Destiny Village ~ Sundae Park

[RJR Basimilus]

Seyka nodded. "It's good to see them, because even if you don't, they're still there."

The Skarmory paused. "You don't have to worry about me though. The thought is nice, but save it for someone who needs it."

He smiled at Icetales. "Live a long time if you want. No one's judging."

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[unrepentantAuthor]

The Park had rotted through for a time after the waters rose. Brisa had limped out against medical advice, to find somewhere peaceful, somewhere open and natural and beautiful. She'd found mud, struggling plantlife, a handful of volunteer ecologists doing their best to mitigate the disaster, one acre at a time. Too weak to help out physically, she'd offered her thanks before bowing out of the conversation, uncomfortable with the questions about the fight up there.

It almost looked normal again, now. She felt almost normal, the dull ache barely there, the impression of aberrant inner city bogland fading from her memory. Not many folks had taken to its paths today. A couple of those same ecologists, tending to more delicate parts of the system. A couple of sporty types on a morning jog. And herself, wandering restlessly, wishing she had a task to attend to.

She padded around the perimeter of Sundae Park, appreciating the texture of healthy grass beneath her paws, idly scanning ahead with her penetrative vision for any surprise encounters. Gods knew those were uncannily likely in Destiny Village.

 

[MadderJacker]

Even the air was different.

Mergo had checked. It was the same place geographically as what he'd remembered. The native plants were much the same, the distant hills and mountains loomed where they always had, and the soil was the exact earthy, sandy soil he'd walked upon before. All the necessary components were there, and yet, it amounted to something unfamiliar. What had they let happen to this place?

The Gardevoir (he didn't have it in him to maintain his other form at the moment) strolled under the trees with his arms folded behind him. Leaves rustled in a gentle wind that circled around him. It was the closest he could find to a salvageable patch of wilderness to wander in, but even this was just a reminder of what he couldn't have. A small part of him wanted to venture further out of town to see what had happened to his own little grotto in this world. Another part knew he wouldn't react well and told him to abstain.

He knelt down, slit in his dress catching on his knee, and ran a hand through the grass as if it were the fur of a slumbering beast. "What happened here?" he asked to nobody. "Just what did they do to you...?"

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

"Planet not quite how y'remember it?"

Brisa kept some distance between herself and the gardevoir as she approached. He'd presented a stoic persona when his team had arrived, and she didn't want to intrude too closely on his apparent melancholy if company was unwelcome. But if she were him, she'd welcome an unassuming ear. She'd offer her own.

 

[MadderJacker]

He glanced over his shoulder and looked her over. One of Team Spectrum? For once, it wasn't Aria or Owen or whoever else chasing after him when he'd needed to get some air. Good for them, honestly.

"Have you ever had a really vivid dream?" Mergo asked, levitating back until he was on his feet. His hands folded behind his back again before he performed an about-face. His gown only twirled a little. "They can never match up perfectly to how the waking world is shaped. Walls are missing, doors can lead to separate rooms, things from one place can be somewhere else entirely, and people won't act like they would normally. You're lucid in an imperfect copy. That's what it feels like."

And not to mention, things were far more broken. That at least gave him the tiniest bit of validation.

"I don't believe I caught your name, by the by," he added, then dipped his head and performed a curtsy. "If you'd forgotten, you may call me Mergo."

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa considered this, mirroring Mergo's stoicism. The fella seemed touched by a melancholy mood, and she didn't intend to make light repartee.

"Depends what y'consider a life to be," she replied. "I have a friend who's lived a number of lives without continuity of memory. And I've met folks as have got memories from folks whose spirits were never theirs. I'm told there's short enough odds that what transpired on Cibus might stay with me, or else return t'me, an' I'm satisfied enough with that."

She rubbed her chin with her paw. Was she satisfied? It didn't feel so true once the words had left her mouth.

"If what y'value from this is yer memory, that's a sore loss," she added, a little more slowly. "Fer me, the point of pain is knowin' that regardless of my retainin' my memory somehow, my life back home is like as not to keep on as it has. I'd take a year of life here than a lifetime back there, an' I ain't lyin'."

She skewed her mouth. Apparently it was gonna be one of those no-filter chinwags.

