Destiny Village ~ Parfait Way

[RJR Basimilus]

"No, no, no, again!" Seyka said, poking the Archen wrapped around his neck with a wing. "I think I'm getting it."

"You're hopeless," Inno replied, "Let's leave it at that."

"But you're my- what was it- my familiar right?" the Skarmory pouted, "Can't you just tell me?"

"No, because you need to learn." The shadowy Archen looked up. "Alright, quiz time. There's one of the team over there." He pointed to Astrid. "Now, what's their name?"

"Ack!" Seyka turned away, trying to avoid eye contact. "Ummm, err, Ninetails, Ninetails. Okay, so there are two of them, right?"

"Yes? And what did I say were their defining characteristics?"

Seyka scrunched his face up. "One of them is a pyromaniac, and the other talks like a serial killer, was that it?"

"Close enough. Now, which one is it?"

Seyka looked back at the Ninetails briefly. "I... I can't tell."

 

[TheGOAT]

“Hi!” Astrid called. Another Spectrum member—looking as lost as she probably looked. And felt. “You’re Seyka, am I getting that right? Say-kah.”

Astrid didn’t suppose Seyka was any more clued in on what to do about all this. “How’re you, uh… coping? You ready for this fight?”

 

[RJR Basimilus]

"Yep, that's me," Seyka replied, forcing a smile. He looked at the Archen on his neck. "And this is my friend Inno."

"Seyka, I'm your brother."

"Same difference." The Skarmory paused. "Um, I wouldn't know if I'm ready for anything. I don't mind much either way. It's just another thing I guess."

"I suppose you're ready though. With all that, err, shadows and radishes that everyone else uses?" He hoped the the Ninetail's answer would clue him in as to which one they were.

 

[TheGOAT]

Astrid nodded. “That’s nice. It’s really been a day though and it’s stressing me out. I hope everyone else is coping well…”

She eyed Seyka up and down. She’d hardly talked to him, but maybe she could learn something from his attitude. He didn’t seem phased by anything. What went on in his head, exactly?

Astrid swallowed her curiosity and continued, “Uhh, yeah, I mean. I’m ready. I’m feeling better…ish. I—” She sighed, ears dropping. “Well it’s just, I usually get more rest than two and a half days. It takes me a bit to recover after battling, because of when I, you know,” she did an arbitrary motion with her paws, “wapow kablam.”

At least she was able to keep the fatigue out of her gait and tone. And for the moment, Seyka’s energy gave her a sense of comfort. It wasn’t the end of the world, no. It was just another thing. Surely that was worth placing her faith in, wasn’t it?

 

[RJR Basimilus]

Lucky! That means its Astrid.

"Coping is a lot of trouble," Seyka said idly. "Question for you then, what makes you want to care this much about this world?"

The Archen looked up at him incredulously. "Don't start with this, Seyka."

"It's just a question," the Skarmory replied. "I just want to know why everyone fights like they do."

 

[TheGOAT]

For some reason, Astrid thought she wouldn’t be able to answer. “Well, I don’t have a way off this world right now, so, that’s that,” she started—a little blunt, but without hesitation. “And I’m in no hurry to leave either. At least, not right now, y’know? I…” She frowned, trailing off.

There weren’t any spectators around them, for once. No gawking eyes, no sixth sense telling her someone was probably watching from between closed blinds. They weren’t even by any buildings right now. Just two members of Team Spectrum talking about the world ending.

“…I get it,” Astrid said presumptively. “This place is foreign. It can be hard for some of us to connect when our respective homes are in other planes of reality. I get that. And, considering the stakes, I honestly wouldn’t blame someone for wanting out right about now.

“N-not that you were saying that or anything,” she corrected herself, giggling. “It’s just, I know it’s really hard not to look up and immediately lose hope. Investing in what appears to be certain death isn’t for everyone. But…” She looked up. “I think that’s dumb. I don’t think we should try to fight because we have no better choice, because that’s also dumb. I think we can do it, and that alone is reason enough to go for it. And I think we can come out alive, too. That part is important. So, that’s exactly what we should do. No overthinking, just,” an icicle formed between the digits of her paw; she stabbed at the air swiftly with it, “—pah! Get him quickly and then get everyone to safety.”

Easier said than done, dummy. Astrid smiled the thought away and kept herself talking. “Oh, oh, I could nerd about the once-in-a-lifetime possibilities for me here, too. Studying undiscovered cultures is how I make my living! These things have unspeakable value, at least to people like me… but, with all the lives and stuff at stake, worrying about that doesn’t feel right.”

