Destiny Village ~ X-Eye Cauldron

[Dragonfree]

Dave watched in silent bewilderment as she ranted, her tail thrashing with livid anger. Well, fuck him for assuming she actually wanted an answer to her goddamn question. Why the fuck was she--

Brisa said:
"I'm gonna spend twoscore years and twoscore more defendin' the innocent without ever takin' a life and people are still gonna think I'm dangerous. I reckon I'll die before anyone thanks me fer it. What do I gotta do to get people to believe I can make my own choices responsibly? That I'm a good person? That I'm not a violent fucking animal, an' I don't need t'be kept on a leash??"

His gut stung suddenly. He clenched his jaw, squeezed his eyes shut. "Brisa. You're not a violent fucking animal."

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

"I know," she seethed.

She was cut off by a mental intrusion—though this time, it came almost as a knock upon a door. She listened for whatever Luz was trying to say.

{Brisa, darlin', I can feel the worst kinda feelings comin' off you. Do you need help? I can come pick you up.}

Somehow, the telepathic offer of help made her less scared and angry, and she found it in herself to reply: {Just meet me outside the Cauldron in a minute, Luz.}

{Done.}

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave rubbed his face with his paw, trying to string words together. What the fuck. A series of frustrated answers were already in his head: Why the fuck are you mad at me for saying you shouldn't have the right to level towns? Why in the world won't you just fucking agree that of course if you ever got it into your head to level a town you've probably gone insane and someone should stop you? You don't actually think you should be able to level towns, Brisa, fucking hell.

He took a breath and resisted the urge to say any of that.

"Those people in your world who think you're dangerous? They're still wrong. Fuck them. We went over this. You've got perfectly good self-control, you've never actually been close to killing anyone. Look, yeah, I didn't know you could level towns, but all that means is there's more stuff you could theoretically do but shouldn't, and don't, because you're a decent fucking person who doesn't level towns, all right? Being that powerful's a can of worms but you're doing it right if anyone is, best I can tell. Fuckers in your world don't deserve you."

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa listened with her paws shaking and tail pressed down. Gods, he . . . believed all that? (Fucking hell why did he say all that shit about not killing folks why couldn't he have just said this in the first place) but—

You're a decent fucking person. You're doing it right if anyone is.

That's all she wanted to hear. That's all she ever wanted to hear, from either of them. You did good, Brisa.

Her eyes stung and she screwed them shut. As she did, she felt . . . tears. She was crying? She was crying. It wasn't a familiar experience, she hadn't cried since... Well, since the pit. Where she'd thought she was gonna die alone.

"D-dave–"

Her voice, and chest, trembled. She clenched her jaw and clamped down on her words as hard as she could, and clasped a paw to her chest as if putting pressure to a wound.

In a way, she was.

 

[Dragonfree]

Oh. Oh, fuck, she was crying. Dave sat there awkwardly, unsure what to say--

--and meanwhile, Shadow nudged over to her and carefully put a paw on her shoulder.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

She tried to choke out a "thank you," and to explain why. She couldn't manage to talk properly. She considered whiplashing Dave, but that seemed just a little tiny bit excessive for the occasion. She settled for putting one paw on Shadow's and clasping it against her shoulder.

"I jus' wanna be treated like a person . . . an' not a threat," she gasped out, and left it at that.

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave sipped at his drink, averting his eyes as Shadow leaned into Brisa. "Look, I wasn't talking about you there. You're not a god."

Fuck.

"Listen, we... should probably just get some rest."

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Not a god, no. But judging by how powerful her parents were, by the time she reached her prime as a luxray, she could probably kick one to the ground if she tried. What was the difference? If she lived to hold that much power in her paws, she just fucking prayed she'd continue to make the right choices.

And maybe, to be happy, sometimes.

"Yeah. Yeah, rest sounds good. Starr keeps tellin' me I ain't restin' enough."

{I'm at the doorway. Just say the word.}

Ah... Thank the stars for Luz, and her patience with Brisa to get comfortable with telepathy.

{Gimme a minute, Luz.}

She took a slow breath. "Sorry about all that, Dave, I just... Thanks. It's just so fuckin' hard, an' I—"

I'm scared.

"It's okay. I'll be fine."

 

[Dragonfree]

She looked so fucking exhausted. There was a sort of haunted dread in her eyes before she answered, pulled herself together. Said she was fine.

Shadow reached his paws around her and hugged her. Again Dave could feel it, and it was the weirdest thing.

"Yeah. We'll be fine. Get some sleep before the fight."

"You should," Mia said. "Sleep deprivation makes a lot of things in the body and brain not work properly for normal people. Dave should sleep more too. I try to tell him that sometimes."

"Yeah, you do, don't you." He inhaled and exhaled, finished the last of his beer. Fiddled with the glass while the hug lasted.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa glanced at Dave as his shadow hugged her. He was looking vaguely askance, but at least he didn't yell at the poor thing for a change. Shadow's embrace felt . . . strangely comforting. She returned it, and blinked away the last of her tears. She didn't say anything, just gave a nod of agreement and composed herself to leave.

