Destiny Village ~ Parfait Way

[Magyk]

"Even that is a curse in disguise," he frowned. "You get to remember it all over again, the good...the bad, and if it continues like this...is Cibus just doomed to the same fate over and over again? For us all to come and go, and forget the whole thing every time?" It had been eating at him since he arrived. Remembering that there were things left unresolved was painful. Yes, he agreed to this, but Ben thought he could handle it.

"Word of advice? If you have any loose ends, be it with your familiar or someone on the team you care about, I'd...recommend getting it sorted before it's too late. I'm kicking myself now as it all comes back to me. Doesn't help that I'll never see her again..." he shook his head whe he realised he was going on a tangent. "Er, don't mind me. The whole memory thing is a bit rough at the moment."

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr gave him a look. "Uh, yeah... sorry that it sucked for you," she said, rubbing the back of her head. "Kinda heavier shit than I really wanted to go into." Especially with a total stranger.

Never see her again...

"So, backing up a bit,"--anything other than that--"you guys got all the same Blacklight shit that we did, yeah? I already know what all my teammates can do--got any particular specialty?"

 

[Magyk]

He was more than grateful for the change of subject. Starr was asking about his Blacklight powers, something that returned to him like second nature out here. How was he supposed to answer?

An old conversation with Mergo surfaced. He remembered the 'gallade's' surprise when Ben told him he'd warded off Cream for the time being. This felt similar, like a secret that was supposed to be kept hidden. Aria was probably showing off, and duels weren't really his thing.

Ben smirked. "Sorry, that's classified," he said. "If we're to get a leg up against you guys we need all the surprise we can get."

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr let out a snort. "Yeah alright. Guess you guys could use the help." She sized him up, wondering what sort of fighter he was. He didn't quite seem the striker type... Then again, would anyone be able to tell just from first glance that Astrid was a striker? Or Nip a healer?

"I doubt my stuff's gonna be all that secret when literally anyone could just head over to the colosseum to see it." Of course Brisa had already started booking matches before they'd even gotten back into shape. "Dunno about your team, but we've got a ton of colo trash on ours." And she'd turned into one of them--no denying that.

 

[Magyk]

That earned Starr a chuckle. "Nah, the colosseum wasn't as popular with us back then," he said. "We were all too busy keeping the Blacklight contained on our team, making sure nobody went too crazy or insane. A lot of us had to go through therapy just to cope with what these powers were forcing us to face in ourselves."

Ben suppressed a shudder as he remembered a certain xatu just staring into his soul. That was one memory he had wanted to repress.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr shrugged. "Guess our team just had more combat addicts. We did a whole tournament between us and everything." Think back, that was what had led to Brisa asking Starr to join her in fighting pretty much everyone under the sun, wasn't it? "Eh, I'm probably making it sound like I've always been one of them, but I was never into competitive battling back home. It's all my partner's fault," she said with a smirk.

"And yeah. I guess a couple of my teammates did the whole therapy deal. Not really my thing--none of the stuff the Blacklight dragged out is really new for me." All her shit was her own fault and there wasn't any way for anyone else to fix that. Least of all someone who didn't even know her, judging her.

 

[Magyk]

Ben looked her over with new eyes, feeling newfound respect towards Starr. "Wow, you didn't need therapy?" he asked, a little surprised. "Just about all of us did, and it almost got out of hand," he then said with a grimace.

If competitive fighting had been more prominent when the Miracle Matters had been in their own Cibus, would he have participated in the fights? It was hard to say. Perhaps he would have partnered with Aria, if she wanted. "Heh, if I fought in a tournament, I would have lost for sure."

It was hard to tell if he was being modest or not.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr blinked at him. "Eh, I mean--sure, the Blacklight stuff sucked a lot of the time. Not gonna pretend like it didn't. I don't think anyone liked having a shadow copy of themselves spawn out of nowhere. But like, I had it under control. After a few of us got hit by the Shadow Machine, it was pretty damn obvious that we had to keep that shit reined in."

Except for that time you didn't.

It was the goddamn parasite, fuck off.

Brisa always liked talking about how much therapy was helping her. But like, that was because she had all kinds of unfair shit dumped on her by assholes back in her world. She didn't have to go there and explain a bunch of things that'd make her sound irredeemably horrible.

Anyway. Colo. Ben thought he was sure to lose. "You think so?" Starr asked. "A lot of people on our team didn't think they were any good at it, but they were still huge threats. Like, I guess I took out Cynthian in the first round, but that was only because she had a lot of ways to totally screw us over."