 

[MadderJacker]

He watched with muted interest as she spoke. Brisa hadn't struck him at the type to have an answer like that ready. The subtle movements of her face and the smells in the air spoke more, but he didn't give that much focus. Instead he just remeasured her, head to toe, almost as if he hadn't really seen her until just now.

"You know," he said, "I think I would have liked you. For as scrappy as you seem, you have things sorted out. It's hard not to respect that. You remind me of Aria in a way, although..." Mergo brought one arm out and gestured to a bruise under Brisa's fur. "I recognize those. Collected one or two of my own. You already met her, didn't you? Then you know what I mean."

Mergo exhaled and looked off into the trees. He could feel the phantom bruises just thinking about it. "You know, I think she was the one who told me about all that in the first place. Our conclusions were similar, but I think we took different things away, if that makes any sense. Although, it hadn't really occurred to me that we'd seen similar memory fuckery going on. I'd thought it non-applicable since it was creation. Hm..."

It still wouldn't change his takeaway, probably, but it was interesting to think about. Did this have a chance of making another version of him? That would be something.

"... I'm rambling, aren't I?" Mergo shook his head as if to throw the thought off of him. "Forgive me. There's a lot in my head at the moment."

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa shook her head lightly, and smiled.

"I hear ya," she assured him. "There would be, huh? Yer perceptions're apt enough, partner. Aria an' I already hit it off, and, ah, hit each other a fair bit." And hit on each other, but she wouldn't mention that. "Best sparrin' match I've had fer a spell. I take it yer the serious sort, which I appreciate. Our respective teams sure have their fair share of jesters, as far as I can make out."

She cocked her head and raised a brow.

"Answer somethin' fer me. I'm curious. How would y'describe yer role in the Miracle Matters durin' yer own campaign 'gainst the Blacklight? As far as team composition goes."

 

[MadderJacker]

“The foundation,” he answered with theatrical arrogance. “Without any real guidance from our handler, I had to take charge and pick those among us whose opinion I trusted. People to keep me in check. I didn’t need it, of course, but it made my public image better.”

He wondered how that would fly in the face of someone who wasn’t familiar with him. Would she believe that? Wouldn’t that be something?

“Although, I don’t think that’s what you’re asking,” he said, and his gaze turned sharp for an instant. “You wish to see how I fight?”

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa chuckled. "Y'had it right the first time, fella. An' yer explanation tracks with yer demeanor. But y'ain't wrong that I've always got eyes fer a combat demonstration. Fightin' is my partic'lar interest, after all."

Her pupils dilated as she took in as much of his stance and movements as she could.

 

[MadderJacker]

Hm. So he’d been a bit too hasty on that one? Already he’d underestimated her— one point in her favor. Apparently this Mergo had let himself get even rustier than he realized. That would have to change.

“I’d return the question to you, but I think I might learn more about you by speaking your language.”

The last time he had decided to end a fight, he’d lost. And he learned from it. Now was the beginning of a chance to see just how much he could apply those lessons.

Could Owen see him from all that ways away? Probably. There was a reasonable chance.

Mergo’s leg slid back and away as his arms maneuvered to elegantly curve at his sides. He shifted his weight like the flow of a river and held a pose that no warrior would ever use. In fact, he looked more like a dancer, which made the harsh look on his face look almost ridiculous.

“I fight with each and every breath I take,” he proclaimed, then tilted his head askew and cracked a small smile. “Come and see for yourself.”

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Fascinating. This one understood that fighting could be communication, like so few 'mon seemed to. His stance, his claim to fight continuously, these things spoke of unconventionality. He'd been a gallade for a moment when he'd arrived. The power of the Blacklight – had it given him an opportunity to synthesise a gardevoir's grace and a gallade's discipline?

Well, Brisa would have fun finding out.

She nodded in assent to Mergo's challenge, and approached him while kiting in a loping gait, wondering if she should guess at methods to catch him off guard, or let his combat style play out, better to learn about him. Ah, but she already knew the answer. Brisa Escarpa didn't fight to lose, and that was something Mergo deserved to learn.