{Let's call it a night,} sent Luz, from across the bar.

{I've got studies,} shot back Brisa, instantly. {I'm tired, but I ain't sleepy.}

{Please. If y'ain't able to sleep, we can talk. But please don't do any more work tonight. Fer me?}

Fine. She'd skip her studies. The guilt surged, but... At least she'd be better rested and wouldn't have to argue with anyone about it.

"Hope t'talk t'ya again soon, but under better circumstances than this," she told Dave, drily, as she stood to leave. She butted her forehead against Shadow's jaw as she did, without even really thinking about it. She didn't look round. Maybe Dave hadn't noticed.

 

[Dragonfree]

"Yeah. See you tomorrow."

Brisa bonked her forehead against Shadow as she stood up, and he felt that, too. He raised an eyebrow. A cat thing? Probably a cat thing. He'd go with that.

And while he might have sat longer and ordered another beer under other circumstances, Mia was giving him an expectant look and he knew she'd get on his case if he didn't go to bed too. He stood up heavily and glanced at Shadow.

"I'm worried about her," the other Poochyena muttered.

"Yeah, well, me too, but what can you do."

They padded back out towards the guild.

<><><><><>​

 

[Fusion]

Funny how someone could go from wanting to evolve to immediately going to a bar, restaurant, thing. But Puddle had a reason, and a very good one at that...

It wanted to go there, fuck you.

That and it wanted to try out food and whatever and see what happened. Specifically, Puddle really wanted to know if drinking enough fizzy drinks would make it explode. Maybe the explosion will let it actually evolve? Anything could happen, really.

The wobbly Scraggy climbed onto a chair, and arduous task indeed, and waved over a bartender. "One, uh, Soda? The fizziest you got!" it beamed. With the order taken care of, Puddle took out its badge and dabbled a message in it. It'd be fun to explode with someone else. And for some reason, Astrid came to mind. Strange.

 

[Adamhuarts]

A few minutes later, a rolled up towel came walking into the bar and teetered around before bumping into Puddle's stool and nearly knocking it over.

"Puddle! Ivy has brought the towel now!" Ivy said, eyes sparkling like someone waiting to be told what a good job they did.

 

[Fusion]

Puddle grabbed onto the table before its chair completely fell over. "O-Oh geez," Puddle gasped, then exhaled when its chair was standing proper. It looked over at the... talking towel.

"Ivy? Oh, sweet!" Puddle snickered, hopping off its chair to get the towel off of Ivy. It grabbed the end of the towel and pulled as hard as it could, spinning the plant familiar as the towel spun off "I wasn't expectin' another familiar, but this is actually good! I can trust you to not stop me from doin' somethin' awesome, right? 'Cuz we're doin' some science!"

 

[Adamhuarts]

Ivy spun around several times before slowing down enough. It didn't make her dizzy, but her head was facing the opposite direction to the rest of her body. She twisted it back around to face the right way.

"What is science? It sounds fun! Ivy wants to try it too!" she chirped as she stretched a goopy vine and hoisted herself onto the table. The soda bottles jiggled from Ivy's sudden climb. She stared at them, her glowing eyes reflecting off the glass.

 

[Fusion]

"Oh, I ain't got a clue what science is, but I know it's got somethin' to do with blowin' shit up!" Puddle snickered. "And I think evolution is some kinda explosion, so if I explode, then I'll evolve!" That felt like the most sound logic anyone could've come up with so, as per the laws of being right, it was true.

Puddle tossed an arm up to the table and tried to pull itself up, but it didn't have a strong enough grip, and its arm thwapped back into its face. Cussing under its breath, Puddle climbed back onto its chair, then onto the table. It grabbed a pineapple soda and started shaking it. "I wanna drink a buncha soda and see if I explode from it, cuz then I might evolve! You wanna try it too?"

 

[Adamhuarts]

"Is Soda evil or good?" Ivy asked, hesitantly grabbing a bottle for herself.

 

[Fusion]

"Soda's pretty good, but it has all these lil bubbles and explodes when you shake it," Puddle nodded, twisting the top off his bottle. A geyser of pineapple-scented soda erupted from it, covering the table in a matter of seconds. "See? Ain't that awesome? They only explode once after you shake it though, which is kinda stupid."

Puddle put the top back onto the soda bottle and grabbed another, this one being grape, and shook it with all its might. "Hehe, I can't wait to evolve! I'll be strong and tall, and strong!" Its eyes sparkled just by imagining it. "I wonder what you'll be like when you evolve, Ivy?"

 

[Adamhuarts]

"Well, Ivy would become taller, maybe. Can Ivy even evolve? Ivy is already great and mighty," she said, shaking her pineapple soda bottle with all her might.

"Oh, Ivy can become even greater and mightier! That will be awesomable!"

 

[Fusion]

That was the kinda energy Puddle was looking for! "The Greater and Mightier Ivy, the awesomerest of us all!" it pumped a fist in the air, then placed its hand on its soda bottle. Even when it poked the side, the bottle didn't budge. It was like it was gonna burst any second! "Alright, you ready to do some fuckin' science?" Puddle asked, giggling excitedly.