Destiny Village ~ Hot Cocoa Therapy Offices

[Namohysip]

The southwestern corner of Destiny Village was mostly dedicated to administrative, working, or office jobs, and had a much more sterile, calm feel compared to the Colosseum on the opposite side of the city. The buildings were more uniform and the streets were quieter. But despite this, each one had their own little personality to it. Down one of the roads, according to the directions given by other civilians, was a homely building made to look more like a residential area than a proper office, with open windows and a large walk-in foyer.

This was the Hot Cocoa Therapy Offices, where some of Destiny Village's best made themselves known. While their services were generally only specially assigned, Team Spectrum, due to their circumstances, had been given permission to apply for their services at great priority, and a few of the team, including Owen, had taken advantage of that deal relatively quickly. Diyem did not.

Deeper inside the foyer were the actual halls into several offices, each one customized to suit the needs and general purposes of the therapists. Hatterene Breaker's room was filled with cosmic imagery and floating books; Zygarde Bean's was large with several seats and paintings that depicted airy, bright environments; Samurott Fugu's was of a rough oceanside that instilled courage and solidarity; and Wheat's was a basic office with little to distract or overstimulate.

<><><>​

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Folks' thoughts ought to stay their own, unless they confided them willingly to someone they trusted. The idea of compelling people who professionally took on the private thoughts of others, in confidence, to give up those thoughts... Brisa shivered, repeatedly, her discmfort working out of her in shakes of her mane, flanks and tail. Ugh. But it was necessary, to safeguard the planet. Diyem had specifically requested this of her, and Pop had given his sanction, and...

If you get the chance to forestall a disaster and y'don't act 'cause it's contrary t'yer principles, then responsibility fer that disaster falls in part on you and yer negligence. I've had to sacrifice my peace of mind t'save lives. It was the right call, and I'm livin' with it.

Even now, he was in her head.

Brisa entered the foyer, looking for a receptionist or one of the therapists, to talk to. She'd rather speak in person, of course, about something this important.

 

[Namohysip]

The receptionist was a kind-eyed Kommo-o whose scales jingled and jangled with her little movements, but they sounded more like wooden wind chimes in a spring breeze.

"Oh, you must be... Brisa, of Team Spectrum," she said, nodding. "I've contacted the therapists who have been involved with you and those associated. They should be here soon. Please, help yourself to something while you wait." She gestured to what appeared to be a bowl of berries, most of them sweet to mild.

But before Brisa could take one, one of the doors down the hall opened, and a pupil-less, green canine stepped out of the office.

"...Brisa! Good to see you, dear." He stepped forward and gave a friendly bow. "My name is Bean. I believe you've seen me around town?"

It was hard not to. There were at least five of him in town, three of which were in key positions in the city...

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

"Ah, how d'you do?" asked Brisa. "An' I should say, 'Brisket' is just fine if'n it's easier fer y'all."

She had seen Bean. Never any especially substantial conversation, but he'd always been pleasant enough.

Brisa took a small berry with a "Thank you kindly, ma'am," and approached Bean.

"You representin' yer colleagues as well?" she asked.

 

[Namohysip]

"They have some paperwork to finish but they'll be here soon," explained Bean. "I understand that you prefer non-Psychic presences, though. There's nothing wrong with that; it's in fact quite common for that form of therapy to be too invasive for some."

He turned and nodded for Brisa to follow. He was a lot smaller than her.

"We got word from Pop already," Bean added. "There's no need for any forms or papers. That's all taken care of."

He led her into his office, with slightly stronger air from the vents disguised into the sky-colored ceilings and a few natural-looking fixtures to look like rocks and faraway summits.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

"I'm fine around Psychics," said Brisa, noting with displesaure that she couldn't keep an edge out of her voice. "I'll be fine in the company of yer colleagues. It's bein' subjected to telepathy involuntarily that sticks in my craw. Been workin' on the voluntary telepathy thing with my shade, an' with Diyem. Gettin' somewhere with it."

She'd barely sent or received from Luz since her revival from the Voidlands.

"Anyway, if'n you've already done the paperwork, where do we start?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Hmm... I'll answer with what I can while waiting for the others." Bean nodded to himself, then sat down on his usual spot, in a beanbag across a short desk with what looked like a few pictures that were facing Bean, not Brisa.

"Who were the ones you wanted to know about?"