 

[RJR Basimilus]

"So it- makes you happy to do these things?" Seyka cocked his head. "Combined with a sense of obligation..."

"Mmm, whether I were here or home, I can't tell how much of a difference it makes," the Skarmory said. "And I don't really hope for anything."

"Liar," the Archen muttered.

"Huh? I'm not lying," Seyka replied to Inno, a hint of anger in his tone.

The Archen looked up at the Skarmory for a long moment. "I see," he said. "So you aren't."

"Anyway," Seyka continued, "If the things you said are what a... hero would do, then I'll try. But uh, ha," he smiled slightly, "I can't promise anything. Not anymore at least."

 

[TheGOAT]

Astrid’s cheeks flushed. “Hero? O-oh. Um. I don’t know. I just make maps most of the time… help catch criminals too, but that’s—I guess, it’s nothing crazy.”

A shrug and a gentle smile followed as she eased up once more. “I try not to get caught up on that sorta stuff, anyway. Always throws me for a loop trying to label myself. Like, what even am I, really?”

Would Seyka be phased by that? That sounded weird out loud, yet felt perfectly appropriate to say, all things considered.

 

[RJR Basimilus]

"What are you?" Seyka looked confused. "You are a hero for all intents and purposes. It's not a label, it's objective truth."

"Whether you believe it yourself is a different matter," the Skarmory added. "But if you want to label yourself a hero, no one would object. Like, see, I could label myself with-"

Inno smacked Seyka. "Don't finish that," the shadowy Archen said.

"You're so mean, Inno," Seyka pouted.

"I wonder about that," the Archen said.

"Ah, ah," Seyka said, shaking his head. "You are what you are, Astrid. You know? As they say, as is as will be, as has been as will continue. Grow older, die younger, happy, sad, it's all the same."

 

[TheGOAT]

“I am what I am?” Astrid chuckled to herself good-naturedly. “I wouldn’t know what that would be. That’s why I think about it a lot! I guess, if I had to label myself, it would be… someone who doesn’t know how to label themselves! That would be my label. I can be happy with that.”

She cracked a smile at Inno, the Archen. Where had her own familiar gone off to, anyway? Was he at the—

“Basically,” Myles interrupted, walking up from somewhere out of view and clicking his ethereal tongue, “I can read your thoughts, and you should think about me less. Or less loudly.”

Astrid, startled, struggled to find her voice right away. Her tails curled harshly at his smugness. “Wh—wait, where did you even come from?” Still startled, she swung her head around. “There’s no cover around here!”

He shrugged and remained silent, expression unchanging. Then his eyes fell on Seyka and Inno, and he relaxed. “…You’re the Tailwinder. Yes? It’s quite a feat in battle, you know, giving everyone that boost. Is it a stretch to say you’re a hero yourself?”

 

[RJR Basimilus]

Seyka looked directly at Myles. "Yes, yes it is." The Skarmory frowned. "Heroes are the good guys, they save pokemon- not the opposite. But you know-" his expression brightened, "I can always dream. And you know- help real heroes, if only a little."

Inno sighed, but said nothing.

"You must be Astrid's friend then," Seyka continued, "It's nice that everyone got one, at least I think so. I don't think my tail is that impressive though. Everyone in my family had a better tail than I did." The Skarmory paused awkwardly, something flickering across his face. "Everyone..."

"There he goes again," Inno said, looking up at Seyka.

"Ah, it's no good," Seyka said, his head drooping, "Being away from home for this long makes it hard to lie to myself. Ha."

 

[TheGOAT]

“Heroes are survivors,” Myles parried casually. “Heroes are and can be many things. But what does that mean? Nothing at all, that’s what. Should we honestly rest our morals on such an abstr—”

A gust of frigid air silenced him. Astrid lashed her tails, taking a half step forward. “Okay, dude, not the time. Do that stuff later. And, his name is Seyka, mkay?” Nope. Myles wasn’t listening. Astrid blasted him again, this time with just enough force to earn her a frown. “Be respectful!”

Myles opened his mouth to say something, hanging there, hanging there. Then briefly, a spark lit in his eyes… but he ultimately chose not to speak on it, instead turning to the side and murmuring to himself.

Astrid refocused on Seyka, brow furrowing in concern. “…Hey there. It’s okay to feel homesick. Do you wanna talk about it?”

 

[RJR Basimilus]

"To the contrary, I'd be okay if I never went home again," Seyka said. "Maybe I'd be bitter about it, but it'll pass."

