Rocky Road ~ House of Brisa, Dave, Koa, and Owen

[Dragonfree]

Dave squinted at her. "The... therapists' office? No thanks. Talking to Bean once was enough."

She'd told him about her therapy before, hadn't she. Something about Fugu being a battle therapist, who'd just fucking fight her. Wild. Pokémon and their battling thing. And Starr, he supposed, sure, she was all in on that too, for some reason. He sure wasn't.

That was one of the things Brisa was pissed at him about, wasn't it. That Colosseum fight, where she'd just gone and fucking transformed, and he hadn't seen it before because he hadn't been to her matches because why. That goddamn look on her face.

"Hey, Brisa," he muttered. "Why the fuck did you transform into a Zeraora?" He looked towards her. "I mean, most people are having magic transformations and all but they're not suddenly half-transforming into a fucking legendary."

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

This topic again, with that weird hostility Dave had sometimes about stuff. It was true enough. Nobody else had unleashed a legendary form, as such. Well, there was Celeste, with his rainbow wings so reminiscent of Ho-oh's. Not quite as unsubtle as her own shift, to be fair.

She shrugged, and broke eye contact. "When we unleash our full potential, it's a sustained use of both Radiance an' Shadows. I reckon what we become reveals the meetin' of what we truly intend an' what we secretly feel. Y'ever talk t'my familiar? Luz is pretty much what I used t'hope I'd grow up t'be. Thought if I was enough of a hero, I might succeed the real Luz Escarpa one day."

Now Dave was gonna find some way to disapprove of that, probably. Or was that just her being too used to interacting with Jesse?

 

[Dragonfree]

"...Huh."

Just... dreams of being a hero. That was it? She'd wished for heroing as a kid, and the Blacklight just went and turned her into the hero she'd imagined?

He stared at the empty air for a few seconds, his chest tight. Had to swallow a weird fucking lump in his throat. Fuck. He really had drunk too much.

"Did I ever tell you about my daughter? Jean?"

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa shook her head.

"I knew y'had kids besides Mia. Nothin' much about 'em, though. Somethin' happen to her...?"

She couldn't help but look sympathetic before he'd even said anything. Looking at him hungover and in need of a bath, it was easy to assume everything about his life had gone to shit without exception.

 

[Dragonfree]

"She's... she was half Vulpix. Fucking adorable. Loves cartoons and games and adventure books. Simple easy stories where the heroes beat up the villains and save the world. She used to daydream of being a hero all the time, too." He glanced at Brisa. "She'd fucking love you. Big sister who's a half-human lion who fights gods? Probably faint with fucking excitement." He smiled faintly for a brief moment.

"So of course, when one of the others got kidnapped by a bunch of lunatics, she's just made of excitement. She's going to be a fucking hero. Like the ones in her books. They're going to beat up the bad guys and rescue him and everything'll be fine. Except then they go and... she doesn't even make it to the place, right. She just touches a goddamn Fire Stone by accident. Half of her evolves into a Ninetales, and it's a horrorshow. Throat producing fire that her human cells can't handle. Whole body's just... weird and gangly and misproportioned. And that's how she comes home. Just crying and in pain and trying to deal with her limbs all being too fucking long. Nothing I could do except stand there and fucking hold her."

His voice was wavering. He grabbed the coffee cup again, had a sip and then just squeezed the handle.

"And you know, the irony is," he added abruptly, "if she hadn't gone and touched that Fire Stone, she'd have gone with the others and gotten shot, so probably that was fucking lucky."

He took a breath, shaking his head.

"So that's, you know, what I thought of when you transformed. That and fucking Soda. I'm sorry."

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa listened, and nodded, and winced in empathy as Dave related the story. When he was done, she dipped her ears and flicked her tail.

"Shit, that's just all kinds of dreadful," she said, dumbly. "I'm sorry, too."

She paused, thought, swallowed. Another of Dave's kids, a half-human who wanted to be a hero? If she thought of Dave as another father, she couldn't help but picture a gangly, bipedal ninetales gal, all wide eyes and energy, a little sister of sorts.

She hoped they'd get along, if they ever met.

"Fer what it's worth, I'm sure I'd love her too."

 

[Dragonfree]

"Yeah, well, never actually going to meet her." Dave drank the rest of the coffee and put it back down. "So that's a moot point."

He looked dully at the empty cup. "So in your world regular people can ascend into legendaries, too?"

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa sighed, and mvoed on from the topic of Dave's poor kid. It was hard to know how to reassure him about anything, anyway...