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

"I guess that's a matter of priority," said Brisa, rubbing her chin. "The most important are those with substantial memory blocks and/or a clear link to the calamities we've been facin'. Namely: S'more, fer bein' confirmed as an unwittin' agent of Giovanni but not rememberin' how he went about such activities, Shield, fer havin' been present on Telum but rememberin' nothin' of how he came t'be here; Silver, fer bein' Giovanni's son and havin' been involved in the fight on Telum but havin' almost no episodic memory at all, an' Giovanni, fer bein' the mastermind behind much of this, as far as we're aware."

She sighed. That was already a significant task as it was.

"At least y'might get consent of a couple of those fellas. S'more is an obligin' gentlemon, as I hear it. Beyond them, things get less certain. Fer instance, it might be that pryin' into Deoxys' memories would give us more information about Giovanni's plans and operations, but it might just as easily not, and I wouldn't want to subject any poor bastard to more than what was strictly necessary fer this investigation. Doin' this at all don't sit right with me, which is why I'm doin' it myself. It oughta be taken up by someone who understands how serious psychic pryin' is."

 

[Namohysip]

"I see, I see..." The Zygarde nodded, humming. "Well. I don't have the details for most of them, but I can give you what I know as the basics. First of all, Shield... is not someone that we have seen much of. His memories have things from far before Telum, a world of humans and Pokemon and, well, it largely mirrored Pita's past, which he had recovered over time. It wouldn't be relevant here, we think. Shield must have been unconscious for a lot of the time, since no memories had formed otherwise. None that were noteworthy, at least.

"Silver... Well. He wasn't very cooperative, and, well, he wasn't conscious, either. But Breaker did have a look. It was covered in... seals, is how she described it. Terribly strong seals that she simply could not force open. The power required surpassed even Karat. That alone is suspicious... Silver either knows a great secret or weakness that could end the efforts of Giovanni altogether, or he himself is, as you said..." Bean seemed uncomfortable. Perhaps he, too, did not like this idea of speculating about possible treason among innocents.

"S'more..." But Bean seemed even more somber about him. "...I'll... let Breaker speak to that one. She would know more. But S'more's memories are... When we told S'more what we saw, or the way his memories were arranged... He took it well, but, well, in front of so many Psychics, we knew very well that it disturbed him greatly. On an existential level."

He sighed. "Giovanni himself had the same blocks as Silver, unfortunately. But generally speaking, we have tried to uncover who those spies working for him were and..." Bean hummed. "It's strange, but unless he has seals that he can voluntarily open and close at will... not even Giovanni seems to know. Which... simply doesn't add up, does it?"

The door opened. In came a Xatu with a stoic expression, who walked in by simply floating. He stood against the wall and masterfully camouflaged as one of the pieces of furniture. Had Brisa entered with him already there, she might have mistook him for a lifelike statue.

He didn't seem to blink.

"Hello, Wheat," Bean greeted, smiling.

"Hello."

"Brisa, Owen might have talked about Wheat before--he sees him for his therapy sessions."

Owen spoke of Wheat with almost exclusively positive adjectives. The only neutral-to-negative one was that he didn't smile much, or emote often at all, and that was certainly... true. But Owen also claimed that Wheat was kind and understanding, and did what Pokemon he knew rarely did--spoke frankly and without signs of sugar-coating in front of him. And also that his room had the least distracting décor.

Wheat said nothing. Owen had mentioned that, too. A very minimalist speaker. Apparently he spoke with telepathic suggestion to nudge one's psyche in more productive paths--for someone like Owen, a godsend. However, Brisa, ever-sensitive to such tampering, would feel no such waves coming from Wheat. He must have had it completely shut off.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa listened carefully to Bean, taking silent notes all the while, until his colleague arrived.

"Xatu Wheat, well met. How d'you do?"

Try as she might, Brisa couldn't help but expect Psychic activity from the bird. Constantly anticipating it was going to drive her nuts. Thunder.

"And y'can switch yer telepathy on. I ain't made of paper. Appreciate the courtesy of not divin' in without askin', though. Anyway, I guess first-off I'm keen t'know how Giovanni even feels about his seals. If I were him, I'd wonder if I really held all the cards, and he seems like the kinda fella who's used to doin' exactly that."

 

[Namohysip]

"He showed signs of... distress, from what I gathered," said Bean. "But he hid it very well. Wheat was the one who picked up on it."