 

[Magyk]

He chuckled. "The Shadow Machine really was something, wasn't it...?" though he said it more to himself than Starr. "Everyone has their different ways of fighting for sure, some don't even notice how good they are until they're in a one versus one or something. When you work in a team you tend to appreciate the ones that support you more, because often they're the reason you can deal so much damage. It's not always brute force that wins it, is it?"

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr nodded. "Don't gotta tell me--working on a team, doing missions and stuff, wasn't exactly a new thing for me here." Having teammates actually give a shit about you was new. "Any time we've been stuck without our support users, we've been screwed." She wasn't sure whether to read that as him being a support fighter, what with thinking he wouldn't be any good in a tournament and all. "Was there anyone on your team that your power worked best with?"

 

[Magyk]

And again Ben paused, another question about his abilities. "That's for me and my team to know, and for you to find out," he answered. "Though I will say this..."

The arcanine chuckled, "I'm not the one you should be worried about. That advice is free, at least."

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr rolled her eyes with a bit of a snort. "Starting to think no one's gonna be up for so much as a spar at this rate, if the secrecy's that big a deal." She waved a hand dismissively. "Alright, I'll lay off. Besides, if some of your teammates are anything like mine, I doubt they'd be able to resist showing off at some point," she added with a smirk. "I half expected Brisa and that Lucario chick to just up and turn the picnic into a battlefield, from the look of it."

 

[Magyk]

"Yup, that sounds like Aria," Ben chuckled nervously. Honestly he'd been worried that they'd have turned it into an all out brawl, it seemed as though a lot of Team Spectrum were fighters, he had to be careful. "I'm just trying to keep things exciting, but if you really want to spar, maybe I can oblige? Though without Aria around things could get crazy. I'm not used to controlling corruption without her."

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr chuckled. "Nah, I'm just giving you shit. Can't promise that some of my teammates won't try to drag a fight out of you, though." Starr folded her arms behind her head. "So I guess I forgot to ask--you from one the worlds that's pretty similar to Cibus, or what? Cause mine's nothing like it, so it kind of took a while to get used to everything."

 

[Magyk]

Oh goodie, someone he could relate to. "Oh no, everything was absolutely new to me here," the arcanine lowered himself as he stretched out his front legs with a small grunt. "My world was nothing like this one. No crazy powers, no 'hoomans' or any of that. I mean, I guess there was one power, but that didn't arrive until I unleashed."

He paused, thinking about it as he stood back up. "The only thing similar was the exploration teams, except we didn't explore for a while, we kinda helped law enforcement and did jobs for everyone."

 

[Chibi Pika]

Well, that answered one thing--not only did his world not have humans, it didn't even have transformed ones. So anything Starr could talk about would be totally foreign.

"Yeah, all the crazy powers and such aren't exactly a thing where I'm from," Starr said casually. "Buuut, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that if your world doesn't have any humans, then it's gonna look more like Cibus than mine."

 

[Magyk]

The realisation hit him quickly. "Wait, are you one of them?" he asked in surprise. "One of those hoomany things that became a Pokemon coming here? Like...umm..." Shit. He couldn't think of any actual examples. "Huh, the closest I know is Aria's partner, except he didn't come to Cibus like we did. I...can't actually say I've heard of what they're like, outside of their apparent habit of becoming one of us. Weird, isn't it?"

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr grinned at his surprise. "Yeah, there's a bunch of us on the team. Nate, Koa, Dave, Cuicatl... probably a few others I'm forgetting." She scratched at her cheek fur. "Huh... your team really didn't have any? Kinda weird that our Diyem grabbed so many when yours didn't. I thought humans were apparently supposed to be hot shit in places like Cibus or... other Cibus." Starr shrugged. "News to me since we don't have any powers at all back home."

 

[Magyk]

"I don't think it was just them that Diyem was after," Ben sat so he could use a front paw to rub at his chin. "Dunno if it's the same for you guys, but our Diyem was just looking for folks who had the makings of, or were regarded as a hero in their own worlds. We got a sketchy few, and several others were sent home early, but the ones who made it to the end were the real deal, I think. I'm doubtful on Kora, though. I worry for whatever world he came from if he's meant to be its hero. Doesn't fill me with confidence."

 

[Chibi Pika]

"Yeah, our Diyem wasn't really looking for any either. Must've just been luck that he happened to grab so many. He gave us the same 'hero's aura' excuse too, but like"--she scoffed--"You really only need to look at half of us to know that's bullshit." Starr paused to consider it. "But, y'know, I guess we did manage to pull it off in the end, so I guess Diyem can't have screwed up that bad."