Destiny Village ~ Parfait Way

[Dragonfree]

Watching Flesh carry Blue, it was hard to tell which of them was really taking care of the other. Dave looked up at Flesh at his thanks, wondering if he'd thought it over, realized the truth of what he'd said earlier.

"We'll do everything we can," he said. "See you, Flesh."

<><><><><>​

 

[Cresselia92]

Some time after the gathering, Icetales was walking around the houses of the God Squad, trying to wrap up around the concept of multiverse.

While, yes, he had interacted with people from multiple worlds and with their own unique experiences, the idea that they came from some timeline where they fought another Blacklight and vanquished was… quite difficult to fully grasp. Especially with both Owen and Diyem meeting each other.

Hm. Funny that there wasn’t another Icetales. Perhaps it was for the best. His heart ached at the idea of having a counterpart who went through hell as much as he did.

After letting those thoughts sink back into his darkness, he noticed Potluck walking around the place…

“Oh, hey Sir—” he froze, just in time to realize that it was the not-Potluck he was walking toward to, “—Nero! Fancy meeting thee here! How is thy day going?”

 

[Ambyssin]

Something was clearly off about this version of Destiny Village. The buildings looked as though they'd sustained some sort of... water damage? Flooding? Nero couldn't be entirely sure. And it probably wasn't worth pursuing, anyway.

A bleary gray blinked on in his synthetics. "Hmm?" His bat-like ears twitched and he pivoted to find Not-Edgy Gene talking to him... in the absolutely strangest manner possible. "Err, I'm okay." Nero tilted his head. "But I think there's something up with your, uh, voice?"

 

[Cresselia92]

Icetales tilted his head, and his ears flicked. “Hm? My voice?”

The Ninetales started a short session of vocalism, trying to regulate the timber and fluidity of his vowels. He took a moment to study his own voice, before giving a casual shrug.

“Well, my team and I have been on the moon and had a limited supply of oxygen, so perhaps my lungs are still fatigued and the air that goes through my windpipe is… uneven.” He tilted his head on the other side. “So, perhaps this is why my voice sounds… peculiar.” He cocked an imaginary eyebrow. “Or thou art referring to something else?”

 

[Ambyssin]

"Your speaking mannerisms," Nero responded. "I don't know what a 'thou' or 'thee' are. I can infer, but it's gibberish as far as I'm concerned." He laughed nervously.

 

[Cresselia92]

“Ah. I see. Not very accustomed to archaic lingo, I presume.”

Icetales found it very odd to consider his own speech ‘archaic’. He wasn’t really that old, was he?

To be honest with ourselves, we have half a century worth of life, so…

He couldn’t really refute that. Though, there was a large margin between being considered somewhat old and ancient.

“Well, I shall shed some light, then. ‘Thou’ and ‘thee’ are singular ‘you’.” Icetales tilted his head. “I am unsure why ‘thou’ and ‘you’ have been fused at some point. I mean, why didn’t the same happen to ‘I’ and ‘we’?

“But I digress. Fancy telling me a few accomplishments of… um, your group? How did you all handle the Blacklight crisis? I’m most intrigued.”

 

[Ambyssin]

“Uh, by beating the corruption out of whoever the Blacklight possessed?” Nero sat on his haunches and scratched at his cheek bolt. “Compared to what I was used to, it was relatively smooth sailing. The only slip up was with getting Eien out of her Tree of Life bunker. That could’ve been handled better.”

 

[Cresselia92]

Icetales nodded in understanding. “So, not too differently from how we dealt with Blacklight, too.” He hummed, a curious gleam in his eyes. “We had difficulties with our Eien as well. What happened in your… reality? Did matters take a turn for the worse, or…?”

 

[Ambyssin]

“We tried to sneak into the tree. Someone found out and practically the whole world went after us.” Nero cringed. “We held them off, but freeing Eien caused an explosion that sent everyone to Diyem’s Voidlands for a time.”

He turned and muttered, “Also there was some stuff with Maple destabilizing and having a whole planet inside her that made her lose her mind.”

 

[Cresselia92]

Icetales winced, his tails flicking erratically. So, if they indeed entertained the idea of being stealthy and infiltrate the Tree without anyone knowing, would that version of Cibus have been swallowed by the darkness? Sure, it seems that what happened to Nero’s reality was a temporary inconvenience, but he still felt the darkness inside of him crawling.

It wouldn’t have been too terrible, host mine. Howbeit, I must conceded that we had the better outcome, at least.

Mayhaps, but we still had to deal with that Eterna-imbued storm, did we not?

Hmm… It might be ideal to find out more about that. Dost thou not agree?

“…So, your Miss Maple has or had a planet inside of her?” He rubbed his chin with his leftmost tail. “The Miss Maple of this reality has Telum inside of her, too. She lost her marbles as well, after interacting with Eien in the Tree of Life, even though she was fairly good at preserving a stoic mask until that point.”

Icetales produced his bottle of tea and a cup in his tails. “And pray tell, how did things go with your version of Sir Joule?” He narrowed his eyes. “Ours was corrupted heavily by the Blacklight, even going as far as,” he winced and looked away, “as… vaporizing a few members of our team. They had been stuck in the Voidlands for some time as a result.” He extended the cup of tea. “Did the same happen to your team?”

