Destiny Village ~ Hot Cocoa Therapy Offices

[Dragonfree]

"Pretty limited in usefulness, aren't they, if by the time they get around to doing anything somebody else has had to step up to imprison the interdimensional crime lord anyway." Bean sounded like a real junior member. Probably a starry-eyed believer in the cause. "Have you always been an Overseer, or did you get recruited into it somehow? Soda said a lot of Zygarde are Overseers."

 

[Namohysip]

"I think that happens because we fit a similar role, just for one world instead of many," Bean admitted. "It makes sense. Water rescuers are usually Water Pokemon. Why, Owen used to go into forest fires to carry out the injured, unimpeded!"

"Yeah, that makes sense," Owen agreed, nodding. "Maybe that's why a lot of humans get into smart jobs and stuff."

Bean just smiled. "Overseers are slow compared to what a world would do on their own. But isn't that a good thing, in a way? We don't want worlds to be reliant on us, and we shouldn't be so strong that we could easily overturn a world's properties if they're fine on their own. And most true disasters require a lot of time to set up. We usually have most of our power once things spread across realities, rather than mostly in a single one. Right now, this Blacklight crisis, despite... who is involved, seems to only be in this planet."

"Oh, but... uh... So you weren't always one an Overseer?" Owen asked, sensing that Dave was going to try to press anyway since the babble of Zygarde had missed the question.

"No, not really," Bean said. "I applied in a dream a long time ago! That's usually how Overseers contact you without directly interfering. Later on, I met one properly. She was so friendly! Even if she looked a little scary."

"Oh, what, did she look like?" Owen asked.

"I'm not really sure how to describe it! I've never seen someone like her. A great, purple, skeletal dragon... is the best I could describe her. She even visited Treasure Town! I heard she was very good with kids."

"...When was this?"

"Hmm..." Bean thought back. "A decade or two ago? I think... before Dark Matter, but after the Bittercold..."

Owen hesitated. This... felt important. A lot of missing pieces were given to them. Something about that date, that location... Who important was associated with Treasure Town? What other odd things happened there?

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave stared at him. Well, that was unexpected. Eien'd been here? And she'd been interacting with kids, in Treasure Town? Surf and Turf (maybe just Surf? How old were they?) had met Eien? That was something to follow up on.

"You applied in a dream? How does that work?" Did these shitheads have access to everyone's goddamn dreams? "Why'd they contact you to begin with?"

 

[Namohysip]

"I'm not really sure how it works! Must be some kind of astral projection."

"I'd be pretty curious myself," Owen admitted.

"I think it has something to do with the same way they had that Blissey contact the astral plane," Bean said with an absent thought. "After all, that's not exactly a normal talent. That Overseer visitor must have taught her how to do it..."

"...W-wait, you mean Sunny? The daycare?" Owen blinked. Someone like that had met an Overseer?

Then again, she was a lot stronger than she should have been...

 

[Dragonfree]

"Wait, what?" Christ. The fucking Blissey? The one with the weird woo meditation shit they had to do to get to Spirit's Edge?

Dave shook his head. Diyem, you get that? Eien was here as an Overseer? You know anything about this?

 

[Namohysip]

Not specifically. I only know that we got in an argument over this in the past... Perhaps this was one of the worlds she had visited in that way. She already visited it to save Dark Matter here... or so I thought. Why would she have gone to Treasure Town? Hmm... It must have been a very mundane visit for them to not say anything of it until now. Several decades ago.

"Hm?" Bean asked.

"Oh! Sorry," Owen said. "I, uh--"

"Oh, you must be talking to Diyem!" Bean grinned. "That's all right. You're trying to figure out if this is relevant, right? That could be helpful."

"Y-yeah, Diyem, right..." Owen shifted uncomfortably. Owen thought about the trouble Diyem was probably in with the Overseers and how much Bean no doubt knew... But he still couldn't get a read on him.

 

[Dragonfree]

Well, this was suspicious as hell. They should interrogate everybody in Treasure Town about this visit, if they'd even recall anything of the sort. "Must have been very mundane", his ass.

Soda'd said something about Diyem possibly being in trouble with the Overseers, hadn't he. Bean sure didn't make it sound like he was aware of anything of the sort, though. That was definitely best not brought up.

"You didn't answer me earlier. Why'd they pick you to contact in a dream? Presumably any random-ass person can't just apply to be an Overseer while dreaming about their teeth falling out, or whatever the fuck. There some criterion that makes them want you on board?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Hmm, it might have been coincidence, or a bunch of them put together," Bean said. "I recall something about them checking on worlds like this one for one reason or another. And, well, Zygarde, of course. I was very curious about the world beyond this one, even if I wasn't interested in leaving it. Pop reached out and they reached back!"

 

[Dragonfree]

"What, they just interested in Zygarde for the convenience of only having to recruit one person to spy on half the planet simultaneously?" God. And... "Wait, Pop? Pop reached out to the Overseers to have them recruit you?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Probably!" Bean replied, nodding. "Overseers tend to be very efficient with how they do things. They must have a heuristic somewhere that says the local Zygarde is a reliable source of information."

"And that's... I mean, you think that's okay?"

"Of course! I know it might seem shady but I promise, they only ask for critical information."

"Critical information like, um, maybe how Diyem is, and stuff?"

"Or the essentials about the Blacklight crisis, things like that."