"There are things at home that I've wanted to do for a long time," the Skarmory said. "Almost too long. I've almost given up, but that's okay."

"But about heroes, I didn't mean anything special, like some edge case. Heroes save pokemon as I said, they don't kill them."

 

[TheGOAT]

Astrid tilted her head. “If you say so. I don’t think it’s right to hold one another accountable for things in our old worlds—it feels necessary for this adventure. For this mission. But that’s just me. I won’t try to convince you how to label yourself. It’ll hardly matter in a few hours anyway, y’know?”

Myles snorted. “What? You’re worried about those guys?” He scrunched up his face at the sky. “Above all the other challenges Cibus has thrown our way? Like, yeah, ‘kay, they’ve got some mean tricks. So what. That Charmeleon kid did gave us all the deets and it really wasn’t that bad.”

“Owen,” Astrid snipped. “A-and he’s closer to a grandpa than a kid. I think.”

“Regardless. We’ll win with ease. Happens every time. You always get so worried, but…”

Good grief. Somehow this still isn’t as bad as my actual brother. Astrid tuned out his gibberish, pivoting away from him. She began to walk off, but before she did, gave Seyka a friendly tail pat on the shoulder. “Stay safe, friend.”

 

[RJR Basimilus]

"Mm, if you're asking, I suppose I'll try," Seyka said. "It's more important that you do that though. The team wouldn't be missing out on much if I got myself killed."

"It's not self deprecation either," the Skarmory added. "It's objective fact, haha!"

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[Negrek]

Nate didn't bother looking up when the door of the shed creaked open. "What, get bored or some shit?" he drawled, still focused on the battle playing over his badge.

"You need your stupid bow-tie." Nate did finally look up when the thing landed on the floorboards next to him.

"Oh, yeah, that's right. Some asshole ran off with all the fucking items. Great stuff right before a huge fucking battle."

Rocky scowled at him, standing in the doorway with one hand tight on the strap of their bag and his tail worming angrily behind. He stalked over to his bed and threw himself down with a thump that shook the whole shed, though most of that was the weight of the item bag hitting the floor.

"And how'd your little quest go, huh? Arceus all fucking saved?"

Rocky glared up at the ceiling, arms crossed over his chest. "It went great. Everybody liked my ideas. I bet we don't have to worry about anything now."

"Uh-huh."

"Except for some people who went on like I was going to make people more nervous by saying Arceus might need help. Or who wouldn't want to do anything because it somehow might ruin his stupid plan that they don't even know what it is."

"Honestly, at this point, I kind of wonder if his plan is to die here, or, like, absorb the energy in that attack and ascend to a higher form or some shit. After how much he basically insisted there was no possible way he could get out of being hit."

"That's stupid. You saw how he looked when we visited him. He seemed really sad."

"Ain't stupid. What it is is paranoid." Nate frowned at his badge and poked the front button. "Only question is, is it paranoid enough?"

Rocky scoffed and burrowed deeper into his pile of cushions. He lay with chin on one, hands flopped out in front of him, tail sprawling behind. He stared at a cool-looking rock he'd found down at the beach one day; there were more scattered around his bedding, plus colorful wrappers and bits of glass, a stuffed animal or two or whatever knickknack had caught his eye while out in Destiny Village. Some of his drawings were stuck to the wall overhead, pictures of members of Team Spectrum and the legends of Destiny Village, of scenes from his favorite television shows, of he and Nate together. They were definitely better than Nate's drawings. "Well?" he said when the silence had stretched on for what seemed like forever. "You're mad at me, aren't you? For running away?"

"No, I'm mad at you for sticking to me like glue for weeks and fucking attacking me whenever I tried to leave. And lying about what was happening the entire goddamn time."

Rocky huffed, his tail drumming on the floorboards. "I had to do that," he said at last. "Otherwise you would have left."

"Damn straight I would have. If you didn't want that to happen, maybe you shouldn't have decided to turn into some guy who tried to fucking kill me like at least twice."

Rocky scowled. "I'm trying to help you! But you're always mean to me. You liked me better when I was just a rock."

"Well, yeah, when you were just a rock you weren't going around acting like somebody I fucking hate."

"But you don't!" Rocky said, clenching his fists in frustration. Nate was still watching his badge, stonily indifferent. After a few seconds Rocky said, "You wish I turned into one of your pokémon instead, don't you?"

"Gee, I dunno, have you be someone I actually fucking like? Nah, that sounds like bullshit, let's be that shapeshifting asshole instead." It would be strange having someone around who acted like someone on his team, who kinda looked like them, even, but definitely wasn't them. It might suck in its own way. But it would beat being annoyed out of his skin by the fucking Freak following him across two entire fucking worlds.