She ignited her fur with plasma, and breathed steadily as she kept the corruption under control. Radiance coruscated around her fur as she pushed her body to its limits. Her shields ought to buy her a moment against whatever attacks he might have.

Still, she was ready to be surprised.

 

[MadderJacker]

And he returned this with, seemingly, nothing. The wind danced around him as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other, to the other, to the other. His gown started to lift as he twirled a little faster. No shadows around him darkened to an abyss, no light shone like a sun beneath the canopy above them, and nothing moved in an abrupt bit of telekinesis. Instead, despite her own movements, Mergo was carefully starting to follow a curve in the ground that only he could see. Brisa would have been on top of him long before he could complete it. His eyes never tore from her midsection.

"Pretend this will hurt," Mergo called, and with a flick of his wrist he made his first move. A tuft of grass tore from the ground and flew harmlessly towards Brisa's snout. No shade, no radiance, nothing else. Just blades of grass and crumbly dirt. He continued waltzing.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa's barriers faded before Mergo struck, but at least the time allowed her to recover some of her fortitude after the solo Paragon surge. He sent a clod of earth at her – some kind of grass or ground magic technique? or plain telekinesis? – and she dutifully dodged it as if it were a real attack.

She braced for some esoteric move, entirely uncertain of what she was in for.

 

[MadderJacker]

Brisa approached, and Mergo picked up his pace. With each step his waltz got faster until he into something that was almost a run. The wind picked up around him as he made a handful of fluttering steps until he took off like a feather. The branch he landed on some fifteen feet in the air didn't react to his weight, nor a single one of his steps as he continued to slowly stalk his way across it like an acrobat crossing a thread.

And throughout that whole maneuver, his eyes didn't leave her midsection. Not her face, no, faces could easily tell lies and bluffs, but the body was honest. Muscles could only move in certain ways. Whatever he could get from her face was made up for by the smells in the air.

"I don't partake in a battle when I already know how it will end," Mergo proclaimed.

He performed a pirouette, and the wind around them sharply changed directions. In the area above Brisa's head the branches in the trees cracked and snapped, and some twenty or thirty of them started clattering and falling down. Mergo didn't count how many. At worst, some of them might sting.

"Show me that I'm wrong."

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

"Surprise ya, huh?" Brisa felt a shiver in her shoulders, and began charging her fur with electrostatic energy, the better to strike hard, and to resist ranged attacks. She deftly and dutifully sidestepped falling branches as if they were real attacks, allowing smaller projectiles to vaporise against the growing field of charged plasma around her.

"I'll do my best."

Mergo had identified her as a physical striker, it would seem. He put distance between them, kept his eyes locked on her bodily movements. He wasn't wrong. But that wasn't her only aptitude. Brisa sent a few juking bursts of typeless energy his way all the same, just to test his evasiveness and underplay her offensive capability at range. He dodged easily enough, but it gave her what she needed.

She called on that impulse to connect with her opponent in battle, to reach out to them, and flung tendrils of light towards the gardevoir, even as darkness billowed up around her paws. The connection would carry feelings, paralysing Radiance, and the Arcstrike she was charging, distance be damned. If the attack hit, it would do more than sting.

How does this battle end, Mergo? D'you think you've already seen it all?

Brisa used Shining Whiplash! She opened her heart to Mergo!
Brisa used Void Arcstrike!

 

[MadderJacker]

Opening yourself up already?

Mergo spun a little bit faster, but these weren't a warrior's movements. He couldn't evade in time. The tendrils went to engulf him, and when they did, two tiny glints in his shadow formed, and his entire body turned black as pitch as a barrier formed. The tendrils of light constricted around it, cracking it, crushing it, and then it burst apart into a black spray of mist. With nobody inside.

A pinecone from Brisa's flank came soaring in like a baseball. No shadows, no radiance, no obvious enchantments.

"That was not your best," Mergo called with a musical flow to his words, and behind her some distance on the ground stood a Gallade. In his left hand he held one of the fallen branches as invisible forces plucked off the loose leaves and twigs, and he moved it around with the slow, delicate elegance sword dance.

Shadows and radiance lingered in the air. That attack of Brisa's was more than just force, wasn't it? Fighting really *was* communication for her, it seemed.

