Destiny Village ~ Parfait Way

[Magyk]

He couldn't help but wonder what kind of characters the members of Team Spectrum were. How did Diyem always end up recruiting a few odd balls? Did his powers get weaker the more 'heroes' he sought out? Is that how a few who couldn't handle it fell through the cracks? So many questions, and each one he knew his Diyem wouldn't answer. Willingly, at least.

Would threatening him with positive vibes work? Or maybe he could start talking like Pop...

"Your Diyem seemed pretty cool, the strangest thing ours did was make some piece of toast sentient, and he vomited out Kora. That was gross to watch. Who knew a being of negativity could go from destroying a world to...to all this?"

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr stifled a laugh. "Your Diyem did the toast thing too? Amazing. And uh, yeah, our Diyem also vomited up Koa--thank god I wasn't around to see that one." The two last teammates both showed up like that and they were named Koa and Kora?

"Some of the people he grabbed... yeah, I can see why they weren't cut out for it. There's a few that I'll miss, though." Curio came to mind. Just what kind of trouble was she getting into back in her own world?

 

[Magyk]

Ben knew he'd only miss one or two of those that left early. Wanderer and Angelo were faint memories, distant in the fog that was lifting the more he was here. It made him sad. "You're kidding? That's scary. I know this is just an alternate world and the same scenario, but...things don't feel that different even though they are. Remembering all of this is kind of making me homesick, in a ways. This isn't the Cibus I knew, but it's so much like the one I helped save. It's really bizarre. If you ever have to come back, would you?"

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr blinked at him, taken aback. It wasn't a question she'd ever thought she'd have any reason to think about. Until the other team showed up, there was no reason to think it was even possible. Why bother asking herself? But now...

"Yeah. I would." All those weeks she'd spent impatient to leave, and now there wasn't any doubt. She would.

"I was going to ask if you liked being on that team, but I guess I don't even have to ask, if you're here," Starr said.

 

[Magyk]

He let out a laugh. "Are you kidding? They're the biggest bunch of crazies I've ever met! They're reckless, insane, a-and drunken, sex-crazed fools! I nearly went mad just being around them."

Then he looked up at the sky, and he relaxed. "Don't tell anyone, though, but I love them. They're like long-lost family. You understand, right? It was...really hard saying goodbye. I remember being coiled up in Owen tentacles until I admitted I was going to miss everyone and bawled my eyes out--" he stopped and cleared his throat, then looked back to Starr. "Er...long story, that one."

 

[Chibi Pika]

Owen... tentacles. Starr probably could have gone without that detail.

Still, she couldn't help giving a small chuckle. "Yeah, thought so." It was pretty obvious he'd been attached to them. Even if Starr's initial assessment of the other team as batshit was apparently right on the money.

Starr folded her arms behind her head. "Well, you don't have to worry about me going around telling people. So long as you don't tell anyone that I liked being on my team." In spite of the bullshit and against her better judgement... she'd enjoyed it.

 

[Magyk]

Yeah...he could accept those terms. If they'd been on the same team, Ben had a feeling he would have gotten along well with Starr. "It's a deal!" he said with a grin.

It was time to start taking his own advice. If he was to forget everyone again, he wanted to make sure they knew how he felt. A certain lucario came to mind...

"We might not remember each other after all this, so let's say we make a promise to ourselves and each other, here and now. We both finish this with no regrets. How does that sound? The only one who can keep you accountable is yourself."

 

[Chibi Pika]

'No regrets.' Yeah, maybe that'd mean something if Starr didn't have about a million more regrets than most people. Not that Ben needed to know that. And she was all set to just say 'sure' without caring if it was true, but then...

There'd been a time when she'd thought that being on Cibus would mean getting a break from all the regrets back home. Obviously that hadn't happened, not with the Blacklight dragging all that shit up every chance it got. So adding a few more to the pile shouldn't have meant anything. Especially not if she was just going to forget it all.

And yet, there was something inside her that really, really didn't want to regret anything here. Even if she'd forget.

So she tapped a fist to his shoulder and replied, "Yeah, sounds good," and it wasn't a lie.