He couldn't even feel totally mad at Rocky, who after all wasn't really the same guy who'd gone and rearranged his internal organs that one time. Not to say he hadn't been a dick, but he wasn't that much of a dick. Goddamn Cibus kept fucking with him like that. All these people he wanted to hate but couldn't feel good about hating, the Celebi and the fucking Mewtwo especially, since they weren't actually the same assholes who'd fucked him over. Super fucking irritating.

Rocky was back to staring at his rock, slumped like he was tired. "You want to know why I decided to be Infernape?" he asked at last.

"Yeah, actually, I'm super fucking curious what made you think that was such a genius idea."

"You have to promise not to be mad."

Nate actually looked up from his badge at that, giving Rocky a suspicious glare. "I'm already mad, asshole. Spill."

Rocky shifted around in his nest of cushions, not meeting the mudkip's gaze. Nate's expression only grew darker the longer he fidgeted, but even as the mudkip was actually opening his mouth, presumably to demand that he get on with it, he finally said, "I used your memories of infernape because they were better. Your pokémon would be too hard."

Nate squinted at him. "What the fuck do you mean better? I got way better memories with the team than that piece of shit Freak."

"No, not good like that. I mean better, like, you know. Umm, easier to read? Not as faded? More... there?"

Rocky cringed in the silence that settled over the shed. "I am not," Nate said at last, "fucking forgetting about them."

Rocky curled in on himself miserably, stammering at the wall. "I mean, it's been a few years, of course you don't remember them as well now. Obviously you're not going to forget them, I mean, definitely not all the way, but some things, you know... And obviously your memories of Infernape were a lot more recent, and you kept worrying about her all the time, so I thought it would be better for me to--"

"I ain't fucking forgetting about them!" Nate jumped up from his own pillow, pacing around his untidy bed. Rocky rolled over to watch him, apprehensive.

"Are you, um. It's going to be okay..."

"I need a fucking drink," Nate said darkly.

Rocky sat up. "Now? But we're going to face Joule in the morning. You need to sleep. We both need to rest. You know you don't have time--"

"I need a fucking drink!" Nate snarled. He turned and stormed off towards the door, and Rocky struggled to his feet, scattering cushions everywhere.

"Wait! Wait, you--"

"What, you think you're coming with me? I thought you fucking hated the bar. How about you use that newfound freedom of yours and stay the fuck away from me?" Nate snarled, pulling the door open. Rocky hovered a moment, mouth open to protest, but the look Nate gave him was enough to keep him frozen. The mudkip left, and Rocky slumped back down amidst his bedding, tail curled miserably around his legs. He waited for a long time--it wasn't like he was about to go to sleep--but even well into the early morning, Nate didn't come back.

<><><>​

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Luz spent a fruitless half-hour wandering about Pasta Plaza for distractions while the oroborous in her mind ate itself again and again.

Brisa's gone, and she ain't comin' back. She ain't dead fer good, she can still be saved. There's no way t'save her, 'cause the means are outta reach. Brisa's gone, and she ain't comin' back.

She found herself at Truffle's place while hardly thinking about her destination.

She approached. She knocked. She waited.

After two seconds' impatience, she tried the door herself.

 

[Namohysip]

It opened without resistance, and inside was a dark room as usual. Truffle's home was often a mixture of light and dark depending on who was home and who was active. If Leg was out and about doing... Leg things, then the home was bright and shining with Truffle's presence. If only Leg was home and Truffle was out being heroic, the home was dark and foreboding. But when both were present, a cozy darkness filled the inside instead.

Luz would find Truffle in the back of the room with Leg, cozied up in a pile of plush toys that Leg had made. He appeared to be half asleep, and Leg hid away when the door opened. She was probably somewhere in the room.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

"Howdy, you two," said Luz.

It was beginning to feel wrong when her voice didn't 'match' recent events. She softened it. Not very well, she thought.

"Guess I thought I'd come check on y'all," she added, approaching.

 

[Namohysip]

Truffle's eyes fluttered open. "Hm? Ah--ah, oh, how terrible of me," he said, quickly trying to look elegant even while under piles and piles of plushies, several of them looking oddly wetter from little droplets of water. Among them were a Luxio, a Charmeleon, a Cranidos...

"I do hope you are also... faring well," he added, trying and failing to get up on his own. Tendrils of darkness kept pulling him back down, accompanied by a possessive hiss from something deeper within the pile.