"Yeah, so the stories say. I heard once that Zeraora Luz has been around a few centuries, and that there were a different zeraora before her. In Cibus it's a matter of fact an' public record, though. Legendary 'mon are a rather more reclusive type where I'm from."

 

[Dragonfree]

"How's that supposed to work? Does the legendary just..." He waved a paw. "...pick somebody? Hey, I'm retiring, you're Zeraora now, clean up my mess?"

Though it kind of sounded like all that might as well just be a myth, didn't it. If she was making a point of it not being a matter of fact and public record.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa shrugged again. "So far as I can tell from all the fuckin' folk tales an' scraps of old journals I could find, Luz could offer the successorship to someone she considered worthy, or someone could approach her with the intent of becomin' an aspirant."

She smiled vaguely at something her Luz had said not long ago.

"Luz, as in, my shade, went to Spirit's Edge t'meet her namesake a li'l while back. First thing Zeraora Luz said was that she didn't think Shade Luz, Buffet and Cal could all be aspirants. Reckon y'can infer somethin' 'bout how often Zeraora even sees people this side of last generation."

 

[Dragonfree]

"Huh." So she did exist, if they could find her at Spirits' Edge. Could you just fucking... go through deities and myths one by one, visit Spirits' Edge, definitively confirm or deny their existence? Fucking amazing. Maybe he could do that when he was bored sometime. If he was ever bored again in this place. (The parasite. Remember the parasite. God, how long had it been by now?)

"So... over there it's just kind of a position of power you can aspire toward and maybe it'll actually happen? Like... you know, wanting to grow up to be president." He imagined Jean declaring she'll be a legendary Pokémon when she grows up, and this being an actual plausible thing. What the fuck.

He imagined telling a suit-clad adult Jean on election night, For a moment there I thought they were about to elect you president. The look on Brisa's face when he'd said he thought some kind of ascension was happening made a bit more sense. Shit.

"Look, I'm... It's not really the same thing, I guess, just the Blacklight at all, but if turning into a Zeraora makes you happy, that's great. Power to you." He vaguely attempted to give her a thumbs-up before realizing it wasn't even remotely working. "And, you know, if you still want the other thing, I'd vote for you." What the fuck was he even talking about. Did they even have elections in cowboy world? Probably not.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

"I guess. Bein' a Legendary ain't like holdin' public office. Zeraora don't get no say in how things are run or whatever. More like emergency services, y'know?"

She grinned drily.

"Besides, I'm not eligible t'run fer public office back home anyway."

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave frowned. "Is this the fucking... 'feral' discrimination again? You don't get rights because you like fighting and don't wear clothes?"

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa laughed.

"Somethin' like that."

Wind and weather, he sure did get pissed off whenever something wasn't fair.

He and Pa were alike in that way.

 

[Dragonfree]

"World of fucking pricks. Fuck 'em. If they don't want you, their loss."

She'd called the Zeraora Luz Escarpa, hadn't she. "Do they even do Zeraora? I mean, is she their hero? What, does she wear clothes?"

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa had given up arguing with that sentiment a while ago. Dave wasn't about to start caring about the wellbeing of townie assholes any time soon. Besides, it felt kinda good to hear someone fight her corner, even if it was just with invective into empty air.

"Yeah, kinda," she replied. "Current zeraora is a clanner, I assume by birth. Got no reason t'believe the next one would have t'be, and her responsibilities are to all folks and nature itself, not to her own people, if she even sees 'em as that any more."

 

[Dragonfree]

"So do they respect her back? Even though she's a 'feral'? Somebody they'd hang if she weren't a fucking legend?" God, these fucking people.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

"Well, like I said, she's scarce these years. Lotta folks ain't got much picture of her at all. But she don't figure into their way of doin' things."

Brisa scratched her cheek with one paw.

"Somethin' tells me they'd find issue with her the way they do with me."

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave gave a long sigh. "Yeah. Of course they would."

He paused, looking into the air. "Hey, Starr told me something. She was talking about how... you don't have anything to go back to. Is that... were you considering trying to... just stay? Not go back?"

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa nodded. It had stopped being a vague suppressed yearning months ago already. She'd talked about it frankly enough to plenty of Cibus natives, including in interview. So. Sure.

"Yeah, the only things tyin' me to my home are my estranged blood family, this golett who I was givin' some aid to fer a bit, an' my moral duty t'protect Frontier Town."

She gestured vaguely to the planet they were on.

"Here, I'm a goddamn hero. Folks like me. Hell, most folks like me a lot. I have routines I enjoy, aspirations that feel achievable, and plenty of strong bonds with people I care about."

She smiled weakly at Dave. "Of course I wanna stay."