whacked him on the head.

"Like so. And for the record, 'Dickbreaker' is not a name I go by."

 

[MadderJacker]

He eyed the fist bizarrely as it fell away from him, as if both the object and the gesture were alien to him, but after a sharp inhale, he returned his attention to Astrid and soldiered on.

“Mine had been this,” he answered, and he clenched a fist behind his back. The two trunks beside him twisted and cracked and snapped as invisible grasps constricted around them, showering splinters into the air, and slowly, Mergo set them down in these wasted proving grounds. “But you may call me Mergo, if that’s hard to pronounce.”

Briefly he glanced to Aria. Only briefly. Then back to Astrid.

“It’s good to meet you. You seem… full of energy.”

 

[TheGOAT]

Ultimately, Astrid wasn’t able to move her jaw in a way that would allow her to properly recreate those sounds. Oh well.

She wiped her face and nodded. “Mergo it’ll be. Of course I’m full of energy, I’m out here to exercise!”

What if they were spying on her? She’d heard whispers of an Aria and a Mergo… just names being flung around in a sea of others, and got the vague impression they might be the ones to carry out such a task. It could all be a part of the Game everyone was playing leading up to the colosseum fight. Maybe that was a reach, but who was she to call it unfair anyway? She’d steal a hint or two of her own if she could.

“Soo, if you all didn’t fight the Blacklight on the moon, where did you fight it? Did it possess anyone or was it already in its freakishly big titanic form? We sorta blew it up too quickly to get a good look, so um, I don’t know how much detail I could describe it in for you in return…”

 

[MadderJacker]

"It was this strange purple haze," Mergo answered quickly. The spiked end of the tree started to burrow deep into the dirt, giving him a rough throne to sit on in the nest of unearthed roots. King of the wastes was he. "We fought it on this giant board with numbers and tiles to follow everywhere, and we all held a deck of strange cards as we played against the Blacklight to get to the end of the game. I think we were in the Shadow Realm?"

Mergo turned to Aria. "That was what they called it, right?"

 

[ExplosiveTurkey]

"I think so, yeah," the lucario replied with a nod and an award-winning effort to keep a straight face. "The Blacklight we dealt with had a rather sick sense of humor. Luckily that meant most of its power went into toying with us instead of fighting us properly."

 

[MadderJacker]

"Except for poor Kamon. Crushed to death by a deck of cards. What a way to go out." Mergo closed his eyes and placed his palm against his chest, spreading his fingers out in all directions. He whispered a prayer. "Ave aster."

 

[TheGOAT]

“Eheh. Did someone actually die?” Astrid shifted in place and tensed a little. Probably not, honestly. She was pretty sure the Gardevoir was pulling her tail, but well, she’d gone and brought up the subject anyway. “We had a few people bite the dust. Y’know how warfare goes, and stuff, ha ha… Their souls went to the Voidlands, I guess, so it was fine. Ish. Diyem was able to revive them.”

But still. It never sat right with her. What if that was back home?

“I don’t think I ever got used to viewing death—like, in a permanent sense—as a suggestion. Does… does it work that way where you’re from, too? You can imagine, being here, I’ve already heard plenty about other worlds and their varying standards for power and stuff. And I’m pretty sure a newborn sunkern from some could slaughter an omnipotent mewthree from others.”

 

[ExplosiveTurkey]

"That sounds like a sight to behold, depending on what a mewthree would even look like. But, uh... no, we didn't have someone actually die. We're just pulling your leg...s. Though, all of us did go tour the Voidlands for a bit. Long story, that one."

Aria paused, mulling over something for a bit, before sighing. "And as for your other question, no again. Death's normal where I'm from, even if it's a bit complicated for me personally. But I still get ya, and I think it's good you're not used to it. No one should be, honestly."

 

[MadderJacker]

Mergo clicked his tongue. Of course she would spoil that for him.

“Same here. Death is permanent. Legacies are the only way to defy it,” he answered. His fingers drummed on the tip of one of the roots as he glanced towards the tree line. “People die when they’re killed. It’s as simple as that.”

 

[TheGOAT]

“Mhm. Mhm.” Astrid nodded. She took a moment to finally appreciate the crater she’d just made. “Just depends on what you mean by ‘killed’, I guess. Because I’m pretty sure I’ve died, like, a couple times. I actually am used to it in that sense, if that makes any… sense.

“But, I haven’t been killed. By someone or something else, at least. So I am therefore not dead. As you can see.”

She shrugged. “That’s how Cibus works~”