Not even a hint. Owen had zero clue how Bean regarded Diyem. How was someone this unreadable despite being so outwardly friendly?

"Is something wrong?" Bean asked. "You aren't worried about Diyem, are you?"

 

[Dragonfree]

"Why, should we be?"

 

[Namohysip]

Bean shook his head. "Diyem has been doing wonderfully. They warned me that he wasn't supposed to be in worlds like these, but after everything I've seen, I've reported nothing but positives! I also told them that he didn't come here by choice. They didn't seem very concerned after that, but they said they look forward to seeing Diyem again."

Owen was quiet.

"Is something wrong?"

"I can't tell if you're being truthful or not," Owen said flatly. "S-sorry if that came off as rude, I mean, I can't... get a read on you."

"Oh. I'm sorry." Bean's eyes dimmed. "A lot of my social cues are performed. This body isn't very good at emotions if I don't display them consciously! It must be throwing off your Perceive very much. It's too bad you aren't a true empath!"

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave glanced at Owen. Wasn't bringing him along supposed to be useful? Bean was just some kind of emotional void? God, that was creepy. Everything about this guy was creepy, from the far too cheerful demeanor to the worship of this Overseer group to this. And people had him as a fucking therapist? Willingly?

"Back to Pop, though. Pop's in with the Overseers? Recommending candidates to them? Is that how they usually operate, buddies with the Arceus of each world?"

How strong was Bean? Just for good measure...

Dave used Odor Sleuth!

 

[Namohysip]

"Pop isn't 'in' with them, no. But he does talk with them on occasion when it's relevant, which is... well, rare. Usually Overseers try to foster a good, working relationship with a reality's ruler, if there is one present. It's usually a lot easier to diagnose a world if there's someone of great power to summarize things, and then they can verify on our own if what they say is truthful. Pop's in very good standing!"

Overseer Zygarde Bean
HP: 5,000

Is only a fragment of the full Zygarde. The sum is greater than its parts.

And yet... nothing. Compared to others that Dave had analyzed in the past, Bean was very easily weaker than all of the other Legends that Dave had met, let alone Maple or Pop. But this was also just a tenth of Bean, who could apparently become even stronger. Ten times stronger? Even greater?

And there were no scents of emotion coming off of Bean whatsoever, either. Sterile. But it was impossible to tell whether that was because Bean's body simply didn't produce such things, or he wasn't feeling them at all.

"Goodness, you seem very skeptical of me," Bean said, frowning.

"We don't really have a lot of good experiences with higher powers," Owen reminded.

"Ah... That's true. I could give you more logical reasons for why I can be trusted, if you like."

"And what are you like if you aren't... you know, performing emotions?"

"Oh! Are you curious?"

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave's eyes narrowed. "Yeah, you know, actual reasons to trust you would be great. Dropping the mask would be a nice start."

 

[Namohysip]

"I see. Well, I don't usually do this because under most circumstances, it's off-putting. But if this is what you want..."

Bean's stance changed subtly. His eyes dimmed to something near the middle of their usual brightness. His permanent, friendly grin melted into a straight-faced stare. Tiny, subtle things that the eyes picked up washed away into what might as well have been an emotionless statue. Bean sat across from his desk without a hint of emotion.

When he spoke, his voice was calm, even, and without any temperature. "This is how I am if I am not worried about presenting myself," Bean said. "To most, it is disturbing and difficult to approach. I wouldn't be able to do this job if I was always like this. But some of my clients prefer it."

"...So, what's a logical reason to believe you?" Owen asked.

"I was ascended long ago by Pop, and analyzed by the likes of Breaker and other Psychics over many generations," Bean said. "If I had any suspicious behavior, it would easily be discovered, no matter how cautious I was over the years. It's impossible for me to be where I am if I was suspicious to them."

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave actually kind of preferred the emotionless statue. At least it felt a little more genuine, even if it was still creepy as hell.

"Well, you're kind of showing you're not exactly an open book. Who's to say they'd find you suspicious even if you were? You're a fucking Zygarde - maybe you can stuff all your suspicious memories into another body's brain and then merrily send the clean one to Breaker. You know?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Also beyond my capabilities," Bean said. "Breaker in particular would notice the gap, especially if they are recent memories within the past hundred years. Any time a Zygarde dies, all of their memories that were acquired while a separate entity are returned to the remaining living ones, along with the fragment of a spirit that carried it. And, individually, my scouts are not very strong."

"Sort of like what Pop is saying will happen with Cola... or the whole thing with Joule..." Owen winced, thinking about Cal again. He hoped she was doing alright. She'd wanted time alone, but he was starting to wonder if she'd meant 'alone with him' instead...

 

[Dragonfree]

Only had his word for that, but they probably weren't getting anything else, were they. Not likely to be a very productive line of questioning.

"How many of you are there? Overseers, I mean? You have a leader?"

 

[Namohysip]

"I do not know. Nobody really knows. The Overseers follow a philosophy, not a leader. If we have one, they are so far removed that I do not know anything about their identity, name, species, or even what plane of reality they came from."

"So it's just this loosely sprawling... organization that self-sustains?"

"It must be, to be so large. We are driven by the desire to save worlds that have a great amount of suffering. In general, we thrive because we, who want to reduce suffering, are more numerous than people who wish to create suffering. But we are countered by the ease of causing suffering, compared to the difficulty of establishing peace. That is our eternal struggle."