 

[Ambyssin]

So, some of them had died? Yeah, things here definitely weren’t as smooth as his experience. “No. We took him into the Reverse World for safety sake. Then Aria and Ben put their heads together and basically knocked Joule out in one single blow. All the Blacklight just kind of left him.”

Nero frowned. “I figured things with Joule and Maple would have gone better for you with a Necrozma on your team. Is he some sort of pariah?”

 

[Cresselia92]

Nero frowned. “I figured things with Joule and Maple would have gone better for you with a Necrozma on your team. Is he some sort of pariah?”

“Oh, believe it or not, I reckon that matters would have been far worse, if Sir Bahamut wasn’t around. Perhaps the entire team would be lost in the Voidlands by now, and Cibus… well… just cosmic dust.”

Icetales looked away, a contemplative expression on his face. “I confess that there are some details that are still foggy. I fell victim of my own Blacklight and emotions, so only rage clouded my thoughts.” He glanced back at Nero. “However, I recall clearly that Sir Bahamut managed to both convince Miss Maple to try to snap Sir Joule back to his senses, and he connected with him in… some way. Psychic connections between light dragons, I do not know how that worked, but it worked.”

A long sip of his tea to refresh his mind and try to tackle the topic about Bahamut.

“Pariah… That is close enough term to describe how he is treated, yes. Chased away from worlds, and somewhat of a misfit in a team of misfits.” He paused, before nodding to himself. “Frankly, I somewhat understand him. We might have contrasting perspectives and points of views, but we both know what it means to go through hell and suffer its wrath…”

 

[Ambyssin]

"Sounds like your Diyem may have been a bit too attracted to negativity when searching for recruits," Nero mumbled. The 'edgy' bit was supposed to be a joke just going off their appearances, but it seemed like that wasn't a mere superficial observation. "It wouldn't surprise me if he got chased away from worlds, though. Necrozma are... not exactly the most stable creatures. I mean... one blew up my home planet."

 

[Cresselia92]

What the… An entire planet blown up by a Necrozma? By the heavens and stars, that was so tragic! What was with cosmic creatures wanting to destroy cosmic elements.

…

And he himself was born from a Cosmic Daemon, a destroyer of stars and spawn of Chaos. Of course.

“Oh, d-dear. I am truly sorry to hear that, good sir.” Icetales’ ears flattened with sympathy. “And, um, how are you holding up?”

Hmm. By judging his calmness, it seems remarkably well…

 

[Ambyssin]

"Fine." Nero shrugged. "We beat Necrozma. My ice ninetales turned into him and rebuilt the planet. Returned everyone's souls to the living world." His head crest fanned out a bit. "Now, we work simple construction. At least for the time being."

 

[Cresselia92]

“…Oh.” Icetales chuckled softly, in part relieved and in part embarrassed. “Well, it is certainly a good thing that the world has been restor—” He blinked as he noticed a curious detail about what Nero said. “Hm? An ice Ninetales that turned into a Necrozma? That is… intriguing. I hear rare tales of ‘mons turning into other ‘mons. How did that happen?”

 

[Ambyssin]

"Uh, well, our world had a Dark Matter. But Dark Matter came from a primordial force known as Void Matter." Nero's irises and pupils disappeared, replaced by circular loading icons. "Void Matter had basically eaten away at Necrozma's soul like the Blacklight did to your Soda. There was so little left that the team leader basically replaced Necrozma's soul with his own."

The loading icons faded. "Proooobably helped that said friend was partially Dark Matter's reincarnation. But, y'know, actually cheerful. Unlike the Diyems and their, uh, 'tsundare ay' act?" He blinked a few times. "Or is it 'tsun deer?' No, wait, that might be Xerneas..."

 

[Cresselia92]

Icetales listened intently to Nero’s tale, nodding slowly to let him know that the chimera had his attention. Then, once Nero mentioned Diyem, he smirked with a rare devious expression. “Oh, well, being grumpy and distant is part of the curriculum for a being made of darkness. Ever read the fine print?”

He chuckled softly, before waving his paw. “Darkness is very often misjudged, good sir. Sure, evil presences have a preference toward it due to its alluring raw power, but it is not any more devilish than light and similar forces. I would know,” his voice became deeper and a shadow aura enveloped his body, turning it with a dark purple shade, “because I was born from the darkness of my world.”

 

[Ambyssin]

Nero didn't look particularly impressed. "Is this your way of telling me you're actually grumpy and distant? Because there's always room for change. Even the silly Diyems have their respective Eiens. If they can find love and acceptance, anyone can. That's an undisputed fact."

 

[Cresselia92]

“That I am not,” responded Icetales, flicking his tails and letting his aura dissipate. “I merely wanted to demonstrate that even though I am crafted from malignant forces, my heart is not any darker nor distant than other folks’.”

He sighed and shook his head. “However, I had my doubts countless times. The inhabitants of my world… loathe darkness and beasts from Chaos, the dimension of demons. And, well, I’m a half demon, so I was seen like a plague that needed to be eradicated. It reached a point that I started believing that myself…”

Icetales paused to let those words sink in, while sipping some more of his tea. “I am glad that this world showed me the opposite. That even if I have darkness inside of me, I can still pursue a path of light.”