The Xatu nodded. He still didn't give off any sense of telepathy. Perhaps he wasn't on duty for it, or he used it in different ways. "Giovanni is calm, outwardly. Not inwardly."

"That's a good way to phrase it," Bean said. "I--oh!"

The door opened again, and in came a Hatterene with a neutral, businesslike expression. She looked at Brisa for a moment, then nodded with a deep, "Hm," noise. "Brisa of Team Spectrum. Welcome."

She drifted to the other side of the room, taking one of the seats, using her prehensile hair as a seat. "You are speaking of Giovanni?"

"Yes, and the others that Arceus told us to disclose," Bean said.

"Feh. If it threatened world, perhaps we should have told anyway. But we are held to high standard. There are four abnormal minds that I was able to delve into and navigate. S'more, Giovanni, Silver, and that Owen Charizard. All strange in different ways. I cannot fix."

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa skewed her mouth. "Y'did the right thing by not unilaterally disclosin' anythin'. And again by cooperatin' with the investigation." She rubbed her muzzle with a paw. "Y'mentioned Owen. (Ah, Tamato. We can use Cibusean names.) I recall now that he was sent down first an' got knocked out, sufferin' memory loss afore the rest of us showed up. Any chance y'can account fer that memory loss?"

Her tail traced circles and and tapped the ground as she committed everything to memory. "As fer the others, we already know they've got the strongest seals ever reckoned with. 'Less you've made a breakthrough or anythin' changed after Silver evolved, can y'tell me anythin' about those other three I don't already know?"

 

[Namohysip]

"...Yes. For Silver and Giovanni, little. They are too strongly sealed. So there is little more to learn... But with S'more. Yes. I do have something to say." Her eyes seemed grave. "When I navigated his memories... It was like looking at a painting. A background, with some details in the foreground." Breaker hummed, looking down. "...In other words, he has a complete set of memories, a very long and vast set of memories... but it is flat."

"Like they're all... smooshed up to the beginning," Bean said. "As if all of those memories had been... spontaneously made right then!"

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

"Yer thinkin' what I'm thinkin', right? Don't answer that. Ah, sure sounds like that's somethin' that'd happen if'n he were the fella who was bumped off an' replaced. Spund plausible t'you experts?"

 

[Namohysip]

"I do worry about that..." Bean looked down. "Pop is going to be devastated... How would--we have no idea how that happened. Is he somewhere in the astral plane...? Surely Buffet would have found him." He sighed. "We don't really know what to think of it, especially since he's so much like S'more. Had Breaker not checked, we wouldn't have known at all!"

"Mm." Breaker nodded. "And then there is your friend... His memories are vast, but from what he has told us, is normal. Except, a brief... black spot in his memories, precisely between when he first arrived and when you all did. In that spot, there is a strong seal. I nearly missed it. But it is missing, even now."

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

"Well that ain't encouragin' to hear, but it's better'n not knowin'. Is there anythin' we can do to retrieve those memories? As fer S'more, I'm frankly inclined to treat the poor fella as himself, whatever the state of his soul. Question is if we can protect him from bein' used any further."

 

[Namohysip]

The door opened one last time, and in came a Samurott with a stern expression and muscular build. "Bean," she greeted.

"Good to see you, Fugu!" Bean grinned. "We're all here, now."

"I have little to add," Fugu said, stepping toward the last empty seat in the room. "I did not have any of them as clients, and I do not have any means to investigate their minds directly. They were also not very interested in combat for the most enigmatic ones. But I do know that S'more battles in the way he always does."

"As for Owen's memories... I'm afraid we don't know how to clear those memory seals, either. But it is... worrying, isn't it?"

"It was a concern," Wheat finally spoke up, "when Owen was suspected of attacking Destiny Tower."

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

"At least we have that lucky precedent to go off if ever anyone is framed again," mused Brisa. "But it's sore worryin' to think it could happen to anyone. If we can't unblock the seals, an' folks act and think the same as they always have when they're compromised, all we can hope to do is check everyone fer seals, it sure seems like. How long does checkin' someone that way take?"

Let it be in an' out so's I can rest easy as soon as fuckin' possible.

 

[Namohysip]

"Now that we know what to look for, it shouldn't be very long at all, should it?" Bean looked to Breaker.

"I know the path. Pattern is the same." Breaker nodded. "I will find it easily."

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Good. Brisa got what she hoped for. What a relief.

"Get it over with," she growled.