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

[Dragonfree]

Dave gave Koamaru a skeptical look. "If you say so. Personally, you know, given Diyem and Pop and so on exist, of course it helps that they seem basically well-intentioned, as far as that goes, but I feel better in a universe where there's some kind of finite maximum amount of damage that one nutcase can do."

He finished the leftovers and pushed the plate away. He kept a wary eye on the Manectric; the kid looked pretty despondent. "You said you're, what, fourteen?"

 

[Flyg0n]

Koa considered for a moment. How long had he been here for? Probably not a year yet, so he figured he was still 14. "Yeah, I'm 14. That's the age when a kid is allowed to become a trainer. In my region at least." Or it used to be.

A momentary flicker of curiosity came over him. "How old are you?"

 

[Dragonfree]

"Ugh. Old enough people have stopped asking me that back home." Dave slumped against the back of the couch. "Forty since last July, whatever that even means here. So yeah, could be your fucking father. Can't exactly tell in these bodies, can you." His eyes slid back toward Koamaru. He'd done fine in the Tree fight, but sending a fourteen-year-old to save universes was pretty fucked, and yet no one else seemed to think anything of it. Maybe they would if they could actually tell.

 

[Flyg0n]

So yeah, could be your fucking father.

For a second, the strangest sensation washed over Koa. It was as if every thought in his head simultaneously evaporated, leaving him hollow. His mind buzzed, despite feeling empty. Then he mentally shook himself and quickly recovered.

He blinked, then grinned a little. "You're old," he said, his tone playful. Other than Icetales, which was a... Odd case he guessed, Dave could have been the oldest one here. He might have been one of the younger ones, but somehow seeing someone so old was odd.

That explained a lot though. Dave reminded him of a grownup. Jaded. Grumpy. Tired a lot.

"What made you come?" he asked, somewhat impulsively. Dave didn't really seem like Brisa or Owen or some of the others. He couldn't help but be curious what would draw someone like him to something like this.

 

[Dragonfree]

For a moment the Manectric looked distant and Dave started to wonder what the hell he'd said wrong, but then just as abruptly he was back to normal, grinning, in a whiplash strikingly like Jean.

"You're old," he said, his tone playful.

He raised his eyebrows. "Yeah. Ancient. I used to walk among the dinosaurs. One foot in the fucking grave." He could practically hear her giggling at him, hanging from his arm. Dave looked away, sinking into the couch.

"It wasn't exactly... I mean, I know I agreed, somehow, but it's all pretty blurry. I suspect I didn't exactly get to have a conversation, or I would've had a whole lot of questions. Just got picked out like I could somehow help save a fucking alternate universe by going there and then returning to the same moment I left, and at that point, who's going to refuse."

 

[Flyg0n]

Koa chuckled at the comment, then fell quiet for a moment. For all his skepticism, Dave was still here though, and Team Spectrum was making a difference.

No thanks to you.

His words about saving the world also reminded Koa of something. His thoughts flashed back to the tree. Facing down that creature, Diyem... feeling so uncertain yet determined.

And the shield around him, protecting him. Dave's shield, thought he hadn't even realised in the moment.

"Hey uh... Thanks for what you did back at the Tree. Shielding me like that."

 

[Dragonfree]

"Oh. Uh, you're welcome."

The memory of that night going over what'd happened with Jack jabbed at his gut again. If you were going to have children trying to save the world, at least you could have some adults looking out for them.

"You know you don't have to actually be there for confronting Soda at the Tree," he said after a moment. "I mean... He's not..." He paused, gritting his teeth. "I don't know what this Substitute is going to be like, or how he's going to react. I can handle it. You don't have to be there."

 

[Flyg0n]

Koa pawed at the chair cushion as he thought. Dave had a point of course. If he was there, Soda might not even show up. But he wanted to. Needed to. This was all happening because of him, he couldn't sit back and do nothing.

This your fault.

Still. Maybe it would be better to let Dave handle it.

Better than you screwing it up.

"Yeah I guess you got a point," he said casually. He frowned, thoughts crowding his head. He refused to be useless, to just do nothing-

After a moment, he spoke again. "I guess I could try to talk to that Xerneas or Eternatus... Xernatus?" he said wryly, chuckling at the name. "Might learn something to help the team."

 

[Dragonfree]

Huh. He'd expected Koamaru to put up more resistance than that, after earlier. "Probably a good idea," he said. Xerneas was okay now, right? He'd been helpful at the meeting. No sign of wanting to coil around or corrupt anyone. He'd be fine.

It was tempting to just stay here, on the sofa. But the longer any version of Soda went without learning he'd been manipulated, the more shit he could get up to, and the less time they had to act on whatever the real Soda could tell them about what was going on on the Moon.

With a heaving effort, he started to push himself to his feet. "We should really get on that."