<><><><><>​

 

[Ambyssin]

"And so, in conclusion, those are the flaws I can identify in your thinking about Eternatus and why it behooves you to take a different approach."

Nero took a piece of paper in his beak and added it to an exceedingly large stack of papers... that he had written himself. He flicked a tiny pair of spectacles off his beak and they sailed behind a building. The echoes of shattering glass reached Nero and Bahamut, who lay on his side with his back to Nero.

"Are you quite finished?" the necrozma growled.

"That depends. Have I changed your mind?" Nero fluttered his eyelids at Bahamut.

"... if I say 'yes,' will you leave me alone?"

"Yes!" Nero's tail wagged.

"Then yes." Bahamut sat up. "Oh, would you look at that. If it isn't a conveniently timed distraction."

Nero tilted his head, but Bahamut wrapped his tail around the silvally's midsection and plopped him down in front of... a scruffy mightyena.

"Here." Bahamut shoved Nero forward with his tail. "He's your problem now. No givesies-backsies."

The necrozma lay down on his back again and rolled off down the street at an astonishing speed for a dragon of his size. Nero watched him go with visible question marks on his eyes before shrugging and turning to Mightyena. "Hello! Are you on Team Spectrum, too? I'm Nero!" He wagged his tail. "Or you can call me Silvally if you prefer."

 

[Dragonfree]

Drinks with Kora went okay. He wasn't exactly about to sit there getting hammered with him of all people, but one beer, fine, and he was left feeling a bit less restless by the time he headed home.

Along Parfait Way, he eyed Bahamut and the Potluck lookalike from the Miracle Matters engaged in some form of conversation, and he sped up his pace to pass by them as quickly as possible, only for Bahamut to suddenly bodily shove the Silvally in his way before somehow disappearing down the street.

"Uh, hi," he said. "Yeah, I'm on Team Spectrum, but I was kind of on my way somewhere else."

 

[Ambyssin]

“Oh.” Nero’s ears drooped. “I’ve been helping with the recovery efforts, so I’ve only gotten to meet your ninetales with the funny accent and Bahamut. But I don’t want to impose if you have somewhere to be.”

Even with a Potluck, he figured most folks wanted to steer clear. “The Cibus I remember was hesitant too. People hear the alchemy stuff and nope out.”

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave tilted his head. "...Alchemy?"

 

[Ambyssin]

“Yeah. It’s how I was made.” Nero looked down nervously. “And a source of power in… my real body.”

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave glanced down the street. Fine, it wasn't like he was in a hurry to get anywhere. "Okay, let's back up a bit. Your real body as in, the one in not-Cibus, your original world? Your world has alchemy? Like, transmute lead into gold alchemy? And it works?"

 

[Ambyssin]

"If it didn't work, I wouldn't exist," Nero chirped. "Err, for better or worse. My original body is hundreds of transmutated unown."

 

[Dragonfree]

What the fuck. "Unown...? Are you not a Silvally over there? Because you look like several other Pokémon stitched together but none of them are Unown." Dave squinted at him. He couldn't exactly identify what the components would be, but for one thing he clearly had bird talons (Skarmory...?), and some sort of mammal body, and a fish tail. "...And what happened to the Unown? You some sort of hivemind collective, or did their brains just all get mashed together into one?" Creepy as hell regardless. And this was done by fucking alchemy?

 

[Ambyssin]

Nero's eyes darted around nervously. "Oh, my mind is made of a bunch of transmutated souls of deceased pokémon. Since my world's a lot like Cibus, we have a spirit realm. So, my creators summoned spirits from pretty much every species so I would, y'know, be perfectly adaptable." He pawed at the ground. "If, uh, you've met the various mewtwo skulking around, then I guess you could say I was supposed to be like them. More of a weapon than a person."

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave winced. "Oh. Jesus. What, why'd they create a weapon? Some Giovanni-like ambitions going on, or what?"

 

[Ambyssin]

Nero's head crest drooped. "No. Dark Matter's first attack left our planet without light. They felt gods like Arceus had let the world down and wanted a weapon with the power to, well, deal with them."

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave raised his eyebrows. "To take down a god?"

Okay, fine, he did want to hear this. He sat, cocking his head at Nero. "And what, did you do it?"