"I've been to ballrooms that exhausted me faster than you," he taunted. "Tell me, stormblood, is this what I can expect from the rest of your team?"

Mergo used Shadow Guardian.

Mergo used... Teeter Dance?

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Confusion 50/200

"Didn't do much dancin' last time I swung by a ballroom," remarked Brisa, smirking at the attempt to throw her off her game. "Bloodied a few faces, though. Let's see what I can do t'yers."

She was still getting a handle on how this fella fought, but the transformation was particularly fascinating. It could only indicate a dual nature, she was sure. Was this his unleashed, true, Blacklit self? Hard to tell.

Brisa prowled towards the newly-altered gallade, electricity coursing beneath her paws as she built up the energy she needed. She juked with her first strike, and grinned in wild anticipation as he danced free of the swipe. As he spun, Brisa leapt to her feet, taking on her favoured battle-form, front paws shimmering with plasma as she lashed out. He'd studied her movements as a luxray. How much would that help him against a dance partner like this?

"Watch yerself," Brisa jibed, as she went for a power-blow streaming with supercharged particles.

Brisa used Electric Facade! [140 BP, +8 Atk, Stab, Guts, Terrain, +300 Paralysis]

 

[MadderJacker]

His eyes grew wide as he watched Brisa suddenly stand as tall him. Mergo tried to jump back, but her haymaker had too much momentum. He could feel tiny bolts arcing from her fur straight towards his face, and a dozen memories ran through his head at once. The strongest amongst him was amidst a storm of sand and snow where a single punch just like that could have meant his life. Instinct took over, and without conscious input, Mergo's hands clapped together. A veil of golden light consumed him, and then he was gone.

Mergo used Teleport

Some thirty yards behind Brisa, he reappeared beside a tree deeper into the park. A hand ran over his face as he checked for any sort of grazing injury. None, thankfully, by the skin of his teeth. He supposed though if he hadn't dealt with something exactly like that, he would've been too puzzled to evade in time. Perhaps he had something to thank Danithan for after all.

Even still though, it frustrated him. Two attacks in a row that he had to use techniques to evade? Mergo grimaced. While so far not a single blow had landed true for either side, by Mergo's own rules, he was losing.

"Now we're getting somewhere," Mergo called. The grimace was replaced by the faintest of smirks, and his head was tilted back to give a sense of being stared down at. A wind swept through the woods, carrying with it petals and leaves and blades of grass as the trees around them started to groan and sway.

"Now..." His back leg slid away and to the right as he dropped the stick. His fingers locked together and his elbows extended to form into razor-sharp blades. "Before we break each other's jaw, I'm curious what you've taken away from this.

"You seem to me to be straight-forward, but not one to brute-force your way through. You want to see the best in people. You push others to be better and stronger, but you have limits for what you can take from others. The sense of camaraderie and connection that comes with battle is one of your prime motivators. Another is getting to smash in the faces of arrogant pricks like me. And for as much as I have to admire all that, I can see those very traits making you vulnerable to manipulation."

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa chuckled. "Y'ain't so off the mark with all that. Who knows, maybe yer right 'bout that last point. In some regards, it's already happened, but I like t'think that I care fer all those other things in spite of what was done t'me."

She examined the gallade again with narrowed eyes and luxray vision. He was an interesting one, to be sure. More subtle than many on either of their teams.

"Y'got standards fer yerself. You're bound by inborn duty, same as I am, though a diff'rent kind – could be you're nobility. Y'sure seem the type, with enough self awareness t'self-deprecate. Y'like plans, systems, information. Informed judgements. Perhaps needin' t'be at an advantage with everyone has somethin' t'do with yer distance from folks. You're apart from others. You don't assume the best of people, an' you don't trust easy, neither. Can't say as I blame you if that's true. We all have a hurt inside, an' you're no exception. You've lost somethin', an' though I can't say I know what manner of thing it is, I'm sure it's somethin' y'found on Cibus."

Brisa wet her lips, conscious of how Mergo might react to all or any of that. It had been a while since she'd done this in free flow like that, with someone more complicated than most of her Colosseum opponents. She had a little less certainty about her words than she'd like, but... The gist felt right.

"How far wrong am I, fella?"