 

[Flyg0n]

Koa nodded and hurried towards the door. it had been nice to just. Talk with his roomate for a minute and try not to think about... everything else. A part of him desperately wanted to go with Dave. To see the other Soda and...

What? Save him? Convince him? Stop him?

And what makes you think this time would be any different?

Pushing down the thought, he turned his focus to Xernatus. That was something he could handle at least. Something he wouldn't mess up. Already questions were popping into his mind about what to ask.

"I'll see you around." With a final lingering glance, he hurried out the door.

<><><>​

 

[Dragonfree]

After a long night, Dave had fallen asleep in an ungainly position on the couch, an array of empty bottles on the coffee table, and Shadow had dissipated. Brisa hadn't been home yet; he'd figured she was still with Starr, making sure she was okay, like the kind of person she was.

When Mia reemerged from her stone in the morning, she prodded him with a scythe, found him entirely unresponsive, and frowned before heading out to train.

 

[Chibi Pika]

What a fucking night. The instant the post-mission meeting had wrapped up, Starr immediately headed back to her house. Fortunately, neither of her roommates had been home. She wasn’t in the mood to see them, or anyone, for that matter. Well, except... Brisa had gone with her. Starr hadn't had the energy or the drive to protest. (And it wasn't like she didn't want Brisa there, but...) She'd passed out near-instantly.

...And then managed to sleep until 1pm. Goddamn.

Starr had the vague memory of Brisa saying something to her before finally leaving, though she wasn't sure when that'd happened, exactly--she'd been half-delirious. Could've been later that night or the next morning. Half of her wanted to just hide at home and sleep the next few weeks away. The other half wanted to go find Brisa and say... something. She wasn't sure what.

So once she finally had the energy, Starr downed half a pot of coffee and then ventured out, squinting and cursing at the sun for daring to blind her once she set foot outside. She let herself in through the front door of Brisa's place and called out, "Anyone home?" She couldn't hear any sounds of anyone moving about...

 

[Dragonfree]

"Mwuh?"

Dave stirred at the sound of the door opening and someone calling. Was the front door unlocked? God. Why couldn't he just fucking sleep?

He blinked, pulled his aching head up, tried to wipe off the spot of drool on the couch. He winced at the light streaming in through the windows, shielding his eyes with a paw. "Hello?"

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr heard a voice coming from the common room and glanced around the corner to see Dave sprawled out on the couch, looking half dead. Probably hungover, judging by the bottles on the table.

"Hey," she said. You look like shit. "Is Brisa home?"

Starr found her eyes sliding away from him without thinking. Had she beaten the shit out of him, too? She couldn't remember. God dammit.

 

[Dragonfree]

"Oh. Uh. Probably not? She's always out and about, being friends with fucking everyone." He squinted at the light again as he lowered his paw down to push himself up, feeling like death. He half-fell off the couch and shook himself. "She was with you last night, right? You, uh, all recovered, I take it?"

 

[Chibi Pika]

Yeah, he sounded just about as fucked up as Starr felt. Her eyes gradually slid back toward him before she reminded herself that she didn't want to know how bad she'd kicked the shit out of him, or anyone else. For a moment she saw Brisa's face, streaked with blood and tears.

"She was, yeah," Starr replied, her voice monotone. "Not... sure if she's doing better now."

 

[Dragonfree]

He looked at Starr, padding over towards the kitchen to get some painkillers. "Why, what happened last night?" Fuck. Shouldn't have fucking fallen asleep. Had Starr just rejected her or something? Would be a bizarre fucking time to make a move on her, but then again Brisa'd yelled half of 'I love you' to somebody while in the process of fucking disintegrating.

Starr was averting her eyes, avoiding the other question. Not all that recovered, then. A pang of discomfort struck him, the memory of sinking his teeth into her gigantic shoulder as she laid into Brisa. Seemed normal at the time, battle hormones and all, but what the fuck.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr let herself glance back toward him, momentarily nonplussed. "Nothing... last night, no. Not that I'd have remembered it either way I guess. Kind of a bit more concerned about the mission."

Why was she still here. Brisa wasn't here, Dave sure as hell didn't want to talk, and neither did Starr, for that matter. But she hadn't left yet.

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave popped a tablet into a glass of water, where it frothed as it dissolved, and squinted at Starr. "Look, you had a parasite take over your brain. Brisa had the Shadow Machine take over her brain once too. Shit happens on Cibus. There's not a fucking chance in hell she's holding any of that against you."

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr turned away, glowering at the wall. "I didn't think she would." I thought she should. "I just... wanted to make sure she was okay."

There was something bugging Starr about the comparison to the Shadow Machine, and maybe she wouldn't have said anything normally, but her filter was down and she didn't remotely care to bring it back up. "Besides, that machine only dragged out a bunch of stuff that Brisa thought she was because the assholes from her world told her so. It was all bullshit in the end."