Destiny Village ~ Chip's Lab

[Namohysip]

Between Destiny Tower and Poppin' Arms was a short road, and near the base of the hill that Destiny Tower sat was another, tiny building, a perfect cube in shape. A single, sliding door opened for anybody who approached and pressed against the doorway, but the second entrance required authorization on the other side. Afterward, there was nothing more than a table, a few pieces of furniture, and a stairway going down. Next to the stairway seemed to be another door, as well as a button next to the door with an arrow pointing down. Curious...

The walls within the lab gave off little more than a cold, sterile atmosphere, pure white with materials that seemed more reinforced than even the Legend-resistant architecture of the city as a whole. Countless gadgets, prototypes, and failures lined the shelves with several stacks of notes next to each one, and some of them were locked behind protective but see-through cases. The air smelled like electricity.

The halls led to various other experimentation rooms. Some of them had mechanical whirring coming from the other side. Others were silent. Chip spent most of his time here, toiling away at inventions and other ideas to move Destiny Village forward, and other times other scientists and inventors visited to do the same--most notably, apparently, another Legend.

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"Hmm, they should be here soon..." Maple looked over her badge, watching everyone's icons skitter about on the screen. Then, she checked Treasure Town, where several of Spectrum seemed to frequently visit, even after their move-in to Destiny Village. She supposed it was only fair, considering they'd spent a whole month there and then some. Though, now that the machine was destroyed, they had very few leads on where to go next...

"You really think they'll be able to get us anything?" Soda asked, arms crossed.

"Groooogh," Flesh groaned.

"Yeah, we were about to get lunch," Soda said.

"Then get lunch," Maple said, sighing. "You didn't have to be here."

"Yeah, well, I'm curious. And you know Flesh can't go without me."

"I'm sure they wouldn't mind after everything else," Maple pointed out.

"Ehh, not gonna risk it," Soda said. "Flesh gets self-conscious about it."

"Groooghhh..."

 

[Adamhuarts]

"Did you call for us?" Cynthian asked, meekly walking into the lab. He'd expected some others to already be there, and being alone with the other God Squad made him uncomfortable, especially after hearing about Maple's little interrogation session some time ago.

"I happened to be nearby, so I showed up," Cynthian said.

 

[Persephone]

Cuicatl entered the lab. She’d been paged and thought that she might as well see what, if anything, she could contribute.

“Hey,” she said. She thought she smelled someone familiar, but she didn’t want to be sure. Could be another of the same species. “Who all is here?”

 

[Adamhuarts]

"Oh, hey Cuicatl!" Cynthian said, immediately scooting over next to her. He could barely hide how relieved he was to see anyone else from the Crew show up.

 

[Persephone]

Okay so that probably was Cynthian. Not that there were any other flowers on the team.

“Hi,” Cuicatl said. Screw it, they were at the teasing point in sort of friendship, right? “How did the attract plan end up working out?”

 

[Adamhuarts]

"Um..." Cynthian thought back to the particular battle in question and felt like crawling into a hole.

"It could've gone worse. In my defense, I didn't think she was capable of... feeling," Cynthian said as he cleared his throat.

 

[Persephone]

And if she wasn’t capable of feeling, what was attract going to do? But she sensed that Cynthian had hit the point where more teasing would be mean.

“And how have you been doing since then?”

 

[Adamhuarts]

"Fine, I think? Though I've been thinking of home more lately," Cynthian said with a sigh.

"What about you? Been living the dragon life, yeah?" Cynthian asked. By that point, he'd already forgotten he was in the presence of God Squad.

 

[Persephone]

Cuicatl pointedly did not answer the question on how she was doing. She found herself feeling better as she talked to the Roselia. No need to drag her baggage into this. “What was your home like?”

 

[Adamhuarts]

"It's pretty much just like this one, except not quite. You're a human, right? There weren't any in my world just like here... we didn't even have otherworlders. Anyway, it's been peaceful back home lately." Cynthian frowned momentarily and his expression went back to normal. "For the most part anyway. What's yours like?"

 

[Persephone]

“That sounds nice. Mine’s... not like that. Lots of wars. Countries occupying other countries. People fighting over which gods are stronger. There are still good humans and pokemon, but it seems like everything goes wrong when enough get together to make decisions.”

“Sorry. That was a little dark.”

 

[Adamhuarts]

"Oh..." Cynthian was taken aback by that. Her world sounded so... bleak. Cynthian instinctively patted her on the shoulder with a sympathetic look.

"I'm sure it's not all doom and gloom though. They say there's always pockets of light even in the darkest trenches, right?" Cynthian said, in hopes that it'd cheer her up.

 

[Persephone]

“The small things are good. My family,” the living members, at least, “and friends. The sounds of nature waking up in the morning. If you can put the big stuff aside for a moment, things can feel okay.”

Unless you also poisoned the small stuff by killing your brother and mother, betraying your father, and losing your sister. But surely no one would be dumb and/or evil enough to do that.

 

[Adamhuarts]

"I only have my mother at home, and no real friends really. I've had more friends here than all twenty five years of my life. It's a shame it won't last though, and I'll forget everything that happened eventually," Cynthian said with a sigh.

It wasn't all true however. Cynthian had opportunities to foster friendships, but he always distanced himself from others in the end. In that sense, his time in Cibus would be no different. Relationships with fleeting like seasons...

 

[Persephone]

Oh wow. Cynthian was old. Unless years are different here because of a different distance from the sun. But it feels similar enough to her own. If it was closer it would be much hotter, and it would be colder if farther away. Instead this world feels kind of like earth. Maybe a little cooler. Which would actually make Cynthian even older than her world’s version of twenty-five.

Point is, Cuicatl needed to really pump the breaks on budding maybe-crush.

“Yeah, I’m... not looking forward to forgetting. Makes me wonder if anything here even matters if I’ll go back to being the exact same person and nothing here will impact my world at all. Might as well be a dream in that sense...“

Although remembering might be cruel in its own way. Knowing that she could be a dragon and make friends and have meaning in her life but that, no, she was doomed to be a tiny, irrelevant, failure of a human.

 

[Adamhuarts]

"I don't really want to forget everything here either. I think I've gotten better as a person thanks to being around you guys. It would be a shame to lose all of that and go back to spending all day cooped up in the flower shop."

"However, I think I heard that some of the experiences we form here would remain even after we return. You won't be the exact same person when you return, Cuicatl. You'll become stronger, and bolder. I'm certain of that much at least," Cynthian said, patting her shoulder again.

 

[Persephone]

“Thanks...” Truthfully, she didn’t know what to say to that. “Anyone else here? I can’t see.”

 

[Adamhuarts]

"There's Soda, Flesh and..." Cynthian shuddered. "Maple."

 

[Persephone]

“Oh.”

Truth be told, Cuicatl barely even knew who those people were.

“So what happened with you and Maple?” she whispered.

 

[Adamhuarts]

"Didn't you hear? She lured some of our crew into a den with Dialga and Palkia, and she interrogated them," Cynthian whispered to Cuicatl, and he avoided making eye contact with Maple.

"I don't think she likes us at all. Be careful around her."